29. Carter

Sgt. Carter, resentful and defensive about his prior work, accompanies DCI Olivia Bird as she searches Spyglass while Harrison waits downstairs. Carter recalls their past intimacy in the house and privately believes Harrison is lying. Bird tests Carter’s observational skills in the master bedroom, highlighting the neatly made bed and fresh laundry as suspicious in a missing-person context.

As Bird inventories the room, Carter notices an old Walkman on the bedside table that looks exactly like his, unsettling him. Bird dons gloves, bags a hairbrush, surveys toiletries and two toothbrushes, and pockets some pills from the medicine cabinet. She demands silence to concentrate and continues a meticulous sweep of the house.

Returning to the library, Bird notes recently disturbed dust and quietly states that a crime occurred there. She presses Carter to assess the room and then reveals key context: Spyglass’s built-in bookcases are bound by a covenant not to refurbish or remove them.

Bird points out that the bookcases have been painted despite the covenant, signaling deliberate alteration that may relate to the crime she infers. Though Carter jokes about arresting Harrison for the paint, Bird declines to act yet. The search ends with heightened suspicion—Carter further distrusts Harrison and is rattled by the Walkman—but without an arrest.