Chapter 86

Donna spends the evening checking aeroplane passenger lists to and from Cyprus for any sign of Johnny Gunduz, though she doubts Johnny would travel under his real name. She drifts into checking Instagram and thinking about Carl's possible new romantic interest, but her attention keeps returning to Penny Gray.

Donna remembers Elizabeth taking her to Willows, the nursing home attached to Coopers Chase, after a Thursday Murder Club meeting. In Penny's room, Elizabeth introduces Donna to the unresponsive Detective Inspector Penny Gray, who lies in bed with tubes and blankets while John sits nearby.

Elizabeth explains Penny's career to Donna: Penny was brilliant, difficult, forceful, and repeatedly held back by sexism and by the fact that her temperament was less tolerated in a woman than it would have been in a man. Elizabeth admires Penny as a wrecking ball, in contrast to Elizabeth's own subtler methods, and says Penny loved reviewing old cases because it let Penny finally take charge.

John adds that Penny's stalled career was a waste and gently corrects Elizabeth's claim that Penny never complained, noting Penny had a powerful temper. As Elizabeth and Donna leave Willows, Elizabeth suggests that the battles Penny faced have not all been won, and Donna agrees.

Back in the present, Donna feels both proud and sad after meeting Penny, wishing she could have truly known her. Donna adds making Penny proud to her reasons for wanting to solve the murders, considers Johnny as a suspect for Tony Curran's death and Matthew Mackie for Ian Ventham's, remembers Elizabeth's instruction to investigate Bernard Cottle, and wonders whether the buried bones matter before returning to the passenger lists.