Harlan Coban
Prologue
Paul never sees his Russian father cry. They go out together everyday to do the difficult task of digging in the woods. One day, his father tells Paul he is going alone. Twenty years later his dad gets sick and ends up dying.
1. Paul Copeland (Cope) is a widower at his daughter’s gymnastics recital with his dead wife’s sister. When a couple of police officers come in to get him for questioning, his sister-in-law, Greta, offers to take care of his daughter. As they ride to the police station, the police officers start asking questions. They ask about Manolo Santiago and if he knows him. Cope doesn’t recognize them name. They know he is temporarily the county prosecutor and is running for the office full time. Officer York asks if he has ever been questioned before. He thinks back to when he was a camp counselor when four kids, including his sister, went missing. One girl was found with her throat slashed. He was in those woods that night and was under suspicion. They named the murder the Summer Slasher. He believes Wayne Stubbens did it. Wayne was put away for other murders that had more evidence against him. His sister, Camille, and Gil Perez were never found. When they get to the morgue, he stays behind glass and is shown the body. The man, who was shot twice in the head, was found with Cope’s address and clippings about his sister. They show him the clippings. He recognizes his sister’s ring on the body and asks to see the scar on the body’s arm. He tells them it is Gil Perez.
2. Lucy Gold is a professor and her latest assignment was to have her students anonymously submit papers about their most traumatic experience. Her teaching assistant is helping her go through them while he hits on her. She reads a paper about a girl whose father owned a camp she was a counselor-in-training at. She was in love with a boy, “P,” who was a counselor. They snuck off into the woods one night to be together, but we’re stopped by terrified screaming. The story seems to be missing an ending. Lucy asks her teaching assistant, Lonnie, if he can track down whose paper it is. He says he will do what he can.
3. Cope is an hour late for his meeting to discuss a plea bargain for two rich boys that raped a young woman. The lawyer for the defense, Flare Hickory, says the girl, Chamiqua (sha-mee-kwa), is just a poor girl that is trying to get money out of the other two. He points out how she used the wrong names in the report. Cope points out the two rapists probably used fake names and it leads him to believe she wasn’t trying to set them up because she had no idea what their real names were. He ends up turning down all of their offers to settle. Flare accuses him of only prosecuting cases and here a poor person is accusing a rich person of something.
4. On his way to pick up his daughter, Cara, he thinks about how his wife was taken by cancer. He picks up Cara from his sister-in-laws. There are workers there to install a swimming pool while Cara ignores her dad telling her it is time to go. He thinks about how his daughter is stubborn just like him. His assistant, Loren Muse, calls and says she hasn’t found anything new. He tries to think about how the two fake names the rapists used could be a clue.
5. When Detective York calls him, he says they are bringing in Gil’s parents the next day to identify the body. After the detectives tell them the suspicion that they have found their son’s body newly deceased body. Mrs. Perez tells them it is not him. Cope tells them to check the arm. York has the mortician expose the arms. Mrs. Perez says they scar on this body is on the left arm and Gil’s was on the right. She understands why Cope would want to think it was Gil. She tells him neither Gil nor his sister are coming back.
6. Back in his office and with his focus on the rape case, Muse tells him she wants to hire a private investigator named Simple. The rumors are that she is not only effective, but beautiful. Muse thinks Simple will be able to get information out of the boys. He tells her to give her a call. That night, he goes to his office and finds the box his wife, Jane, had written photos on. He looks through them and finds a picture of Gil Perez from just a few days before he died. The scar is showing on his right arm just as Cope had remembered.
7. The day of trial comes. Cope puts the stripper, Chamiqua on the stand and starts asking her questions and makes sure she is honest. She is 16 years old with a 15 month old baby. She uses a fake ID that says she is 21 To be able to work as a stripper. She was hired to strip for the frat house. One of the boys was really nice to her and she thought he might like her. He invited her to a party there the next weekend. He was nice through the party and then asked her to go to his room with him. She was afraid he wouldn’t like her if she said no, so she went. That was when she was raped by the two defendants. He asks her about the civil suit she has against the two boys and admits she needs the money. He carefully makes points about the boys being from privilege and Chamique being a victim of circumstance.
8. When trial breaks for lunch, one of the boy’s fathers comes up to Cope to offer him a deal to settle without jail time. Cope declines all offers and points out the man has a daughter. The man threatens to find every piece of dirt he can on Cope and bring it to light. Lucy has Lonnie watch the students’ reactions while she reads the story of the camp murders. She is hoping someone’s reaction will give it away. When she is done reading, the class tears it apart from a writing perspective. She tells the class the next two pages of their journal will be due and goes back to her office. Lonnie is there and she asks if any of the students reacted. He didn’t see anything and asks if she is sure she wants to know. She says she has to know but can’t tell him why. She leaves for her weekly appointment.
9. Trial is postponed until morning. Cope goes to his locked car and finds an envelope on the seat. He opens it to find a picture of his father. There is an index card with “the first skeleton” typed on it. After that summer at camp, Lucy disappeared by changing her last name from Silverstein to Gold. She wouldn’t find Paul Copeland either. She goes to visit her father in an assisted living facility that specializes in drug users. He seems to be stuck thinking it is perpetually 1968. Even though Lucy hadn’t been born then, he still always knows who she is. She usually takes some time to start up his Volkswagen Bug and let it run for a little bit to keep it going. She talks with him for a bit before going out to talk to a nurse. She says he has been more irritable lately with mood swings. He has been talking about the summer camp. She wonders what he knows about the horrible night. When she goes to sign out, she sees an unfamiliar name on the sheet indicating her father had another visitor last week: Manolo Santiago.
10. Cope calls his dad’s friend, Sosh, who says he can’t tell him anything over the phone. Cope drives from New Jersey into NYC and the doorman is expecting him. When he gets up to Sosh’s apartment, Cope is treated by the big bear of a man that is over 70 years old. He explains Cope’s family was persecuted for being Jewish. His mother’s parents were taken away. His grandfather died fast without proper medications and his grandmother killed herself shortly after. His father’s medical career was ruined. He was offered a second chance if he joined the KGB, but he never really did anything with it. A church group offered to get him and his family out of Russia and they took the opportunity. When they were living in Illinois, rumors started that their family wasn’t really Jewish and used the church to get to America. They moved East to New Jersey. Cope’s mom was never the same after her parents’ deaths and was worse when her daughter disappeared. She left them to go back to Russia. Sosh knew where she was for a while, but hasn’t kept track of her recently. Sosh warns him to leave the past buried. Cope asks about his sister and Sosh says he should leave that alone as well.
11. He heads to an Indian restaurant where Raya Singh (potentially Manolo’s girlfriend) works. When she agrees to talk to him, he is taken back by her beauty. She tells Cope she was friends with Manolo, but it never progressed past platonic. He asks a few questions to try to get an idea of who he really was, but the only useful information she has is an old cell phone number which she gives him. She notices he doesn’t wear a wedding band and starts hitting on him. He turns her down saying he doesn’t mix business and pleasure and she continues to hit on him. He wonders if she had an ulterior motive for coming into him. She asks if he killed Manolo. Cope asks why she would ask that and she only gives him a farewell.
12. Lucy wants to run an internet search on Manolo, but Lonnie is waiting for her when she gets back to her office. He was able to trace the email to the Frost Library and from there checked their computer sign in sheets against their class list. He says he trusts she is only asking for this information because it is a life or death situation. The suck-up student Sylvia Potter is the only match. She is eventually able to get a hold of Sylvia and asks her to come to her office to talk when she has a chance. Cope gives Muse the cell number Raya gave him. On their way into the courtroom, Laura tells him it was a burner phone. He asks her to dig more into what calls were made. Cross examination starts. Flair goes down a line of questioning that shows that while Chamique didn’t knowingly take any drugs or alcohol the night of the party, she had taken illegal drugs since her child was born. He then changes gear to ask about a man in prison for sexual assault that she had sex with previously. Flair tries to make the point she might have had a PTSD flashback to that instance rather than actually have been raped.
13. When Sylvia doesn’t show up for their meeting, Lucy tries to get a hold of her. When she doesn’t get a response, she goes to her room. There is no answer at her door, but while she is going down the stairs to leave, Sylvia walks in. Lucy rushes down to her and asks if they can talk. Sylvia tries to get out of it by saying she has other projects. When Lucy insists they talk about her paper, Sylvia yells that she doesn’t want to talk and will report her to the dean. She runs out the door.
14. Raya calls Cope after having had a chance to check him out in the internet. He asks why she asked if he killed Manolo and she said he mentioned his name to another guy. She asks him to meet her at the restaurant in an hour so she can show him where Manolo lived.
15. Lucy returns to her office defeated. Lonnie guesses that the narrative is actual Lucy’s and not Sylvia’s. He offers to go get answers out of Sylvia. Cope stops by the cemetery on his way to the Indian restaurant to meet Raya. He thinks about when they first started dating and Jane told him she wasn’t his lol and she wouldn’t t abandon him. He thinks about how awful it got for her in the end. He calls Sosh and tells him to find his mother.
16. Cope meets Raya at the restaurant and they go to Manolo’s extended stay they has been paid for through the end of the month. As soon as they walk in, she notices the papers he had everywhere are now gone. Cope asks the lobby attendant, but he is just a kid they doesn’t pay too much attention to who stays there. He tells her he is pretty sure his real name is Gil Perez and if he was still alive until a few days ago, his sister might be as well. Raya wants to know what Cope Ian my telling her. She wonders why Manolo said Cope and Lucy lied that night. Muse calls telling Cope that Chamique wants to recant her testimony. He gets to the office where her civil lawyer is saying the money got too good and she wants to take it. Cope threatens to charge her with purgury, but they both know he is bluffing. They might while home with his daughter, an idea strikes him. He was up Muse and tells her to prepare for an all nighter
17. Cope calls the civil lawyer, Foley, next and tells him not to sign anything until the afternoon. Lucy starts drinking when Sylvia shows up at her door. Sylvia is timid and embarrassed and ends up breaking down about her father raping her. Lucy comforts her while she wonders how they got it wrong.
18. The next afternoon, Cope and Muse haven’t slept. They bring in Jerry in for questioning. He sticks with his original story and says he invited Chamique to the party as a date and he ended up going into the other boys room willingly. He walked her to the bus station at the end of the night and she seemed over the moon. He doesn’t think anyone named Jim or Cal was at the party. Cope looks to Muse and she nods. He asks the judge to break for lunch and she tells him the fax is in his office.
19. Lucy calls Cope’s office and leaves a message without her last name. She just says she is an old friend from 20 years ago. Cope and Muse eat sandwiches for lunch while she gives him the fax they received with the information they needed. Cope’s receptionist gives him his calls and he sees the one from Lucy. He wants to return the call, but he doesn’t have time. Muse asks if he wants her to look into Lucy, but he says no. Back in the courtroom, he continues his questioning of Jerry. He shows a list of the bills for the fraternity, including a subscription to Hotflixxx for pornography. He points out a specific title, Romancing His Bone, was held onto by the frat house for 6 months. When Simple went to a bar and talked to many of the frat brothers, they told her it was their favorite. Simple beings in a TV and DVD player with the scene he need queued up. The characters, two white boys named Cal and Jim, have their way with a black girl. He looks at Chamique and she holds her head high with tears in her eyes. They nod at each other.
20. The defense if given a half hour recess. Cope tries to call Lucy, but gets her machine and hangs up. Muse tells her Lucy is teaching a class. She tells him what she has found out about her from a basic search: the name change, she went to UCLA and had 2 DUIs. She also tells him she lives close and is a professor at nearby Restin University. She gives him the link for a picture of her. He waits a bit until he thinks she will be out of class and at home. He calls again and this time she answers.
21. Lucy asks if he has anything weird happen. He admits something has. She says they need to talk and they make plans to meet at 8pm at her office. Cope is nervous as he goes to Lucy office. When he knocks on her door, she admits she placed herself in the most flattering pose she could. They start small talk and then she asks him to go with her weird event first. He tells her about Gil Perez being found murdered and how his parents might be in denial that it was him. He tells her how he was overhead saying that the two of them lied about that night. She gives him the journals that are pretty much their story from the night of the murders. While it isn’t my exact, it is close enough. Cope had felt guilty for years for sneaking off to have sex with his girlfriend instead of doing his rounds and counting heads. At first, he lied about it and said everyone was in their beds when he did rounds. He later admitted he hadn’t done them. There were 12 boys cabins alone and even if he had been watching them, it would have been easy for kids to sneak off. He never told anyone Lucy was with him to protect her. He apologizes about the lawsuit against her father the victim’s families went through. His dad hadn’t wanted to because her dad, Ira, had been a good man and allowed his dad to be a doctor again. He tells her his mother left and his father recently died. She saw online that he had also lost his wife. She points out that he has lost a lot of people in his life. They decide they need to investigate and find out what happened they might.
22. The governor is a college friend of Cope’s and comes to visit in the office during their break from court. When they hug, he warns Cope to clear out his office. Cope has them leave so it is just him, the governor and the state attorney. The Governor tells him his brother-in-law, Bob, has been skimming off the top from the charity Cope set up in his wife’s honor after she died. He looks at the expense report showing “expansion” and “area beautification” but knows they were for landscaping and his new pool. After they leave, Muse comes in to give him updates about Gil Perez and his sister. A guy named Andrew is looking to test out a radar he came up with that is supposed to cover a lot of ground quickly when searching for bodies. She suggests DNA testing has come a long way in 20 years and they might be able to get some info in a few weeks. She also gives him the results of the age progression of the picture of Gil Perez he gave her. It is a match for Manolo. When they have to go back to court, one of the rapist’s father, EJ Jenrette, is standing in the way. He tells EJ word has spread about his son through the prison and the inmates are waiting for him. He knows it is an empty threat. Judge Pierce listens to Flair’s team complains about evidence. Cope wonders if they will go after the judge like they went after him. He calls Greta, but no answer. He calls Lucy and says she is going to Gil’s parents and asks her to go. She agrees.
23. Cope and Lucy joke a bit about music and their past as they make their way to the Perez’s house. He called them earlier asking for a wrong name to make sure someone would be home. When they arrive, Mrs. Perez isn’t eager to talk to them but agrees to five minutes. Cope shows her the age progression and the picture showing Gil’s scar was on his right arm. Lucy asks why there aren’t any pictures of Gil on the mantle with their other children. Mrs. Perez claims it is her way of grieving. Lucy says they got back the DNA results and it matched hers. Mrs. Perez is furious saying they didn’t ask her permission. She kicks them out. Once they are back in the car, Lucy says she is lying. There are gaps in between the pictures and it would be highly unusual for a grieving mother to remove pictures of her dead son unless she was trying to hide something. They determine the simplest answer is that Gil was Wayne’s accomplice in the murders. It would explain a lot of the missing pieces. Cope thinks that could be the end of his hope for finding his sister alive. He admits he still feels guilty. He gets angry and accuses Lucy of also feeling guilty. She says her life has been different since that night and she has never fully recovered. He wants to reach out to her, but he knows neither of them are ready for it.
24. Cope drops off Lucy and she says she will see what her dad knows about Manolo. Muse calls to tell him she found a bar where Mr. Perez hangs out. She also got him time with Wayne Stuebens and a flight for the morning. Cope goes to the bar and finds it is mostly business men and women, but he finds Mr. Perez in the back corner with a few friends. When he says he just wants to talk for a few minutes, Mr. Perez refuses and his friends back him up. When Cope pulls out his prosecutor’s badge and threatens to go after any illegals related to them, they pay their tabs and leave. Cope tries to get something out of him and threatens to go after his other children if Mr. Perez doesn’t tell him about Gil. Mr. Perez says if Cope goes after his children, he will go after Cope’s. After he leaves, Cope calls up Muse and tells her to get everything she can on Mr. Perez.
25. Greta finally returns Cope’s call. She arranged to come over after Cars is in bed. She says she didn’t know about what Bob was doing. She wants Cope to testify that he knew about the money and had lent it to Bob. He refuses to lie for him. She tries to cover for him saying his job had taken a hit and he wasn’t paid like he should have been from the Jane’s Way charity. When he still refuses, she goes for emotional guilt and says he only made JaneCare because he felt guilty about not being there when she died. Greta was at her side, but Cope had been drained by watching her slowly die. He says he will help, but he won’t lie. She tries to convince him his lie could prevent her life from being ruined.
26. Wayne Steubens claimed innocence, but he was the only link between the murders. When he talks to Lucy, he asks if he seemed like a serial killer. She said he didn’t get that impression, but she reminds him he was a pathological liar. She lets him know he isn’t the only one with awkward residual feelings. When Cope sees Wayne, he doesn’t get a sociopath vibe. He asks Wayne what happened in the woods. Wayne asks about the timing because he had another surprise visitor but refuses to tell him who. He says Cope ruined his summer by taking Lucy from him. He reminds him of the boys oogling Margo and how she broke up with Gil just before the murder. He tries to goad Cope by saying he was with Lucy before him, but only got to second base. When they doesn’t seem to work, Wayne says he looked up Cope and saw he is a widower with a 6 year old daughter. Cope asks who Wayne’s other visitor was and the Guard tells him it was a Private detective from MVD. He realizes this is all from Jenrette trying to dig up dirt on him. He knows there isn’t anything else he can get from Wayne.
27. Lucy goes to visit her father, Ira. She asks about Manolo Santiago and he starts freaking out because he doesn’t my want to talk about that night. The nurses threaten to sedate him, but Lucy yells at them until she gets a chance to talk to him. She isn’t able to get anything out of him.
28. Cope talks to FBI agent Bedford, the investigator from Wayne’s case, over a cup of coffee, but he isn’t interested in new facts and twists them to fit his own narrative. Even if Wayne didn’t kill Perez, there was still a lot of evidence against Wayne for the other murders. Since he was not convicted of Perez’s murder, it wouldn’t change much. Bedford points out Wayne’s profile as a psychopath was pretty established as well. While talking to neighbors and the like, there were stories of psychopathic behavior before he got to the camp.
29. He gets on the plane and calls Muse. She sends over by email what she has found and wants him to come to his own conclusions. When Cope gets back into town, he helps Lucy confront Lonnie. Lonnie was the one that sent in the journal entries. He was hired by MVD to report back on her reactions. Cope mentions Lonnie was paid for the information with a $5k deposit into his bank account. Lonnie says two private investigators have him the entries to post. He says the investigators think Cope is a killer. Cope knows they are just using Lonnie to smear his name.
30. Sosh grew up in Russia right after WWII. His village was under siege from when he was 5 through 7. He grew up with nothing and is still sometimes amazed that he can do things as simple as keeping chicken in his freezer. He lets Cope know he found his mom. Cope asks Muse to get a hold of Cingle Shaker for him. In the meantime, he calls Lucy. She is surprised Lonnie betrayed her and admits he was her closest friend. They decide once everything is settled, they will try at their relationship again. Lucy asks about what he found. Cope isn’t sure Wayne killed their friends. He points out that Camille and Doug were a couple, but Gil and Margot had supposedly just broken up. They assumed they had gone out to the woods to mess around as couples. They speculate that Gil could have killed Margot and then Camille and Doug because they saw too much of the act. Three winder how the journal writer could have known Cope and Lucy had been briefly separated in the woods. Lucy suggests someone saw them that night. After that call, Muse brings in Cingle Shaker. He asks her about MVD agency and how they operate. She explains how it MVD couldn’t find anything on someone, they would fabricate it. When she worked for them, she was sent to tempt married women to cheat on their wives. She said only two turned her down because they caught in to the trap. She warns him that even if he has a clean past, he needs to be careful for their traps. She says she is thinking about offering a job to the latest girl they use for fidelity testing because she is from India compared to Cingle’s blond. Cope immediately knows it is Raya.
31. Muse wonders if Cooe running for public office is what really inspires the attacks from Jenrette and Marantz. Cooe goes home to find a email from Lucy telling him to listen to a Springsteen song called “Back in Your Arms” and he cries for the first time since his wife died. The next morning, Cope meets with Raya and reveals he knows she is a private eye. She admits to it. She doesn’t know who hired MVD for the job, she just had instructions to get the information. Manolo come to them saying he had dirt on Cope and was just gathering his evidence. When he died, Raya thought Cooe killed him. Her new assignment was to get close to Cope. He didn’t tell her anything they didn’t know. She doesn’t believe he killed anyone and felt guilty about trying to get information out of him. Cope says he might need her to testify. She claims she won’t, but a lot of people tell him that.
32. Muse researches the Perez family and finds they invested their money in businesses when they got the settlement from the case against Ira. They own the bar where Cope found Mr. Perez. Andrew calls her to tell her he has to show her what they found when they scanned the woods with the equipment they are developing. Detective York gets a call from the lab. They have narrowed down the carpet fibers found on Manolo’s body to a Volkswagen from 1968-1974. Lucy visits Ira. The nurse tries to get her to leave before she upsets. Lucy tells her to leave them alone . Lucy asks her father about Manolo coming to visit him. He refuses to tell her anything and says he will only talk to Cope. Gil’s sister, Glinda comes to visit Cope at his office. She refuses to admit anything, but talks in hypotheticals. Her parents knew Gil was alive, but she didn’t know for a few years. She knows her family would be in a lot of trouble if it it was found out they knew Gil was alive the whole time but profited off of his being supposedly murdered. She pulls out an agreement for him to sign and says she will tell him what she knows about his sister if he agrees not to incriminate her family. He says he will do his best, it he cannot lie about it. As she is walking out of the offices, she tells him if Gil walked out of the woods that night, he didn’t do it alone. She tells him his sister is alive.
33. The security guard at the campsite gives Muse a hard time about waiting for permission to enter. When Sheriff Lowell arrives, he scolds the guard for not letting him know amuse had arrived. He shows her where Doug’s body was found in a shallow grave. Margot was found half a mile south by where the boys’ cabins used to be. Lowell says he questioned everyone that was at the camp. He doesn’t say it, but he is still suspicious of Cope. Everyone said he was a responsible kid and his sneaking away to goof off while on duty didn’t seem to fit. Muse tries to stay impartial. Officer York is shown a tape from a gas station security camera. A yellow 1971 Volkswagen Bug drives by. They zoom in on the driver to see a gray haired and bearded man that resembles Jerry Garcia. Lucy calls Cope to tell him Ira remembers something from that night. Cope offers to pick her up and she warns him that Ira will only talk to him. She asks to go with him anyway saying she will wait in the car.
34. Andrew comes by with his ground radar machine. He is looking for more bodies. He takes her to the first one found where an excavation team is working to extract the bones. The county coroner is there. They won’t know much until they are out of the ground. The skull was found first. Once the body is dug up, Coroner O’Neil starts showing Muse the skeleton. The body’s forehead is less pronounced and female and 5’7, which happens to be Camille’s height. The officers identify the car as Ira’s and get ready to go talk to him.
35. When they get to the retirement community, Lucy goes to her father’s car to start it up while Cope goes to see Ira. The nurse takes Cope back to see the old man and leaves them alone. Ira remembers him and asks why he is back in their lives. He says he is parched and asks for water. He then says he wants to go for a walk and leads Cope outside and into the woods. He says he always liked Cope’s father. When Cope asks about Gil, Ira says he was dead until he came to Ira that night and he should have stayed that way. Gil wanted to know what happened that night. Ira kept saying the culprit was already in prison. When Ira stops, he turns to face Cope, pulls out a gun and shoots at him.
36. Lucy gets to the car and noticed a pop can on the passenger side floorboard. She is about to write it off when she smells something horrible. She looks in the backseat and sees it is covered in blood.
37. Cope wants to try to reason with Ira, but instinctually knows to get out of the way. He jumps to the side, but is still hit in the side. He gets behind a tree and keeps rolling. He grabs a rock and throws it at Ira. It wasn’t a great throw, but enough to get the old man down. Cope jumps on top of him and focuses on pinning Ira’s right hand. The gun is in Ira’s left hand and he hits Cope in the forehead with it. Cope feels like a lighting bolt goes through his head. Ira gets on top of him and points the gun at Cope’s head. Officer York is there and calls out for Ira to freeze. Lucy calls out for Ira to stop and the look in his eyes changes. It’s tells Cope his sister is dead and then shoots himself in the head.
38. Cope wakes up in the hospital the next morning. While he is trying to sort out what happened and if is sister is alive or dead, York comes in. They have enough evidence to show that airs killed Gil Perez, it they still can’t officially prove the body is Gil. Cope asks about Ira’s motivations, but stork says that is someone else’s case. He’ll help if he can and hopes Cope solves it. Muse is in next. She starts asking Cope questions as if he is a suspect. He is angry at first, but she points out he would ask the same questions if the roles were reversed. He agrees to answer them. She asks if Camille was ever pregnant. He says there was no way. She told Sherriff Lowell his theory about Manolo Santiago. Before she can give him more information, a nurse comes into the room. Muse slips out. Cope calls him and Greta answers. She says she will keep Cara at her house overnight. She still loves her niece, but she is done with Cope. When Muse comes back in, she tells him they found a female body in the woods that appears to meet all the criteria for his sister. The odd part was the separation of the hips that indicated child birth. He asks her to find out what is going on and if there is a baby out there somewhere.
39. Kakorov comes to tell Sosh the authorities found a body in the woods and asks what they should do about it. Sosh tells him there is nothing they can do. Kakorov misses the old days and feeling like they had power. Sosh points out they were just scared soldiers being bullies to make themselves feel powerful. Sosh isn’t sure what will happen since scope didn’t listen to him about leaving the past alone. He thinks he might discover something about himself. The doctor tells Cope he will be fine, but they want to keep him overnight because of the head wound. He calls York, but there isn’t anything new to add. Their case is closed. He calls Lucy, but there is no answer. He calls Muse and she says she is heading home from stopping by to check on Lucy. Her lights were on and she could hear music, but no one answered the door. He asks her to pick him up. No one pays attention to Cope and amuse leaving the hospital. When they get to Lucy’s place, Muse drops off Cope and says she has an errand to run. He knocks on Lucy’s door, but no answer. Muse comes back and gives him the master key. He goes in, but Lucy isn’t happy to see him. She is halfway through a bottle of vodka and listening to depressing music. She tells him she doesn’t want him there and tells him to leave. He asks to stay for himself rather than staying for her and she still tells him to leave. She says they can start again the next day.
40. Dr. Tara O’Neil is back in the woods early in the morning looking for a missing bone. She finds the hyoid bone broken into two pieces they fit together perfectly. Cope wakes up in the hospital again and this time Mrs. Perez is there. She tells him Gil was in love with Margot and was in a lot of pain when she broke up with him. Wayne convinced him and his friends to play a prank on her (not unusual at the camp). Camille lured her out and then the boys tied her up and dragged her out into the woods. Margot started hurling insults at Gil. Wayne took out a knife and slit her throat before any of them knew what was going on. The kids all ran in separate direction. Wayne was able to kill Doug. Camille and Gil his out in the woods. Gil would call the kitchen line until his mother picked up. He told her what happened. Wayne approached Mrs. Copeland telling her he had an alibi and the best lawyers because he came from a rich family. Camille and Gil coming from poor families would look guilty. She planted Gil and Camille’s clothes in the woods with their blood on them. She never saw Camille, but she believed she was alive. When Doug’s parents started going after aura and the camp, she and Cope’s mom went along with it. When the case settled, his mom had enough money to get away. She hates his father and left him thinking his daughter was dead. Cope wonders if his mother hates his father enough to leave him looking for his daughters non-existent remains for the rest of his life. He asks why his mother didn’t my take him with her, but he knows his father never would have stopped looking for him if he was alive and missing. When investigators came asking questions of the Perezs, Gil thought that was a good time to get revenge on Cope because he blamed him for not being on guard duty that night. Cope asked if Mrs. Perez ever saw his sister, but she hadn’t.
41. Muse picks up Cope for court. There isn’t any fuss about letting him out of the hospital. When he gets there, Judge Pierce starts talking about reaching a settlement. Cope says he absolutely will not settle. Pierce threatens to hold him in contempt, but Cope points out that he can’t do that for not settling. He gives the judge a knowing look that says he knows he is being blackmailed. He nods at Pierce before walking out. EJ Jenrette tries to come after him to convince him his son just made a mistake and everyone does. He tries give him an envelope saying it has his father’s translated KGB file. Cope refuses to take it and walks away. Muse comes into Cope’s office to tell him O’Neil’s finding if the hyoid bone showed the woman’s body was closer to 40, so it could Mr be his sister. He realizes it is his mother’s body.
42. Cope goes to Sosh’s place to confront him about what he knows. He shows Sosh the KGB file and asks if his father really did hand in his in-laws. Sosh said he did it to protect Cope and Camille. He thinks Natalia (Cope’s mom) always knew about it and resented him for it. When his father thought Camille had died, he confessed turning in her parents. She hid Camille and planned to run. When he found out about it, he strangled her to death. Cope asks why his mother hadn’t planned on taking him, but he realizes she did. He asks what happened to Camille. Sosh says he was on the phone with her when he came in and she is on her way over. When she walks in the door, Cope is shocked to see her
Epilogue
Cope continued to prosecute for Chamique’s case. He wanted to go after Jenrette and the other guy for blackmail. He wanted to go after Judge Pierce for giving into the blackmail. He knew neither would go anywhere. He wasn’t asked to resign, so he didn’t. He figured he probably should soon. He caves in and ends up saying that he has a fuzzy memory of telling Bob he could borrow the money to keep his family in tact. His relationship with Lucy took off immediately. They are in love and their first disagreement is Cope going to talk to Wayne again. After confirming they are off the record, Wayne agrees to tell Cope the truth. He corroborates Mrs. Perez’s story. Cope takes Lucy out to the woods and she brings flowers. He finds it odd considering their tradition is to leave stones on a grave. He tells her he knows it was her job to make sure he was away from his post that night. She didn’t know what Wayne was going to do. Wayne threatened to have Ira arrested. She was the one who found Margot’s body. Wayne had seen her in the woods, not Cope. He realizes Ira killed himself to protect his daughter. He thinks about how they all played their parts in the murder. Cope walks away from her and out of the woods. He wonders if they will stick it out together or if the woods claimed another victim.