Stillhouse Lake

The vandalism on Gwen’s garage is in red paint, not blood. Officer Graham wants her to give her guns up, but she won’t without a warrant. Gwen sleeps on the couch with a gun next to her; this way if someone breaks in, she’ll react sooner. The children don’t comment on this being weird because she’s done it so many times. Gwen allows Lanny to help with “Sicko Patrol” duty.

Another police officer named Kezia Claremont, or Kez, visits while she’s off duty. She’s the daughter of Ezekiel (“Easy”) Claremont, the elderly man Gwen and Lanny met on their run one day. Kezia wants to help Gwen. She reveals Sam Cade has an alibi for both murders and has been released. She thinks she can narrow down the list of potential suspects because it’s not a very populated area. Gwen is rude for a while but eventually lets her guard down and asks Kezia in for pancakes.

The children like Kezia, who is also friends with Javi—Javi must have also asked Kezia to help Gwen (or spy on her). Kezia makes a list of possible suspects based on which people are new to the area and may have moved there for the purpose of causing trouble for Gwen. Gwen texts some of the names to Absalom to research.

Later, Gwen’s phone rings and it’s Mel, calling from an unknown number. He shouldn’t know her phone number, isn’t allowed to call her, and shouldn’t have a burner phone. Gwen remembers that she took her phone into the prison, so whichever guards are working for Mel must have taken her number. Mel threatens Gwen. After hanging up, she tells Kezia about the call.

Kezia is watching Gwen’s house from her patrol car outside. Gwen goes for a run, then to the shooting range. She then heads back home, but stops at Sam Cade’s house on the way. He admits that he did stalk her and move to Stillhouse Lake to find her. Before meeting her, he was angry that his sister died, and assumed that Gwen knew about the murders and was guilty. However, after meeting her, he no longer believed that; she wasn’t who he expected her to be. He no longer seems to blame Gwen for his sister’s death, and instead is starting to see her as someone else who was hurt by the same person. Suddenly, Gwen sees a shotgun aimed at Sam’s head through the window. She pushes him over so he doesn’t get shot. The shooter flees and they can’t tell who it was specifically, but Gwen thinks it was a white man.

Kezia arrives, saying she got reports of gunfire. Gwen worries about her children, who are now probably unattended with a shooter on the loose. She asks if Kezia just left her house—she actually left earlier because all officers were needed for an “officer down” call. Then the news comes through that it was a false call. Gwen panics, thinking that must have been a diversion. Gwen and Sam run to Gwen’s house, with Kezia chasing them. The children aren’t in their rooms, but items are strewn about and there are traces of blood. Kezia tells Gwen not to touch the rooms because she’s going to be a suspect in her own children’s abduction. Gwen’s children aren’t in the safe room either, but there’s blood there too, suggesting they entered it. Gwen wonders whom they would have let inside.

Gwen gets a call from a random stranger harassing her. She assumes this is the person who took her children, and she demands answers. This causes the stranger to hang up because he wasn’t the one who took the children and didn’t know they were missing; he doesn’t want to become a suspect in a child abduction. Kezia says she can answer Gwen’s phone for her for the time being. Gwen hands it over even though she worries that Kezia wants to spy on her. The rest of the police and Detective Prester arrive to question Gwen once more.