The Final Gambit

Avery goes back to the leather bag that Alisa brought her—the one that Tobias instructed Avery be given if she ever met Eve. Avery looks at the blue-green circle of glass that came in the bag and remembers the message she and Jameson found in the chess set: Don’t breathe. She realizes that blue-green glass circle is a clue pointing to the bottom of the Hawthorne House swimming pool (because you can’t breathe when you’re underwater).

Avery goes to the swimming pool. Grayson is there and she explains to him, “When I met Eve, it triggered one of your grandfather’s games” (163). Grayson is surprised that Tobias knew about Toby’s daughter and upset that Tobias allowed Eve to be raised by unloving parents; he’s also upset by much of the information revealed in the file folders, which speak to his grandfather’s bad character. Grayson, who rarely shows emotion, says: “It was supposed to be me. […] I was the one who was supposed to take the reins once he was gone” (165). Grayson asks Avery to stop playing Tobias’s games. She reaches out to comfort him, but he tells her to stop, and leaves. Thinking of Jameson, Avery recognizes that she can’t stop—she dives into the pool with the blue-green glass circle to solve the next clue.