Twenty Years Later

Avery wonders if she wanted Walt to kiss her at the bar the previous night, lamenting her nonexistent love life. Avery returns to Emma’s home and apologizes that she might not prove Victoria’s innocence. Avery reveals that she is discussing the case with Walt Jenkins, and Emma remembers him. Emma gives Avery access to all of Victoria’s belongings, which Avery gathers and takes.

Avery goes through the items gathered from Emma’s home and finds a USB drive with a series of text documents on it that are approximately 400 pages each. The first document is titled Hot Mess, and, as Avery reads, she realizes that the text is familiar. Grabbing her copy of Baggage by Natalie Ratcliff, Avery confirms that Baggage is Victoria Ford’s novel Hot Mess.

Avery meets with Walt, and Walt comments that he only has what the Shandaken Police Department kept from 20 years prior, suggesting there are more files elsewhere. Walt walks Avery through the police’s version of Cameron’s death, in which Victoria and Cameron engaged in sex acts involving strangling. In this version, Cameron’s death is accidental, but Victoria gets more rope, cuts herself accidentally, and stages the scene to look like a suicide.