We Begin at the End

Duchess is surprised when Thomas bikes to her foster home. He misses her, but Duchess only says that she needs to get back to Cape Haven. Tenderly the two kiss. Echoing her mother, Duchess asks Thomas whether there is such a thing as a genuinely “selfless act” (248). After Thomas departs, Duchess checks in with Robin only to find he had a bad dream and has wet his bed.

Walk meanwhile sees that the neighbor, a butcher named Milton, who talked with Darke the night of Star’s murder, is key. But Milton is on a hunting vacation, so Walk drives to Milton’s hunting lodge. He breaks into the locked house and finds blood in the kitchen. Maybe an animal? He calls the police. He drives back to Milton’s home in Cape Haven and there finds in an upstairs bedroom a telescope trained on Star’s bedroom across the street and a suitcase full of photos of her under the bed.

Martha agrees to accompany Walk to a long-term health care facility to which Darke has been sending regular payments. Walk figures the facility is laundering money for Darke. However, it turns out Darke is supporting a daughter Walk did not know he had.