If Something Happens to Me

Poppy sorts through the notes Alison gave Dash. For Alison’s book cipher, she used The Little Prince, a modern French fable about a pilot’s encounter with and a mysterious traveler. The notes confirm rendezvouses with Dash. However, when Poppy turns to the note in Alison’s handbag, the cipher still defies decoding. Poppy reasons that it must use a different book as the key.

Ryan calls his father to tell him that he found “The Monster” from his hypnotic recollection of Alison’s abduction. On learning that Ryan has been arrested, his shocked father immediately says he will get Ryan a lawyer and do whatever it takes to help his child. Ryan’s eyes fill with tears. Then, the lead detective enters and interrupts. Ryan has been cleared and is free to go.

Ryan is incredulous at first. The British police haven’t even talked to the authorities in Leavenworth yet, although they’ve left a message. The lead detective shows him video footage they found of the real killer approaching the cottage with an axe shortly before Peter Jones received the call in Italy that presumably showed his wife being held hostage. Later, the camera shows Peter running into the cottage. A third clip shows the killer leaving in Peter’s car. The killer is wearing a mask, baseball cap, surgical gloves, and booties—neither the police nor Ryan are able to identify him.

Poppy enters the sheriff’s office with a whirlwind of questions in her mind. She can’t confront her dad when he’s ill on a ventilator, but she is determined to get answers from Ken. To her surprise, Ken isn’t there, though he usually arrives early. Calls to his cell phone produce no response. Then, a call comes through from the British police about Ryan. Poppy agrees to take it.

Chaz is eating ice cream with his grandson, Davie. Chaz thinks he’s failed his own son, who is likely one of the two bodies in Alison’s car, and he wants to be there for his grandson. Davie confesses that he is being bullied in school. Chaz pretends that he was bullied, too, and he tells Davie that fighting won’t work but telling his mom will. Before dropping Davie off at home, Chaz stops to buy garden shears, gloves, and a waterproof poncho—this is innocuous to Davie but intimidating to those who know the O’Leary gang’s habit of cutting off fingers.

Chaz then stops at a house where O meets him—O is a nonverbal man who has taken over Chaz’s duties as enforcer and torturer for the O’Leary clan. O has tied Ken to a chair and removed all his fingers. He snatched the sheriff immediately after returning from England. Chaz waterboards the sheriff, but Ken still resists. Finally, Chaz and O kill him. Although Ken gave away nothing, O has Ken’s disposable phone, and he can use it to trace Michael. Before leaving, Chaz tells O to pay a visit to Davie’s bully.

As Ryan drives toward London as he heads out of England, he receives a FaceTime call from Poppy. He answers suspiciously, telling her that all communication needs to go through his lawyer. Poppy assures him that he isn’t a suspect. She tells him that they found something in Alison’s call that they need to talk about and asks him to pull over.

Ryan finds an exit and then resumes talking with Poppy. She asks if Alison had a favorite book. He knows The Little Prince was her favorite (she adored anything French). He presses Poppy as to why she needs to know, and Poppy reveals the presence of the encoded note. Ryan immediately knows the key. He refuses to tell Poppy what it is unless she sends him the note.

Poppy knows she shouldn’t share evidence with a man who was formerly the main suspect in the case. However, she decides Ryan is innocent. After an intense back and forth, in which Ryan shares that Alison used that cipher for a “promposal” (to ask him out to prom), Poppy relents and sends him an image. Ryan upholds his end of the deal and shares an image of a plaque from the Louvre commemorating how Alison’s ancestor helped save the museum from being burned during the French Revolution. As Poppy slowly decodes the message, she hears Ryan gasp and proclaim that Alison is alive. Then, Ryan hangs up.

Poppy finishes decoding the message. It reads, “Find me in the clouds” (222), which means nothing to Poppy. Obviously, Alison intended only Ryan to understand it. The fact that she wrote it in advance meant she was worried that something might happen to her. Poppy reasons that Alison was hiding, perhaps in witness protection, and the viral video blew her cover. She decides her best lead lies in identifying the men in the car. She calls Chantelle at the KBI with an idea.