Nothing More to Tell

Brynn’s interview continues and Carly asks for some details about Mr. Larkin’s unsolved murder. Brynn explains that police’s best theory is that a random “drifter” must have killed him and then left town shortly thereafter. Carly thinks this explanation is too convenient to be correct. She also notices there has not been much press coverage of Mr. Larkin’s murder.

Brynn reflects to herself that Mr. Larkin was only 25 when he died during his first year of teaching at Saint Ambrose, an expensive K-12 private school that offers scholarships to some students, which creates a significant socioeconomic class divide within the school. When they were in middle school, Brynn and Ellie were on scholarship at Saint Ambrose, but now that their family has more money, their parents insist on paying the tuition once school starts back up in January after the winter break.

Brynn explains that the students who found Mr. Larkin were in eighth grade with her at the time: Tripp Talbot—her former best friend—Shane Delgado, and Charlotte Holbrook. Shane and Charlotte are both wealthy and have been dating for years. Tripp is from a working-class family and wasn’t friends with Shane or Charlotte but was in the woods with Shane because they were collecting different types of leaves for a science project on which they were partners. Brynn was Charlotte’s partner for science class and should have been working on the project with them, but she avoided the excursion to the woods because Tripp had yelled at her the previous day. In front of everyone in physical education class, Tripp called Brynn a stalker and demanded she stay away from him. After Tripp found the body in the woods with Shane and Charlotte, he became friends with them and advanced in the social hierarchy of school.

Carly asks if anyone thought the three kids may have killed Mr. Larkin, and remarks that no evidence was left at the crime scene, except for Shane’s fingerprints on the murder weapon—a rock. Brynn explains that although Shane had picked up the rock, nobody suspected him or the other kids because they were young and had no motive. Carly and Brynn continue to discuss Brynn’s writing on the murder which conveys that right before he died, Mr. Larkin had been investigating a theft of a large amount of cash from a fundraiser for a school trip. After Mr. Larkin died, police found the envelope of cash in Charlotte’s locker, but she claimed she didn’t know how it got there, which people believed because of her wealth. Carly isn’t sure whether they’ll be able to report on Mr. Larkin’s story, but wants to look into it, and hires Brynn for the internship.

Since Brynn and her family moved away, Tripp has been continuing his education at Saint Ambrose and is now a senior. He’s at his job at Brightside Bakery, working on an application for the Kendrick Scholarship, which is awarded to the most accomplished senior. He and his dad don’t have much money, but he hopes to attend college, ideally somewhere far away from home. His boss, Regina Young, encourages Tripp to keep working on the application, even though Tripp’s sure he won’t get the scholarship because the principal, Mr. Griswell (also known as “the Grizz”) doesn’t like Tripp. Tripp’s father built some shelves for Mr. Griswell years back, but Mr. Griswell didn’t want to pay as much as Tripp’s dad charged, so Tripp’s dad just took the shelves down. Regina offers Tripp her spare bedroom for college if he wants to stay local without having to live with his dad. Tripp’s mother, who he calls Lisa Marie, lives in Las Vegas and works at a casino. She doesn’t visit or contact Tripp often; the last contact was an impersonal postcard he received seven months ago. Regina says Tripp should join the committee to build a memorial garden for Mr. Larkin, and she’ll fire him if he doesn’t.

Shane and Charlotte visit the bakery. Charlotte checked her class rosters for the spring and noticed Brynn Gallagher is listed, even though she moved away after eighth grade. The kids speculate that maybe she moved back. Tripp reflects on his friendship with Charlotte and Shane, thinking how their friendship is surface level. They only discuss things like sports, social media, and Charlotte’s romantic relationship with Shane. They especially don’t talk about Mr. Larkin’s murder or anything tangentially related to it.

Tripp waits for Shane outside, preparing for their leaf collection assignment. Tripp has been science partners with Shane for a while and knows not to expect him to do any work or bring any materials; Shane is more interested in napping than in doing homework. Tripp has already collected some leaves from his own backyard and arranged them in a binder. Shane is late and Tripp is envious of how little work Shane has to do to skate by at school, since he doesn’t have to worry about losing his scholarship if his grades slip, like Tripp does. He continues waiting.

Tripp recalls when he was interviewed by Officer Patz after finding Mr. Larkin’s body. Tripp said that he, Charlotte, and Shane were in the woods doing a science project, never lost sight of each other the entire time, and found the body together. They didn’t see or hear anyone else, but Shane picked up a rock with blood on it, which turned out to be the murder weapon. Later, the police questioned Tripp again, this time asking him about the stolen money they found in Charlotte’s locker. Tripp denied knowing anything about the money and being friends with Charlotte and Shane.

Tripp heads to pick up Chinese food for him and his father, who works night shifts, and runs into the old school groundskeeper, Mr. Solomon. Mr. Solomon asks Tripp to visit sometime. At the restaurant, Tripp runs into Officer Patz, who mentions that Tripp was the first person he ever had to interview about a murder. He says interviewing children is complicated because they tend to have trouble remembering things and often leave out important details without realizing. However, he explains, Tripp was not like this at all. The officer’s comments make Tripp somewhat paranoid because Patz seems to doubt his story, even though it matched with those of Shane and Charlotte.

Brynn and Ellie prepare for school and chat with their Uncle Nick who used to work at Saint Ambrose as an assistant. Now he’s getting a master’s degree in teaching. Brynn receives a text from her friend Mason Rafferty, who still attends the school along with another friend, Nadia Amin. Ellie asks Brynn if she’s going to tell her classmates and friends that she’s “spying” for Motive, and Brynn responds that no, she is not telling others about her internship.

Outside the school, some boys ask Brynn and Ellie if they’re “dregs” or “elites,” terms which neither girl understands. They head to the auditorium for an assembly. Mason and Nadia explain the terminology refers to the intensifying class conflict at Saint Ambrose: “dregs” are scholarship students and “elites” are wealthy or otherwise socially popular students. The terminology was made up by a scholarship student named Colin Jeffries. Shane and Charlotte are elites, as is Tripp by association, despite his scholarship. Mr. Griswell welcomes students back to the spring semester and calls for volunteers to help with Mr. Larkin’s memorial garden. Brynn plans to sign up for this because it will be a good opportunity to “spy.”

Tripp wakes up for his daily early morning run and is surprised to find his dad awake. They’re on different schedules normally because his dad works night shifts. However, today his dad is working a shift at Home Depot, as he sometimes does for extra money. His dad explains that his car needs the transmission replaced. On Tripp’s run he encounters an aggressive driver who blows past him. Although Tripp has never seen the car before, he suddenly realizes he recognizes the driver, who is not revealed to the reader. Then he gets a text that says “murderer,” from an unknown phone number.

Charlotte and Shane also got text messages that said “murderer” from the same unknown number, and none of them can figure out who might have sent the message. They consider how anyone at school could have easily gotten their numbers from the office. Charlotte says Tripp needs a girlfriend and mentions that Brynn is pretty now. However, both Tripp and Shane are tired of Charlotte telling them what to do, so they ignore her.

Tripp’s mother, Lisa Marie texts him, revealing that she was the aggressive driver that Tripp encountered on his run. She calls him “Trey,” even though that’s not his name and he doesn’t like it. She invites him to coffee, but he’s annoyed she can’t remember he works at the bakery where she wants to meet. He ignores her. In the garden committee meeting, one of the teachers, Ms. Kelso, assigns Tripp to work with Brynn.

At Motive, Brynn works on a spreadsheet of female serial killers. Carly and her assistant, Lindzi, want Brynn to pitch her story idea about Mr. Larkin at the next meeting. But both women back off their request when they realize that the scary senior executive named Ramon will be present. However, Brynn wants to pitch her story anyway. Ramon is very harsh. The biggest problem he sees with the story is the lack of William Larkin’s family members. But he also notes that another true-crime show called Don’t Do the Crime is already doing a story on Mr. Larkin, which would make Motive’s pursuit of the story more difficult, even though Don’t Do the Crime is far more tasteless than Motive. Carly gets angry at Ramon because she thinks he’s forgotten that she’s the boss. Therefore, she decides to do the story anyway.