Something in the Water

Erin goes to Penton Prison to prepare for Eddie’s interview the following day. On her way out, a man named Patrick stops her wanting to know why she’s there. Erin explains the documentary, feeling annoyed the prison isn’t on top of things. After the man walks away, Erin realizes the man “didn’t mention his surname” (229). Her paranoia returns with the knowledge an unidentified stranger knows her name and where she’ll be the next day. She double checks with the prison, but no one named Patrick works there, leaving her to wonder if he’s associated with the plane.

When Erin gets home, the back door of the house stands open. Mark would have never left the door open, which means someone else is or was in the house. After searching, Erin finds no one. The diamonds are still in their hiding place, but someone stole a photo of her and Mark. There are five new messages on the answering machine. One is Alexa, and the rest sound like someone was calling to catch them out. Erin recognizes the location of the last message as somewhere nearby. Whoever left it was in her house.

When Mark gets home, Erin tells him everything except her suspicions about Eddie having her followed and the pregnancy. Turns out, Mark moved the photo and never put it back. He rationalizes Erin’s visitor outside the prison as being related to Holli and overall seems far less concerned than Erin expected him to be. Mark convinces her to drop Holli’s interviews to distance them from the investigation. Erin agrees but can’t bring herself to agree with the rest of Mark’s logic. Her gut tells her the strange messages are related to the bag.

Later that night, Mark says they should dump the diamonds. Erin doesn’t understand why because Mark “was so concerned about our finances before” (239). She wants to try to find one more way to sell them, and Mark reluctantly agrees. Erin goes to bed feeling like “something is closing in” on her (241).