Previously…
– Sabrina was shaken after receiving another threat, this one a message scrawled on her car.
– After finding out that Elly had been named a person of interest in Loretta’s murder, Spencer accused Travis of having been involved in the crime, too.
– Lucy’s boyfriend, Bryce, tailed her back to the Fisher home from the bar and tried to confront her, but Sarah used her police training to stop him in his tracks.

In the basement of her parents’ house, Sarah Fisher Gray stands in front of a whiteboard cluttered with notes, maps, and photographs. This corner of the basement, mere feet away from the laundry area, has become her de facto office since she and Matt moved their family into the house years ago. A handful of Hopper windows provide some light from outdoors, making the basement feel less suffocatingly closed-in, and some track lights help illuminate the space further. Sarah scribbles something on the board beside a grainy still from a security camera. Landon Esco lingers nearby, flipping through a manila folder stuffed with printouts.

“He said he was at the gas station at 9:17,” Landon says, tapping the casefile in his hands. “But this receipt puts him there at 9:41.”

Sarah doesn’t look up. “So unless he has an identical twin… who dresses identically as well…”

“Big problem for our man.” The apprentice P.I. grins but remains focused, tracing a line on the map with his index finger. “If he walked, the shortest route from his place to the gas station is this–“

A phone rings, slicing through the conversation. Sarah snatches her phone off the folding table that serves as their workspace and checks the caller ID. Furrowing her brow, she answers.

“This is Sarah.” A pause. Her face tightens. “What? Are you sure?” Another pause. “Yep, got it. Thanks for the heads-up.”

Landon watches her carefully as she hangs up. She stares at the lifeless phone a beat too long.

“What’s up?” he asks cautiously.

Sarah exhales through her nose, slow and deliberate. “That was my contact in the D.A.’s office. Bryce is being released this morning.”

“After that stunt he pulled last night?” Landon recalls his horror at Bryce pounding on his car window and then yanking open the door to menace Tori. When he tried to charge into the house to go after Lucy, Sarah handily restrained him, allowing Landon to call the police.

“They can’t make any serious charges stick, since he didn’t really do anything.”

“Thanks to you. That move was badass. You’re gonna have to teach me.”

“That was a police academy special,” Sarah says. “But Bryce is going to be free within the hour.”

“Do you think he’ll come after Lucy again?”

“I’ve seen enough guys like him to know that he’ll try,” she replies as she folds her arms.

The strong scent of disinfectant hits Tim Fisher as he peeks his head into the exam room at King’s Bay Memorial Hospital.

“All done?” he asks his son, who is lightly touching the gauze taped to his inner right arm.

“Think so,” Spencer Ragan replies. He hops down off the exam table. “That’s really it? I thought it would be more involved.”

“They only need a blood test to see if you could be a match for TJ,” Tim explains. “If you’re identified as a potential bone marrow donor, they might have to do more before you actually donate.”

“Ah.” Spencer, clad in a black t-shirt and gray cargo pants, scratches the back of his head. “I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of giving blood, but it’s worth it if it helps TJ.”

“Well, we all appreciate it — Sonja, TJ, and me.”

“It’s no problem. I just hope you find a match quickly. Has everyone else gotten tested?”

“Samantha, Jason, and Sophie were here this morning, and Molly brought Caleb and Christian not long afterward,” Tim says. “Sarah said something went down last night, so she and Tori are coming later. And–” He checks the time on his phone. “–Travis is supposed to come by soon.”

Spencer grimaces. “Then I’d better get out of here before I do something I regret.”

Tim raises a sandy-brown eyebrow. “What does that mean?”

“We got into it last night.”

After waiting a moment for further explanation that never materializes, Tim asks, “About what? I thought you guys had been good lately.”

“We were perfectly civil,” Spencer says derisively, “until I figured out that he has something to do with Loretta‘s murder.”

Tim freezes, unsure how to process this, let alone respond. The faint hum of some electrical device fizzes in the background.

“So you haven’t heard,” Spencer continues at last. “Elly is the latest person of interest in Loretta’s murder… and it turns out that she and Travis are keeping some big secret.”

—–

The pleasant summer warmth wraps itself around Sabrina Gage as she steps out the sliding glass door at the back of Jason Fisher‘s house. When she first came to King’s Bay, she found the endless months of rain that stretch from the fall into the spring to be overwhelming; the tradeoff, however, are these beautiful summers, with their crystal-clear blue skies and moderate heat. She strides over the brilliant green lawn to the shed that has become her de facto photography studio these last few months. Jason has been so kind in opening his home to her since the arson at her apartment, and his offer of this small but effective space as a base for her growing business has helped her feel settled during this uncertain time.

She unlocks the shed door with her usual cautious rhythm: push, turn, lift slightly to get past the warped hinge. Sunlight filters through the narrow side window as she steps inside.

Then she stops.

Dangling from a hanger — which is perched on a nail in the wall — is a sequined dress, red and black with illusion netting stretching up the bodice. Sabrina’s mind clocks it as a figure-skating dress, or at least, what was once a figure-skating dress. The garment hanging in front of her has been slashed in jagged lines. Sequins hang loose like broken teeth. One sleeve has almost been completely severed, and it hangs limp.

“What in the world…?” she says aloud.

Then she takes in the note, pinned to the dress’s bottom hem:

Stay away from him or you’re next!

—–

In the Fishers’ basement, Landon places the casefile down on the table and shakes his head in disbelief.

“So this guy can stalk Lucy to the bar and back to this house, get aggressive with Tori, then physically go after Lucy, and they can’t do anything?” he questions.

“Lucy needs to file for a protective order immediately,” Sarah says. “I’m going to give her the contact info for Jaimie Thompson.”

“The attorney who represented Travis and Rosie?”

Sarah nods. “She’ll be able to walk her through the process easily. Unfortunately, that still means Bryce is going to be out there… and he knows where she’s staying…”

“I have an idea,” Landon declares, slapping his hand against the table for emphasis.

“Oh yeah?”

“Lucy can stay in my spare room! Bryce has no idea where I live. And I have that room sitting there — sometimes I rent it out on AirBnB to make some money, but it’s a safe place for her.”

“That’s a great idea,” Sarah says. “Are you sure you don’t mind?”

“Not even a little. I bet it will take some of the burden off Tori, too.”

“Mm-hmm,” Sarah responds, noting how Landon’s entire inflection brightens at the mere mention of her daughter. “We should go upstairs and let Lucy and Tori know what’s going on.”

“And then we come back here and nail this bastard,” Landon says, jabbing a finger at the open casefile.

—–

“Big secret?” Tim asks incredulously as Spencer stares him down in the hospital exam room. “There’s a long walk from ‘big secret’ to ‘complicit in a murder.'”

“You didn’t hear what I heard,” Spencer says. “They were talking about having some huge secret from ‘that night.’ Which didn’t mean a ton to me until I found out that Elly is a person of interest.”

Tim holds up both his palms. “Hold up there. What’s going on? How is she a person of interest?”

“The police had a witness they were trying to use against Natalie, but it turns out that she identified Elly as the redhead at the house that night instead.”

“Elly went to your house the night Loretta died?”

Slowly, Spencer bobs his head up and down. “She said she was coming to talk to me, but, like — we were all going to the gala anyway.”

“Just because she came to the house doesn’t mean…”

“It’s pretty fucking suspicious,” Spencer says sharply.

“It seems that way,” Tim counters, “but it doesn’t conclusively mean anything. Keep that in mind before you get yourself wound up.”

Spencer glowers back at him. “I’m wound up because the woman who raised me — crazy as she was — was murdered in my house, probably by someone I trust. And if Travis was a part of that–“

“You don’t know that Travis had anything to do with it,” Tim cuts him off. “Just keep that in mind.”

“It’s sure as hell looking possible.”

Before Tim can respond, there is a rap upon the open door. Both men look to see Sonja Kahele standing there.

“Sorry to interrupt,” she says. “Tim, the doctor wants to talk to us… about TJ…”

“I’m coming,” Tim replies, but he pauses for a moment to address Spencer: “Think about what I said, okay?”

Rather than answer, Spencer lets out a loud, annoyed sigh. Tim knows his son well enough to disregard it, and he follows Sonja out into the hallway.

Left alone in the exam room, Spencer grits his teeth.

“I’m not just going to let this go,” he mutters before biting down on his lower lip.

—–

“I don’t understand,” Jason says as Sabrina leads him back across the lawn to the shed. “A skating dress?”

“I have no idea where it came from,” Sabrina tells him, her voice shaky with panic. She throws open the shed door, which she left unlatched when she ran back to the house to get him. Jason stands just outside the shed, taking in the sight.

“Oh my god,” he says.

“What?”

“That dress. It was Courtney‘s.”

Sabrina gasps. “Are you sure?”

“Like, one hundred percent. We did this flamenco-themed short program… I had a matching shirt.”

“Someone put this here,” Sabrina says. “To scare me. And they did. There’s a note, too.”

She indicates the half-sheet of white paper affixed to the bottom of the dress. As Jason reads it for the first time, Sabrina takes in the hand-scrawled message again:

Stay away from him or you’re next!

“Someone wrote that by hand,” he says.

“Yeah…”

“Maybe the police can do something with that.” He is already pulling his phone from the pocket of his jeans. “Don’t touch anything, okay?”

Sabrina nods, even as the whole world seems to be spinning confusingly around her.

“Hey, Brent,” Jason is saying into the phone. “There was another, uh, thing left for Sabrina. But you might be able to test this stuff — no, we haven’t touched it at all…”

She simply stands there in the entrance to the shed, taking in the unbelievable scene. The message of the note sends her a shudder of terror through her body as she scans it from this distance over and over:

Stay away from him or you’re next!

END OF EPISODE 1262

Who do you think is coming after Sabrina?
Will Spencer convince Tim that Travis did something?
Can Landon, Tori, and Sarah keep Lucy safe?
Discuss all this and more in the comments below!

Next Episode