All Her Little Secrets

Ellice drives back to Atlanta and goes to see Vera. Vera recognizes her and Ellice is glad she can talk to her as herself. However, Ellice realizes quickly that Vera thinks she is still a child, because she tells her that she will not let Willie Jay hurt her anymore. Vera asks Ellice what she wants her to do with the chicken and dumplings she made. Vera’s comment upsets Ellice because she knows what memory Vera is reliving.

When Willie Jay comes home from work, Ellice sets a plate of chicken and dumplings down in front of him at the table. He devours the meal and makes lewd comments to Ellice. Suddenly, he starts gasping for air and falls to the floor in convulsions. Ellice watches as his convulsions stop and she sees that he is dead. She calls Vera and tells her that it is over.

Vera comes over a few minutes later and helps her move the body on a tarp. Together, they drag his body out to the river behind the house and dump it in the river. Afterwards, they wrap up the chicken and dumplings that Ellice laced with strychnine and throw it into the river. Vera tells Ellice that what they did is called “a grave secret” (332), which means it is something they will take to their graves.

Ellice calls Rudy and tells him to take the shipping documents he found to Detective Bradford as evidence.

Sam’s friend Juice meets Ellice at a restaurant. She tells Juice that a man she works with killed Sam, and she needs help proving that he did it. She asks Juice to help her find out who set Sam up with the surveillance job. At first, Juice hesitates, but he finds out the information and offers to drive her to where the man works. Before long, they pull up in front of Tri-County Outfitters.

Ellice recognizes the gun shop from the flyer in Michael’s duffel bag. Juice asks one of the workers if he can speak to Robert. While Ellice pretends to inspect the guns, Juice asks Robert about the man who hired Sam. Robert tells them that he introduced Sam to a man who was looking for someone to do basic surveillance. He says that the man’s name is Jonathan Everett and that he is a friendly man who hugs everyone. Ellice shows him a picture of Jonathan from Houghton’s website, but Robert does not recognize Jonathan’s picture. Robert scrolls through the other executives and identifies Hardy as the man who hired Sam. Robert tells them that Hardy said that he worked for Cavanaugh Industries and that a Houghton delivery truck shows up once a month to pick up the boxes of guns.

Juice and Ellice leave with the information and Ellice tells Juice that Hardy killed her brother. Hardy, posing as Jonathan, gave Sam her ID badge and pretended to help her along the way so that she would not suspect him. Suddenly, Ellice realizes that Hardy was not buying weapons for Houghton, but for The Brethren to arm white supremacists.

When Juice drops Ellice off at her car, Ellice heads to Houghton at nine o’clock. She notices the fourth elevator is out again, so she uses one of the other elevators. Ellice goes through Hardy’s desk, finding a Brethren lapel pin and a memorial card for his late wife, June Cavanaugh King. She finds an envelope labeled “Libertad” with three burner phones and her old ID badge in it. She puts the envelope in her coat pocket and quickly hides behind the office door as Hardy gets off the elevator.

Hardy walks into his office and realizes that his desk drawer is open. Ellice steps out from behind the door and asks him why he killed her brother. Hardy tries to explain, but she runs down the hallway with Hardy close behind. Ellice runs up the staircase to the 20th floor and Hardy follows her with a gun. Hardy tells her that he was trying to frame Jonathan for hiring Sam, because he hates Jonathan for sullying Houghton’s name with money laundering. Hardy killed Michael and Gallagher for Jonathan to cover up his money laundering. Hardy trips over scaffolding from the broken elevator, dropping his gun. Ellice picks up one of the pipes from the elevator scaffolding and Hardy grabs the other end of the pipe. As Hardy and Ellice wrestle with the pipe, Ellice lets go so that Hardy falls backward into the empty elevator shaft of elevator four to his death.

Ellice purposefully led Hardy up to the 20th floor because there are no security cameras. She staged the area before she went to Hardy’s office, removing the caution tape from the elevator shaft, and stacking the scaffolding, preparing to kill Hardy.

Ellice sits in the lobby surrounded by EMTs and police officers. Ellice tells Bradford that Hardy was shipping guns for The Brethren. She hands Detective Bradford Max’s thumb drive and tells her that a gun shipment was going out Tri-County Outfitters on Tuesday because she believes The Brethren are trying to start a race war. 

Ellice packs up her office on her last day at Houghton. Detective Bradford comes into her office and thanks Ellice for the information she gave the police. They discovered that The Brethren were organizing attacks on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day parades with other white supremacist groups and the information Ellice gave them saved people’s lives. Detective Bradford tells Ellice that Jonathan, Max, and Hardy were part of The Brethren along with several other board members.

Ellice asks Detective Bradford if she has arrived to talk to her about her file on Max’s thumb drive. Detective Bradford says that she has no reason to continue the investigation of Willie Jay. She tells Ellice to use it as a parting gift from her to leave Houghton and plan for her own future. Ellice leaves her resignation letter on her desk. She realizes that she has pent-up anger from the racism she has experienced her entire life, and she wants time to rest.

Ellice arrives at the Chillicothe cemetery on the day of Sam’s graveside service. After the service, Juice asks her out on a date. Ellice tells him that she needs time, but that he can call her in the future.

A week later, Ellice discharges Vera from the nursing home. Ellice hired a private nurse who will help her take care of Vera in her farmhouse in Chillicothe. She puts Vera in her car and drives down to Chillicothe. Vera looks happy for the first time in a long time. Ellice never considered Chillicothe to be her home, but she thinks she can rebuild her life with Vera.