The Hunter

The police ask Trey a few initial questions while Cal texts Lena about what happened. The police come to Cal’s house in the afternoon. The head detective’s name is Nealon, and he asks Trey about Rushborough. Trey tells Nealon that she heard someone with a car in front of her house in the early hours of the morning, but she did not see who it was. She knew that it was a few men because she heard them talking. Nealon asks if she recognized their accents, and she tells him that they were from Ardnakelty. Cal realizes that she is making this story up because she wants to punish the Ardnakelty men for what they did to Brendan. Trey tells Nealon how she found the body and that she came to Cal because he was a police officer. Call tells Nealon that Johnny approached them when they were near the body, and Nealon says he will need to speak with him next. When the interview is over, Nealon asks Cal to walk him to the car alone. As they walk, Nealon asks Cal who he would investigate if this were his case, and Cal tells him to investigate Johnny. Nealon thanks him and leaves. When Cal comes back inside, he starts to address Trey’s lies, but he decides against it when he sees the look on her face. Cal knows from experience that Trey may withdraw from him if he presses her too hard.

Johnny waits for Trey at the Reddy house. Trey tells him that she spoke to the detective after the police examined the crime scene. Trey says that she told the detective that they saw Johnny after they found the body, but that they did not say anything about the gold. She says that she told the detective that she heard a group of Ardnakelty men outside their house in the morning arguing. She then asks about his debt to Rushborough, but Johnny tells her that no one will come after him now that Rushborough is dead. Trey asks if he will stay in Ardnakelty, but Johnny tells her that he will not leave them to talk to the detectives on their own.

Mart comes to Cal’s house in the afternoon. He asks Cal about Trey finding Rushborough’s body. Cal tells Mart that they did not discuss the gold with the detective, but he knows that Nealon will find out eventually and will be looking into that as a motive.

Lena tells Cal that Johnny came to her house the night before. He said that Ardnakelty men were threatening him by telling him to get out or they would burn him out. Cal gets nervous about this, but Lena says that none of the men would do anything to Johnny with the children in the house. She says that Johnny wanted her to talk to some of the locals and get them to calm down. Lena closed the door on Johnny, and he became desperate, banging at her door and crying. Lena says that he left around eight at night, which Cal points out would have given him time to kill Rushborough. However, Lena does not think that he would have left the body in the middle of a trail for people to find. Cal tells Lena about how Trey lied to Nealon about the Ardnakelty men, and Lena also believes that Trey wants to frame them because of Brendan.

Noreen tells Lena that everyone coming into the store talks about the murder. She says that Nealon came around the day before, interviewing people. Noreen warns Lena that the townspeople are upset about the investigation, and some people want to accuse Cal because he is an outsider. Lena knows how dangerous the town gossip can be, so she tells Noreen that she and Cal are getting married. Lena knows that this news will make the townspeople think more favorably of Cal and buy him time. Later, Lena goes back to Cal’s house, warning him that soon everyone in the town will think they are engaged.

When Cal goes to the pub, Mart and the other men buy him drinks to celebrate his engagement. The men discuss how much they hate Johnny because he sold out his neighbors to an Englishman. Mart discusses the possibility of punishing Johnny outside of the law if Nealon does not arrest him for the murder.

Nealon tells Cal that Rushborough’s real name was Terence Blake. The London police have been watching him for years because of his drug business. Nealon says that Blake had no connection to Ardnakelty and that he must have fabricated the story about his grandmother being from the town. Nealon says that there were two missed calls from Johnny on Blake’s phone the morning of his death. Cal points out that Johnny may have called the phone to alleviate the scrutiny on him. Nealon says that the postmortem revealed that Blake died in the middle of the night and that someone hit him with something like a hammer. The murderer stabbed him three times in the chest afterward. Cal guesses based on the lack of blood on the ground that the murderer moved the body, which Nealon tells him is correct. Nealon asks Cal to investigate for him, but Cal refuses because he must live with the people in Ardnakelty after the investigation is over. Nealon informs him that from tracking everyone’s phones, the police can see that Johnny went to Blake’s house after he saw Trey and Cal. Nealon leaves for the Reddy house to ask Johnny what he was doing at Blake’s.

Trey goes to Noreen’s store to pick up items for the house. Some of the people inside the store tell her to leave because of Johnny, but Noreen tells them that Trey can continue shopping in her store, no matter what Johnny has done. Noreen tells Trey about Cal and Lena getting engaged, and Trey leaves the store in shock.