All Good People Here

Margot speeds back to Wakarusa, thinking she has reached a breakthrough. When she arrives home and finds Luke safe, she goes to her room to begin further research. She reviews the facts of Polly Limon’s case, the details of which align with what happened to Natalie Clark.

During her time covering Polly’s story, Margot could not get the similarities between her case and January’s out of her head. Once Wallace became a person of interest after a woman reported him hanging around the stables where Polly took riding lessons, the police pursued the lead, but it led nowhere. Margot finds an image of Wallace that she acquired during her research into the case, noting his prominent ears.

She also finds the recording of their interview, which she plays. Listening to the interview again, she hears a “performative lilt” to his voice that she had not noticed before (206). During the interview, Wallace claims that he understands why the woman reported him to the police, but that he is simply interested in the equestrian sport. He states that he cannot imagine the pain of losing a child and walks Margot through his alibi for the night of Polly’s disappearance.

He states that he went to Barnes & Noble that night until around 8:30. He then went home, read, and went to bed, and he admits that other than the bookseller he spoke with, he does not have an alibi. Margot is surprised when she hears herself ask whether Wallace knew January Jacobs on the recording. He says that while he does know of the case, he never met her. Wallace grows suspicious of Margot’s line of questioning when she asks whether he has ever visited Wakarusa. He claims that he cannot recall ever visiting Wakarusa, but that it is possible. Wallace ends the interview there, stating that he has an appointment and thanking Margot for reporting on the crime. He closes by saying, “Anyone who could kill an innocent little girl like that, in my opinion, should be hung from the neck” (208).

Margot feels certain that Wallace is the person they have been searching for. Before she can contemplate her next step, Margot hears a crash and shouting outside her room.

Margot finds the kitchen in total disarray, Luke standing amongst the wreckage swearing and yelling. Luke yells that he cannot find the mustard. Margot offers to help him find it, which only angers him further, but she begins looking anyway, finding it in the freezer. Just as she spots it, Luke slams the freezer door shut, cutting Margot’s cheek in the process. Luke looks at Margot, calling her Rebecca, as Margot touches her face and sees blood.

The doorbell rings and Margot sees Pete at the door, there to check on Luke like he promised Margot. He invites himself inside, sensing Margot needs support, and introduces himself to Luke. He begins helping them clean the kitchen and together they spend the next two hours cleaning up. When they finish, they sit down to dinner, but Luke says that Pete and Margot should eat alone. Pete passes Margot a beer and asks if Luke caused the cut on her face. Margot admits that Luke’s symptoms are getting worse, and when Pete asks if there is anything he can do, Margot asks if he can track down Wallace for her.

Pete agrees but asks Margot if she is sure about tracking down Wallace when she has so much else going on in her life. Already feeling guilty, Margot becomes defensive. At the same time, her phone buzzes with a Venmo request for July rent from her landlord. Margot slams the phone down on the table, tells Pete that everything is fine, and implies that he should leave.

After cleaning the kitchen, Margot takes her laptop to the living room to sit with Luke and begins searching for evidence of a connection between Wallace and January Jacobs. She begins a Google search of January Jacobs and dance which yields thousands of photos. Deep into her search, she clicks and zooms in on one photo including an audience and audibly gasps when she sees Wallace’s unique profile in the photograph. She feels vindicated for a moment, until she sees “a familiar red smudge at the edge of the photo” (219)—Luke’s red bandana.

Margot recalls that Luke always claimed to not know Billy and Krissy well, meaning he would not have known January at all. Margot’s anxiety rises as she turns to her uncle, who is staring at her. He asks, “Have you seen Margot recently? [...] I’m worried about her. She’s been asking a lot about January. I’m afraid she’ll find out what really happened” (219). He turns back to the television, leaving Margot with innumerable questions and worries.

Luke’s statement causes Margot to reel, thinking that “like everyone else in this town, he also [wears] a mask” (220). Margot tries to get more information from Luke, taking advantage of the fact that he still does not recognize her. She asks him what he is afraid of Margot finding out, but Luke only asks what she is talking about before resuming watching television.

Margot goes back to her bedroom, shaking. She locks the door, her rational brain telling her that Luke could not have killed January. She notices Luke’s old desk in the corner of the room and gets an idea. She tries to turn the computer on and correctly guesses the password (her birthday). She looks through the computer’s files until she hears a thud from somewhere in the house. She goes back to searching, finding nothing more than Luke’s old business documents.

Eventually, she moves on to exploring the desk, finding the key to the locked top drawer. When she opens it, she sees that the drawer has a false bottom. She hears another thud, which sounds like it has come from outside, as she opens the hidden drawer. Margot’s breath stalls as she looks at the contents: a stack of old dance recital programs, each one featuring January. As her thoughts race about what this could mean, she hears another thud from outside. Margot realizes someone is outside the house and hurries to the front door. She sees no one, but when she looks down at the doormat, she sees a letter with her name written on the front. She opens it and sees the same handwriting as the note from a few days before, this time reading: “GET OUT” (227).

Krissy’s mind reels after re-reading Jace’s letter, which states that he did not kill January. If what Jace wrote was true, Krissy realizes with horror “she’d alienated him for no reason at all” (229). She writes down every detail of the night January died, and then asks Jace to do the same before mailing the letter to him. When she receives his response, it is clear to her that she has made an enormous mistake.

Krissy goes to Jodie’s house and asks if she can tell Jodie what really happened the night of January’s murder. She tells Jodie the entire story and is relieved when Jodie just apologizes and does not treat her any differently. Jodie asks if Billy knows, and Krissy tells her he does not, and then she makes another startling revelation: Billy is not Jace and January’s father.

Krissy explains that the summer she and Billy got together, she also periodically slept with Dave, and that she is sure Dave is the father of the twins based on timing. She says that she pushed Dave away for fear that Billy would someday find out the truth, recalling the day their friendship ended. The Jacobs family had just returned home from church to find Dave sitting on their porch. Billy was excited to see his friend, but Krissy insisted that the twins needed to nap, and that Billy needed to fix the broken sink. Dave understood that he needed to stay away from then on, and Billy and Krissy effectively stopped speaking to him.

After she finishes her explanation, she tells Jodie that she needs to tell Dave the truth about the twins, hoping that she may be able to fix some of the harm she has caused and give Jace a chance to know his real father. Krissy says she does not plan to tell Billy the truth, but that Dave has a right to know. Jodie cautions her against this, pointing out that she does not know Dave anymore and that he could be angry at learning this information. Krissy ignores Jodie, resolving to tell the truth in the hopes that it will set her free.

Unsure of everything in her life, Margot locks the door to her bedroom that night before going to sleep. The next morning, she receives a call from Pete who tells her that he found Wallace’s sister and gives her the address. Before she hangs up, she asks Pete if there has been any follow-up as to who could have left the note on her car. Pete tells her that police assume a few high schoolers did it. Pete asks if she has received anything else and Margot lies, telling him no.

Margot goes to Indianapolis to meet Wallace’s sister. Annabelle Wallace says that she cannot help Margot as she has not spoken to her brother in years. Margot asks if she may speak with Annabelle instead, explaining that she is a crime reporter looking into the January Jacobs case. Annabelle asks if Margot is implying that her brother is connected. Margot says that she is trying to avoid a “witch hunt” and working to clear Wallace of suspicion (242). Annabelle finally agrees, giving Margot an hour.

Annabelle describes Wallace as charismatic and intellectual, but says he floundered ever since dropping out of college. In the past, he has shown up at her house unannounced, and when he left, she would be missing jewelry and money. Annabelle says that Wallace moves frequently, so she has no idea where he could be now. She cuts the interview short, stating that she must go but leaves Margot with this: “My brother may not be perfect [...] but he’s not a killer. I promise you that” (246). Before leaving, Margot asks if Wallace is reachable at any address. Annabelle says no, but that for years she has paid the bill for his storage unit in Waterford Mills, a town close to Wakarusa.

Margot drives to the storage unit facility. She calls the main office, claiming to be Wallace’s niece and saying that Wallace recently died, and she is trying to help organize his remaining things. The attendant gives her the number of Wallace’s unit. Margot calls Pete, telling him she has a lead on Wallace and briefly explaining all she has recently learned about him. Pete is not entirely convinced. Margot is frustrated with how certain she is that Wallace is guilty, since she lacks the hard evidence to prove it.

When Margot arrives home, she again realizes she is locked out, and that she never got a key made to Luke’s house. She knocks on the door repeatedly, calling out to him, and when he answers the door, he greets Margot holding a large hunting rifle, aimed at her.

Krissy returns home after meeting with Dave, unsure whether it was a good idea after seeing how much damage her lies have caused. Krissy begins writing a letter to Jace, apologizing, and then writes that she “just learned something about [Jace’s] father. He isn’t who [Jace] think[s] he is” (252). She finishes by writing her cell phone number.

She resolves to drive to Jodie’s house to send the letter and slips it inside her purse. The anxiety begins to overtake her, and she goes upstairs to get her things. She hears something downstairs that sounds like a door opening, knowing that it cannot be Billy because he is not due home for another hour.

Krissy returns downstairs but cannot find her keys where she left them in her purse. As she searches, she hears a voice behind her ask “Looking for these?” (254). She turns around and stares at the man’s face, which no longer looks familiar to her despite knowing it well. She realizes that the man is coming toward her from the sitting room, where they keep their guns. She asks what the man is doing there, and he doesn’t answer. Before she can open the door and flee, he approaches her, tells her that she should not have lied to him, puts a gun to her head, and pulls the trigger.

Luke does not recognize Margot and asks her what she wants, brandishing the gun as she tries to explain who she is. She worries for a moment that Luke may have found out what she knows, and realizes that despite knowing her uncle loves her, “She[has] no idea how far he’d go now in order to protect” his secrets (255). Margot reminds her uncle of different facts about herself to make him remember, and he finally does when she says that he usually calls her “kid.” Luke begins to cry, apologizing and stating that he does not know what is happening to him.

Margot comforts him, feeling complicated emotions. She wants to support her uncle, but still harbors doubt and suspicion about him. She thinks that if it turns out Luke did have something to do with January’s death, that she would hate him, but that “underneath all that anger and hate, she [knows] she could never quite stop loving him” (258). Margot waits until she is sure Luke is asleep, then goes outside. Finally alone, Margot gives in to her emotions and sobs. As her crying subsides, she hears an engine coming in her direction. Margot begins to head inside, not wanting anyone to see her, but feels a hand clasp her from behind and drag her into a waiting car.