The Locked Door

When Nora arrives home, her large house feels more empty and frightening than usual. She feels guilty about leaving the scene of the accident, thinking that it’s something her father would have done. When she goes into her unfinished basement, she thinks that her father would have loved the space, which feels like a dungeon. She runs back upstairs quickly, disturbed at the growing similarities between her and her father. She feeds the stray cat and reluctantly pets it. She considers letting it sleep inside but decides against it.

Nora is energetic and happy when she wakes up the next morning. At the office, a tearful Harper shares that her boyfriend, Sonny, whom she expected to propose, actually dumped her. Nora and her medical assistant, Sheila, attempt to comfort Harper while Philip suggests that she date him instead. Nora tells Harper to use their business credit card to buy herself lunch.

Privately, Nora researches the crash and learns that the driver has been hospitalized. When a policeman visits the office to speak to Nora, she assumes it is related to the crash.

Despite her fear of the police, Nora agrees to speak to Detective Ed Barber, who informs her that her former patient, Amber Swanson, has been murdered. Nora is horrified but questions why Barber has come to her. Barber explains that Swanson’s hands were removed from her body, following the pattern of her father’s murders. Nora tells Barber that she doesn’t want to speak to him without a lawyer. Later, she uses medical records to confirm that Swanson had dark hair and blue eyes, like all her father’s victims.

Nora watches as her friends send spitballs at the back of Marjorie’s head. She doesn’t intervene but doesn’t participate. Later, she makes plans to walk home with Marjorie after school in two days. She makes Marjorie promise not to tell anyone, saying she doesn’t want to be bullied.

That night, Nora tries once again to get into her father’s basement. She hears a whirring sound and smells something rotting beneath the ever-present lavender scent. Again, her mother stops her and shuts down her questions.

Nora struggles to concentrate after Detective Barber’s visit. The scent of lavender soap in the bathroom exacerbates her nerves, ruining her mood. She turns down an offer to go out with Harper and Sheila.

Rather than going home, she drives to Christopher’s and asks Brady to take her home with him. She refuses to give him her number but accepts his and follows him home. On the front porch of his house is an elderly, skeletal woman whom Brady identifies as his landlady. After awkward small talk inside, they kiss.

Nora feels giddy after having sex with Brady and admits that she is glad she came back to see him. Brady reveals that he knew who she was immediately and had always remembered her. When he compares her to Laurie Strode, the fictional victim of Michael Myers in Halloween, Nora remembers why they broke up: his obsession with horror movies and true crime. She makes an excuse to leave. While searching for her clothes, she discovers a locked door in his apartment. Brady stands in the street watching as Nora drives away.

Nora searches Brady’s social media presence but finds nothing out of the ordinary. She reads an article about Amber Swanson and studies her social media, remembering how excited Amber was about her tiny surgery scar.

Nora hears a noise at her back door and assumes it’s the stray cat, but she sees no one. She finds a letter from her father with a stamp but no postmark. She tries to convince herself that it fell out of her normal mail pile and decides not to tell Detective Barber about it. She destroys the letter.

Nora struggles to fall asleep. Her parents are fighting loudly about her in the next room, as they often do. Nora’s mother, Linda, insists that she needs to see a therapist, while her father says that Nora is fine. Nora consoles herself by thinking of a game she is going to convince Marjorie to play with her. On a trip to the kitchen to get water, Nora impulsively tests the door to the basement. She is shocked to find that it is unlocked.

Nora visits a drugstore on her lunch break to buy new soap. While there, she encounters Mrs. Chelmsford, the elderly landlady she saw at Brady’s house. Mrs. Chelmsford warns Nora that Brady is dangerous, saying she hears women screaming in his house at night. Mrs. Chelmsford’s niece interrupts, explaining that her aunt often gets confused and that it’s best to ignore her. Nora assures herself that Brady is not her father and is not torturing women in his spare room. Regardless, she has no plans to see him again.

Nora monitors the news, hoping for an explanation for Amber Swanson’s death, but learns nothing. She continues to avoid Brady. A week later, she is dismayed to see Philip flirting with Harper. She reminds him that his pursuit is inappropriate, and he promises to stop.

A disgruntled patient named Timothy Dudley accuses Nora of operating unnecessarily and threatens to sue. Detective Barber returns with news that a second patient, Shelby Gillis, has been found murdered with her hands cut off. Nora is horrified to see that Gillis also has dark hair and blue eyes. She realizes she is being targeted.