Triptych

In 2006, Detective Michael Ormewood drives to an impoverished area of Atlanta called Grady Homes to investigate the murder of Aleesha Monroe. He notices that the streets are emptier than usual because the Falcons are playing in the Super Bowl. Four police cars are waiting in front of Aleesha’s apartment building. When Michael sees the local gang members’ expensive cars, he becomes enraged at the thought that he could never afford such vehicles on his police officer’s salary.

Collier, a young beat cop, asks for an update on Michael’s partner, Ken, who has had a stroke. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Ted Greer tells Michael that the murder victim is on the sixth floor and warns him that the crime scene is particularly violent. It took 32 minutes for law enforcement to arrive. Michael questions four older women who live in the building. Aleesha’s neighbor, Nora, tells him that Aleesha was a sex worker who did not bring her clients home with her. Michael chooses to take the stairs instead of the elevator; he recalls that the first time he was called to Grady, he got stuck in the elevator. The police officers try to maintain a stoic façade as they examine Aleesha’s brutalized body. The killer has bitten off Aleesha’s tongue.

Michael returns home. He still experiences flashbacks from his past experience with military combat in the Gulf and now feels haunted by the murder of Aleesha. When he has a nightmare, his wife, Gina, wakes up and notices that Michael has a scratch on his neck and smells like bleach. (He has been trying to scrub off the smell of death.)

Gina gets up and prepares for work. Michael wants to have sex, but Gina wants him to check on their son, Tim, who has an intellectual disability. Michael wonders when things started to go wrong between them. He reflects that when he first met Gina, he had been dating her cousin Ellen. Gina wrote to him while he was in Kuwait. When he was accidentally shot, he was sent to Germany for surgery, and one week after he was discharged, he and Gina got married. Gina became a nurse, and they bought a house together and had Tim. Because Tim was deprived of oxygen during his birth, he will never be able to mature past the mental age of a six-year-old. Gina’s mother, Barbara, was the first to notice that Tim was not developing properly, and Michael despises her because of this.

Now, Michael plays hide-and-seek with Tim and tries to clean up a bit before Barbara arrives to babysit Tim. Gina is angry at Michael because he went to a bar and came home late. She is exhausted from working overtime and has been trying to save up for a new therapist for Tim. Gina tells Michael that their next-door neighbor, Cynthia, called to ask them for help with a loose floorboard. Michael asks where Phil is. (Phil is Cynthia’s father, but the narrative does not yet reveal this fact.) Michael hops over the broken chain-link fence and goes to Cynthia’s house, where she is waiting for him in lingerie. Cynthia says that Phil is on a work trip in Indianapolis. They hook up, and it’s clear that this has been going on for a while.

The narrative inserts a newspaper clipping from June 1985, which reveals that police are asking for witnesses in the murder of Mary Alice Feeney. On the night that Mary Alice died, she went to a mall, attended a neighborhood party, and was seen leaving with a stranger.

Michael feels a bit guilty about his current affair with Cynthia, but he rationalizes his actions by reflecting that he has been lonely since Gina has been working nights. He sees Cynthia as a distraction from his family-related and financial worries. At work, Michael’s colleague Leo tells him that Lieutenant Greer is meeting with someone from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. They discuss Michael’s partner, Ken, who will never recover from his recent stroke.

Michael meets the agent from the Georgia Bureau, Special Agent Will Trent from the Special Criminal Apprehension Team. Will explains that he is operating in an advisory capacity and asks to compare notes with Michael. Michael is curious about Will, who does not look or act like a traditional police officer. He tries to learn about Will’s background, but Will remains very tight-lipped on this point.

Will shows Michael his files, which feature several similar crimes. Four months ago, 15-year-old Julie Cooper was found raped and beaten nearly to death, and last year, 14-year-old Anna Linder was raped and beaten. Both girls were attacked by a man wearing a ski mask. Another girl, 10-year-old Dawn Simmons, was assaulted in a similar manner. Will and Michael agree that Julie and Anna’s cases are likely related, while Dawn is likely an outlier because she is much younger. Will postulates that the perpetrator is in his mid-to-late thirties and is unhappy with his job and his home life, but Michael does not trust the accuracy of criminal profiling. When Michael asks how the cases are connected to Aleesha, Will states that in each case, the murder victim’s tongue was bitten off.

Michael and Will meet with the coroner, Pete, during Aleesha’s autopsy. Pete explains that Aleesha’s tongue was bitten off during the rape. Because Pete found powder on her thigh, he thinks that the murderer wore a condom, and he has determined that Aleesha died from choking on her own blood after her tongue was bitten. He, Michael, and Will postulate that the murderer did not intend for her to die; they wonder about the connections between the different cases.

Leo tells Michael that he went to Records and learned that Will’s file is sealed. They are surprised to learn that Lieutenant Greer did not call Will to join the case; Will arrived without being asked. Will has an 89% clearance rate, which is about 20 points higher than their own.

In relation to the case, Michael and Will approach Angie Polaski, a police officer who works in Vice. As Michael arrives, she remains wary of him. She asks if he is there to talk about Aleesha and recalls that Aleesha had been brought in by the police a few times in the past. Michael introduces Angie to Will. Angie tells them that Aleesha’s pimp, Baby G, lives with his grandmother in the same building as Aleesha. Will asks Michael to take him to Grady Homes.

As they drive to the crime scene, Michael prods Will for more details about his past, but Will does not comply. They listen to the recording of the 911 call that alerted authorities to Aleesha’s murder. When they arrive at Grady Homes, two teenagers are sitting on a BMW, but Baby G chases them off. As Will and Michael question Baby G about Aleesha’s death, Will suddenly receives a call and tells Michael to go home because there has been an accident at Michael’s house.

The narrative inserts a newspaper clipping from June 1985, which reveals that an arrest has been made in the murder of Mary Alice Feeney. A 15-year-old boy was the one walking her home from the party.

Michael rushes home, trying to call Gina and Barbara. When he arrives, Barbara is sitting outside, and there are two police cruisers in front of the house. Michael screams at Barbara, who tells him that Tim is still at school. Michael runs to the backyard, where Cynthia’s body is tangled in the broken fence. Cynthia’s tongue is missing, and when Michael sees her mangled face, he breaks down. He tells the medical examiner that she is 15 years old.