As Good As Dead

Although Pip should be leaving for college in New York, she remains in Fairview for a few more weeks to see if Max will be arrested. While out running one day past the Hastings home, she notices a forensics team marching inside. Later, Pip gets an email from Maria Karras announcing that her son’s case is being reopened.

Pip feels a pang of guilt, realizing that in her zeal to frame Max, she completely forgot about Billy. She has already found the kill trophies that Jason kept of his other victims and resolves to use these to help prove Billy’s innocence. Pip intends to present photos of the trophies and Andie’s secret email to Hawkins, explaining that she’s discovered these troubling facts while researching the Jason Bell murder.

She arrives at the police station just in time to see Max being hauled inside. When he catches sight of Pip, he breaks free and attacks her, claiming that she is behind the whole thing. Several cops subdue Max and rush him away. When Pip presses Hawkins about Max’s guilt, he admits that the evidence is overwhelming: “‘I suppose if you were ever involved in anything like this,’ he said, the after-laugh smile still on his face, ‘you’d know exactly how to get away with it’” (434).

The comment unnerves Pip, but she forges ahead and presents the additional proof implicating Jason in the DT Killer case. Hawkins admits that the police were already pursuing that angle since Jason’s fingerprints match evidence at one of the crime scenes. Afterward, Pip continues to worry that Hawkins suspects her even though the case against Max is rock solid.

While hiking with Ravi, Pip breaks the news that they may never be able to see each other again. If Max is acquitted or his case breaks down, Hawkins will start looking for a new suspect, and attention will turn toward Pip and Ravi. Pip explains that Ravi’s only chance is to say he lied about the headphones because Pip threatened him. The two of them must break off contact until the trial is over. At that point, if Max is convicted, Hawkins won’t be interested in pursuing anybody else. Ravi is heartbroken. Pip thinks, “He couldn’t be her person and she couldn’t be his, right now. Pip had to be the strong one, the one to walk away when neither of them wanted to. The one who chose” (444).

Pip goes off to college in New York and limits her contact with her friends and family. She doesn’t communicate with Ravi at all. Thirty-two days after she leaves, she gets word from Maria Karras that Billy has been released. Two days later, Pip learns that Jason Bell has been identified as the DT Killer. Years before his murder spree, Jason was also a rapist known as the South Shore Stalker. His activities ceased when his daughter Andie was born and resumed when she reached the age of most of his victims. Pip thinks, “Andie’s entire life had been bookended by the monster living in her home, by his violence. She hadn’t survived him, but Pip had, and Andie could come with her, wherever she went” (446).

One year, seven months, and 28 days after Jason’s murder, Max’s trial ends, and he is pronounced guilty. Three minutes after the verdict comes down, Pip receives a text: “Hey Sarge, remember me?” (455). Sarge is Ravi’s nickname for Pip. Their long separation is now over.