Camino Island

Mercer visits Noelle’s store and finds a writer’s table that she wants to buy. Noelle offers her a discount, but she can’t decide. They talk about Mercer’s writing, and she begins to feel guilty about entering these people’s lives under false pretenses. When she leaves, Noelle says she will be in touch soon about a dinner invitation.

Later that day, a wealthy Houston couple come into Noelle’s store. After buying a large number of pieces, they return the next day and do the same, emptying her inventory. Noelle mentions that she will go to France and restock, and they ask if they can shop with her there. The bills for these visits all come to Elaine, as the couple are working for her.

Mercer tells Elaine about Noelle’s store, describing the layout and mentioning that the basement is supposedly a furniture workshop. Elaine suggests that Mercer buy the writer’s table and ask to have it painted, in order to gain access to the basement. Elaine wants to know if there is a connecting door between Noelle and Bruce’s basements.

Mercer gets a call from Bruce—the store has a reading that afternoon, and he is afraid people won’t come and so is asking all his writer friends to attend. Afterward, he and Noelle have invited the visiting writer for dinner and want Mercer to come. As it turns out, the writer doesn’t come to dinner, but Myra and Leigh attend. Noelle tells them about going to Provence with the Houston couple, and spontaneously invites Mercer to go with her. Although she is tempted, she catches a look between Noelle and Bruce and decides not to.

During dinner, Myra decides to hold a “literary intervention” for Mercer to help her begin a new project. They discuss whether she should write literary or popular fiction. Mercer wants to have both, and they discuss whether it is possible to do both. They work their way through various genres and conclude that Mercer should write historical fiction.

After Noelle leaves for France, Mercer goes to the bookstore for coffee and, when she sees Bruce, brings up Tessa’s rare books, as Elaine had asked her to do. He is interested in the books and has other first editions by the same authors in his vault, in the basement. He asks if she would like to see them, and she feigns indifference. They decide Bruce will come to her cottage to see the books.

That evening, Bruce comes to Mercer’s cottage with a bottle of champagne. She shows him the books, and he is impressed by the quality. She works the conversation around to stolen books and the question of provenance. They take the champagne for a walk down the beach and share their family histories. Mercer tells him about her mother’s diagnosis, which she tells very few people about. She is comfortable with him and trusts him.

Talk turns to Mercer’s writing, and Bruce tells her about an ex-girlfriend who had written a novel in which Zelda Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, among others of literary fame, were fictionalized. The writer had died very young, after burning the novel, and Bruce suggests Mercer use the idea for her own novel. She is uncertain how she feels about fictionalizing historical figures and, after they finish their champagne, Bruce leaves.

The next morning, Noelle calls and tells Mercer that Jake, her furniture restorer, will be in the basement workshop that day, if Mercer wants to stop by and choose a paint color. Then Mercer calls Bruce and arranges to meet him for lunch the next day to sell him the books. Elaine’s team outfits Mercer with a small camera to wear when she meets with Jake and Bruce.

In Noelle’s basement, she sees a new door armed with security sensors. She takes her time picking paint colors, giving the camera time to record the room. Later, she goes down into Bruce’s basement. At one end, there is a vault with a keypad entrance and camera. Within this space, Bruce keeps his most valuable books in a safe. He opens it and shows her his first edition of J. D. Sallinger’s Catcher in the Rye, from his father’s collection. There are several manuscript drawers as well, but he doesn’t open them.

Later, Elaine’s team discusses Mercer’s information, and whether it is time to call the FBI. Elaine, wanting to maintain control of the situation, decides not to. They realize that Bruce Cable may be dealing in stolen books, but he also has an impressive legal rare book collection. This fact means that he has the money to purchase the Fitzgerald manuscripts, if the opportunity arose.