The House Across the Lake

Continuing from a “Then” section, all throughout the next day, Casey worries about Katherine. She thinks the sound she heard at dawn was a scream, but because of her hangover, can’t be certain. Seeing Eli out fishing, she asks him if he heard anything, but he replies in the negative. This leads her to decide to visit the Royces’ house to see Katherine for herself.

Tom tells Casey that Katherine has returned to their apartment in the city and won’t be back until next summer. Casey considers this, noting that it makes sense, given their argument, and that Katherine might have been saying goodbye last night rather than signaling her fear. When Casey questions why their Bentley is still in the drive, Tom reassures her that Katherine used car service and doesn’t check her phone while traveling. Tom eventually becomes annoyed at Casey’s numerous questions and skepticism at his replies. He admits that he and Katherine fought before she left and tells Casey that she is intruding on their private affairs. He adds that Katherine will soon be bored of Casey and that she shouldn’t be so deeply invested in their friendship. Feeling abashed, Casey returns home vowing to herself to stop spying, when she remembers what Katherine told her about their financial situation.

At home, Casey worries about her unanswered questions. She calls and enlists her cousin, Marnie, to go to the Royces’ apartment and check on Katherine. Marnie tells her to check up on Katherine’s social media. On Katherine’s Instagram is a recent post of a kitchen with a view of Central Park and the caption, “There’s no place like home” (116). Annoyed with herself for spying on her neighbors and avoiding her own problems, she throws the binoculars away. But when Marnie calls back, she reports that the doorman told her Mrs. Royce hasn’t been by the apartment. However, Marnie warns Casey not to get involved, saying that Katherine could be lying for her own private reasons. When Casey pushes back, Marnie asks how much she drank the night before. Casey admits that she drank a lot, but insists she saw something in Katherine’s gaze that convinced her she needed help. Marnie tells Casey not to drag other people into her mess and ends the call.

After ending the call, Casey inspects the Instagram photo further and discovers that it was taken months ago by Tom Royce, whose reflection she can barely make out on the surface of the tea kettle. This discovery reawakens her worries. She downloads Tom’s app, Mixer, and discovers that Katherine’s location still shows her at the lake house. Digging the binoculars out of the trash, she examines the Royces’ house once more, but because of the sun’s light reflecting off the glass wall, can see nothing.

Determined to find out if anyone else heard the scream, Casey makes her way to visit Boone Conrad. Immediately he greets her by asking her about the scream. Boone follows Casey back to her house where they observe the Royces’ house through the binoculars and discuss what they know. Boone proposes that they should wait and see if Tom returns before making their next move. He cautions against contacting the police too soon, revealing that he used to work as a police officer before his wife’s death. They sit on the porch watching the house late into the evening when Casey begins to shake from alcohol withdrawal. Boone tells her that his wife died in an accident falling down the stairs, leaving him stunned in the aftermath. When he mentions not remembering his last words to his wife, Casey breaks down and goes back inside to sneak a drink and avoid the onset of a memory.

Finally, Tom arrives back home carrying a bag from the local hardware store. When they see the contents—tarp, rope, and a hacksaw—they decide to call Boone’s friend who is a detective. Wilma Anson arrives in yoga pants and a headband, challenging Casey’s television-shaped preconceptions of a detective. She asks why Casey suspects something, and Casey tells the detective of the Royces’ fights, Katherine’s comment about Tom killing her before he’d let her leave, and the fake Instagram post. However, Wilma discourages the two from contacting local authorities, noting that police will take them less seriously because neither are close friends or kin to Katherine Royce. After Casey mentions her husband’s death, Wilma softens and agrees to do some digging and see if she can locate Katherine. She urges them to take no further action and to stop spying on their neighbors.

After Wilma and Boone depart, Casey watches television, noting that the hurricane, now just a large storm, will hit Vermont in two days’ time. She goes out to the porch with her bourbon and resumes watching the Royces’ house in the dark. She muses about Tom’s motive, feeling certain that it was related to money. While researching Mixer, she calculates that the company is losing money, and she finds out that Katherine’s net worth was $35 million. That night she dreams of the Katherine she’d seen on the billboard: running away from the man she was supposed to marry. Around 3:00am, Casey wakes and thinks she sees someone carrying a flashlight through the woods, but when she goes downstairs to investigate the light has vanished.

The next morning, Casey receives a call from her mother who has been informed of her newfound obsession by Marnie. Her mother begs her to stop, rationalizing that talking to the police will only put her back in the public eye. As Casey ends the conversation, she sees Tom leaving the house in the Bentley.

Taking a cue from a memory of watching Rear Window with Len, she resolves to search their house. While walking around the lake she almost convinces herself to turn back, but she is driven on by her determination to help Katherine. The sliding glass door on the side of the house is unlocked, and she slips inside. As she moves from room to room, she spies nothing amiss, but notes that Katherine’s rings are still in the bedroom. While searching the closet, Casey notes that no clothes are missing, and then discovers Katherine’s cell phone in a drawer. Someone calls the phone as she holds it, and she snaps a photo of the number before moving on. In the office, she searches the web browsing history and discovers that someone has searched the web for both her and Boone Conrad. Also in the search history are searches related to the missing women in the area and a man named Harvey Brewer who slowly poisoned his wife with brimladine, which increases the heart rate causing weakness and dizzy spells. He claimed to have gotten inspiration from a Broadway play, Shred of Doubt, which Casey is shocked to realize is her play. She begins to concoct a theory that Tom did something similar to Katherine, noting Katherine’s near-drowning episode and subsequent blackout in the yard. Suddenly, Tom arrives home, and Casey is forced to flee. She comes close to being caught, but Boone arrives to chat with Tom outside, giving her a momentary window to escape out the front and run.

On the walk back to her house, Boone catches up to Casey and reprimands her for doing something so foolish, but he admits he considered doing the same thing. Still, he points out to her that because she did something illegal, any information they’ve gained can’t be shared with the police. Casey has an epiphany that if Tom was poisoning Katherine, there might be evidence in the shards of glass from her broken wineglass the night Katherine and Tom arrived in her backyard. They call Wilma Anson back to the house, and she tells them that it will take a few days for the sample to go through the lab. When Casey presses her to act sooner, Wilma swears her and Boone to secrecy and lets them in on classified information. She is currently working on the case of a suspected serial killer of three young women: Megan Keene, Toni Burnett, and Sue Ellen Stryker. Knowing that Tom and Katherine visited the area years before they moved into the house, Wilma is currently researching the dates of their visits to see if they correlate to the girls’ disappearances. Casey is deeply pained by the fate of the young girls and shaken to realize that the police suspect Tom of being a serial killer.

Back in a “Now” section, Casey threatens the person tied to her bed with a knife, but he challenges her, saying she won’t use it. When he continues to refuse to talk about Katherine, she asks him about the girls that he murdered. With a chilling smile, he says that he did it because he enjoyed it.