Patti Love Andrews visits Sheriff Ed and Deputy Joe, dressed in mourning, and asks about progress in Chase’s case. She reports that Chase always wore a shell necklace, including the night he left for the fire tower, but it was absent at the clinic and not among his personal effects. The coroner confirmed he never saw a necklace. Patti Love explains the necklace was a gift from the Marsh Girl and implies the Marsh Girl might have taken it after killing Chase.

Ed and Joe acknowledge the significance and question whether the rawhide cord could have simply broken; Patti Love insists it was tightly knotted. After she leaves, they weigh the theory that the Marsh Girl could have lured Chase to the tower, opened the grate, and pushed him through in the dark. They note the lack of prints, mysterious red fibers, and puzzle over why a killer would risk taking the necklace.

Ed suggests emotional impulse could explain taking the necklace, and that marsh people know how to hide tracks. They decide to verify the lead by searching the tower again specifically for the necklace. Raking and hand-combing the muck under the tower yields no trace of it.

Before dawn the next days, Ed and Joe try to reach the Marsh Girl’s shack. After wrong turns and spooking other marsh dwellers, they find her lane, but no one answers; the first day her boat is gone, the second day her boat is tied up yet she remains unseen. Feeling watched and unable to make contact, they leave, considering a warrant for further action.