After moving into the guesthouse, Olivia searches reliable information about Lewy body dementia and absorbs the implications for Vincent’s cognition and prognosis. The cluttered guesthouse, packed with bankers boxes and outdated items, reinforces to Olivia that Vincent has been declining for some time. Memories surface of a childhood treasure hunt engineered by Vincent that ended with Olivia discovering a dead hamster, blending her nostalgia with unease.

Olivia calls her agent, Nicole, and discloses Vincent’s diagnosis and the nature of the project: a memoir about the 1975 murders. They discuss deadlines with editor Neil, housing, and the advance schedule; Olivia decides to proceed, aiming to prove she can deliver and stabilize her finances. After the call, she begins reading Vincent’s legal pads but finds meandering, non-chronological recollections that lack narrative structure.

She explores the guesthouse boxes, confirming years of accumulation, and reflects on her complicated history with Vincent, including the public persona he cultivated and the estrangement that followed a confrontational graduation dinner. She recalls cutting him out of her life and reinventing herself after moving abroad.

Determined to extract usable material, Olivia studies the dedication and searches for an anchor scene. She latches onto an early March 1975 passage about Poppy’s birthday and reconstructs it into a six-page opening chapter meant to evoke Ojai in the 1970s and the family’s dynamic. She emails the draft to Neil, copying Nicole, seeking early validation.

Thinking about the short span between 1975 and her own birth, Olivia mourns the aunt she never knew. Returning to the manuscript, she pushes deeper through the legal pads and sees Vincent’s handwriting degrade into fragments, repetitions, and intrusive notes. One page repeats the sentence “She shouldn’t have gone” from top to bottom.

Marginalia in different ink list alarming, disjointed items—burying “Ricky Ricardo,” potential hiding places, and a furious reference to “THAT GODDAMN MOVIE.” Near the end of the first legal pad, Olivia encounters the most disturbing line yet: “I wanted to kill Danny,” leaving her with dread about the memoir’s revelations and the viability of the project.