Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

Ernie goes onto the roof in hopes of obtaining a cell signal. There, he finds Lucy, smoking. He apologizes to her for the breakfast fight. Lucy is worried that the body was Michael’s, and Ernie assures her it was not. Ernie goes on to look up the name of the serial killer Sofia mentioned, but Lucy, having just done so, tells Ernie about him instead. Lucy wants the police to be gone before Michael’s arrival. She tells Ernie she blames him for Michael’s imprisonment but wants to declare a truce.

Michael arrives at the resort in a truck. He greets everyone, and Ernie is surprised that Michael seems genuinely not angry at him. Michael requests the two have a drink alone later.

The chapter ends as Erin, Ernie’s wife, climbs out of the driver’s seat of the truck.

Ernie explains that his wife, Erin, and Michael have been together as a couple during Michael’s time in prison. He clarifies that though he is still legally married to Erin, they were already having difficulties on the night Ernie assisted Michael with the body.

When Erin greets Ernie, she mentions the money, insisting it is “family money.” Ernie recalls Michael laying claim to the money on the night of the burial and recognizes that Erin feels Michael’s claim gives her a claim to it as well.

Marcelo tells Michael and Erin of the dead body found that morning. Though Michael is unconcerned about the police presence—insisting that incarceration is a strong alibi—no sooner are the words out of his mouth than Officer Crawford informs Michael that he is under arrest.

Marcelo quickly challenges Officer Crawford, asserting himself as Michael’s lawyer. An argument ensues during which Audrey accuses Officer Crawford of targeting the family unfairly because of its reputation. Through the argument, it is revealed that Michael has not just been released from prison a few hours ago but was released on the previous day.

Michael agrees to be questioned by Officer Crawford but asserts that Marcelo is not his attorney. Instead, he insists that Ernie is.

Ernie interrupts the novel’s plot with an interlude to recap the novel’s backstory, plot to this point, and characters. He notes that he does not have a law degree and that another murder will eventually take place. 

Ernie speaks with his mother alone for the first time since arriving. They have an argument about Michael’s culpability and Ernie’s testifying against him. Though they agree that Michael could not have killed the man found in the snow, Ernie asks Marcelo to have one of his legal connections do some research into the serial killer he is now aware of.

Alone, Ernie decides that he will solve the mystery of the man’s death in order to end his family’s blaming him for Michael’s imprisonment once and for all.

Ernie has a drink with Sofia in the resort’s bar. He grills her about her request for $50,000, suggesting she needs it to pay off a date. He suggests, further, that the dead man sought her to collect the debt and that he was the one who made the phone call to Ernie from Sofia’s room. Sofia denies all these suggestions and then underplays the investigation of the death of a patient under her care.

Sofia responds by pressing Ernie about his motivation for defending Michael. She argues that Ernie is curious as to where Michael and Erin spent the previous night. Sofia feels that the large moving truck they arrived in is suspicious.

The resort owner, Juliette, takes Ernie into her office and plays footage from the night before the dead man was found. She points out a parked car that she speculates could be his. Ernie notices that Marcelo’s car leaves during the time Marcelo noted that he and Audrey would be staying in for dinner due to her not feeling well. The dead man’s identity is still unknown, as all of the resort guests are accounted for. Juliette notes that the police sergeant has been sent for but that he will likely have difficulty making it through the storm. Ernie asks who discovered the body, which Juliette does not know. Ernie speculates the killer might have done so.

Ernie briefly mentions having a younger brother named Jeremy but does not go into any detail. He speaks with Officer Crawford, informing him of the video footage and learning that the officer was alerted to the body just before dawn. Ernie argues with Crawford about whether or not Michael can be detained before going in to speak with Michael himself.

Michael is in the “Drying Room”—a room meant for guests to deposit their wet exterior layers. Michael speaks of their brother, Jeremy, though he does not reveal many details, other than that the three boys were taken into foster care at one point during their childhoods and that eventually a funeral was held for Jeremy. Michael then admits to killing Alan Holton (the man in his trunk) and hugs Ernie, insisting he is the only family member Michael can trust.

Michael muses about Alan Holton’s death. When Ernie brings up the money, Michael insists it was always “their money” (155). This claim suggests to Ernie that Michael did not steal the money from Holton, but rather that the reverse is the case: Holton possessed money that belonged to the Cunningham family. Michael says that their father knew Holton, who was a former police officer turned petty criminal. Michael explains that Holton’s past as an officer was what Marcelo was able to use to earn Michael a short sentence. Holton and Michael met that night because Holton insisted he had something for Michael.

Michael insists that the police officer their father shot was Holton’s partner and that Holton, in turn, shot their father. He goes on to reveal that their father was involved in a group of criminals whose activities had shifted from robberies to dealing drugs, then to soliciting ransoms. He claims their father had turned in some of his fellow criminals, who were also members of the police force. Michael goes on to blame their father’s death on police who sought retaliation against him for turning them in.

Ernie is not sure whether to believe Michael, who claims he met up with Holton after Holton offered to sell him something important for $300,000. Michael allegedly decided to kill Holton when he learned of Holton’s responsibility for their father’s death, at which point the two struggled with Holton’s gun. Ernie is adamant that Michael tell him what it was that Holton attempted to sell to Michael, so Michael finally gives him the key to the truck, instructing Ernie to look inside of it.

Ernie recounts the months following his father’s death. Their mother thrust the three boys into activities, keeping them busy as if enough distraction could prevent them from experiencing grief. One day, she went to work as a bank teller as usual, but soon after the bank opened, two burglars entered and attempted to rob it. Audrey was somehow able to wrench the shotgun away from one of them and shot the burglar in the chest. The shotgun was loaded with “less-lethal” ammunition (175), and the burglar lived.

However, in her rush to arrive at work, Audrey had forgotten to drop the three boys at school. They were still seated in her hot car. This mistake, Ernie reveals to the reader, was how their brother Jeremy died.