The Likeness

Frank arrives the next morning with Doherty to conduct the investigation, and the other four housemates put on a superior performance. Frank takes Cassie into another room for a private discussion of what happened, and he becomes suspicious of Cassie’s assertion that Daniel took a screwdriver instead of the gun on the chase. Cassie tells him she could not make a positive identification of the assailant, but he fits Naylor’s build. Frank is upset she beat the man so savagely because she could have been injured or killed, which could potentially compromise the mission. Cassie asserts she was just playing the part of Lexie, and Frank says, “I’ve never got into a fight because I was so emotionally involved that I couldn't resist beating the holy crap out of someone” (263). She had gone too far, she admits, because she is dealing with self-doubt and guilt in the wake of the failed Operation Vestal. Frank wants her to stop trying to get the killer and let him and Sam do the rest, though he does agree to let her in the room when they pick up the suspect for interrogation. Frank interviews the rest of the housemates individually.

Though Frank heard the whole situation over the wire, he did not tell Sam anything and left without him to come to investigate at the house. Because he wasn’t filled in, Sam is very worried about what happened and angry with Frank. He tells her they arrested Naylor, and the condition of his face confirms he was the intruder. Sam invites Cassie to Murder squad headquarters to see Naylor, so Cassie tells the roommates she is going identify a suspect. They are surprised the police caught someone so quickly, and she tells them she believes they are hoping she will also be able to identify him as the man who stabbed Lexie. Daniel asks her if she remembers anything from the night of the stabbing, but Abby interrupts before Cassie can answer. Cassie says she offered to meet O’Neill at Brogan’s pub, but he wanted to meet at the station instead. Daniel interjects that he thought she hated Brogan’s. Knowing he is trying to catch her in a lie, Cassie says she never said she hated Brogan’s, but she worries that Daniel almost caught her in another trap.

Cassie stops short outside the Murder squad headquarters, thinking about being treated like a stranger there since it used to be her department. Instead of going in on her own, she calls Frank to come let her in. Frank and Sam explain to her that they need to reevaluate their strategy because John Naylor is refusing to cooperate. Naylor’s face is wrecked, but he claims he had a bike accident and refuses to do anything other than sing old Irish folk songs. They found several items from Whitethorn in his house—dice, a mirror, a watercolor, and a silver bowl monogrammed with an M—so Frank believes Lexie was cooperating with Naylor in an antiques black market scheme, but Sam insists there is no evidence to back up this idea. Frank wants Cassie to attempt to start up Lexie and Naylor’s antiques scheme again and suggests they keep Cassie undercover for an undetermined amount of time to expose the antique theft. Though Sam wants them to focus on the murder investigation and get Cassie out of there as quickly as possible, Cassie understands how a scheme dealing with antiques could be a bigger bust since they often involve organized crime. Cassie is doubtful of Frank’s theory but says she would consider staying under longer since she finds the prospect of spending more time as Lexie at Whitethorn appealing.

Sam begins his questioning by asking Naylor about the dead baby scandal. Naylor tells him that they have the story all wrong. The girl was a house cleaner at Whitethorn when she became pregnant by one of the March boys who lived in the house. The townspeople believed the house belonged to the fairies and that the inhabitants of Whitethorn house had intimate dealings with either the fairies or the devil. Rumors around the village said she had gotten pregnant by one of those fairy people and that the baby would be a changeling. Naylor admits that it isn’t clear whether the father of the child used the story as an excuse to get rid of the girl or if he truly believed he was tainted by fairies and his baby would be a changeling, but he arranged to meet the girl one night before the baby was born and murdered her by hanging her from a tree. She did not die by suicide. Naylor also explains how the March family built Glenskehy around their house, and the residents were treated like peasants. In the present day, there are no opportunities for education or employment for the people in the town, and it is dying. Five years ago, a company offered to buy Whitethorn and convert it to a resort, which would bring jobs, tourism, and opportunities to the community, but Simon refused. Cassie watches the interrogation and sees Naylor as a man with passion for his town but not a murderer. Sam pushes hard with the questions to see if Naylor is the killer, but he emphatically denies any involvement in the stabbing though he does confess to the vandalism of Whitethorn. Sam continues to question him for an hour, but Naylor only responds in song lyrics.

Cassie thinks the only way Naylor could be involved in Lexie’s murder is if he was the father and Lexie told him she was going to get an abortion, and that idea was still a long shot. Sam is also no longer convinced Naylor is the murderer, but Frank presses the antiques scheme again. Cassie is caught between Frank and Sam, but she says she is on Lexie’s side, which Sam sees as a concerning admission because “[e]veryone who’s been on her side has ended up fucked, Cassie, everyone, and you’re going the same way” (284). Sam tells Cassie about a letter from the victim’s fiancé Chad revealing his devastation over the victim abandoning him and then finding out she has been murdered. Sam then draws parallels between Cassie’s failed relationship with Aidan and tells her he does not want the same to happen to them. As Sam berates Frank for his mishandling of the case, Cassie remembers her time working with Rob and then escapes into her imagination, dreaming about what it would be like to spend the summer then the holidays at Whitethorn and to escape her life.