LAST TIME IN LAKE GENEVA
to a 911 call at the Mailboat and finds Captain Tommy bleeding from a gunshot wound and his mail jumper Bailey crying over him. This is the first time she’s shown emotion for anyone, and Ryan quickly realizes that Tommy alone holds the key to Bailey’s heart, closed after years of abuse in foster care. If Tommy lives, maybe there’s hope of saving Bailey, too.
Tommy is airlifted to Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee and Ryan drives Bailey to see him. Bailey feels like she’s intruding; she isn’t as close to Tommy as the other people in the waiting room. Besides, everyone she cares about either leaves her or dies. The universe couldn’t be any clearer that she doesn’t belong. But Ryan seems determined that she and the captain ought to be together.
Detective Monica Steele is furious that Chief Wade Erickson thought the murders of the last members of the Markham Ring were solved and the violence was over. Now Wade’s best friend is fighting for his life. Shaken, she almost accepts the temptation of comfort from Ryan, her ex. But he has no idea the devastation he caused when he cheated on her ten years ago. He never knew that Monica had finally gotten pregnant. In the aftermath of his betrayal, she kicked him out and had an abortion—without ever telling him.
After days of drifting in and out of consciousness, Tommy comes to and finds Bailey at his bedside. He has no memory of what happened and Bailey has to inform him. Realizing how close he came to death, Tommy finally screws up the nerve to tell Bailey the secret he alone knows: His fugitive son was her unknown father.
Bailey slips away to a hospital bathroom, where she comes unglued. The thing she’s literally dreamed of is true: Tommy is her grandfather. Far from bringing her joy, it fills her with terror. In her experience, family are those people you never get to keep, and losing Tommy is her worst nightmare. Terrified, she cuts off her visits with Tommy, much to Ryan’s dismay.
Meanwhile, Bailey’s foster dad Bud Weber is pleased with his handiwork; he taught Tommy a swift lesson, and he’s confident the captain won’t dare report Bailey’s mysterious bruises again. But Bud’s boss, The Man Upstairs, is furious. By working his own side gig, Bud has risked ruining The Man’s own murderous plan. The Man lets Bud know that his services are no longer needed. He’s fired.
Jimmy Beacon, the young dishwasher at Bud’s restaurant, finally finds his courage to express his feelings to Bailey—only to discover her holding hands with Noah Cadigan, the boy who coached him on how to approach a girl in the first place. He storms off in a rage. Jimmy’s elderly friend Roland Markham tries to comfort him. But when conversation turns to Jimmy’s younger sister Amelia, who was kidnapped, raped, and murdered, Jimmy’s fury overflows. Roland points out that Jimmy might, in fact, be closer to the killer than he knows; it’s said his boss, Bud Weber, has a taste for little girls. Jimmy searches Bud’s office and finds the bow Amelia was wearing the day she was killed.
At his wit’s end with both Bailey and Monica, Ryan talks with Bill Gallagher, the police chaplain and a foster father many times over. He advises Ryan to let Monica share her side of the story—when she’s ready—and to love Bailey relentlessly to overcome her years of abuse. Considering his own unreliable track record, Ryan isn’t convinced he could be the pillar of strength Monica and Bailey need.
Jimmy confronts Bud Weber with his evidence, as well as his means of revenge—a homemade bomb. They chase each other through the crowded tourist town with the cops on their heels. When Jimmy closes in and pulls the cord, Bill Gallagher runs from the crowd and throws himself over Jimmy and the bomb, absorbing the blast with his own body. When the dust settles, he and Jimmy are dead, as well as a Lake Geneva police officer. Bud gets away barely scathed.
While Monica and Ryan spring to bring order to the chaos, Monica’s phone rings. A mysterious voice asks if she’s figured out yet that everything’s connected, from the murders of the members of the Markham Ring to this apparently unrelated bombing by a troubled youth. The voice claims to know the town’s deepest secrets and how to exploit them—including Monica’s. He implies that he knows about her aborted child.
When Monica demands to know his name, he replies: “I’m The Man Upstairs.”