Deadly Animals

Ava and Veronica wake to a commotion in the apartment and learn that Trevor has bought the family a dog named Fizz. The dog approaches Ava, and Ava realizes Trevor wasn’t lying about his late-night excursions.

A new graffiti from Harry Ca Nab appears, referring obliquely to Gary’s disappearance. At the Clarke house, Lines finds a jelly crocodile hidden in Gary’s drawer. Gary’s brother Callum doesn’t know how Gary got it, since kids aren’t allowed in Hardy’s Gifts—the only store that sells extravagant sweets. Police think Gary was taken for ransom because his parents are rich, but Callum worries it’s the same offender who killed the other boys.

Delahaye visits Hardy’s Gifts and sees the counter of expensive candy. Delahaye questions owner Mack Hardy about the sweets found in the missing boys’ possession. Hardy implemented a no-unaccompanied-children rule in his store to prevent shoplifting, so the boys couldn’t have bought the sweets on their own. Hardy offers to be fingerprinted, and Delahaye is suspicious of his exaggerated cooperation. Karl Jones enters the shop and reports on the completion of his deliveries. Meanwhile, Lines questions Pete Ancona about his last interaction with Gary. Ancona overheard Gary say that somebody had told him about a hiding spot in the woods.

Ava and John take Fizz for a walk near Joseph Sheldon Hospital. Ava thinks Neville Coleman knows something about the murders, and she wants to meet him. Some hospital residents sit outside, and Coleman calls the kids over to look at the dog. Coleman mistakes Ava for a girl called Orla, and Ava thinks Coleman looks familiar. Ava steers the conversation toward Coleman’s Banlock Farm. Contrary to Delahaye’s description, Coleman appears lucid and even offers to rearrange Fizz’s harness. Ava asks Coleman about the murder at his farm, and he accuses Mickey of trespassing. Ava worries that Coleman is sympathetic to the killer. Maureen breaks the awkward silence, and Coleman tells the kids to run along.

Delahaye stands in the woods, where a police dog found Gary’s scent. He sees the remnants of a campsite and wonders if it’s Bob Aster’s. The quilt from the campsite doesn’t match the blanket found on Bryan, but it does contain trace evidence of the same cement particles. None of Gary’s friends remember the boy talking to an adult before their game. The path into the woods is too narrow for a car, and Delahaye wonders how the killer could have transported the child without being seen.

Ava walks Fizz in the early morning to Banlock Farm, where she wants to find the graves from the Polaroid picture. Ava comes across a dead cat and notes its decomposition in her notebook. Ava approaches the farm and finds a pet cemetery. She follows a daisy path to a hidden natural chapel that conceals the three graves. Fresh daisies have been laid on the graves of Sophia and Tisiphone Coleman, and a cat skull lies on Zasha the dog’s grave. Ava fears that the killer left the gifts recently. She wonders if Neville Coleman is faking his illness and whether he could visit the graves without his attendants knowing. Trying not to jump to conclusions, Ava quickly leaves the farm.

The investigation into Gary’s disappearance continues. Delahaye must wait a fortnight to speak with an expert on clinical lycanthropy and has few other leads to follow. He opens a letter from Ava that contains the Polaroid picture and directions to the gravesite. Delahaye has Simmons investigate the Coleman family records, and he and Lines travel to Banlock Farm. The detectives find the hidden graves and question why Coleman buried his dog with his family. Delahaye photographs the site and wonders what happened to the baby Tisiphone was pregnant with when she died.

Nathaniel yells at Ava from the roof of an apartment building and asks to see Fizz. Ava meets Nathaniel in the elevator, where he pets the usually apprehensive dog. Nathaniel rearranges Ava’s end of the harness so she can walk Fizz hands-free, and he takes her to his Sky Den on the roof. They walk carefully on the windy roof until Ava spies the den in a corner. She takes in the view. Nathaniel shows Ava the den because he feels comfortable around her.

Nathaniel explains how he got his scar from an accident at the scrapyard. His head injury was so severe that he fell into a coma, and he still gets migraines from the injury. Ava asks about his other wounds, and Nathaniel says he sometimes fights with his father and plays rough with his dogs. Ava wonders if Nathaniel is covering for an abusive parent. Nathaniel takes Ava back down from the roof.

Lines expresses his frustration with the lack of leads in the case. Lines still considers Bob Aster the primary suspect because of his criminal history and his motive to get back at the local parents. Delahaye remains skeptical, but he too is frustrated that the evidence isn’t clear. The police staked out the boys’ funerals and analyzed the dental impressions but came up with no new suspects. A technician presents his report on the cement found on Bryan’s body, which comes from a specific era of postwar construction. None of the houses with basements in the area match the sample, but he believes the bunker wouldn’t be attached to a house.

Delahaye meets Professor Simmons at a café. Simmons reports on her research into the Coleman family. No internal autopsy was conducted when Tiss died, so there is no way to confirm whether Tiss gave birth to her child unless they exhumed her body. Neville Coleman didn’t register his wife’s death, but Tiss has both a birth and death certificate.

A Social Services report shows that agents took a three-year-old malnourished child from Banlock Farm in 1969. The child was living in squalid conditions among the farm’s dogs. The boy was placed into foster care and adopted out of the region. Other information about the child’s living conditions shocks Simmons. Delahaye thinks Coleman is innocent but connected to the murders. Delahaye thanks Simmons and returns to the station, where he learns that another body has been found.

Delahaye views Gary Clarke’s body, which was wrapped in a blanket in an abandoned shelter. The boy was dumped with a dead puppy cradled in his arms. Professor Simmons points out the boy’s head injury and notes the torn throat and bite marks. Simmons notices Delahaye’s exhaustion and tells him to go sleep while they prepare the body for its autopsy.

A month later, another Harry Ca Nab message appears. Delahaye meets Dr. William Tremblay at Rubery Hill Hospital. Tremblay asks Delahaye about his theories on the case. For Tremblay, Bob Aster fits the profile of a man neglected in his youth who takes out his anger on others, but police can’t locate Aster to confirm or deny this theory. Tremblay expands on the historical clinical lycanthropy cases of Giles Garnier and Jean Grenier. Both killed children in France in centuries past, and both claimed to have a magic salve that turned them into wolves.

Tremblay has only come across one case of clinical lycanthropy in his career. A patient, Samuel, believed he could transform into a wolf and preferred walking on all fours. The boy escaped and killed a flock of sheep with his teeth before being shot by a farmer. Samuel suffered brain damage from meningitis, which completely changed his personality. When clinical lycanthropes like Samuel “change,” they become pure animalistic instinct. Tremblay is unconvinced that Aster would change his MO from sexual assault to animalistic murder, but he suggests Aster could have an accomplice. It’s more likely the serial killer—a new term Tremblay learned from an American conference—is a lone male.

Tremblay believes the killer may have suffered a brain injury that brought on the clinical lycanthropy, but there will also be a pre-existing psychological condition. The men discuss whether people are born killers or made into killers. Tremblay believes all people have a choice whether they give in to or reject evil actions. Before Delahaye leaves, the men discuss cases of feral children.