Deadly Animals

Later that day, Ava shops for Christmas gifts with her family at the Birmingham Rag Market. Ava still feels shocked by her visit with Neville Coleman and wants to talk to John. She sees little kids teasing each other and realizes that the killer must be another kid, not an adult. Ava mentally flips through the evidence and reluctantly concludes that the top suspect is Nathaniel. As a delivery driver, Nathaniel knows everyone and every place in town, and all the neighborhood kids trust him. Ava believes Nathaniel is Coleman’s long-lost grandson who is responsible for the bones and grave gifts at Banlock Farm.

Ava brings John to the War Room to share her theory. Ava writes down information about other child-age killers, and she accuses Nathaniel of being the Wolf. John recalls when he helped Nathaniel move the dead dog and wonders if it was the animal found with Bryan. Nathaniel’s Sky Den proves he tortured the dead cat, the bandages on his arms likely covered wounds from his victims, and his bike trailer is large enough to conceal a child.

John offers to investigate the Marlowe house for an underground lair when he delivers the paper. John insists on going alone because he has a better chance against Nathaniel if he gets caught. Ava hugs John, and they part ways. John catches his grandfather looking out of the house toward the War Room.

At 12:02 am on December 11, Maureen hears mumbling in Neville Coleman’s room. She creeps in and sees him speaking in growls to a large animal through the window. Maureen realizes the figure is the same one she saw the night of Bryan’s disappearance. She leaves the room, grabs a camera, and goes outside. She takes a picture of the figure, and the flash draws its attention. The figure rushes toward her, and Maureen takes another picture before ducking inside. The figure runs away, and Coleman cries out.

At 4:35 am, John hides in the bushes at the Marlowe house. Nick Marlowe’s car leaves as usual but turns in the opposite direction. John doesn’t see Nathaniel leave on his bike but assumes the boy was in the car. John walks up the long driveway to the house. There isn’t evidence of a cellar attached to the house, so he searches the garden. He sneaks into a path of hedges and comes to a grouping of birch trees. Among the trees, three carousel horses stand in a circle. The sound of a car startles John, and he falls to the ground, where he discovers the door to an underground bunker. He picks something up, pockets it, and sneaks back to the road. The streetlights illuminate the object, which is Keith’s knife.

At 5:15 pm, the detectives consider the cement and inconclusive fingerprint evidence from Neville Coleman’s land. They release some details to the press, hoping to oust the killer. Delahaye and Lines visit Keith and his aunt in the hospital. Before the detectives ask any questions, the boy insists on telling his story.

Keith first saw the Wolf King running in a park. It saw Keith and approached him but ran off. The next night, Keith saw a frightening teenager at the bus stop with a huge bike. The teenager knew Keith’s name and offered him chocolate, and when Keith accepted, the teenager knocked him out. When Keith came to, the teenager was dragging him through a row of hedges toward three carousel horses. Keith tried to escape, but the teenager attacked him like a dog and knocked him out again. Keith woke up in the underground lair, restrained at the neck and wrists. The Wolf King now wore his suit, but he had cleaned Keith’s wounds and fed him.

When the Wolf King went out over the next days, Keith practiced slipping in and out of his wrist cuffs. He wrote what he remembered about the location in his notebook and took a chunk of cement for evidence. One day, the Wolf King brought Keith outside to “[meet] the pack” and drove him to the Marlowe scrapyard (311). Keith jumped out of the car when he heard the loud dogs and ran away. Keith cries at the end of his story and remembers that the Wolf King’s name is Nathaniel Marlowe.

At 6:27 pm, police listen to Keith’s recorded interview in disbelief. They determine that Nick Marlowe must be the farmhand “Jip,” and Nathaniel must be the missing grandson. They coordinate visits to the Marlowe residence and scrapyard, as well as Nathaniel’s school, where Detective Gibson learns that Nathaniel has been out sick for a week. A constable apologetically admits that he dismissed a call from John, who had information on Nathaniel, and Delahaye loses his temper.

Delahaye and Lines arrive at the scrapyard and learn that Nick Marlowe never came to work. An employee, Minty, claims that Nathaniel visited the scrapyard all week in his school uniform. Nathaniel’s temper has grown worse since his accident, and sometimes Nick has to lock the boy up to cool him off. Minty helped Nick snatch Nathaniel from his adoptive family in Staffordshire when Nathaniel was a young child. The boy was immediately comfortable with his father and the dogs, which Nick got from Tisiphone the night she died.

Minty offers a list of Nick’s properties and friends who might harbor him and Nathaniel. Lines calls for Delahaye outside, and the two see a pack of large dogs. Tim, another employee, barks, and the dogs run off howling.

At 7:30 pm, little Adam Booth delivers a Christmas card to John. After he drops off the card, a fast-moving figure knocks him out. John opens the card and rushes outside to see Adam. Instead, he sees Nathaniel in his wolf suit hunched over the bleeding boy. In anger, John yells at Nathaniel, who runs away. John’s grandfather brings Adam inside, and his mother calls an ambulance. John tries to call Detective Delahaye, but his grandfather snatches the phone away. He silently puts down a map John drew of the underground lair’s location, and John realizes the old man knows about the War Room. John’s grandfather reports the attack to Delahaye.

John runs to Ava’s apartment. On the way, Paul Ballow offers John a ride, and John reveals everything he knows about the murders.

At 8:12 pm, Ava sits in her now-empty apartment. Colleen and Veronica are at the new house, and Ava and Luke have stayed behind to finish packing. John and Paul arrive in a flurry, and John recounts his discovery of the lair, Adam’s attack, and his call to the police. The kids can’t hear sirens and wonder if the police believed John’s grandfather’s report. While outside, they hear a loud bark and see Nathaniel running on all fours in his wolf suit. Ava tries to comfort the frightened Luke. She watches Nathaniel’s path and understands where he is heading.

At 8:32 pm, Detective Gibson leads Delahaye and Lines to Nathaniel’s underground lair. The detectives silently descend into the illuminated bunker. They see the lair as Keith described it, noting that Nathaniel left in a hurry. One of Nathaniel’s wolf suits hangs from a door, and a pool of dried blood oozes beneath. Lines opens the door and gets hit by a rancid smell. Dried blood spatter covers the kill room, and Bryan’s missing fingers lie rotting on the floor. The detectives slam the door closed as Constable Morgan alerts them to blood at the main house.

At 8:38 pm, Ava searches for Nathaniel’s mittens that she forgot to return and her blue pencil. She sharpens both ends of the dull pencil and puts the items in her coat pocket. She tells Paul to drive John home and drop Luke off at the Marlowe house, where he will tell police that Nathaniel is heading to the Dowry House apartment roof. She lies that she will stay home.

At 8:50 pm, Ava puts on her outerwear. She wants to find Nathaniel before the police. She believes Nathaniel has surrendered himself to living as the Wolf, but she thinks she can bring him back to his senses. Ava runs to Dowry House and takes the stairs. She pushes through the door to the roof, where she finds new piles of animal bones and feathers. Nathaniel, in his wolf suit, stands on the edge of the building. Fearfully, Ava howls.

At 8:55 pm, John jumps out of the car to follow Ava to Dowry House. Paul parks and follows John, and Luke continues to the Marlowe house. Meanwhile, on the rooftop, Nathaniel joins Ava’s howling. She barks at him, and he approaches on all fours. She puts out a hand, he sniffs it, and the pair exchange huffs. Up close, Ava sees how Nathaniel made his wolf suit out of dog pelts. She also sees some engineered features that would allow him to kill as a dog without straining his body.

Nathaniel removes the glasses that make his eyes glow, and Ava sees the wild look in his dilated pupils. Ava sadly remembers all the people the Wolf hurt. She turns around and begins leading Nathaniel toward the stairs. Suddenly, John and Paul appear at the door, and the Wolf stands to his full height.

On the roof, John lunges toward the Wolf. The Wolf pushes Ava into a snowbank and leaps at John, but Paul tackles him away. The Wolf launches himself at Paul, and while he jumps, John uses Keith’s knife to cut into the Wolf’s underbelly. The Wolf turns its attack back at John and tries to bite through his jacket, crushing the boy’s fingers in the process. Paul grabs the Wolf’s legs and launches him into a snow pile, and the boys collapse. Ava moves toward them and lies on top of her friends to protect them from Nathaniel.

The Wolf stands over Ava and snarls. She says the name “Trigger,” which makes him back away. The kids right themselves, and Paul slowly takes the knife from John. The Wolf sees the weapon and attacks Paul, breaking his wrist bone with his teeth. Suddenly, Detective Delahaye kicks the Wolf in the head.

Delahaye’s kick cracks the Wolf’s skull mask, and he delivers another blow to Nathaniel’s human face beneath. Paul drags John out of the way. Delahaye and the Wolf regard each other—Delahaye maddened and shocked, and the Wolf amused and excited. The Wolf stands on its two legs and grabs Ava, dragging her away and threatening to bite her if Delahaye approaches.

The Wolf drags Ava toward the Sky Den, and Ava makes herself dead weight. Ava realizes that Nathaniel is trying to make her his companion for the afterlife, just as the dead boys were companions for the dogs. Delahaye tries asking Nathaniel about his father, and Ava knows Nick Marlowe must be at Banlock Farm. While the Wolf is distracted, Ava taps him on the back. When he turns and lunges at her, Ava stabs the Wolf with both ends of her pencil. The human Nathaniel screams out in pain and calls out to Ava. In desperation, Nathaniel jumps off the roof.

Revelations about Nathaniel shock the community, who all thought the boy was kind. Police conceal the full extent of Nathaniel’s Wolf transformation and the children’s involvement in his capture. Investigators find evidence of Nathaniel’s early wolf suits and the cellar where Nick Marlowe would put Nathaniel when he fell into his rages. On that fateful day, Nathaniel fought back and injured his father. He drove Nick to Banlock Farm and left him there. Nick was rescued but fell into a coma, unaware of his son’s crimes or death.

Maureen shows Delahaye the pictures she took of the Wolf. She now suspects Neville Coleman is faking his illness. Delahaye visits Coleman to confront him. He believes Coleman’s neglectful behavior in Nathaniel’s childhood permanently damaged the boy’s mind, and his recent head injury exacerbated the trauma. Coleman confirms that he’s been speaking to Nathaniel for three years and witnessed his descent into the Wolf. Nathaniel’s final visit frightened Coleman, but he feels happy that the boy can’t hurt anyone anymore.

Coleman recounts the day Social Services took Nathaniel from Banlock Farm. Armed police found the boy muzzled and chained in the kennels with Zasha. When the dog attacked, the police shot her dead. Coleman nonchalantly explains that he kept Nathaniel with the dogs to discipline him and that he chose not to feed the child. Delahaye blames Coleman for creating a monster, but Coleman feels he is innocent.

Weeks later, Delahaye meets Ava in front of her new house. Delahaye shows Ava Nathaniel’s list of possible victims, which doesn’t include John’s name. Nathaniel had Karl Jones unknowingly steal sweets so he could lure his victims. Delahaye gives Ava a package of Nathaniel’s drawings and x-rays, and Ava gives Delahaye her notebooks. Ava assures Delahaye that she has kept quiet about her involvement in the case. Delahaye wonders when Ava will feel the impact of what she has experienced. Ava waves at Professor Simmons, who sits in Delahaye’s car.

In her room, Ava looks at the x-rays, seeing Nathaniel’s injuries from his accident and fall from the roof, as well as adaptations in his bones from his four-legged walking. Nathaniel’s childhood drawings show the young boy happily surrounded by dogs. When Nathaniel was taken from his dogs, he became deeply unhappy. His transformation into the Wolf was a kind of freedom. Nathaniel’s other drawings show designs for the wolf suit, which to Ava indicates Nathaniel’s deliberate choice to feed his violence. Ava believes Mickey’s death was a mistake, and that Nathaniel kept Trigger alive because he reminded him of Mickey.

Ava now wants to learn about the psychology of criminals. She opens the final items in her package, including a Christmas card from the investigative team and a box of blue pencils sharpened at both ends.