Two Nights in Lisbon

Detectives Moniz and Santos arrive. They surprise Ariel with their knowledge of her plan to pay the ransom. They suggest this is a poor choice and wonder if John’s workplace might help. Ariel tells them she rarely contacts his office.

Privately, Ariel reflects on her relationship with John and the relative distance between them. He lives with her and George only on some weekends and accepts that her son is her priority. Not long after they met, Ariel admitted to John that she had been isolated for a long time. She only recently considered pursuing intimacy and relationships again.

In a brief interlude, Wagstaff calls Barnes, eager for more information. Barnes tells him that he has been officially silenced. Wagstaff assumes the CIA is involved.

The point of view shifts back to Ariel and the detectives pushing her to describe John and their family life. They seem intrigued that his sister Lucy lives in Morocco and that the couple have been married for only a few months. Ariel defends her husband. The detectives suddenly change tack and ask if there is any reason to believe John’s sister is in Lisbon.

The Lisbon police continue their questions, focusing on John’s name change and his sister’s recent arrival in Madrid. They are also suspicious of Ariel’s finances, which indicate that her business is barely solvent but that she manages a trust with a significant sum. Privately, Ariel reflects that discussing the funds would violate a legal agreement, likely an NDA. Moniz, pretending to be confused and affable, asks her to clarify why the account is in the name of Laurel Turner.

The narrative flashes back to the source of the trust fund. Ariel received financial compensation for a wrong done to her in exchange for her silence. (Readers learn later that the event was a sexual assault by Wolfe.) She remembers the teams of lawyers explaining the absolute silence that an NDA demands. Ariel signed the paperwork in her last legal act as Laurel Turner. She exited the building, ignoring Bucky’s calls because she was certain the marriage was over.

Ariel remembers starting over, making sure “Ariel Pryce was a complete person, documentable and provable” (192). She was newly pregnant when she moved to the small town where she now lives with George, hoping for greater safety. 

Ariel asks the police why they are focused on her more than the people responsible for John’s disappearance. Moniz explains they are pursuing every avenue, and Ariel calms herself. Her ringing phone interrupts them: a lawyer in Paris informs her he is arranging the wire transfer, but only €2 million can arrive in time, not three. Ariel agrees to this and urges the lawyer to rush the necessary paperwork to her.

The narrative shifts to Kayla Jefferson’s investigation of Laurel Turner. She calls a detective in the Hamptons on Long Island to ask about a police report. The investigating officer emphatically refuses to speak about the matter.

Wagstaff is also investigating Ariel. He finds that Ariel, then Laurel, grew up in Baltimore in a wealthy family and worked as an actress for a decade before marrying Buckingham (Bucky) Turner. He unearths her transformation into Ariel Pryce and the birth of George not long after her divorce from Bucky. Wagstaff asks the researcher to look into George’s paternity.

On the burner phone, Ariel informs the caller she will have the money soon.

Kayla Jefferson and Nicole Griffiths discover that the call Ariel received on her personal phone came from a burner number purchased in Washington, DC. Griffiths is newly convinced the kidnapping is more than it appears.

Ariel faxes the documents back to the Paris lawyer. She senses her life of anonymity is about to end. When she meets Wagstaff again, he prods her for information about John’s kidnapping. Ariel reminds him that even if she believed his promises of confidentiality, his employers would pursue a headline at any cost.

Her phone rings, and the Paris attorney informs her the documents she sent him must be notarized, which she neglected to do. Wagstaff notices her frustration and offers to find her an English-speaking notary. Ariel reminds him she cannot tell him anything about her current or past circumstances.

The narrative returns to Griffiths and her team, who are combing through Ariel’s phone records and considering whether the kidnapping was staged. Griffiths admits to uncertainty but refuses to give up investigating.

At a notary’s office, Ariel reads the forms again and realizes she should re-read her original NDA, which is hidden in her bookstore. She calls Persephone and explains the kidnapping. She sends her to the basement of the bookstore, making her promise to call back for more instructions.

When Ariel returns from her call, she realizes she left the documents with Wagstaff, who may have read them. She ultimately tells him that if he discloses anything, “I could go to jail. And that’s actually the best case scenario” (211).

The point of view shifts to Santos speaking with a subordinate, who has finally found John’s business partner. They leave to interview him. At the same time, Griffiths decides to bug Ariel’s hotel room, hoping this will reveal more about her motives.

The narrative shifts back to Ariel, who instructs Persephone to take a sledgehammer to part of the bookstore’s basement. She exposes a cache of documents, which Ariel has Persephone read to her. Ariel reflects that the other records are recordings and medical documentation, implying she preserved the evidence of her rape.

Griffiths learns that John’s sister lives in Morocco and that he recently made a mysterious call to a mechanic. Griffiths orders both of these avenues investigated.

The narrative shifts to Moniz and Santos. Santos meets with John’s colleague Jorge, who says their work is not a motive for kidnapping.

The narrative turns once more to Ariel, who assures herself she is on solid legal ground and is doing what must be done, “same as she did back then, back when this all began” (222). The narrative then flashes back to Ariel’s efforts to take ownership of her neighbor’s goat, a transaction that was not strictly legal since her neighbor died without a will. Her lawyer, Jerry, tells her he will need an NDA to disguise his role in the legally dubious transfer. After a beat, Ariel asks if the NDA would be violated if her son revealed the goat’s origins. Jerry says NDAs only prevent the named individuals from speaking. If anyone else discloses the information, Ariel is protected from reprisal because “facts are still facts” (224). 

A man carrying the ransom money arrives. He introduces himself to Ariel and goes up to her hotel room with her, warning her that he is carrying a gun. He confirms her identity with a fingerprint scan and hands her the money. She declines his offer of a gun. She sits alone, knowing that “the end is near. The end, at least, of this part” (228).

The narrative shifts to Wagstaff, who confirms that he read Ariel’s NDA when she left him alone with it. Wagstaff decides to focus on the identity of the Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) that is the other signatory of the document. Such organizations are often used to shield known corporations or individuals, and Wagstaff hopes he can decipher the truth.

Griffiths continues investigating John’s phone records, noticing that he recently stopped calling his sister after doing so regularly for many years.

Ariel speaks with an unknown person about the ransom exchange. She is told to buy two bags and “‘put the cash into the bag that is holding the other one” (231).

Ariel is on the phone once more, taking instructions to use only the burner and prepare to depart the hotel.

The narrative shifts to Santos and Moniz, who are watching the hotel and discussing whether Ariel is more suspicious than she initially appeared. Moniz is particularly curious about Ariel’s reactions to the mention of John’s sister. They jump to follow Ariel once they see her departing the hotel.

Ariel takes directions from the kidnapper: She enters a cafe and takes a new burner phone hidden in a bathroom, discarding the original. She is directed to a large elevator used for transportation between neighborhoods. Ariel stands in line to board it until she is directed to exit and make her way to a taxi. She boards a tram, leaping off before the stop when prompted.

Griffiths and Jefferson are tracking the purchase of the burner phone in Washington. They track the buyer to a convenience store.

The narrative turns back to Ariel, who takes more directions: She enters a bar and then leaves through a back entrance into an alley.

The chapter closes with Wagstaff on the phone with his newspaper’s fact-checker. The man tells him that the LLC will be difficult to trace but that he has information about George’s birth certificate. 

The chapter opens with Ariel in the alley, taking directions on her phone, while a blonde woman in a “hippie” costume stands in front of her. The blonde woman takes the cash and fills the other bag with newspaper. The person on the phone is angry when Ariel says she only has €2 million, suggesting John may not be returned safely as a result. Finally, he accepts the bargain, telling her she will see John once the woman returns with the money.

The narrative turns to Kayla Jefferson, who is digging into security camera footage for the origins of the burner phone. She finds a rideshare that dropped a woman off just before the device was purchased.

The narrative shifts to Santos, who is watching Ariel. She and the rest of her team conclude that Ariel still has the cash. Santos reflects that she cannot disrupt civilian traffic to detain Ariel. Such a move would be deeply unpopular in Portugal, a country still recovering from decades of authoritarian dictatorship.

The narrative pivots back to Jefferson, who convinces the rideshare driver to reveal the address where he picked up the passenger. When Griffiths sees the coordinates, she says, “Holy shit, I knew I recognized that voice” (247), implying that she has identified Charlie Wolfe.

The narrative shifts to Wagstaff on the phone with his fact checker, who tells him George has no second parent listed on his birth certificate. Wagstaff speculates that the identity of his father may be hidden due to the NDA.

The point of view shifts to Griffiths, who just learned the identity of the LLC that Wagstaff is investigating. Griffiths realizes she has “arrived unexpectedly at a life-defining crossroads” (251), implying she now has proof of Wolfe’s involvement.

The chapter closes with Ariel rushing into an apartment building to see John tied to a chair with a bleeding injury to his face.