When the suitcases in the trunk of the vehicle are opened, they contain nothing. This leads to a whole new set of questions. Hazel wonders why her mother would have left without packing any clothes. Officer Serena and her detective father, Al, both question Hazel about her mother’s motives on the day she left. Hazel can’t remember much, since she was only 14, only that the day began like any other.

She considers the possibility that her mother submerged the car herself because she was trying to escape somebody from her past. Hazel tells the officers that she and her mother once lived with a man named Joe Lyons, whom Hazel’s mother feared. In Mirror Lake, she went by the name of Libby Sharp, but Joe knew her as Beth. Serena says that she will investigate the man. Serena then shows Hazel a picture of the first vehicle pulled out of the lake, but Hazel has never seen it before. Still shaken by the memories of her mother’s abandonment, Hazel decides to drive back to Charlotte. She securely locks Perry’s house before she goes.