October 1, 2025 • 15 mins
Centers on a deeply rooted past tragedy—the death of Luke Hollander twenty years prior—and its unfolding consequences in the present. The narrative primarily follows Rachel, Luke's sister, who has been haunted by the belief she caused his death, and Cade Ryder, a detective and Rachel's ex-husband, as they both become entangled in a new wave of murders connected to the original incident. As old friendships are revisited and long-held secrets are brought to light, including the true circumstances of Luke's death and a shocking family betrayal, the characters must confront their past to solve the present danger. The story explores themes of guilt, memory, family ties, and the corrosive nature of lies within a small, seemingly quiet town.
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You can listen and download our episodes for free on more than 10 different platforms:
https://linktr.ee/book_shelter
Get the Book now from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Paranoid-Lisa-Jackson/dp/1496722469?&linkCode=ll1&tag=cvthunderx-20&linkId=166fade025c097a40b3e5808a7dbbc1d&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the deep dive. We take those stacks of
sources you send us, and we pull out the most
interesting nuggets of novels.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
That's the idea.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Today. We're diving into Lisa Jackson's Paranoid and we're not
just skimming the surface. We're going deep. We want to
lay out the entire story, detail by detail exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's a story about suspense, sure, but also family secrets
and a pass that just well, it refuses to stay buried.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Our mission then is to understand how one single, really
terrible night can echo for decades right, twisting lives, changing everything.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It's a fascinating look at unresolved trauma, how it ripples outwards,
creating new tragedies. We'll explore how events connect, the guilt,
the secrets.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
And how that one night casts this twenty year shadow.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Precisely rechase the present for everyone involved constantly.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Okay, let's get into it. This web of memory murder mystery.
It starts two decades ago, a teenage night out gone
horribly wrong.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
And then jumps to the present where everything just explodes again.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
So prepare yourself. It's quite a ride. Starting in an old,
abandoned cannery, right.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Picture this Edgewater, Oregon, twenty years back, midnight, dark night,
just a sliver of moon fog.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Rolling in off the river, amosphere very.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Covering these forgotten peers in this abandoned fish cannery, perfect
setting for trouble.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
And we meet Rachel.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
She's seventeen yep, running through weeds and her inner voice
is just screaming, are you out of your freaking mind?
Your dad's a cop.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
So she knows better, but she's doing it anyway, dear pressure.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Basically, she's following Leela, her once upon a time friend,
but Leela's really just interested in Rachel's older brother.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Luke ouch and Luke calls Rachel Leelah's lap dog.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, teenage dynamics at their finest or maybe worst.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
So they sneak into this condemned cannery through a hole
in the fence. It's forbidden territory and other kids.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Are already there. Leela's annoyed, actually everyone else is already
heard like it spoils her plan or something.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
And they have weapons sort of replica guns.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, both Rachel and Leela have one, And then Nate
Moretti and Max brought firecrackers to make the game more real.
They said. You can feel Rachel getting more and more
uneasy about the whole.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Thing, but Leela pushes her.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Leland insists, I have to see Luke. That seems to
be her whole focus.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Do they go inside? What's it like?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Cavernous eerie? Rachel smells ancient fish guts, not exactly pleasant.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
And then chaos breaks loose.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Instantly, automatic bursts of pellets, firecrackers going off, bang bang
bang bang. It sounds real, even if it isn't entirely.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
People are running, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Someone's clambering upstairs. A guy, Nate Moretti yells, ow Jesus, shit,
not in the face, shit, you're a dead man, Hollander.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
So tensions are high, real anger mixed with the game exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Kids are running frantically. Violet is screaming for someone, rebar Mercedes.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
And then the moment everything changes.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Amidst all that chaos, Rachel hears it, I've been hit.
Oh no, She freezes. Then Violet screams again, but this
time it's different, a shrill, horrified sound, and she sees
Luke yes face ashen, eyes wide, blood blooming on the
front of his shirt. His knees just give out and he.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Collapses and Rachel just drops her gun right there.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
The implication is immediate.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
She's accused right away, pretty much.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Her own father, Detective ned Gaston, helps her into a
police cruiser, devastating.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
And the fallout spreads instantly.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Leela, who is Luke's girlfriend, gives birth to his son
Lucas before Christmas that same year, a baby born into
this tragedy. What about Rachel? Eventually she marries Kate, gets
pregnant with her daughter, Harper, but the trauma infects everything.
Her parents' marriage breaks down, the divorce within a year
of Luke's death, just.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
One night, wrecking so many lives.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Exactly, and twenty years later, it's far from over for Rachel.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Right the nightmares.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Constant, recurring nightmares of Luke's death, his face changes, Morks
into Lucas, her son, Dylan, her father, even this guy Xander.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Veil, and she wakes up on the anniversary.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
The exact anniversary. The past is literally inescapable for.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Her, and her life isn't exactly stable otherwise.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
No recently laid off from her job bookkeeping computer specialist
type stuff, She's struggling.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
With anxiety, the xanax.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Right, she finds pills missing from her vial. She suspects
her kids, Harper or Dylan, teenagers, you know.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Adds another layer of stress and her house situation.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It's the house she shared with her ex cade. Now
it's just hers, her space, as she calls it, carved
out after he left. Feels symbolic of her isolation.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
And then the past comes knocking literally.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Well first in print an article in the local paper,
The Edgewater Edition, title who killed Luke Hollander?
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Oh Wow? Publicly dragged back into.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
It by Mercedes Pope. It's part of a series and
it quotes Nate Mouretti and Leela Ryder. Rachel's mother, Melinda
is understandably very upset.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
That's brutal. And then it gets more personal.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yes, Reap anonymous text message I.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Forgive you on the anniversary on.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
The anniversary of Luke's death, clearly targeted. Then she sees
someone lurking.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
In her backyard.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, maybe a man with a dog at night, her
own dog, Reno COEs nuts. And the vandalism her front door, eh,
the word killer spray painted and red. It's escalating. Someone
is actively trying to terrorize her.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Kate gets involved her X Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
He's a detective now he's worried. He actually lets himself
into her house with an old key to check on her.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
She probably didn't appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
No, she objects, but he's reminding her the article, the
anniversary and oh, by the way, another classmate just died.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Right. The danger is real and her kids aren't making
things easier.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Not at all. Harper seventeen gets caught kissing an older
boy Xandervail sneaking.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Out echoes of Rachel's own past definitely.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
And her son, Dylan, he's caught ditching class. Later, it
turns out he's running this whole side business doing what,
selling spy equipment, tiny cameras with microphones, and worse, hacking
grades for other kids.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Hacking grades seriously, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Like for this kid, Schmidt who needs a higher GPA
for college. Dylan says it's because Rachel's always talking about
money being tight and he wants a car. Wow.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Okay, So she's got this external threat building and her
home life is chaos too.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Complete chaos, and then the external threat becomes deadly Violet
Spary exactly on the same date Luke died. Twenty years later,
Violet Sperry is found dead in her home. Her husband,
Leonard finds.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Her she was another one at the canner.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yes, she was there that night. She was home alone
drinking wine. Her dog started growling right before.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
The attack, so she knew someone was there.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Seems like it. She grabbed her husband's pistol from a drawer,
but she was attacked in the hallway, doors slammed into
her face, broke her nose, glasses, blood.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Everywhere, and the blue tape.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yes, blindfolded with thick blue tape. She fought back but
was push or fell over a railing broken neck, cracked skull, ribs, pelvis, arms, leg,
horrific injuries, and the gun. Her husband's pistol and the
clip were missing.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Kate investigates this.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
He does with his partner Kayley. Kayley knows the dog's behavior,
the missing gun, their theory. Violet heard a noise, got
the gun, locked, the dogs away, then confronted the intruder.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Okay, one murder down. Then Nanessa Cooper right.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Just about a week later, another classmate from that night,
She's found murdered at Saint Augustin's Elementary school. Why there,
It's a property her husband, Clank Cooper had bought and
guess who finds her Harpur and Xander yep sneaking out again,
heading Dezander's sort of crash pad. Near there, they find
Inanessa hanging in the bell tower, hanging how tied by
the ankle with a rope that had been severed and
(07:43):
the tape blue tape over her eyes just like Violet.
Xander tries CPR, rips the tape off, but she's gone
ruptured trachea broken windpipe.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Kid's on this one too, he is.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
With Detective Os. The blue tape is identical, and Vanessa's
phone well, it reveals some things like what some kinky
sexting conversations with Nate Moretti, Nate Luke's friend, the same
they arranged to meet at Saint Augustine's at the Witching hour,
Mercedes Pope. The reporter calls that dangerous.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
So Kate sees the pattern absolutely.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Two women classmates of Rachel's yeah, witnesses to Luke's shooting,
murdered within a week, dates connected to the original tragedy,
both with blue tape over their eyes.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Someone is definitely targeting people from that night, targeting Rachel's past.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
It's a chillingly clear message. And while this is happening.
Rachel's still worried about. You know, small things like the
missing Xanax shows you how trauma works.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
But bigger threats are looming. Bruce Hollander Yes.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Rachel learns from her mom Melinda that Luke's biological father,
Bruce Hollander, who's a convict, is out of prison.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Can her dad knew?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Ned Gaston confirms he got a text from Bruce. This
throws a huge potential suspect into the mix, a dangerous one.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
And then Kate actually runs into him.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Sort of. He runs into a guy near rachel house
calling himself Frank Quinn looking for a lost beagle named Monty,
but it's Hollander. Rachel figures it out. Later sees an
old photoshop picture from Mercedes Pope and realizes Frank Quinn
is Bruce Hollander driving a white Buick Idaho plate.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
It's been stalking her, looks like it.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Suddenly he seems like the prime suspect for the murders.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
And what about Nate Moretti, the guy sexting Aanessa.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
He disappears, vanishes, family can't find him, work can't find
him any clues. Voss finds security footage. It shows Nate
stumbling into the passenger side of his own car, but
someone else is helping him in.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
So abducted, incapacitated, something like that.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
He didn't leave willingly, it seems.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
And his father, the doctor.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Doctor Richard Moretti, remember he was the attending physician when
Luke died twenty years ago. Cad questions him. He's really
evasive about Nate's disappearance and about Luke's death all those
years ago. More secrets.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Meanwhile, back at Rachel's house, teenager problems continue.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Oh yeah, Harper keeps sneaking out to see Xander. Vail
feels like a prisoner. Think Sander's smarter, funnier, more worldly,
resents her mom being so protective.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
She doesn't understand the history.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Not really no, and Dylan's secrets her out too. The
spy gear, the great hacking.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
What happens with that?
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Rachel and kid confront him, try to parent together even
though they're divorced. Rachel's terrified Harper will get pregnant young
like she did. And Dylan's illegal stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Is He says it's about money, claims.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
It's because Rachel's always stressed about money and he wants
to save for a car. But it's way beyond a
normal teenage shop.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
So much pressure on Rachel, from the past, the present,
her kids.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
It's immense, and it all comes to a head back
where it started. The cannery, the Cannary. Harper gets a text,
supposedly from Xander asking her to meet but when.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
She gets there, it's not Xander.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
It's Lucas Ryder, Luke's son, her cousin, driving Xander's jeep,
and he.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Forces her to the cannary, Yes.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
The building that gives her mom Rachel a major freak out.
He's taking her right into the heart of the trauma.
How does Rachel know she's tracking Harper's phone? Then she
gets a terrifying text, now get out now, with a
picture of Harper.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
So she rushes there.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
She does, and inside she confronts Lucas and he confesses
He does admits everything, killing Luke. No, wait, not Luke.
He admits killing Vila and Vanessa. He actually crows about
killing the two bitches who thought they would get you off,
meaning get Rachel offered Luke's.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Death, So his motive is revenge against Rachel.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yes, he believes Rachel got away with murder killing his
father Luke. He sees himself as collateral damage because he
is never really supposed to be born into that tragedy.
He blames Rachel and her father, the cop who let
his darling daughter get away with murder.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
And he's using Harper as a shield.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Exactly a human shield. It's twisted. The police arrive, Kaylee
and backup. Get there. It's chaos. Rachel throws her phone
at Lucas, trying to distract him.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Does it work?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
It creates an opening? She fights him with bold cutters.
She finds Lucas starts firing his gun wildly and Rachel
falls threw a shoot right into the freezing Columbia River.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Oh my god, is shoot Okay, it's.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Touch and go. But down there in the murky water,
she finds something else. What Nate Maddi's body bloated, tangled
in weeds and his eyes are missing.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Jesus Liucas did that too, confirms.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
The extent of his brutality. But Kaylee acts fast. She
saves Rachel, dives in and pulls her out. Lucas is
found alive, but badly hurt. The bolt cutters in his
back a throat wound. Vander Vail was shot in the
leg during the struggle ought about Harper. She actually attacked
Lucas with an umbrella at one point, managed to escape
and made it home safe.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
So the killer is caught. The immediate danger is over,
but there are still loose ends.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Big ones. Kid's in the hospital first off, but from.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Something else, right the meth house steak out.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, broken nose, cracked ribs, torn shoulder muscles, got shot
by a drug dealer during that bust with Kaylee.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
But he has news for Rachel, the real truth.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
The biggest bombshell of all. He tells Rachel. It wasn't
her her father, Ned Gaston, he pulled the trigger that
killed Luke. What how Ned was there hiding in the shadows.
He fired his glock at the exact same moment Rachel
fired her pellet gun.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
So Ned killed Luke all along?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yes, and then he made it worse. He coerced doctor
Richard Moretti, Nate's dad, into faking the report, signing the
death certificate saying Luke was doa dead on arrival, letting.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Him bleed out so Rachel would take the blame exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Let her carry that guild for twenty years, And the
gun Lucas used in the recent murders, probably Ned's unregistered
weapon found after Ned apparently killed himself.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Why would Ned do it kill Luke?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Jealousy, possessiveness, Leela was sleeping with both of them, Ned
and Luke. Ned was drinking, furious that Luke was lying
to everyone and seeing Leela behind his back.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
He just snapped a father killing his daughter's boyfriend and
framing his daughter.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Horrifying. And it gets even more twisted. Lucas's DNA it
would match Luke Hollander, who would match Ned? Gaston.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Ned was Lucas's father, not Luke.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Ned was the biological father. Leeland knew it all along,
She admitted it later under hypnosis. She was using both
Ned and Luke. Knew her marriage to Ned was failing,
knew Ned would be at the cannery. She kept the
secret used it feared the DNA would expose everything that.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Is incredibly dark. So Rachel lived her whole life under
this massive lie.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Completely shattered, but somehow she finds strength. She asks Kad
to move back in temporarily for the kids, maybe for
them too. Step towards healing and Kaylee, she sees Kate
still loves Rachel. She decides to move on, maybe pursue
something with Travis McVay accepts her chapter with Kate is closed.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Wow. So peeling back all those layers, it reveals so
much about human weakness, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Absolutely jealousy, anger, secrets, control, how they all weave together
into this generational tragedy. It really hammers home the need
to face the truth and, no matter how painful, to
even begin moving forward.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
It really does. What a deep dive that was. From
one death, we got multiple murders, decades of secrets, parents
betraying children, just incredible complexity. What's the big takeaway for you?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
For me? It makes you think, if our own history,
our identity can be manipulated like that, hidden so deeply,
how can we ever truly escape the past? Or maybe
the point.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Isn't to escape it, Maybe it's about understanding it, the real,
unfurnished truth.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Perhaps something definitely worth considering.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
A powerful thought. Indeed, thank you for joining us on
the deep dive. Until next time, keep exploring, keep questioning,
and stay well informed.
Welcome to the deep dive. We take those stacks of
sources you send us, and we pull out the most
interesting nuggets of novels.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
That's the idea.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Today. We're diving into Lisa Jackson's Paranoid and we're not
just skimming the surface. We're going deep. We want to
lay out the entire story, detail by detail exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's a story about suspense, sure, but also family secrets
and a pass that just well, it refuses to stay buried.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Our mission then is to understand how one single, really
terrible night can echo for decades right, twisting lives, changing everything.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It's a fascinating look at unresolved trauma, how it ripples outwards,
creating new tragedies. We'll explore how events connect, the guilt,
the secrets.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
And how that one night casts this twenty year shadow.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Precisely rechase the present for everyone involved constantly.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Okay, let's get into it. This web of memory murder mystery.
It starts two decades ago, a teenage night out gone
horribly wrong.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
And then jumps to the present where everything just explodes again.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
So prepare yourself. It's quite a ride. Starting in an old,
abandoned cannery, right.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Picture this Edgewater, Oregon, twenty years back, midnight, dark night,
just a sliver of moon fog.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Rolling in off the river, amosphere very.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Covering these forgotten peers in this abandoned fish cannery, perfect
setting for trouble.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
And we meet Rachel.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
She's seventeen yep, running through weeds and her inner voice
is just screaming, are you out of your freaking mind?
Your dad's a cop.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
So she knows better, but she's doing it anyway, dear pressure.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Basically, she's following Leela, her once upon a time friend,
but Leela's really just interested in Rachel's older brother.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Luke ouch and Luke calls Rachel Leelah's lap dog.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, teenage dynamics at their finest or maybe worst.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
So they sneak into this condemned cannery through a hole
in the fence. It's forbidden territory and other kids.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Are already there. Leela's annoyed, actually everyone else is already
heard like it spoils her plan or something.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
And they have weapons sort of replica guns.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, both Rachel and Leela have one, And then Nate
Moretti and Max brought firecrackers to make the game more real.
They said. You can feel Rachel getting more and more
uneasy about the whole.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Thing, but Leela pushes her.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Leland insists, I have to see Luke. That seems to
be her whole focus.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Do they go inside? What's it like?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Cavernous eerie? Rachel smells ancient fish guts, not exactly pleasant.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
And then chaos breaks loose.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Instantly, automatic bursts of pellets, firecrackers going off, bang bang
bang bang. It sounds real, even if it isn't entirely.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
People are running, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Someone's clambering upstairs. A guy, Nate Moretti yells, ow Jesus, shit,
not in the face, shit, you're a dead man, Hollander.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
So tensions are high, real anger mixed with the game exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Kids are running frantically. Violet is screaming for someone, rebar Mercedes.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
And then the moment everything changes.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Amidst all that chaos, Rachel hears it, I've been hit.
Oh no, She freezes. Then Violet screams again, but this
time it's different, a shrill, horrified sound, and she sees
Luke yes face ashen, eyes wide, blood blooming on the
front of his shirt. His knees just give out and he.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Collapses and Rachel just drops her gun right there.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
The implication is immediate.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
She's accused right away, pretty much.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Her own father, Detective ned Gaston, helps her into a
police cruiser, devastating.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
And the fallout spreads instantly.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Leela, who is Luke's girlfriend, gives birth to his son
Lucas before Christmas that same year, a baby born into
this tragedy. What about Rachel? Eventually she marries Kate, gets
pregnant with her daughter, Harper, but the trauma infects everything.
Her parents' marriage breaks down, the divorce within a year
of Luke's death, just.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
One night, wrecking so many lives.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Exactly, and twenty years later, it's far from over for Rachel.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Right the nightmares.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Constant, recurring nightmares of Luke's death, his face changes, Morks
into Lucas, her son, Dylan, her father, even this guy Xander.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Veil, and she wakes up on the anniversary.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
The exact anniversary. The past is literally inescapable for.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Her, and her life isn't exactly stable otherwise.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
No recently laid off from her job bookkeeping computer specialist
type stuff, She's struggling.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
With anxiety, the xanax.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Right, she finds pills missing from her vial. She suspects
her kids, Harper or Dylan, teenagers, you know.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Adds another layer of stress and her house situation.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It's the house she shared with her ex cade. Now
it's just hers, her space, as she calls it, carved
out after he left. Feels symbolic of her isolation.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
And then the past comes knocking literally.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Well first in print an article in the local paper,
The Edgewater Edition, title who killed Luke Hollander?
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Oh Wow? Publicly dragged back into.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
It by Mercedes Pope. It's part of a series and
it quotes Nate Mouretti and Leela Ryder. Rachel's mother, Melinda
is understandably very upset.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
That's brutal. And then it gets more personal.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yes, Reap anonymous text message I.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Forgive you on the anniversary on.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
The anniversary of Luke's death, clearly targeted. Then she sees
someone lurking.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
In her backyard.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, maybe a man with a dog at night, her
own dog, Reno COEs nuts. And the vandalism her front door, eh,
the word killer spray painted and red. It's escalating. Someone
is actively trying to terrorize her.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Kate gets involved her X Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
He's a detective now he's worried. He actually lets himself
into her house with an old key to check on her.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
She probably didn't appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
No, she objects, but he's reminding her the article, the
anniversary and oh, by the way, another classmate just died.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Right. The danger is real and her kids aren't making
things easier.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Not at all. Harper seventeen gets caught kissing an older
boy Xandervail sneaking.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Out echoes of Rachel's own past definitely.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
And her son, Dylan, he's caught ditching class. Later, it
turns out he's running this whole side business doing what,
selling spy equipment, tiny cameras with microphones, and worse, hacking
grades for other kids.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Hacking grades seriously, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Like for this kid, Schmidt who needs a higher GPA
for college. Dylan says it's because Rachel's always talking about
money being tight and he wants a car. Wow.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Okay, So she's got this external threat building and her
home life is chaos too.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Complete chaos, and then the external threat becomes deadly Violet
Spary exactly on the same date Luke died. Twenty years later,
Violet Sperry is found dead in her home. Her husband,
Leonard finds.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Her she was another one at the canner.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yes, she was there that night. She was home alone
drinking wine. Her dog started growling right before.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
The attack, so she knew someone was there.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Seems like it. She grabbed her husband's pistol from a drawer,
but she was attacked in the hallway, doors slammed into
her face, broke her nose, glasses, blood.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Everywhere, and the blue tape.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yes, blindfolded with thick blue tape. She fought back but
was push or fell over a railing broken neck, cracked skull, ribs, pelvis, arms, leg,
horrific injuries, and the gun. Her husband's pistol and the
clip were missing.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Kate investigates this.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
He does with his partner Kayley. Kayley knows the dog's behavior,
the missing gun, their theory. Violet heard a noise, got
the gun, locked, the dogs away, then confronted the intruder.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Okay, one murder down. Then Nanessa Cooper right.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Just about a week later, another classmate from that night,
She's found murdered at Saint Augustin's Elementary school. Why there,
It's a property her husband, Clank Cooper had bought and
guess who finds her Harpur and Xander yep sneaking out again,
heading Dezander's sort of crash pad. Near there, they find
Inanessa hanging in the bell tower, hanging how tied by
the ankle with a rope that had been severed and
(07:43):
the tape blue tape over her eyes just like Violet.
Xander tries CPR, rips the tape off, but she's gone
ruptured trachea broken windpipe.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Kid's on this one too, he is.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
With Detective Os. The blue tape is identical, and Vanessa's
phone well, it reveals some things like what some kinky
sexting conversations with Nate Moretti, Nate Luke's friend, the same
they arranged to meet at Saint Augustine's at the Witching hour,
Mercedes Pope. The reporter calls that dangerous.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
So Kate sees the pattern absolutely.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Two women classmates of Rachel's yeah, witnesses to Luke's shooting,
murdered within a week, dates connected to the original tragedy,
both with blue tape over their eyes.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Someone is definitely targeting people from that night, targeting Rachel's past.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
It's a chillingly clear message. And while this is happening.
Rachel's still worried about. You know, small things like the
missing Xanax shows you how trauma works.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
But bigger threats are looming. Bruce Hollander Yes.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Rachel learns from her mom Melinda that Luke's biological father,
Bruce Hollander, who's a convict, is out of prison.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Can her dad knew?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Ned Gaston confirms he got a text from Bruce. This
throws a huge potential suspect into the mix, a dangerous one.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
And then Kate actually runs into him.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Sort of. He runs into a guy near rachel house
calling himself Frank Quinn looking for a lost beagle named Monty,
but it's Hollander. Rachel figures it out. Later sees an
old photoshop picture from Mercedes Pope and realizes Frank Quinn
is Bruce Hollander driving a white Buick Idaho plate.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
It's been stalking her, looks like it.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Suddenly he seems like the prime suspect for the murders.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
And what about Nate Moretti, the guy sexting Aanessa.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
He disappears, vanishes, family can't find him, work can't find
him any clues. Voss finds security footage. It shows Nate
stumbling into the passenger side of his own car, but
someone else is helping him in.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
So abducted, incapacitated, something like that.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
He didn't leave willingly, it seems.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
And his father, the doctor.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Doctor Richard Moretti, remember he was the attending physician when
Luke died twenty years ago. Cad questions him. He's really
evasive about Nate's disappearance and about Luke's death all those
years ago. More secrets.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Meanwhile, back at Rachel's house, teenager problems continue.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Oh yeah, Harper keeps sneaking out to see Xander. Vail
feels like a prisoner. Think Sander's smarter, funnier, more worldly,
resents her mom being so protective.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
She doesn't understand the history.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Not really no, and Dylan's secrets her out too. The
spy gear, the great hacking.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
What happens with that?
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Rachel and kid confront him, try to parent together even
though they're divorced. Rachel's terrified Harper will get pregnant young
like she did. And Dylan's illegal stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Is He says it's about money, claims.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
It's because Rachel's always stressed about money and he wants
to save for a car. But it's way beyond a
normal teenage shop.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
So much pressure on Rachel, from the past, the present,
her kids.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
It's immense, and it all comes to a head back
where it started. The cannery, the Cannary. Harper gets a text,
supposedly from Xander asking her to meet but when.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
She gets there, it's not Xander.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
It's Lucas Ryder, Luke's son, her cousin, driving Xander's jeep,
and he.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Forces her to the cannary, Yes.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
The building that gives her mom Rachel a major freak out.
He's taking her right into the heart of the trauma.
How does Rachel know she's tracking Harper's phone? Then she
gets a terrifying text, now get out now, with a
picture of Harper.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
So she rushes there.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
She does, and inside she confronts Lucas and he confesses
He does admits everything, killing Luke. No, wait, not Luke.
He admits killing Vila and Vanessa. He actually crows about
killing the two bitches who thought they would get you off,
meaning get Rachel offered Luke's.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Death, So his motive is revenge against Rachel.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yes, he believes Rachel got away with murder killing his
father Luke. He sees himself as collateral damage because he
is never really supposed to be born into that tragedy.
He blames Rachel and her father, the cop who let
his darling daughter get away with murder.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
And he's using Harper as a shield.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Exactly a human shield. It's twisted. The police arrive, Kaylee
and backup. Get there. It's chaos. Rachel throws her phone
at Lucas, trying to distract him.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Does it work?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
It creates an opening? She fights him with bold cutters.
She finds Lucas starts firing his gun wildly and Rachel
falls threw a shoot right into the freezing Columbia River.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Oh my god, is shoot Okay, it's.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Touch and go. But down there in the murky water,
she finds something else. What Nate Maddi's body bloated, tangled
in weeds and his eyes are missing.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Jesus Liucas did that too, confirms.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
The extent of his brutality. But Kaylee acts fast. She
saves Rachel, dives in and pulls her out. Lucas is
found alive, but badly hurt. The bolt cutters in his
back a throat wound. Vander Vail was shot in the
leg during the struggle ought about Harper. She actually attacked
Lucas with an umbrella at one point, managed to escape
and made it home safe.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
So the killer is caught. The immediate danger is over,
but there are still loose ends.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Big ones. Kid's in the hospital first off, but from.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Something else, right the meth house steak out.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, broken nose, cracked ribs, torn shoulder muscles, got shot
by a drug dealer during that bust with Kaylee.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
But he has news for Rachel, the real truth.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
The biggest bombshell of all. He tells Rachel. It wasn't
her her father, Ned Gaston, he pulled the trigger that
killed Luke. What how Ned was there hiding in the shadows.
He fired his glock at the exact same moment Rachel
fired her pellet gun.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
So Ned killed Luke all along?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yes, and then he made it worse. He coerced doctor
Richard Moretti, Nate's dad, into faking the report, signing the
death certificate saying Luke was doa dead on arrival, letting.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Him bleed out so Rachel would take the blame exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Let her carry that guild for twenty years, And the
gun Lucas used in the recent murders, probably Ned's unregistered
weapon found after Ned apparently killed himself.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Why would Ned do it kill Luke?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Jealousy, possessiveness, Leela was sleeping with both of them, Ned
and Luke. Ned was drinking, furious that Luke was lying
to everyone and seeing Leela behind his back.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
He just snapped a father killing his daughter's boyfriend and
framing his daughter.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Horrifying. And it gets even more twisted. Lucas's DNA it
would match Luke Hollander, who would match Ned? Gaston.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Ned was Lucas's father, not Luke.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Ned was the biological father. Leeland knew it all along,
She admitted it later under hypnosis. She was using both
Ned and Luke. Knew her marriage to Ned was failing,
knew Ned would be at the cannery. She kept the
secret used it feared the DNA would expose everything that.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Is incredibly dark. So Rachel lived her whole life under
this massive lie.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Completely shattered, but somehow she finds strength. She asks Kad
to move back in temporarily for the kids, maybe for
them too. Step towards healing and Kaylee, she sees Kate
still loves Rachel. She decides to move on, maybe pursue
something with Travis McVay accepts her chapter with Kate is closed.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Wow. So peeling back all those layers, it reveals so
much about human weakness, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Absolutely jealousy, anger, secrets, control, how they all weave together
into this generational tragedy. It really hammers home the need
to face the truth and, no matter how painful, to
even begin moving forward.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
It really does. What a deep dive that was. From
one death, we got multiple murders, decades of secrets, parents
betraying children, just incredible complexity. What's the big takeaway for you?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
For me? It makes you think, if our own history,
our identity can be manipulated like that, hidden so deeply,
how can we ever truly escape the past? Or maybe
the point.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Isn't to escape it, Maybe it's about understanding it, the real,
unfurnished truth.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Perhaps something definitely worth considering.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
A powerful thought. Indeed, thank you for joining us on
the deep dive. Until next time, keep exploring, keep questioning,
and stay well informed.
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