Kiss the Girls

Early in the morning, Cross plays blues songs on the piano in the Washington Duke Inn bar. He thinks about Sachs: His behavior is problematic, but he’s not a killer. He then considers the “disappearing house.” According to newspaper reports he read, Roe’s body was found near an abandoned farm where enslaved people once hid in underground cellars that were like houses.

Sampson and Cross hike through the woods to where Kate’s body was found in the Wykagil River. Sampson doesn’t like the woods—they remind him of morbid fairy tales like “Hansel and Gretel.” Cross jokes that Sampson isn’t afraid of the DC “projects,” but he is scared of a “nice walk” through the woods. He then tells Sampson about the Underground Railroad and the spaces below ground. Louis Freed drew Cross a map to help him locate the historical places.

Cross feels the blood and bones of the enslaved people. He thinks about how no authorities came to rescue them or arrest the “human monsters” who kidnapped Black people. Frustrated, Cross fires his gun at a tree trunk. Sampson leans against a tree. He wants to leave, but then the men hear the women’s voices. Sampson shoots his gun, and the women scream louder.

Sampson and Cross dig until they find a door. They rush down a flight of stairs and find a woman’s body decomposing on a couch. The surviving women warn the police that Casanova is around. They go through the living room and into a hallway with doors on either side. Cross opens the first door. He hopes Naomi is alive inside.

Rudolph and Casanova have been watching Cross and Sampson. Rudolph thinks the detectives are fools, but Casanova believes Cross is smarter than the other police and FBI agents. However, Sampson is impulsive. If they could “break” Sampson, then they’d defeat Cross.

Casanova tells the Gentleman Caller that they shouldn’t have separated and competed. If they’d stayed together, Cross wouldn’t have uncovered the Gentleman Caller, and they wouldn’t have to kill the abducted women and destroy the underground house.

In the first room, Cross finds Maria Jane Capaldi in ripped tights and a Nirvana T-shirt. He assures Maria that she’s safe now before continuing to look for Naomi. He finds her. They cry and hug before Sampson’s scream jolts them apart.

Sampson is in the hallway, and there’s a sharp object in his back. Cross fires his weapon and hits one of the killers in the shoulder. The lights go out, and “Welcome to the Jungle” (1987) by Guns N’ Roses plays. Cross checks on Sampson, who tells Cross to pursue them. He bursts out of the underground cellar and fires his weapon, but Casanova and Rudolph are gone.

Cross runs in the direction of a trail of blood, and he thinks of Marcus Daniels. In the distance, he sees one of the men holding his shoulder. Cross also hears screams. Gunfire stops Cross’s progress, and he loses sight of the murderers again.

Cross locates the two criminals again. They get into a blue truck, so Cross commandeers a man’s Plymouth Duster. In the Duster, Cross gets close to the blue truck. Near Varsity Theatre, both cars are stuck at red lights.

Cross leaves the Duster and fires three shots. The murderers leave the truck, and Cross notices that only one of them, Casanova, has a gun. Cross and Casanova continue to trade gunshots in the traffic.

Casanova sees another police officer and kills him. Cross shoots Rudolph. Before he dies, Cross asks him to identify Casanova, but Rudolph refuses. Rudolph claims Cross will never uncover Casanova’s identity.

The abducted women reunite with their families at Duke Medical Center. Sampson is alive and receiving care at the hospital. Kate remains at the hospital, too. She’s still in a coma, but Cross tells her he loves her anyway. Cross then visits Sampson and Naomi. Nana, Cilla, Damon, and Jannie fly in from Washington, DC. Jannie hugs Cross and thanks him for finding Naomi.

Cross returns to the woods and notices the police are quiet and somber since they’ve seen some of what occurred in the underground space, uncovering over 20 bodies. Cross tells Kyle he’s “monstered out,” but Kyle informs Cross about other monsters currently in Chicago, Nebraska, and Massachusetts.

Cross wonders if Casanova misses Rudolph. Cross believes they met around 1981, bonding over their interest in kidnapping, sexually assaulting, and killing women. They competed, pushing Rudolph to go to Los Angeles, where he could operate on his own. Rudolph liked the attention he got from the Los Angeles Times, but Casanova wasn’t seeking notoriety. However, during the shootout, Casanova made a “mistake.” As an “outsider,” Cross can’t tell anyone about the mistake he witnessed.

A name in the Durham Herald Sun helped Cross realize who Casanova was. Now, he’s outside Casanova’s house in Durham. He’s alone, and he feels like he’s the hunter.

Cross believes Detective Davey Sikes is Casanova. He thinks Sikes arranged foolproof alibis and changed the date of one kidnapping to align with him being out of town. Cross contends Sikes first met Rudolph during the Roe Tierney investigation. At some point, Sikes started sharing his own ghastly desires with Rudolph. As Cross follows Sikes on the highway, he vows to kill Sikes. The vengeance is “personal.”

Sikes parks his car in the crowded lot of a sports bar. He then walks through a neighborhood and into a house. Cross hears Kate telling him to drive a stake through Sikes’s heart. Cross feels like his heart will burst if he doesn’t kill Sikes.

Cross notices a Girl Scout cookie sticker on the porch door before he and Sikes begin fighting. Cross dominates him, hitting him for Sampson and Kate. However, a blonde woman in a Farm Aid shirt—Sikes’s girlfriend—hits Cross, who realizes Sikes came here to see his girlfriend. Soon, Kyle arrives. He tells Cross that the FBI knew Sikes was having an affair. Sikes isn’t Casanova.

Kate leaves the hospital using a walker, with a dent on her forehead. The latter makes Cross think of Reginald Denny, the truck driver who was physically assaulted during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Cross spends July in Washington, DC, with his family. He worries Casanova might try to find him. Authorities investigated numerous police officers, including Ruskin and Hatfield, and all of them had solid alibis. Kyle calls Cross and tells him Soneji escaped from jail. He left a note promising to find Cross.

Near the end of August, Kate and Cross stay in the North Carolina resort town of Nags Head. Kate is better, and they race to a nearby beach. Kate doesn’t want their relationship to end, but Cross believes they’re too similar. As they sleep under the stars, Kate wonders if Casanova will attack them again.

Casanova misses Rudolph and remains preoccupied with Kate. Casanova admits that Cross came close to catching him. Two FBI agents watch Kate and Cross, and Casanova flicks his flashlight so the agents know it’s him. Casanova restates his ability to fit in anywhere.

In the morning, Cross gets breakfast and notices the dead FBI agents. He returns to the house, and Kate pulls him into the closet. They go to call the police, and Casanova shoots Cross with a stun gun. Not wearing a mask, Cross sees that Casanova is Detective Nick Ruskin. Ruskin tells Kate that he missed her, and Kate attacks him. She kicks him and punches his face. Ruskin manages to retrieve a Smith and Wesson, but Cross, still alert, shoots and kills Ruskin.

Back in Washington, DC, Cross’s kids watch Beauty and the Beast for the umpteenth time. Cross and Sampson discuss their experiences and Kate. In Nags Head, Kate says she visited her father at a bar when she was 20. Revolted by what she saw, she left without identifying herself. Later, Sampson informs Cross about another murder—he refers to it as a “honey.”