On her first morning of classes, Stevie stops by the Ellingham library. The librarian, Kyoko, shows her Dottie Epstein’s famous book found in the tunnel in 1936. Stevie learns that Dottie was a voracious reader during her time at Ellingham, and as Stevie looks through the detective stories requested by the first Ellingham students, she feels a special kinship with these students from 80 years ago. The first few days at Ellingham pass in a blur, and Stevie struggles to keep up with the fast-paced academics. Stevie tries to avoid David, but one day on the way back to Minerva, he asks about her parents working for Edward King. Ellie says that she wants to distance herself from her unfortunate connection with Edward King, and David comments that they “can’t control [their] parents” (164).

Later, Hayes asks Stevie to work with him on a project based on the Ellingham case because his agent wants him to make a new show, and since Stevie is an expert on the Ellingham case, they could use her expertise. He wants to film a trailer in the infamous tunnel, which was emptied recently for construction. Stevie is so excited about being in the legendary tunnel that she agrees and recruits Nate to help her write the script.