The Reckoning

Part 3 picks up where Part 1 ended. Two weeks after Pete’s death, Joel and Stella have accepted that they are never going to know why their father killed Pastor Bell. Joel and Stella are finally able to visit their mother. They confront Dr. Hilsabeck, demanding to know their mother’s diagnosis.

Hilsabeck gives them a long list of symptoms. She had seemed to be recovering until Pastor Bell’s murder, but then Pete’s execution threw her into another withdrawal. Hilsabeck doesn’t know what caused her initial collapse. Joel and Stella finally see their mother. She is in no shape to leave the hospital.

Pastor Bell’s wife Jackie, urged by Errol McLeish, files a wrongful death suit against Pete’s estate.

Joel starts law school. The lawyers wrangle over the value of land that had been in the Banning family for five generations. John Wilbanks, representing the Banning family, proposes to settle the case for $20,000, but Jackie rejects the offer.