Readers Guide for Her Last Breath

Part I: Tess

Tess DeWater and her friend Allie Merritt, a successful travel influencer, are headed out to explore a cave called The Devil’s Staircase.

Lurking near the cave opening is a man dressed all in black, wearing a balaclava. 

He says his name is Jacob and he works for the logging company that owns the land. Jacob creepily offers them a cave tour, and they turn him down.

Detective Washington interviewing Tess, now awake and at the hospital.

Tess starts to recount their journey through the cave. Allie has most of the cave memorized, but warns Tess not to go past the sign that has the Grim Reaper on it.

Tess tells Washington that two weeks ago, Allie was in Costa Rica and called Tess, upset. 

The women think they hear footsteps

They decide it is only the echo of their own feet. Tess tells Washington that her mother suffered from a mental illness and burned her with bleach to burn away the devil. That was when Allie’s family took her in. Tess feels guilty that she didn’t force Allie to turn around. 

The women reach a tunnel called The Drainpipe. It’s a very tight crawl, and Tess can’t bring herself to do it.  Allie starts to say something about Ethan, her boyfriend, but the red glow is back.

It’s the intruder. Allie tells him she has a gun. He wants an apology and for them to zip tie their hands. He knows Allie’s name. She offers up her ATM card and PIN.  Allie also asks him to let Tess go.

Tess says that Jacob shot Allie in the head

Washington tries to reassure Tess that this wasn’t her fault. Tess says she had no choice but to go down the drainpipe. Jacob came after her with a knife.

Tess reached a dead end: a boulder blocking the path, with a one foot gap. She squeezed in and turned around to face Jacob. When he sees her helmet camera, he realizes she filmed Allie’s murder. 

Jacob leaves, but Washington realizes his next move could be to trap Allie in the cave. Washington is also having dementia symptoms.

Tess said she waited an hour or so, but knew she’d run out of light, food, and water. Washington asks about Ethan and Tess says that something was bothering Allie. But at least Ethan knew where they were.

Washington tells Tess that their phones were found smashed inside Jacob’s vehicle. He’d sent texts to Ethan and Allie’s work so they wouldn’t be missed.

Washington mentions Allie’s legal troubles: Allie is being investigated for wire fraud.

Part II: Jacob

Jacob reflects how wrong his plan has gone. He was supposed to zip tie his victim, cut her throat, burn his clothes, and hide out.  He can see her clothes are caught on something. But she’s able to stab him in the face. 

Tess says she kept crawling backward, staying out of reach. Jacob was crawling forward. She was getting closer to the Worse Than Death part of the drainpipe.

Jacob says if she gives him the footage, he will let her live. She knows he’s lying. But she says that since she hasn’t seen his face, she’ll give him the memory card if he will leave.

Tess tells Washington that giving up her leverage was risky. But she tossed him the card and watched him break it in half. Then he took his balaclava off.

Tess admits that she didn’t give him the real memory card, but a spare. And she now had his face on video.

Tess asks Washington what it’s like to be a detective and Washington says that most people dig their own graves. She just hands them a shovel and listens. 

Washington tells Tess she thinks there was a second killer, based on a partial bloody glove print on Jacob’s jeep. She asks Tess if she has any ideas who the second person could be. Could it be Ethan? Washington tells her that they found a receipt in Allie’s car for six pregnancy tests. Was that what Allie was upset about? Maybe Ethan didn’t want her to be pregnant.

Jacob regrets accepting only 30k to commit a murder.

Washington reflects that the rescue was amazing. A distress call from Jacob’s jeep was what saved her.

Tess tells Washington she had no choice but to go deeper in the cave. She fell and broke her headlamp. But she felt Allie was with her. Jacob followed. They were in a larger space and he shot at her. 

Then Tess reached the Grim Reaper, there was a straight drop down slippery rock. Jacob was coming. She had one of Allie’s ropes, and there was one last anchor bolt. She fed the rope through. 

Jacob walked into Allie’s rope and she tackled him. She tried to stab him but he knocked her knife away. Then she jumped… with her rope tangled around Jacob’s hand.  His fingers were broken but he started sawing the rope. She had no light and was trying to find toeholds in the slick rock. She dropped again. 

Washington asks Tess if she saw Allie get shot. Because her body wasn’t in the cave. 

Jacob glanced back at his girlfriend, who asks, “is she dead yet?”Three weeks earlier, she had asked Jacob to kill her best friend.

Washington asks Tess about Allie. Does she have any history of violence? Why didn’t they bring along a third person?

Washington tells Tess that Jacob left the cave and went to a nearby town. He bought a wrench, tape and garden hose.  The plan is to send carbon dioxide down into the cave. 

Meanwhile, Tess describes to Washington her search for a way out. She finds the opening: underwater. All Tess had was a few glowsticks and an empty gun. But Tess says there was one bullet in the chamber.

She waited for Jacob to expose himself over the edge. But he doesn’t. She tells him she gave him a spare memory card. 

Tess asks Washington why she thinks Allie gave her a camera to wear if she planned to murder her. Washington asks what motive Allie would have to kill her. She suggests that Tess was a witness to Allie’s crimes. 

As Jacob figures out how to get the memory card, someone shows up looking for Allie and Tess. He knows they are here because he saw Allie’s car. He says Allie texted but that she had made an appointment on Monday that she wouldn’t want to miss. 

Jacob stabs Ethan in the stomach and throws him in the creek.

Back in the cave, Tess saw something splash in the water: Ethan’s glasses. Jacob threatens to hurt him if he doesn’t turn over the camera. But she’s sure he’ll kill Ethan anyway .

Spoilers for Her Last Breath

Still, Tess agrees to throw the camera up. When Jacob leans to catch it, she shoots him. 

According to Washington, Jacob staggered back up to the surface and made it to his Jeep.

Washington gives Tess her card.  But she had an important clue: a phone call from Ethan’s colleague. 

As Jacob got to the surface, it was night. His girlfriend says Ethan has no pulse. Jacob tosses her the camera. She urges him to hook up the hoses. He wants to go to the hospital. She rips his bandage off.

Washington tells her boss the second killer was …Tess

Tess arranged Allie’s murder. The story she told Washington was Allie’s story. She’s ready to arrest Tess but her boss wants to wait. 

As Jacob dies, Tess berates him. She’d confessed to him that she poured the bleach on herself. Destroyed her mother’s life when she got blamed.

Washington goes to Tess’s room, and it’s empty. She’s been discharged. 

As Tess gets his car keys, Jacob gets the last laugh. Allie’s camera is empty. 

Part III: Allie

Allie swallows the memory card. In Costa Rica, she started feeling ill. She tells Ethan she could be pregnant and he was excited. 

Washington believes that Allie kept the memory card. So Tess had to go back into the cave. Allie listened to Tess approach.

Washington tells her boss that Jacob did turn on his Jeep, sending carbon dioxide into the cave after Tess went in. 

Now both women are trapped and running out of air. Allie asks Tess for the map. The way out is 200 feet, under water. They argue over the map. Tess  says she’s sorry. Allie dives and when she reaches a fork, because Tess said go left, she goes right. 

Allie finds a pocket of air. Tess is following her and Tess has the map. Allie asks if Tess lied about her mom abusing her and Tess admits it. Allie hits a dead end.

Washington tells her boss that Tess made it out and Allie didn’t. He apologizes and says they should have arrested Tess. But Washington forgot to send the deputies downstairs home. 

Washington visits Tess in jail, telling her she’s an incredible liar. She says Tess was the one committing fraud. Tess was jealous of her friend and terrified that Allie would find out about her embezzling. So Tess decided to murder her. 

Allie backs up to try to find the other tunnel. But she can’t fit.

Tess insists to Washington she’s telling the truth. After Jacob was shot, she’d made her way out of the cave and hiked for help. 

Running out of air, Allie tries one more time.

Tess is silent. Washington wants to go over it all one more time.

Part IV: Ethan

Ethan hears Tess coming. He holds his breath and squeezes rocks under his armpits to restrict the blood flow so she will think he’s dead. When she finally leaves, he breaks the zip ties and uses Jacob’s CB radio to call for help.

Washington says she was playing Tess. All along they have been trying to rescue Allie, thanks to Ethan’s radio call. Even if Allie dies, they have the memory card. 

Epilogue

Ethan wakes up in the hospital. Washington is there. He tries to speak but she holds our her phone, where a text says “we saved her.”

My Questions about Her Last Breath

If you have theories or answers, please leave them in comments!

The difficult part of this book for me was to think backwards about what I read given the big reveal.

Were you suspicious of Tess? I started to be, because why was no name used for the woman stuck in the cave? That and the whole “babygirl” thing was what cemented it for me.

How does Jacob know Allie’s name when they meet up? I guess Allie is relatively famous, but that was weird to me. Or did Tess just make that up, since we saw that from her POV.

Also there was Tess’s mentions of the “Changeling” game: Tess is a good liar who always won, while Allie always lost.

Tess couldn’t have given Jacob one of Allie’s spare memory cards. I looked to see if Tess took them, and maybe I missed it.

Your Questions:

Victoria asks in comments: “What are your thoughts about the question Washington asked Tess about it being strange that Allie didn’t bring a third person on their expedition (which was standard protocol)? That makes even less sense when we learn that Tess is behind it all! Did I miss something?

I think that is a great question. If you want to read my thoughts and leave your own, please scroll down to the comments and chime in! All theories welcome!