With each passing day, Mickey was getting to know about some unexpected facts and secrets in Harlan Coben’s Shelter, because of which he was in a very chaotic state of mind as he was just not able to assimilate the inflow of information and connect the dots. He had no clue whether Ashley had been kidnapped or killed, and the fact that she had given a fake address at the school made things even more complicated. Mickey knew that he could not stop now, as he had realized that whatever was happening was linked to his father’s death. He wanted to divulge the secrets, and he was ready to go to any extent to do that. So, let’s find out what happened in Shelter Episode 2 and if Mickey is able to get any closer to the truth.
Spoiler Alert
Did Shira and Ken Taylor share a past?
Mickey and Arthur were in police custody after they created a scene at Lawrence Kent’s house, which they believed to be Ashley’s home. Arthur Spindell might have looked like a meek and timid guy, but he was ready to fight his fears and help in whatever manner he could, even if it meant putting his life at risk. Mickey was asking him not to take any unnecessary risks and take a step back, but Arthur made it very clear that he was not going to do any such thing and that he was not going to abandon his friend just because things had taken a serious turn.
Mickey didn’t know what he had done to deserve such a friend who was ready to unconditionally support him even when he could have comfortably taken a step back and not put his life in danger. Shira came to take Mickey, and she bumped into her old friend, Hannah Taylor, at the police station. Hannah was Ken Taylor’s wife, and we came to know that back in the day, Shira and Ken were quite close to each other. It was an uncomfortable encounter, and Hannah was clearly not pleased to see her batchmate. Hannah and Shira used to be the best of friends in college, but for some reason, their relationship had gotten sour. Probably Ken had something to do with it, as we saw that Hannah gave him a hard time when he came back home after his shift was over. Hannah asked Ken why he hadn’t told her that he had met Shira, and it was pretty obvious that she suspected that something was brewing between them.
We came to know that Troy, the basketballer who had challenged Mickey for a match in Shelter Episode 1, was Hannah’s and Ken’s son, and he too knew that back in the day, his father was infatuated with Shira Bolitar. Troy didn’t share a good relationship with his father, and he was vocal about it, at least in front of his mother. Troy wanted to find out what his father was up to, so one day, he sneaked inside his office and checked his laptop. Shira Bolitar’s name popped up in recent Facebook searches, and Troy got even more disappointed in his father.
What happened to Kitty?
We came to know in Harlan Coben’s Shelter Episode 2 that Kitty, Mickey’s mother, was suffering from depression, which is why she had been kept under the supervision of experts all this time. The doctor gave a call to Shira Bolitar and told her that though they were releasing Kitty, they still had to be very cautious with her. Mickey was elated when he heard that he would get to meet his mother, but at the same time, he also asked his aunt if chronic depression was the reason why she didn’t want his father to marry her. Shira told Mickey that it was much more complicated than that, and though she had her reasons in the past, now they were a family, and they had to be there for each other. Kitty was not in a stable state at all, and as soon as she was left on her own, she went missing.
Mickey got paranoid as she was not picking up his call, but somehow he and Shira were able to track her phone and find her. Mickey, for a moment, believed that his mother had committed suicide and jumped from the cliff, but to his relief, she hadn’t been able to do that. Kitty was once again taken back to the hospital and admitted, and though Mickey felt really disheartened by the turn of events, he knew that he couldn’t do anything about it.
What did the guy with the Octopus tattoo want?
A big revelation is made in Shelter Episode 2 when Shira tells Mickey that Dylan Shakes, the kid who disappeared 27 years ago, was Brad’s best friend. Mickey was shocked to hear that, and he had a gut feeling that Ashley’s and Dylan’s disappearances, his dad’s death, and every other strange occurrence happening in the neighborhood were connected to each other. We got to know that the name of the faculty member clicking pictures of Ashley was Barry Vollmer, and an email had been sent from his device to the school authorities that he was leaving his job because of some family emergency. Barry had been killed at the end of the episode by the bat lady’s henchman, as he had not been able to locate Ashley. Mrs. Friedman knew what Barry was up to, and she found pictures of Ashley in his table drawer. Mrs. Freidman, for some reason, was pretending to be totally unaware of what was happening, but she did know that Barry had been killed by the old lady. She had gone to the haunted house and seen the grave where Barry had been buried, and her expression told us that she hadn’t expected it to happen.
Mrs. Freidman informed Mickey that Ashley had withdrawn her admission and portrayed as if she was oblivious to why she had taken such a step, but we are very sure that she knew a lot more than that. Mickey, Arthur, and Ema once again went back to meet Lawrence Kent’s wife, as they wanted to know who had attacked him and if it had anything to do with Ashley. Arthur still could not wrap his head around the fact that Ashley gave that address without rhyme or reason. Mrs. Kent told them that a man with a tattoo of an octopus on his face had attacked her husband, and she swore that she had never met Ashley or heard about her.
Mickey was looking at the pictures he had with Ashley on his phone when he noticed that in one of them, Ashley had a really petrified look on her face, and it was evident that she had seen somebody in the school corridor who she was scared of. Mickey noticed that there was another girl standing just behind Ashley who was taking a selfie at the same time, and they realized that it could be possible that the picture of the person would have come up in her background. They checked the social media account of that girl, and lucky for them, she had uploaded that picture online. They saw that it was the same guy with the octopus tattoo on his face, about whom Mrs. Kent had told them. So basically, Ashley knew this guy, and she was scared, probably because she knew that he was going to hurt her.
Meanwhile, the bald guy who was working for the old lady was following Mickey, and we saw him going to Mickey’s house and taking all the data from his laptop. Earlier, Mickey had tried to stop the bald guy’s car and asked him why he was at the old lady’s house and why he was following him. The bald guy very cryptically told Mickey that he was not ready to know the answers, though he was a bit surprised when he got to know that the old lady had told Mickey that Brad was still alive. The old lady was searching for Ashley, and surprisingly even she didn’t have any clue where she had gone.
Till now, we haven’t been told what her intentions were behind doing so, but clearly, she was involved in a lot of dubious activities. Toward the end of Harlan Coben’s Shelter Episode 2, there was another twist in the plot, and we came to know that even Rachel Caldwell, who was Troy’s girlfriend, was hiding something from everybody. Rachel went to the Waiting Room in the night and took out a bag of cash from her locker. We saw that the bag had multiple fake IDs and passports kept inside it that probably belonged to Ashley. Rachel was just about to escape from there when the man with the octopus tattoo came and told her that the money didn’t belong to her. In the upcoming episodes, we could get to know about the intentions of all these people, as right now, it seems like everybody is up to something or other, and Mickey, Arthur, and Ema are the only people who don’t have a clue about what is happening in the town.
