A “Z” is found on a door post in the garage, which had been broken into. Hodges also finds evidence that a house for sale across the street from the Ellerton-Stover house was being used as a place to spy on the two women. Janice’s housekeeper gives them a strange story about a man who gave Janice the console as a gift. Hodges and Holly not only discover a large “Z” written on the counter in the bathroom where Janice killed herself, but they also find a Zappit, an obsolete game console, tucked in Janice’s chair. Holly believes it is because Izzy knows that Holly and Hodges will look further into the strange deaths than Izzy wants to do. It is obvious that Pete’s new partner, Izzy Jaynes, does not want Hodges and Holly involved. Pete Huntley, Hodges’ old partner calls Hodges in because the case is related to the Mercedes Killings. It appears that Janice Ellerton gave her daughter, Martine Stover, an overdose of pain medicine and then suffocated herself. Hodges and his friend Holly Gibney are called in to consult on a case that appears to be a murder/suicide. In the next section, the story picks up nearly seven years later. Martine survived but was paralyzed from the chest down. They were in charge of transporting Martine Stover, one of the most severely injured of the victims, to the hospital. The memories are those of Rob Martin and Jason Raspis, the ambulance crew first on the scene of the tragedy. Hodges hurries to solve the case as he tries to come to grips with his own diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.Įnd of Watch begins with a flashback to the April 2009 Mercedes Killings at the City Center. Using these two as both vehicles and slaves, Brady sets off a suicide epidemic among those who attended the ’Round Here concert at which he had intended to detonate a bomb, killing himself and other attendees. With the aid of an experimental drug, Mercedes Killer Brady Hartsfield has gained the ability to inhabit the minds and bodies of his doctor and the hospital librarian. In this final novel in the Bill Hodges Trilogy, End of Watch by Stephen King, Bill Hodges and his friends are in a battle against death and disbelief.

NOTE: All citations in this Study Guide refer to the Kindle edition of End of Watch, published June 2016.