In 1995, Ginger introduces Rust to DeWall Ledoux, Reggie's cousin and meth-cooking partner. DeWall refuses to do business with Rust, but unwittingly leads him and Marty to a meth lab hidden in the bayou. There, Marty apprehends Reggie Ledoux, who makes cryptic statements about "Carcosa". Marty kills Reggie in a rage after discovering two kidnapped and abused children, a boy and a girl, in the compound. Dewall flees but dies after triggering a homemade booby trap. Marty and Rust plant evidence to make it look as though an intense shootout has taken place, a scenario they report to a police investigation. They are hailed as heroes at the police station and in the press, and they receive commendations and promotions.
By 2002, Marty and Maggie have reconciled and Rust is dating again. While Rust is consulting on a police interrogation, the prisoner asks for a plea bargain in exchange for information about Dora Lange's killer, who he claims is still at large and killing. He mentions the "Yellow King," which gets Rust's attention. The prisoner kills himself in his cell before Rust can investigate his claims. Rust returns to the Dora Lange murder site and discovers that the same tree is now adorned with twig sculptures and a large wreath of vines and roots, all of them surreptitiously placed in relatively recent times just like the twig sculpture in Marie Fontenot's playhouse found years earlier. Rust also returns to Light of the Way Academy, where he finds more twig sculptures and dark imagery on the walls.
In 2012, Papania and Gilbough tell Marty they suspect that Rust, who they allege conveniently led Marty to every clue or lead in the case, has been orchestrating the killings. Rust is also a person of interest in Rev. Billy Lee Tuttle's suspicious death two years earlier, which was around the time Rust returned to Louisiana. Rust walks out of his interview after the detectives accuse him.
Tropes:
- Boom, Headshot!: Reggie's fate, at the hands of Marty.
