All the Missing Girls

Someone is running in the forest at night, and Nic decides to follow them. As she lurks in the shadows, she watches him enter Corinne’s studio and sees his eyes reflect in the darkness through the window. This person was someone “who knew the woods well. Someone who had a key. Someone who could run in the dark by heart” (148).

The next day, she decides she must speak with Tyler. She heads to the pub in search of him but finds only Jackson, who is working behind the bar. Seeing him reminds her of their unspoken, implicit bond. The cops who had been investigating Corinne’s disappearance were men of the town. One’s wife was the high school secretary, the other a local drinking champion. Rumors seeped into the investigation, blending fact and fiction. It wasn’t until Hannah Pardot of the State Bureau of Investigation arrived that the case gained momentum. She was a young woman, “thorough and tight-lipped” (146). She peppered Nic about Jackson, about his relationship with Corinne. The truth was that Nic had seen Jackson and Corinne at the fair together before the disappearance. This was a secret she never disclosed. 

But it didn’t matter when Bailey cracked and told Hannah what everyone had only been thinking: that Corinne had been pregnant, that Jackson hadn’t wanted the baby, and that he wouldn’t forgive her for it. This was a story told by a best friend, and people believed it. When Nic found out, she yelled at Bailey and shoved her, saying that she “ruined Jackson” (151). At the same time, she’d always felt weary of Jackson. He had the kind of appearance that made people trust him, as if “[t]he symmetry of him was the mask. And he, the monster behind it” (151).

The reason she’d kept Jackson’s secret is because she hadn’t wanted to sentence him to a life of blame. Corinne’s love was a complicated kind of love. She’d do everything to push her friends away. Then she’d beg them to come back, rewarding them by loving them, “so fiercely, so meanly, so thoroughly” (155). When Nic’s mother died, Corinne brought her to burn down a barn, to “watch something burn” (156). Then Corinne took the fall for the whole thing. Nic had always had the sense that Corinne kept a running tab of the loyalty people showed her and the loyalty she returned.

Before Nic leaves, Jackson tells her that Annaleise had been hanging out around the bar a lot. “She was obsessed with Corinne,” and had been asking questions (153). She’d actually been trying to get in contact with Daniel recently, and there were rumors that Laura had stayed with her sister a few months back after rumors of infidelity. Jackson won’t tell her Tyler’s whereabouts, but the older men recognize her as Patrick’s daughter and tell her he’s at a construction site near the railway. 

On the phone, in the car, Daniel denies any allegation relating to Annaleise, but Nic can tell he’s lying. She drives to the construction site and immediately spots Tyler. She asks if he was the one at Annaleise’s house last night, which angers him. The police had already questioned him earlier that day. He tells her to leave, before they come looking for her, too. 

Later that evening, Nic sees a light in the woods near the Carter property. She follows it for miles, before realizing it’s Annaleise’s brother Bryce and his friends. When his friend offers his condolences, Bryce responds, “could still turn up” (163). Nic sees this coldness as a generational characteristic, one that arises from privilege, of the expectation that all will be given to you.

Nic can hear Daniel outside telling a cop that she’s asleep and not available for questioning. She feels that in hiding, she raises suspicion, so she gets dressed and heads outside. The man goes by Detective Charles, who has come over with a few questions about her relationship with Tyler. She can tell by his accent and his remove from the conversation that he’s not from Cooley Ridge. The only information she’s willing to offer is that they were high school sweethearts 10 years ago. 

Detective Charles, however, has heard otherwise. There are rumors that Tyler and Annaleise broke up because of Nic’s arrival in town: “talk around town is that it probably has something to do with you” (171). Nic grows irritated with his lack of understanding of how things operate in Cooley Ridge. Her irritation turns into anger when he begins asking about their last intimate encounter as a means to find Annaleise. 

In a moment of dual luck and misfortune, Daniel’s phone rings. Their father is in trouble. They excuse themselves and drive away. When they arrive at Grand Pines, Patrick is sedated, restrained, and surrounded by a small group of doctors and staff. The director, Karen Addelson, leads the siblings into her office and introduces herself. She explains that Patrick had an episode, which involved his “yelling that someone was after his daughter [and that] he was unmanageable” (176). Daniel thinks he had something to do with it, as he informed his father of Annaleise’s disappearance, hoping that Patrick would interpret the news better if it came from a loved one, rather than from the papers or television. 

Daniel gets lunch while Nic sits with her father, helping him to remain calm as he re-enters consciousness. When Daniel returns with the food, Patrick makes him promise to take care of Nic. 

In the car on the way back to the house, the siblings begin to bicker, “fighting in the space between words about anything other than what [they] meant” (179). This continues as they enter the house and realize someone has broken in while they were out. Daniel grows furious when Nic tells him that the lock to the back door has been broken since she arrived. They wonder if it could be Tyler; when Nic explains that the two of them have not been on speaking terms, Daniel grows irate. He tells her, “You’ve pissed off the one person who seemed immune. You’ve finally gone too far” (183).

He leaves in a rage, and Nic feels alone. Her list of close friends is limited, if not non-existent. She gets hold of Everett later that evening; he is at work late with the rest of the workers in his office. She wants to know something—anything—about him that no one else knows. He tells her he once saw a man die. He also tells her, “I don’t know if I have the stomach for my job” (187). But now he feels stuck. He’s a partner, and this is the life he’s chosen. When she hangs up the phone, she doesn’t feel consoled. 

Nic has a memory: Corinne once said that if she were a monster, she’d pretend to be human. She grabs Daniel’s chin and announces he’s human. She slinks up to Bailey, flirtatiously, putting on a show for Daniel, asking her what the monster has made her do. She touches Bailey’s back, pressing into her, and “Daniel’s eyes had gone dark and hazy, under a spell” (190). When she finally saunters up to Nic, she presses their faces together: “There you are” (190).