Ask for Andrea

In the present, now that the police are officially investigating Skye’s disappearance, they begin tracing her cellphone, and this leads them to the wooded area where she was killed. Skye intervenes to direct a police officer named Officer Willis so that he locates her body. Skye stays at the site while her body is inspected; she isn’t present when her parents are notified that her body has been found. She eventually returns to her home, where her parents are grief-stricken and in shock.

Six months before the present, as Meghan rides away from the woods with Officer Domanska, she learns more details about her case; it has been four months since her disappearance, and there has been an active investigation. Even though Sharesa (Meghan’s best friend) knew that Meghan had been on a date with a man known as Jimmy Carlson, this information proved useless (James had used a fake name and fake email). With the case now confirmed as a murder, his photo and description are released, and tips and reports flood in, but none can be connected clearly to Meghan’s case. She realizes that “when [she]’d told Sharese he was a needle in the haystack, [she] hadn’t realized how fitting that expression would become” (134).

One year before the present, after Meghan’s murder, James deletes his account on the dating app and wipes all traces of the fake identity he used. He also abruptly announces that he is going to quit his job; as a result, the family will have to move away from Salt Lake City. April briefly objects, but he counters that “since [she’s] not exactly paying the mortgage, [he does] expect [her] to support [him]” (136). A few months later, James tells his wife that he has found a new job in Idaho.

In the present, Skye watches her own funeral; the police are trying to find a man named James Carson, but since “[she] was a poor brown girl from a poor neighborhood” (140), her case is quickly overshadowed by other crimes. 

Six months before the present, the tips continue to come in, and Officer Domanska follows up on one call since “there was something about the woman’s voice” (144). The call leads to a company where James is working. Domanska questions him, but he denies that he is the man in the photo from the dating app. Since the photo is poor quality, it’s difficult to prove. James reacts with anger when Domanska wonders if he could be the man who was with Meghan on the night she died; Domanska even suggests that a server from the bar might be able to confirm his identity. He explains that it is his last day working at the company and that he is moving out of Utah in two weeks. Domanska tells him that she needs his new address in case she has more questions.

After driving away, Domanska reveals that she is still suspicious because James looks exactly like the man in the photo. She decides to have the woman who submitted the tip questioned further and to find a photo to show to the server from the bar where Meghan was seen on her date. Domanska is anxious to find something to tie James to the crime before he moves out of state.

Directly after this, Brecia moves with James and his family to their new home in Idaho; one night, she and April hear James raging at someone on the phone, stating that he doesn’t know anyone named Meghan. Brecia realizes that James is a suspect in Meghan’s murder and that Utah police are questioning him even though he has moved out of state. Brecia also notices a disposable coffee cup with James’s name and a happy face drawn on it. More significantly, she watches April and learns that a friend of April’s from Salt Lake City called in to a police tip line after a photo was released in connection with Meghan’s murder. The friend thought that the man looked alarmingly like James. Brecia watches as April reads about Meghan’s murder and searches for information about whether childhood trauma can lead to violence later in life.

In the present, about a month after Skye’s funeral, James is pulled over for having a taillight out, and since his license plates match the security tape (from the café on the day that Skye vanished), the police question him. James says that “he’[s] never seen [Skye] before” (156); the footage showing Skye getting into a car doesn’t show the license plates for that vehicle, so they can’t link James to the case (proving only that he was at the coffee shop that day). However, the police do obtain a search warrant for the car. The police go to James’s home to execute the search; James is not there, and Skye is surprised to see his wife and young daughters. She also catches sight of another young woman—Brecia. It takes a moment for Brecia and Skye to realize that they can see one another because they are both ghosts.

Also in the present (as is the rest of the novel), Meghan watches as Domanska questions the server, showing her photos of James, but the young woman can’t confirm whether he is or is not the man who was with Meghan. Undaunted, Domanska continues to pursue the case; Meghan begins to go home with her at night and return to the police station with her every day. Meghan is beginning to lose hope when a new article is published about her case, with photos of the suspect. The police receive a new tip: The caller is a man named Ken, and he thinks that the man shown in the article may have murdered his friend Skye.

As the police begin searching James’s car, Brecia and Skye talk to one another. Brecia explains to Skye about her own murder, as well as Meghan’s murder, which is now being investigated. Skye is quick to reassure Brecia that “it’s not [her] fault […] It’s nobody’s fault. Just his” (167). The only notable thing found in the car is a fingerprint; both women are hopeful that it might belong to either Skye or Meghan, as either would be incriminating.