Never Lie

The narrative picks up during EJ’s therapy session, but switches to Adrienne’s point of view, in the past. Adrienne reveals that she drugged the wine for EJ with Ativan. Adrienne steals EJ’s keys and texts Luke. Adrienne gives Luke the keys and EJ’s address; while Luke goes to break into EJ’s home, Adrienne plans to keep an eye on EJ. Luke remains reluctant, especially as Adrienne insists that Luke should not watch the video himself before deleting it. Adrienne pushes Luke to do as she asks, even crying—she admits to herself that she is not sure if the tears are fake or not. Adrienne notes: “I believe that any human being is capable of terrible things if you push them hard enough. So is Luke” (212). On this note, Adrienne cites the Milgram experiment, an infamous psychological experiment in which participants were told to deliver electric shocks to another human—and obeyed, despite causing the other person pain (the shocks weren’t real, but the participants didn’t know this). Luke agrees to go through with the plan. Adrienne waits anxiously at her house for Luke to call and tell her it’s done; finally, he does. In her phone conversation with Luke, Adrienne can tell that Luke is angry with her. She worries: “I did this to get EJ out of my life. But I may have inadvertently eliminated Luke from my life as well” (214).

The narrative returns to Tricia’s point of view, in the present day. Tricia has just finished listening to the final EJ tape; she wonders why EJ sounded so sleepy at the end of the tape. As Tricia thinks about the strange recording, she toys with her wedding ring and accidentally drops it—it rolls under the couch in Adrienne’s office. Tricia cannot reach the ring and she cannot move the couch herself, so she goes to ask Ethan to help her. Ethan helps Tricia move the couch. Tricia and Ethan then realize that there is a trapdoor handle under the couch—and that the floor underneath the couch is hollow. Despite Tricia’s protests, Ethan opens the trapdoor. Tricia’s reaction: “And when I see what’s inside, my heart drops” (223).

The narrative jumps back to the past, to Adrienne’s point of view. Luke returns to Adrienne’s house after completing his mission at EJ’s house. Luke tells Adrienne that, despite her request, he did watch the videotape. Luke is shocked that Adrienne would slash someone’s tires. Still, he acknowledges: “I see why you wanted to get rid of that video. And… I’m glad I could help you” (226). Luke and Adrienne drive EJ, still unconscious, back to his house. Adrienne is relieved; she suggests that Luke move in with her. Later, Adrienne gets text messages from EJ: “You bitch. You broke into my house. […] I’m going to kill you” (228-29). Adrienne is unconcerned by the messages, thinking, “You don’t send somebody a text message expressing your intention to commit a crime if you’re genuinely planning to do it” (229). Adrienne does not tell Luke about the texts and blocks EJ’s number.

The narrative jumps back to the present, to Tricia thinking: “I’m going to throw up” (230). Tricia then reveals what was beneath the trapdoor: a body. The corpse is mostly rotted, but scraps of clothing, including denim pants, are still visible. Ethan says, “I guess we know what happened to Dr. Hale now” (231). Tricia and Ethan have the following exchange:

‘I’ve never seen a dead body before.’ I glanced over at him. ‘Have you?’

He hesitates a second too long. ‘No.’

‘Have you?’

‘Well…’ He shoves his hands in his coat pockets. ‘At funerals, obviously sometimes there’s an open casket, so…’ (232).

Ethan comforts Tricia, who wonders how he can be so calm in this moment. They are interrupted by a crash coming from Adrienne’s office. Tricia is now fully convinced that there is somebody else in the house with them.

The narrative jumps back to the past, to Adrienne’s point of view. Adrienne and Luke are grocery shopping. Adrienne is telling Luke about the psychological tricks stores use to keep shoppers buying when they bump into Gail/GW, one of Adrienne’s patients (referenced in a transcript in Chapter 19). Gail was paranoid that her son was trying to killer her. Gail now tells Adrienne that she took Adrienne’s advice and talked to her son about her fears, and that she is feeling better. Adrienne’s conversation with Gail is interrupted by a text message from EJ, writing her from a new number. He sends the video of Adrienne slashing the man’s tires—the video that Luke thought he had erased. Shocked, Adrienne asks EJ what he wants; EJ tells her he wants to talk.

The narrative continues in the past, following Adrienne’s point of view. Adrienne asks Luke to go home after their grocery-shopping trip, pretending to have a headache. Adrienne then meets with EJ. EJ reveals that his parents died in a freak car accident the month before; Adrienne realizes that EJ had a role in the accident, as he’d previously implied that he might do something like this to fast-track his inheritance. Adrienne thinks: “Even though I never liked EJ, I always thought he was harmless. I am ashamed that even as a psychiatrist, I completely misdiagnosed him, which may have been the most costly mistake I have made in my career. But now I know the truth. The man is a psychopath” (243).

Adrienne asks EJ what he wants. He makes it clear that he wants to have a sexual relationship with her. Adrienne refuses and threatens to call the police. Adrienne even says that she will go to the police herself and let the extortion video of her slashing the man’s tires come out; she is willing to throw away her reputation just to get out of EJ’s clutches. Then EJ reveals that he has even more leverage now: EJ has a video of Luke entering his house. Adrienne realizes that she may have ruined Luke’s life by getting him involved in the EJ problem. Adrienne offers EJ anything—therapy sessions, pills… But EJ says: “All I want is you” (246). EJ tells Adrienne he’ll give her a few days to think about it. The chapter ends with Adrienne worrying, “What am I going to do?” (246).

Ethan goes to the kitchen to get a knife. Then Ethan and Tricia go into Adrienne’s office to investigate what the noise was. They find a man wearing blue jeans and a sweatshirt with holes; he has a scraggly beard and needs a haircut. The man explains that he does not have a place to live and needs a spot to sleep for the night; he had not expected anyone to be in the house. After a moment, Tricia recognizes the man’s voice and says, “You’re Luke. […] You’re Adrienne Hale’s boyfriend” (249).

The narrative jumps back to Adrienne’s point of view, in the past. Adrienne and Luke are cooking dinner at her house when Adrienne tells Luke that EJ has yet another copy of the tire-slashing video. Luke encourages Adrienne to simply let EJ publish the video, telling her, “Accept the consequences” (253), to which Adrienne replies, “So I should let him wreck my life?” (253). Adrienne then tells Luke about the other video—the one of Luke going into EJ’s home. Adrienne thinks of the Milgram experiment as she suggests to Luke, “If we got rid of him…” (254), implying that they should kill EJ. Luke refuses. When Adrienne pushes Luke further, he gets up and walks out of her house. Adrienne realizes that her relationship with Luke is ruined. She decides to deal with EJ herself.

Luke confirms his identity to Tricia and Ethan. Luke explains that his life was ruined after Adrienne’s disappearance, because he was the prime suspect. He was fired from his job, and his family deserted him. Luke is unemployed and broke, and he has been holed up in Adrienne’s house. Ethan does not believe Luke and suggests that Luke is Adrienne’s killer—and may be dangerous. Ethan holds Luke at knifepoint and demands Tricia duct-tape Luke’s arms and wrists together. Tricia reacts thusly: “A chill goes down my spine at the way my husband is taking charge of this situation. I never imagined how Ethan would react in a high-intensity situation like this. I’m impressed” (260). Ethan and Tricia then leave Luke in the office alone and discuss what to do. Ethan will walk to the main road, where he can flag down a car or get cell reception to call for help. Tricia will stay in the house. Ethan tells Tricia not to go into the room where Luke is bound. As Ethan is leaving, he passes the secret room with all of Adrienne’s recordings—but this time, the door is open. For the first time, Ethan knows about the room.

The narrative maintains the present-day point of view of Tricia. Ethan goes into Adrienne’s hidden room and discovers the tapes. When Ethan asks Tricia if she knew about the room, she first lies and says no. Ethan replies: “Don’t lie” (265). Ethan tells Tricia not to listen to any more tapes, telling her that they will have to tell the police about the tapes and adding, “That’s private patient information” (267). Tricia agrees. Ethan goes ahead with his plan to walk to the main road. However, Tricia then realizes that she left some tapes in Adrienne’s office. She needs to return the tapes to the secret room. If Ethan tells the police about the tapes and they find those tapes missing/moved, they will rightfully suspect that Tricia listened to them. To cover her tracks, Tricia must return to Adrienne’s office—where Luke is.