Case Histories: A Novel

Theo sits on a bench dedicated to Laura and thinks about his love for her. He has a terrible asthma attack on his way home and nearly dies, but as everything goes black, he sees Laura asking him if he is okay. When he awakens in the hospital, he realizes his savior was not Laura but Lily-Rose, the young unhoused woman he has been seeing in the street. She visits him in the hospital, as does Jackson. When Theo returns home, he resolves to try to live and begins eating more healthily. He also buys dog food and hopes that Lily-Rose might come to visit.

Caroline thinks about her pregnancy and how Jonathan would react to the news. She knows that he would treat the baby as a possession rather than a person and is repulsed by this. She continues to admire the vicar from afar and idly fantasizes about killing Jonathan. However, she admits to herself that she has never killed anything on purpose, “even an insect” (310), and would not be able to do so.

While visiting Theo in the hospital, Jackson bumps into Lily-Rose and speaks briefly to her. Though he has just been thinking about how Tanya Fletcher would be 25 years old, he doesn’t realize that Lily-Rose is, in fact, Tanya when she tells him her age. He continues into the hospital and sees Shirley and a doctor together, and a nurse tells him that the two are married. Jackson is appalled and speaks to Shirley, who sarcastically asks him why it matters. When he leaves the hospital, he calls his secretary and asks her to write a formal letter to Shirley saying that they can no longer represent her.

Jackson then interviews Laura’s former teacher, Stan Jessop, who proves to be unhappily married with several children. When pressed, he admits that he was attracted to Laura but claims she was a tease. Jackson is disgusted with him. When Jessop’s wife appears, Jackson asks her about Laura Wyre, but she doesn’t know who he is talking about.

When Jackson gets home that night, he finds a message from Binky on his answering machine, asking him to call her back because she has something urgent to tell him. He calls her, but there is no response. Soon after, Amelia calls, deeply upset. She tells him that Binky has died. Jackson immediately goes over and discovers that Binky died in her orchard and had been lying there for hours before Amelia found her. He feels guilty that he hadn’t helped Binky and wonders what she wanted to tell him.

At home, Jackson is about to go to bed when he sees a black cat outside the window. Saddened by Binky’s death and wondering if the cat is Mrs. Chippy, her missing feline, he goes outside to rescue it. When he picks up the cat, his house explodes. The two of them narrowly escape death.

Amelia thinks back over the events of the last 24 hours, sinking into despair. She is humiliated by Jackson’s rejection of her and thinks that she has no one who cares for her. She is sad that Olivia never had a chance to live life and that she, Amelia, merely endures her own. She discovered Binky’s body because she found the gate in the garden wall and went next door, feeling as if Olivia was leading her and might still be there.

At her father’s house, after the police have left, she begins to take some prescription drugs she finds in the house, thinking with each pill she swallows that nothing is fair. In the distance, Julia calls to her frantically.

Jackson tells the police that he suspects that Quintus Rain is trying to kill him and that he was the one who planted an explosive in Jackson’s house. Then, he takes Marlee on a trip to the north of England, where he has tracked down Stan’s ex-wife, Kim. She is now the girlfriend of a Russian mob boss and still remembers Laura fondly. She had no idea that Laura had been killed since the police never contacted her and she is seldom in the United Kingdom. She only happened to be available to meet with Jackson because she is taking her children to a sheep farm for a vacation. When Jackson shows her the golf sweater that the suspect wore, she cries angrily and said she knew he was trouble. Though this is not revealed to the reader yet, the killer was Kim and Stan’s former neighbor who developed an obsession with Laura.

Later, Jackson takes Marlee to stay in a bed and breakfast in the town that he grew up in. They go to put flowers on Jackson’s mother’s and sister’s graves.

As a child, Jackson grew up in a dying mining town, the youngest of three children. His mother died of cancer and his beloved sister, Niamh, took over the motherly role. Despite being teased by his friends, Jackson helped her with the chores around the house since she also worked full time. One night, Francis (his eldest brother) did not pick Niamh up from the bus stop even though it was raining. She never came home, and her body was later discovered in a watery ditch. She had been assaulted and killed, and her killer was never found. In guilt and grief, Francis took his own life, leaving 12-year-old Jackson alone with their emotionally distant father.

Driving on the road, Jackson feels ill and pulls over. He goes to the hospital where he discovers that his bad tooth has developed into a blood infection and has almost killed him. Since Josie and David are out of the country on vacation, Marlee told the police she wanted to stay with Kim and is on a sheep farm with her and her kids.

Howell, Jackson’s friend and former coworker, drives him to pick up Marlee. He also tells Jackson that Josie is only taking Marlee to New Zealand for a year—she allowed Jackson to believe it was for longer because she was angry with him. As they are driving, a car starts following them and Jackson believes that it is Quintus Rain. Howell tries to lose the car, without success. Jackson calls the police to report the car, and soon, police cars begin following them, as well. The chase ends with Quintus crashing into a hedge. He is unharmed, but the police arrive and arrest him. Jackson still has no idea why Quintus wants to kill him. The novel later reveals that it is because Binky Rain has left her entire fortune to Jackson. Quintus hates him because he wants the money for himself.

Howell and Jackson then pick up Marlee and drop her off with her mother. Jackson writes the name and address of Laura’s killer on a postcard and mails it to Theo. He believes that Theo must choose what to do with the information.

In the ruins of his house, which was bombed, Jackson discovers that Blue Mouse is intact. He takes it to a meeting with Marian Foster, a retired police superintendent who worked the Land case. She tells him that, were she to work the case with the knowledge she had today, she would suspect the father. When Jackson shows her Blue Mouse, she is moved to tears.

Jackson then visits Sylvia at the convent and knows from her unsurprised reaction to seeing Blue Mouse that she is involved in Olivia’s death. He asks her to think of him as a confessional and tell him the truth. Though her confession is not revealed to the reader in this chapter, she tells Jackson that she accidentally smothered Olivia and that her father helped her hide the body in Binky’s yard.

Jackson goes to Binky’s garden and digs with his hands until he uncovers the bones. He weeps for Olivia, his sister, and the other lost girls. He lies to the police and says a dog led him to the remains.

Julia and Jackson have sex, and afterward, they discuss the fact that Jackson has inherited all of Binky’s fortune, which she left to him for being kind to her. The caveat is that he must care for the cats. He decides that Amelia should live in Binky’s home and care for them, and Julia agrees that it is a good idea.

Jackson sells his business to Deborah Arnold, his assistant, and flies to France to look at real estate there.