The Good Girl

Detective Gabe Hoffman is nervous entering the Dennett’s home. It is a beautiful English Tudor in the wealthy North Shore suburbs of Chicago. His boss has warned him not to screw up this case. Gabe enters the home to find James, Eve, and Grace inside. He begins to question them about Mia’s whereabouts and their last known contact with her. He makes judgements of the family: Grace, the lawyer, likes to hear herself speak. James demeans his wife and missing daughter. Eve is beautiful and deeply anxious. Gabe collects information about Mia’s apartment and colleagues, despite James’s insistence that his “daughter is not a missing person. She’s misplaced” (16). Mia’s strained relationship with the family becomes clear.

In the car on the way back from the psychiatrist, Eve guides Mia past an onslaught of reporters. Mia is delicate, red-eyed, and skittish. Since her return after a months-long disappearance, Mia has not been herself. She struggles with acute trauma and selective amnesia, her brain “putting painful thoughts where she can’t find them” (23). She believes her name is Chloe but can’t explain why. While Eve grieves her own loss, and her daughter’s pain, James begins to question his daughter about her condition. Eve rescues her child, explaining her treatment plan. James makes it clear that Mia’s condition is a nuisance.

Gabe meets Ayanna at the school. Mia has been missing for four days. Ayanna explains that Mia was not close to her family, for many reasons, but loved her work deeply. The students are grieving Mia—their journal entries are full of her name. Ayanna carries a similar grief. Ayanna explains that Mia had a casual boyfriend named Jason Becker. He was an architect working by the Chicago River, but he wasn’t “the one” for Mia: “Mia was passing time until something better came along” (29). Gabe jots down notes to find Jason, and the bell rings, ending their conversation.

Eve comes down the stairs to find Mia drinking coffee. She is shocked—Mia never drank coffee before. Eve wonders, “Who is this limp woman before me…” (32), unable to recognize anything in her daughter other than a familiar face. Eve shows Mia some of her old artwork hanging on the wall, which Mia doesn’t seem to recognize. Mia can only vaguely recall the trip to Tuscany that inspired the painting. Suddenly, Mia’s face drains of color. Eve tries to question her, but Mia disappears upstairs to lie down.

Gabe finds Jason in his cubicle. He’s a stocky, young man, who clearly thinks the world revolves around him. Gabe begins to question Jason, who says he was working late that night and hasn’t spoken to Mia since the Tuesday before. He called Mia on Thursday, but she didn’t answer—he assumed she was angry for bailing on her earlier in the week. Jason worries he might need a lawyer when Gabe reveals Mia is missing. He agrees to get proof of his alibi for Gabe without a warrant, and Gabe is disgusted by “the expression of apathy on his face” (40) when he reassures Jason he’ll find Mia soon.

Colin watches Mia in the bar. He keeps thinking about the money he’ll get from this job. Mia gets a phone call from her boyfriend—she’s obviously pissed off when she comes back in. He hasn’t seen her before he started following her a few days ago. When he approaches her booth, he hears her voice for the first time. She is sketching, and he asks her about art. Soon, they are chatting, and she is drinking. He lies and says his name is Owen. He doesn’t like this job or thinking about what he’ll do to Mia next, but he has a feeling “this girl might just change my life” (43).