The Good Girl

Mia wakes Colin up with a hallucination. He puts her in a lukewarm bath to stop the fever. He knows he loves her as he washes her back with a cloth. He resolves to bring her to the doctor first thing. They choose a doctor without any cars in the parking lot. They pay cash, and Mia gives a fake name. The doctor diagnoses her with pneumonia and suggests a chest x-ray. Colin tells her they don’t have the money to pay for an x-ray. She gives them a prescription, and as they leave, she asks again if she’s seen them around before: “You just look so darn familiar” (270). They pick up the prescription and head back to the cabin.

Gabe visits Kathryn and reads aloud to her. He also visits Eve Dennett, coming up with excuses to drop in. James is rarely home now. Gabe is assigned other cases, an arson and sexual harassment allegations, but his heart is with Mia. One day while visiting Kathryn, he discovers some of her mail is missing. He learns that her neighbor, Ruth, died of a stroke soon after Colin left. Ruth has the missing mail, including the envelope from Eau Claire full of money. Eau Claire is on the route to Grand Marais. Gabe contacts the Grand Marais police department.

Mia recovers quickly with the antibiotics, but she is listless, lethargic, and barely eats. Colin tries to figure out how they can leave, but he doesn’t have many answers. He tries to make her feel better but knows it’s hopeless. He knows he’ll go to prison and likely die there if the police find them. He has dozens of worries, but “my biggest fear now is not having her with me” (279).

The police find Canoe and fly him back to Chicago. Gabe brings the cat to Mia’s apartment in Wrigleyville. Canoe immediately curls up around her feet, purring. She remembers him. A wave of memories returns, including Colin threatening to shoot her and the cat. She recalls running away, and Colin holding a gun to her head, but her memories are confused, and she can’t determine whether she was scared. She blames herself. In that moment, Gabe realizes they must bring Mia back to the cabin to find out what really happened.

Late one night, Colin and Mia walk into the snow. Colin finds an axe and tells Mia to pick out a Christmas tree. They cut it down and drag it inside. That night, Colin and Mia sleep together curled up in the bed. He wakes to find her outside watching the snow. He is angry at himself for bonding with her. Later, she comes inside and asks for him to hold her. They have sex. After that, they are physically close to one another, though they don’t talk about love or any topic beyond the present moment. They admit that they would have killed each other weeks before but could never do it now: “This is how we annul the violence and the hate of our first days” (302).

Gabe visits the Dennett’s on Christmas Eve morning to reveal that a doctor in Grand Marais treated Mia for pneumonia a month before. Gabe has a watch on the Thatcher family cabin. Eve wants to go, but Gabe refuses. He holds her, and James lumbers down the stairs in time to catch them. He brushes past Gabe and says he’ll believe Mia is back when he sees it.

Colin puts lights on the tree. He and Mia admire it, huddled together on the couch. They are running out of food. They daydream about where they might go—somewhere warm, with fresh food, where they can start over with new names. Mia explains the story of Chloe. She chose the name after a girl killed in a bus accident: “I wanted to be her, to have someone long for me the way her family longed for her” (310). Mia and Colin give up their names and agree to be Chloe and Owen.

Mia, Eve, Dr. Rhodes, and Gabe get on a plane to Minnesota. A cop from Grand Marais picks them up at the airport. They drive for a long time toward the cabin, and as they drive, Mia becomes more attentive and alert. When they pull up to the cabin, Eve is struck by the lonely, cold scene, but Mia seems comfortable. Gabe ushers Mia in the door first, following close behind her.

Gabe drives as fast he can through the snow to the cabin. His detective in Grand Marais has 10 men set up along the perimeter. They are getting antsy. Gabe fears that if he doesn’t get there soon enough, someone will take a shot. That detective is “even more than me […] a guy led into the line of duty by the prospect of carrying a gun” (319). Gabe hits low-hanging branches. He is afraid of what comes next.