The Night She Disappeared

Drew asks Gabie about the frantic man. She rehashes their conversation but tells Drew that she doesn’t think he’s responsible. He seemed genuinely desperate, and his truck is brown, not white like the one described by the police. Drew knows from experience that the man’s behavior is indicative of being on methamphetamine. He also noticed that the man’s truck seemed poorly painted-over, like he had done it himself in a hurry.

Drew embraces Gabie and promises not to leave her alone again. They close the restaurant together, and as they walk out into the parking lot, Gabie asks Drew to come home with her because she doesn’t want to be in an empty house. Knowing his house will be empty as well, Drew agrees.

On the drive to her house, Gabie asks how Drew knew the man from Pete’s was on meth. Drew tells her that his life is not like hers, admitting that some people think of him as “white trash.” He recognized the man’s shifty, paranoid behavior because his own mom is addicted to meth after being introduced to the drug six months ago by her boyfriend. She has lost her job and lives off stolen groceries and Drew’s paycheck. He tried to call a hotline for help, but they refused to intervene unless she willingly submitted herself for treatment.

Drew and Gabie arrive at the Klug house and walk through each room, flicking on the lights. Gabie pours herself a glass of her parents’ Kahlúa, which Drew declines to drink. They sit on the living-room couch, and Gabie apologizes for her reaction when Drew used the word “cerulean.” Drew forgives her and asks if she still believes Kayla is alive. Gabie does, but her belief is waning. She laments that if she vanished, no one would care, because no one even sees her. Drew responds, “I see you” (142), and they kiss again.

Drew and Gabie kiss on the couch. Gabie takes off her shirt, and Drew senses that he can “do whatever [he] wants” (143), but he holds back because Gabie is clearly intoxicated. He takes her up to her room and tucks her into bed, then heads home on his longboard.

When Drew arrives at home, his mother is kneeling on the floor surrounded by boxes of stolen trinkets. Drew knows that she regularly breaks into houses and storage lockers. He thinks that this life can’t be the one she envisioned for herself and wonders, “Can you really change your destiny?” (147).

Kayla wonders if she will die in Robertson’s basement. She worries that she will “become some nameless dead girl” and wants to write a note to her family (148), but she has no writing implements. Robertson hasn’t touched her since he slapped her days ago, only entering the room to leave her small amounts of food. She tries to stay awake around the clock and spends her hours searching the room for anything that could aid her escape. Despite her circumstances, she hasn’t giving up on the hope of escaping.

The chapter ends with a note in the pocket of Kayla’s jeans, written in blood on a water-bottle wrapper. It reads, “IM KAYLA CUTLER TELL MY FAMILY I LOVE THEM” (152).

Gabie wakes up violently hungover. She vomits several times, convincing her parents that she has the flu and needs to stay home from school. After they leave for work, she drifts in and out of dreams about Kayla. In some dreams, she chases Kayla around countless street corners. In others, she sees Kayla sitting alone in a white room but can’t reach out to help her.

In the afternoon Gabie gets up to get ready for work. She cringes at her behavior from the previous night. While she is attracted to Drew, the reason she kept pushing things further is that being intimate with him seemed like “the only way […] to keep pushing past the fear” she has felt since Kayla’s disappearance (155).

At Pete’s, Drew is cordial to Gabie but won’t look her in the eyes. She wonders if he’s angry or embarrassed.

Drew is surprised to see Gabie at Pete’s. He feels awkward and unsure of how to greet her. Gabie tells him the alcohol made her act uncharacteristically. Drew interprets this as her saying she wouldn’t have kissed him sober. This hurts him, since he is developing strong romantic feelings for her.

Despite his bruised feelings, Drew tells Pete that it’s unsafe for Gabie to work with only one other person on shift. He relates the story of the strange man from the previous night, and Pete demands that he call the police.

Sergeant Thayer meets with Drew and Gabie at Pete’s. Thayer is annoyed at them for waiting to report the incident. He pulls out an envelope containing a picture of the frantic man, confirming that he is their prime suspect, Cody Renfrew. Thayer tells them that Cody attended their high school three years ago and so could have known Kayla. Drew believes Cody is innocent. He knows that people who have meth addictions are unlikely to devise a plan as complex as Kayla’s kidnapping, and Cody’s voice didn’t match that of Robertson’s when he called in the delivery order.

Drew tells Thayer that Cody probably painted his truck out of meth-induced paranoia after learning about the kidnapping. Thayer angrily responds that Drew would know about meth because of his mother. He tells Drew that she was arrested earlier in the day for breaking into a storage facility. Drew responds, “That’s my mom […] not me” (161).

Robertson enters the basement room holding a plate of food in one hand and a grocery bag in the other. He tells Kayla that he saw Gabie yesterday and reminds her that Gabie is the girl he wanted. Kayla thinks of Gabie’s tendency to blend in and wonders “how many people really do see [her]” (162). She notices an X-Acto knife in Robertson’s pocket. She worries that because he has expressed no sexual interest in her, she’s disposable.

Kayla thinks of Brock. He was always quiet and inexpressive during their relationship, and she broke up with him after meeting a 20-year-old college student named Nathan. Nathan was the man she was planning to meet on Friday and the reason she switched shifts with Gabie. Kayla would do anything to be out of this basement, even switch places with Gabie.

Robertson instructs Kayla to wash and change into the new clothes he’s brought her. When she opens the bag, Kayla finds a man’s shirt and shorts and a pair of used women’s underwear. She’s horrified by the revelation that the underwear must have belonged to a previous victim, realizing that another girl must have been kept prisoner in this room.

The chapter ends with a transcript of a radio broadcast. Host Rob Ranier interviews a retired FBI criminal profiler named Ike Stanley. Rob says that Kayla Cutler’s family has hired a psychic named Elizabeth Lamb to aid the investigation and asks Stanley whether he believes in psychics. Stanley replies that he is dubious of their efficacy because psychics tend to deal in broad, vague information. He doesn’t know of any cases that have been solved with the help of a psychic. Still, if a victim’s family requested a psychic, he would allow it, as he understands that they can bring closure to grieving families.