The Night She Disappeared

Gabie and Drew approach Pete and ask him to change the schedule so that they can work together. Pete agrees, then tells them in confidence that police found a bloody rock and signs of a struggle near Kayla’s car. They are running DNA tests to see if it matches Kayla.

Gabie recalls meeting Drew’s mother, a young and disheveled-looking woman, when she came into Pete’s Pizza a few weeks ago. Upon seeing her, a middle-aged man who tried and failed to flirt with Gabie earlier perked up at the sight of “fresh meat.” Gabie initially thought she was one of Drew’s customers; it’s common knowledge that people can “buy weed off Drew Lyle” (56). Instead, Drew’s mother asked to borrow money from him.

Drew and Gabie go to Starbucks, where Gabie pays for Drew’s drink. Gabie confesses to Drew that she still worries about Robertson. He asked for her first, and he might still be after her. Her parents are rarely home due to their demanding jobs, so she’s often alone in the house and scared. Drew can relate, as his mother often goes home with strange men and leaves him alone overnight.

Gabie asks Drew to accompany her to the spot where Kayla vanished. She enters the fake address given by Robertson into MapQuest, and Drew drives them to the isolated spot by the river. Someone has put up a white cross for Kayla.

After exiting the car, Gabie asks Drew to chase her down to the river, so she can know “what it was like for Kayla” (63).

Gabie imagines Kayla running in the dark. She has seen Kayla steal bases and knows she’s fast. Gabie wonders why Kayla got out of her car—and why she didn’t get back in. All she can think about is Kayla’s last moments of freedom, trying to imagine the sequence of events. She wonders whether Kayla’s attacker “slapped her, tore off her clothes […] or hit her with a rock” (66). Panicking, she starts to run.

Drew chases after Gabie, begging her to stop, but Gabie runs all the way down to the river, only stopping when she reaches the patch of churned riverbank where the struggle took place. Gabie kicks off her shoes and plunges into the river. Drew follows her, but he’s not a strong swimmer, and he starts to struggle in the water. Gabie pulls him back to shore, where he angrily accuses her of almost killing him. Gabie starts to sob, reiterating that it was supposed to be her and not Kayla. Drew begs her not to endanger herself out of guilt. Gabie admits that she still believes Kayla is alive.

Overwhelmed by the night’s events, Drew starts to laugh. Gabie is known as a quiet, responsible “good girl,” and her erratic actions don’t fit with that image. Gabie retorts that she feels responsible for Kayla’s abduction because she agreed to trade shifts. She says it makes sense that Kayla was taken instead of her because Kayla is prettier. Drew asks whether she’s saying that pretty girls deserve “whatever happens to them” (71). She denies it, but he’s not convinced.

The chapter ends with a transcript of a 911 call. An unknown male caller (presumably Robertson) advises the operator to ask a Cody Renfrew about Kayla’s abduction. Cody has recently painted his white truck brown, after the news broke that a white truck was involved in Kayla’s abduction.

It’s midnight, and Gabie’s parents are still at work. Gabie is alone in her room clicking through missingkids.com. She starts to cry as she looks at the computer-generated age progressions for kids who never came home.

The chapter ends with several inserts: The first is a report from the City of Roses Lab. The DNA from Kayla’s toothbrush matches the DNA from the bloodied rock by the river.

The second is a questionnaire from the website of criminal-defense attorney Trevor Smith. Smith explains that no one should ever speak to the police without first consulting an attorney, because the police can and will lie to further their investigation.

The final insert is a transcript of a police interview with Cody Renfrew. Cody is interviewed by Sergeant Thayer and an FBI special agent named Berkeley Moore. Thayer and Moore read Cody his rights and then begin to address him in an accusatory tone. They tell him that his DNA has been found on the bloody rock near the river, but Cody exclaims that there must have been a mistake at the lab.

Moore tries to probe Cody into admitting guilt. The police know that Cody sells off old scrap metal near the Willamette for extra cash. Moore asks if Kayla caught Cody and picked a fight with him, claiming that some have described her as “real mean.” He suggests that Cody reacted in anger and accidentally killed Kayla. Cody continues to deny involvement and claim that he saw another car by the river that night, but he admits that he painted his white truck brown to avoid police scrutiny in the wake of Kayla’s disappearance. Finally, Cody shuts down the interview by declining to answer any more of their leading questions.

Thayer and Moore ask Cody if he would be willing to meet with a psychic named Elizabeth Lamb, who has been hired by Kayla’s family. Cody reluctantly agrees.

Reentering school on Monday, Gabie feels uncomfortably watched by her fellow students. At lunch, Brock Chambers approaches her and asks her if they can talk for a moment—Gabie is taken aback, as Brock is part of the popular crowd and has never noticed her before. As they sit together, she looks into his eyes and knows he would never hurt Kayla.

Brock asks Gabie whether Kayla switched shifts because she had a date on Friday night. Privately, Gabie suspects this is the truth, but she answers noncommittally.

On her way back to class, Gabie sees Kayla’s locker decorated with flowers and tributes. She wonders: “If I disappeared, who […] would really miss me?” (90).

The basement room contains a small stash of water bottles and a box of granola bars that Kayla has long since eaten. She drifts in and out of sleep, trying to ignore intensifying hunger pains.

When Kayla wakes up, Robertson is standing over her bed. He has dark hair and wears wire-framed glasses. He looks vaguely familiar. Kayla tries to bolt for the door, but Robertson yanks her back, calling her a “bad, dirty girl” (92). He demands that Kayla call him “master.” When she refuses, he slaps her so hard she careens into a wall and reopens her head wound. Defeated, Kayla addresses him as master.