Opening
The investigation turns inward as one careless detail inside the Wooler home reshapes the entire case. With Avery Wooler missing, William Wooler lies to protect himself—and the lie isolates him from everyone who could save him.
What Happens
Chapter 6: The Search and a Shocking Discovery
In driving rain, Ryan Blanchard joins a volunteer search through the woods and fields behind the Wooler home, grimly expecting they are looking for a body. Walking beside his father, Al Blanchard, Ryan feels a widening emotional gulf—a “chasm” he knows he helped create—and dreams of leaving Stanhope. At home, Nora Blanchard trembles over the possibility that her affair with William will be exposed; terrified and steeped in Guilt and Blame, she thinks of her burner phone, sinks to her knees, and prays.
Across town, Erin Wooler braces against panic. She worries Michael’s guilt over telling Avery about the spare key will crush him, and she senses William’s support only as a brittle performance. Detectives Bledsoe and Detective Gully reveal a pivotal detail: Avery’s jean jacket hangs on a hook too high for her to reach, proving someone else is in the house after school. The Wooler home becomes a crime scene. Shock rolls through the room—Erin sways; William turns “ashen”—as the family’s polished surface gives way to Appearance vs. Reality.
Chapter 7: A Desperate Lie and a Lonely Girl’s Diary
In the hotel bathroom, William vomits from fear and self-loathing as the realization hits: he is the one who hung the jacket. He sees how every chance to admit he was home has already slipped away. Locked inside Deceit and Lies, he doubles down—he will deny being in the house, conceal the affair, and pray no one finds the burner phone hidden in his car.
Back at the Wooler residence, Gully supervises forensics. The house appears too tidy for a child’s afternoon—maybe someone cleaned. She finds Avery’s diary: a record of a lonely girl with no close friends, tender but offering no recent clue. The jacket and the domestic neatness nudge Gully toward a parent as the likely “someone else.” Late that night, Nora hears Al and Ryan come home empty-handed from the search. Ryan lingers, wanting to speak, then withdraws upstairs—an echo of the Blanchards’ own Family Dysfunction, mirroring the fractures next door.
Chapter 8: The Interrogation Begins
Morning news shows the Wooler home wrapped in tape. Furious that they look like suspects, Erin accompanies William to the station. Separated, William faces Bledsoe and Gully, who have already learned he wasn’t at his practice or the hospital. With no verifiable timeline, he invents a solitary “long drive,” refusing details. Pressed about his marriage and Avery’s behavior, William briefly considers the motel as an alibi but rejects it—the affair would surface, and he paid cash under an alias. He insists he wasn’t home and waits while they interview Erin.
Chapter 9: A Family’s Secrets Unravel
In another room, Erin presents a clean alibi—work colleagues can confirm her schedule. When told William has none, she defends him, but her confidence shows cracks. Questions about William’s temper and their marriage land hard. Meanwhile, Michael waits alone, ricocheting between shame and fear, remembering explosive fights and times William slapped Avery.
With Erin present, Michael’s interview begins. “Was your father home?”—No. “Does he lose his temper with Avery?” A long hesitation, then the confession that sometimes his father slapped her “to calm her down.” The words hang between mother and son, collapsing the last of Erin’s faith and sharpening the detectives’ focus on William.
Chapter 10: Tunnel Vision and Shifting Blame
Gully reviews the interviews—William’s missing alibi and history of hitting his daughter are damning—but worries Bledsoe may succumb to tunnel vision. Nora hears from Al that the Wooler house is officially a crime scene and that the town likely suspects William. She reflexively defends him, drawing startled looks from Al and Ryan, then walks her daughter to school past the cordoned-off home, sick with dread.
Bledsoe articulates his theory: William kills Avery inside—perhaps smothering her—then uses the privacy of the garage to load her body into his trunk and drive away unseen. No witnesses. No cameras. No trace in the woods. Later, back at the hotel, the Woolers implode. William demands to know what Erin told the police; Erin demands to know where he really was. He repeats the “drive.” She reveals Michael’s admission about the slapping. William reels, feeling betrayed; Erin fires back the only verdict she has left: “This is on you.”
Character Development
As suspicion narrows, each character hardens into a role—suspect, accuser, bystander—yet those roles expose fault lines that predate Avery’s disappearance. Lies meant to protect instead isolate, and every attempt to control the narrative multiplies the damage.
- William Wooler: Recast from beleaguered father to man trapped in his own cover-up; his violence toward Avery surfaces, and without an alibi he becomes the investigation’s center.
- Erin Wooler: Shifts from united spouse to wary skeptic; her trust dissolves as William’s secrecy and Michael’s confession force her to prioritize truth over loyalty.
- Nora Blanchard: Immobilized by fear of exposure; her reflexive defense of William reveals how her private guilt warps judgment.
- Detective Gully: Quietly methodical and empathetic; she resists premature conclusions and reads domestic details—the jacket, the tidiness—as meaningful.
- Michael Wooler: Crushed by responsibility; he cannot maintain the family’s secrets under pressure and becomes the unwilling catalyst for the case against his father.
Themes & Symbols
Themes
These chapters braid together four forces that drive the plot inward. Deceit and Lies isolate William: every falsehood narrows his options until the truth becomes too incriminating to admit. Appearance vs. Reality shatters as the Woolers’ respectable image collapses—what looks safe and orderly hides danger and rage.
Family Dysfunction frames both households: the Blanchards’ silent “chasm” mirrors the Woolers’ volatility, showing how secrecy and avoidance corrode families. Finally, Guilt and Blame drive choices—Michael’s confession, Nora’s prayers, Erin’s accusations—turning private shame into public consequence.
Symbols
- Avery’s Jacket: Hung on a hook too high for her, the jacket flips the investigation from an external threat to an internal one. It’s the single, domestic detail that exposes a presence in the house, unspooling William’s lies and reorienting the case around the family.
Key Quotes
He feels a “chasm” separating him from both his parents.
Ryan’s word captures the Blanchards’ quiet estrangement and sets a baseline of fracture that the crisis will magnify. It also mirrors the Woolers’ gap between their public image and private reality.
William’s face goes “ashen.”
That split-second reaction marks the moment the jacket detail implicates him psychologically. The color draining from his face becomes a tell: knowledge he hopes to hide is already written on his body.
Sometimes he slapped her “to calm her down.”
Michael’s phrasing exposes the family’s rationalization of violence. The euphemism “calm her down” is precisely what convinces detectives that harm could escalate behind closed doors.
“This is on you.”
Erin’s blunt accusation closes the door on marital solidarity. It crystallizes the theme of blame and signals that, from this point on, William stands alone.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters pivot the novel from search to suspicion. The high-hook jacket moves the narrative inside the Wooler home, transforming William’s private lies into public liabilities and making him the prime suspect without a body or direct forensic proof. The interrogation sequence dismantles the family’s facade, supplying motive (anger), opportunity (no alibi), and a pattern of harm (the slapping) that lets Bledsoe build a coherent—if unproven—theory.
At the same time, Gully’s caution against tunnel vision keeps the story unsettled, preserving doubt and inviting scrutiny of every household touched by the case. By the end of Chapter 10, the investigation has split the Woolers, paralyzed the Blanchards, and turned a missing-person case into a crucible that exposes what each character is willing to hide—and whom they’re willing to sacrifice.