Opening
The investigation flips from idle watching to risky action as Casey and Boone step into the world of the missing women. Boone’s confession about his past cracks open a vulnerable bond with Casey—just as a chilling confrontation with Tom makes the danger personal and a final phone call casts Boone in a startling new light.
What Happens
Chapter 5: Now
After Wilma Anson leaves, Casey Fletcher finds Boone Conrad on the porch, binoculars locked on the Royce house. Convinced Tom Royce is a serial killer, Boone insists they stop merely watching and start digging. He urges a visit to the store owned by Megan Keene’s parents, believing Tom may have crossed paths with her there. Casey balks at getting pulled in deeper, but the alternative—stagnating with the lake, the house across it, and her thoughts—feels worse. She agrees. Boone sweetens it with a promise of ice cream.
The Keene family store—a hybrid of market and tourist trap—throws them an emotional curveball: the girl at the counter looks exactly like Megan. For a breathless beat, Casey thinks the nightmare is over. Then she realizes it’s Megan’s younger sister. Boone tries to slip questions about Tom into friendly small talk, even flashing his Mixer app as a pretext, but the girl doesn’t recognize him or the angle. The exchange goes brittle. To save them both, Casey improvises—calling Boone her “boyfriend” and asking for a local ice cream recommendation. Boone takes her hand to sell the act, and the two leave with cones and an uneasy silence.
Outside, Casey catches the sister’s distant, grieving stare and feels the ache of it. They learned nothing concrete, but the encounter turns the missing girl from a case file into a person with a devastated family—and makes the stakes harder to ignore.
Chapter 6: Before
In Boone’s truck, they debrief over melting ice cream. Boone’s “cop’s instinct” says Tom probably came by the store when Megan—not her sister—was working. Casey asks why he left the force. Boone admits he was suspended for being drunk on duty and nearly shooting a man. The close call forced him sober. Grief after his wife’s death dragged him under, mirroring the hole Casey lives with after Len. When Boone gently wipes a smear of ice cream from Casey’s lip, the gesture feels like a move. Casey isn’t ready; she leans away.
Driving past the Royce house, they spot Tom chatting amiably with Wilma. Then Tom sees Casey in Boone’s truck. The charm drains from his face, replaced by a cold, knowing glare. Back home, Casey refuses Boone’s unspoken offer to come in. She wants to be alone—to drink. Bourbon dulls the edges as her thoughts sink to the lake bottom where she imagines the missing women lie. The pull of Trauma, Grief, and Substance Abuse tightens; she drinks “to forget” and resumes her vigil.
Across the water, Tom stands on his dock, binoculars leveled at her. He drives his Bentley around the lake and pounds on Casey’s door, shouting that he knows she was in his house and she needs to mind her own business. Casey, drunk and terrified, drops her phone, locks the doors, and hides until the world blurs out. A second knock filters through the fog—Boone’s voice—before he lets himself in through the unlocked basement door, scoops her up, and carries her to bed.
Casey wakes to Boone making breakfast. He explains he saw Tom’s car and got worried, then stayed in the guest room after checking on her. As the hangover lifts, Casey remembers a photo she snapped of an incoming call on Katherine Royce’s phone during her break-in. Thinking it could be a concerned relative, she dials. Boone’s phone rings.
Character Development
The chapters deepen trust and suspicion at the same time. Casey and Boone find themselves mirrored in grief and addiction, yet proximity creates both intimacy and doubt.
- Casey Fletcher: Torn between fear and the need to act, she pushes past paralysis and joins Boone’s off-book investigation. Her empathy peaks at the sight of Megan’s sister. But drinking as refuge leaves her vulnerable, triggers a blackout, and nearly puts her in Tom’s path.
- Boone Conrad: His confession—suspension for drinking on duty and a near shooting—humanizes him and explains his quick move toward sobriety. He’s protective, decisive, and gentle with Casey, yet the final phone call ties him to Katherine’s world in a way that recasts his motives.
- Tom Royce: He shifts from distant suspicion to active threat. The pleasant neighbor chatting with Wilma becomes the man who pounds on Casey’s door and snarls warnings, embodying the mask-and-monster duality.
Themes & Symbols
The act of watching changes hands. Voyeurism and Obsession turns predatory when Tom raises his own binoculars, flipping Casey from observer to prey. The balance of power tilts, and observation becomes a weapon—less curiosity than confrontation.
Casey and Boone’s confessions tie their arcs to Trauma, Grief, and Substance Abuse. Boone’s rock-bottom story offers a path through pain; Casey’s descent into bourbon shows how fear and loss feed compulsions. Boone’s protective urgency reads as Guilt and Atonement: solving Katherine’s case might redeem past failures. Meanwhile, Tom’s smooth public persona versus his private menace sharpens Deception and Misleading Appearances.
Symbolically, the lake holds the novel’s secrets. Its placid surface conceals imagined bodies and buried truth. Staring into it, Casey projects guilt, dread, and the pull of forgetting—water as oblivion and grave.
Key Quotes
“We can’t just sit and watch.”
Boone’s push reframes the story from passive surveillance to active risk. It also signals his need to do something—anything—to counter his past failures.
“Why did you quit being a cop?”
Casey’s question opens the door to Boone’s confession, aligning their grief. Her curiosity isn’t just investigative; it’s a grasp for connection she’s not ready to accept.
“Mind your own business.”
Tom’s threat at the door collapses rumor into reality. The danger Casey imagines steps into her hallway and sets the rules of engagement.
The lake “holding the bodies” in Casey’s mind.
This recurring image fuses her fear with the setting, turning the landscape into a metaphor for denial, memory, and the lengths one will go to avoid the surface of truth.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters escalate the conflict from distant suspicion to direct menace: Tom recognizes Casey as an adversary and acts on it. The investigation shifts into an amateur partnership that feels promising—until the phone call twist reframes Boone from ally to possible suspect, detonating the trust just built.
Emotionally, Boone’s confession and rescue draw him and Casey closer, only for the final reveal to upend their fragile bond. The novel pivots here: the mystery expands beyond Tom, the lines between helper and threat blur, and Casey’s choices—compelled by grief and numbed by alcohol—carry sharper, more immediate consequences.