David Winters

Quick Facts

• Role: Basement tenant and on-call handyman; chief red herring who intensifies the novel’s suspense
• First appearance: Early in the novel as the new tenant beneath Anna Fox
• Key ties: Landlady Anna; hired by Alistair Russell; fling with Katie, whom Anna mistakes for Jane Russell

Who They Are

A handsome, tight-lipped handyman, David Winters is the novel’s most convincing misdirection: a noir-tinged figure with a criminal past who looks guilty at all the wrong moments. Through him, Anna’s hunches feel plausible even when they’re wrong; his presence constantly tests what can be trusted and what can’t, embodying the theme of Perception vs. Reality. He also stands in stark contrast to Anna’s static existence—he works, dates, and moves through the city—highlighting her immobilizing Isolation and Agoraphobia.

Personality & Traits

On the surface, David is blunt, capable, and disinclined to share. Underneath, he’s a man rigorously guarding the second chance he’s earned, which makes his reticence look like menace to a neighbor primed to see danger in shadows.

• Reserved and taciturn: His initial email is “terse, even curt,” and in person he is economical with words, rarely smiling or offering more than necessary.
• Practical and direct: He asks why Anna keeps the house so dark, deals briskly with a dead rat and a ceiling leak, and treats problems like jobs to finish—not dramas to perform.
• Intensely private: He keeps “lady friends” off the record and explodes when Anna invades his apartment, showing how fiercely he protects his space and boundaries.
• Guarded past: Having served time for assault, he’s wary of scrutiny; that defensiveness easily reads as guilt to Anna, who fills in the blanks with fear.
• Rugged noir allure: Anna lingers on his looks—“long jaw, his eyes like trapdoors, dark and deep,” “Gregory Peck after a late evening”—a charisma that both entices and alarms her.
• Boundary-setting: “You wouldn’t like it if I went into your space. Uninvited.” His blunt ethics around privacy foreshadow how badly trespass will rupture their fragile coexistence.

Character Journey

David’s “arc” is less transformation than revelation—of Anna’s projections. He arrives as the quiet tenant; a series of coincidences then reframes him as a threat: he does odd jobs for Alistair Russell, borrows an X-Acto knife, and ends up with a pearl earring that Anna ties to a supposed murder. When Anna uncovers his assault conviction, she secures him in her mind as the culprit—until the living-room confrontation unspools her case. David calmly provides an alibi, and the narrative Anna built around him collapses. In the aftermath, his startled compassion at the truth of Anna’s family tragedy curdles into discomfort. He opts out—“too weird”—and moves on, leaving Anna alone with the wreckage of her perceptions.

Key Relationships

• Anna Fox: Their landlord-tenant tie is warped by proximity, loneliness, and surveillance. David fixes what’s broken but never offers intimacy; Anna turns him into a fantasy and a suspect, then violates his privacy, confirming his worst fear that being known equals being endangered. His final decision to leave is both self-protection and a harsh measure of how far Anna’s delusions have pushed people away.

• Katie: David knows her as “Katherine,” and their fling is ordinary—until Anna misreads the pearl earring Katie leaves behind as evidence tied to Jane. This small, human encounter becomes a major, misleading clue, deepening the novel’s web of Deception and Secrets.

• Alistair Russell: David’s paid handyman work for Alistair provides the neat, suspicious connection Anna thinks she needs. In a world where coincidence feels like conspiracy, this professional tie is enough to recast David as an accomplice—until proof and timelines puncture the illusion.

Defining Moments

David’s key scenes show how normal objects and actions—tools, privacy, a hookup—turn sinister when filtered through Anna’s fear.

• The Box Cutter: He borrows an X-Acto knife to work at the Russell house. Significance: A harmless tool becomes, in Anna’s mind, a murder weapon, illustrating how her plausible inferences slide into paranoia.
• The Apartment Invasion: Anna breaks into his basement unit; David’s furious “What the fuck are you doing?” lays bare his need for control over his space. Significance: The confrontation forces his prison past into the open and flips the power dynamic—he’s no longer the watcher but the watched.
• The Living-Room Alibi: When police confront him, he stays cool, supplies an alibi, and the case against him evaporates. Significance: The moment dismantles the narrative scaffolding Anna built, exposing the gap between what she sees and what is true.
• Departure: After learning the truth about Anna’s family and the blueprints, he leaves a curt note and moves out. Significance: His exit is a quiet judgment; the ordinary world withdraws from Anna, isolating her further.

Essential Quotes

“Bulbs need changing? It’s dark in here.” This deadpan practicality sets David’s tone: he sees problems and fixes them. The line also resonates thematically—light versus darkness—hinting at the gulf between what can be illuminated (burnt-out bulbs) and what can’t (Anna’s distorted perceptions).

“I did some time... Assault. Against a man.” The confession is disarming in its bluntness and strategically vague, offering just enough to satisfy the police and alarm Anna. It crystallizes how biography becomes weaponized in a paranoid context: a past fact is repurposed as present evidence.

“You wouldn’t like it if I went into your space. Uninvited.” David articulates the moral center of his character: boundaries are sacred. The line rebukes Anna’s voyeurism and foreshadows the rupture their boundary-crossing will cause, reframing his “mystery” as self-protection, not concealment.

“So the kid in that picture downstairs—she’s dead? And when you wanted me to save those blueprints, those were for a dead guy?” His stunned questions peel back suspicion to reveal disbelief and pity. In one breath, the novel repositions David from suspect to witness, emphasizing how little he actually knew—and how much Anna projected onto him.