Chapter 20 Summary, Analysis, and Key Takeaways
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
Marlowe begins the chapter by recalling her fifth-grade teacher, Ms. Bamber, who used to offer extra credit for solving logic brainteasers. Marlowe excelled at these puzzles, though she could never fully explain how she solved them—the final steps always blurred into a buzz of satisfaction. Now, alone on the grounds of Morning House, holding a human tooth she found under a patio stone, she applies that same puzzle-solving instinct to the mystery around her.
She assembles the clues she has gathered: the floating cushion and paddleboard cast off from the island, the dry spot under a misplaced yoga mat, the camera, and Riki's stories about past deaths at Morning House—a boy who did not like to swim found in the water, and a girl who went mad and danced off the roof. Marlowe reflects that people in this house either fell or drowned, and she thinks of Chris, who fell from another place.
Looking up at the stone face of the building, she studies the balcony where Clara Ralston fell long ago. She imagines the brutal landing and the possibility of teeth scattering like a terrible piñata. Examining the tooth she holds, she notices it is clean and creamy, not dirty or brown like the bones she has seen on television shows. The broken edge is sharp. She looks up at the mullioned balcony edge, which has a castle-like pattern that reminds her of teeth.
The idea that has been assembling in the back of her mind now takes shape: Dr. Henson had been doing yoga on that same high balcony the morning she vanished—the exact spot where Clara Ralston fell. Marlowe concludes that Dr. Henson was murdered. She briefly resists the thought, telling herself she would not be staying in a house where a murder had happened, but the evidence will not let her go.
The sky has turned a dark shade of green as a storm approaches. Marlowe drags the cushions inside and decides she must hide the tooth and act normal until she can hand it to the police once the storm clears. She hurries through the hall, down the back steps, past the kitchen, through the tunnel, and to the playhouse where her room is. She notes that her door has no lock.
For hiding the tooth, she chooses the cap of the lipstick Akilah gave her. She drops the tooth into the cap and presses it back on, acknowledging that a lipstick tube covered in her DNA may not be the ideal place for evidence, but it makes the most sense to her in the moment.
Van appears at her doorway without her hearing him, startling her. He announces that the power will go out for sure and insists they have a duty to eat all the ice cream. Marlowe hesitates, wondering if this is the moment to start following people to second locations, but she plays it cool and goes with him.
In the basement kitchen, the others—Tom, Liani, and the rest except Riki—are gathered. Tom lists the ice cream flavors available, and Marlowe gratefully accepts a half-full pint of Moose Tracks. The lights hum and fade to a low orange. Van proposes a storm party: they should sleep in the big house, in the fancy beds. Liani objects that the beds smell musty, but Van insists on adventure.
The rain begins to hammer down against the basement windows with force like rocks. Marlowe digs into her ice cream, but the chocolate bits require chewing and remind her of teeth. She realizes there is one more step she needs to take: a call she has been putting off. She tells the others she wants to call home to let her parents know she is okay.
She creeps back through the dark basement, up the steps, and into the grand hall of Morning House. The lamps barely hold back the gloom. She calls Akilah. The phone rings several times, and just as Marlowe expects voice mail, Akilah answers. There is noise behind her—clanking, people talking. Marlowe feels her stomach drop at the sound of Akilah's voice.
Akilah says she heard something happened to the woman who hired Marlowe; it has been on the news. Marlowe tries to sound casual and says,