Chapter 23 — 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

Chapter 23 opens with Mallory and Adrian trapped inside Mitzi's house, confronted by a young, heavily tattooed police officer who orders them outside and frisks them against the brick wall. Two more officers stretch yellow crime-scene tape across the yard, and Mallory notices movement deeper in the forest—investigators searching the woods. Adrian protests the treatment, but Mallory, drawing on her Philadelphia upbringing, recognizes the officer is being comparatively lenient.

Detectives Briggs and Kohr arrive and separate the pair. Briggs, a short Black woman in off-the-rack business attire, sits Mallory at a rusty patio table and explains that Mitzi was found dead in the woods about an hour earlier by a couple of kids. She was wearing only a nightgown—no shoes, no jewelry—and there were no visible signs of injury. Briggs asks Mallory to account for her movements and her relationship with Mitzi. Mallory explains the séance from Thursday morning, when Mitzi brought her spirit board to the cottage, and admits she entered Mitzi's house because the back door was open and she was worried. Briggs checks Mallory's pockets, releases her, and then asks one final question: who is the ghost they were trying to reach? When Mallory names Annie Barrett, Briggs—a local who grew up in Corrigan—dismisses the story as a