Chapter 13: July 23, 2021 – Summary and Analysis

⚠️ 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

Jerome Robinson drives to Vera Steinman’s modest home on Sycamore Street, a treeless neighborhood of closely packed tract houses. Vera answers the door looking put-together but smelling of gin and carrying a half-full glass. She invites Jerome in, telling him to remove his mask if he’s vaccinated.

Vera explains that her son Peter disappeared on November 27, 2018. Detective David Porter believed the boy ran away, citing Peter’s slipping grades, truancy, and acting out at school, plus interviews with guidance counselor Katya Graves. Graves had learned that Peter was ashamed of his mother’s drinking and had spoken of hitchhiking to Florida to live with an uncle. Yet no body was ever found, and Vera is certain Peter is dead. She recounts her own battle with alcoholism, her year of sobriety before Peter vanished—marked by a one-year chip—and how she relapsed six weeks after his disappearance.

She shows Jerome Peter’s bedroom, preserved as a shrine: a neatly made bed, posters of Rihanna, John Wick, and Captain America, a Lego Millennium Falcon, and his cell phone still in its dock. Propped in a corner is Peter’s Alameda skateboard, with his name and address written on it. Jerome learns that the board was found in Deerfield Park near Red Bank Avenue, not at the abandoned auto shop where Bonnie Dahl’s bicycle was discovered.

As Jerome prepares to leave, Vera’s knees buckle. She drops her glass and begins having seizures. Jerome catches her before she hits the floor.

Key Events

Jerome arrives at Vera’s house and notices the run-down condition and her heavy drinking.
Vera relates Peter’s disappearance and the police theory that he ran away due to her drinking and his school problems.
She confides that she believes Peter is dead, despite the lack of a body.
Vera describes her year of sobriety and subsequent relapse after losing Peter.
She leads Jerome to Peter’s untouched bedroom and shows him the skateboard found in Deerfield Park.
Jerome observes the skateboard has the owner’s name and address, much like Bonnie Dahl’s bike was marked.
Vera collapses from seizures; Jerome catches her.

Character Development

Jerome demonstrates deep empathy and professionalism. He listens without judgment, recognizes the effort Vera made to dress for him, and feels her grief acutely. His investigative instincts sharpen when he notes the similarities between Peter’s skateboard and Bonnie’s bicycle—clues left behind in specific locations that may indicate a pattern.

Vera Steinman is revealed as a woman of contradictions: her graceful voice and posture mask a daily struggle with alcohol. She is articulate yet fragile, maintaining composure until her body gives way. Her preserved bedroom for Peter shows her guilt and refusal to move on, while her relapse underscores how devastating loss can be for someone already vulnerable.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Alcoholism as coping: Vera’s drinking is both an escape from grief and a cause of past shame. Her relapse after Peter’s disappearance shows how trauma can undo recovery.
Preserved spaces as memory: Peter’s unchanged bedroom and the kept skateboard act as shrines, representing a mother’s inability to let go.
Parallel disappearances: Jerome’s recognition that both missing persons left behind a personal item in a distinct location (skateboard in a park, bike at an auto shop) hints at a possible connection and raises the stakes of the investigation.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter deepens the central mystery by introducing a second missing-person case with eerie similarities to Bonnie Dahl’s. It gives a human face to the victims’ families through Vera’s tragic story, and it sharpens Jerome’s suspicion that the two disappearances may be linked—moving the plot toward the possibility of a serial kidnapper. The chapter also provides essential background on Peter Steinman, whose case will likely become crucial to the overall narrative.

Study Questions and Answers

Why does Vera Steinman believe her son Peter is dead, even without a body?
Vera points to the lack of any contact and the fact that his skateboard was found in a park rather than with him. She also says that at night, when she cannot sleep, she simply knows he is gone.
What detail changes Jerome’s mind about a possible connection between Peter’s case and Bonnie Dahl’s?
Initially Jerome tells Vera there is probably no connection, but after learning that Peter’s skateboard was found in Deerfield Park—marked with his name and address, just as Bonnie’s bike was left at the auto shop—he begins to suspect there may be a pattern.
How does Vera’s preserved bedroom for Peter reflect her psychological state?
The untouched room reveals her inability to move on, her hope mixed with despair, and her guilt over the past. It functions as a shrine that keeps Peter’s memory alive while also trapping her in a cycle of grief and alcohol.