Chapter 27 Summary: Day 23

⚠️ 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 27 opens at 9:22 p.m. on Day 23. Anna hides in the eighth-floor housekeeping closet, squatting behind the carts, waiting to see who emerges from suite 808. She has not been asked to prep that suite in over a week, and she is determined to observe the guests leaving—not just who they are, but how they leave, remembering that someone once came out crying. Her legs burn from the crouch, and she lies flat on the floor to restore circulation before deciding it is “now or never.”

She wheels a vacuum into the hall and pretends to clean, hoping to mask her surveillance. When the elevator dings, she stomps the power button, but the vacuum goes dead—someone has pulled the plug. Fox grabs her arm and yanks her into the closet. He is agitated, his eyes bulging, and he accuses her of being where she shouldn’t be. Anna makes a weak excuse about glitter spilled by a washed-up pop star, but Fox is not interested. He tells her that a guest in room 216 called for shaving cream and orders her to deliver it.

Before she can leave, Fox asks a favor: Tanya needs Anna to cover Miss Jenny’s morning shift because Miss Jenny’s son Willie split his nose on a bumper. Anna agrees quickly, eager to escape. Fox releases her and points toward the elevator, but Anna notices he is staring at suite 808. She hesitates, watching him, until he turns and she hops into the elevator.

On the second floor, Anna grabs a can of Barbasol and rushes to room 216. After knocking twice, a bleary-eyed man opens the door and insists he never called for shaving cream—it is the wrong room. Anna realizes Fox lied to move her away from the eighth floor. She runs back toward the elevator, but two twentysomethings are already waiting to go down, so she bolts for the emergency stairwell instead, hoping to beat the elevator up six flights.

As she climbs, she hears uneven footsteps above her. She slows, her stomach churning, and considers escaping through the fourth-floor door. But her curiosity holds her steady. A young woman descends, her knobby knees visible beneath a green dress, greasy black hair hanging over her face. The woman does not notice Anna. She uses the wall for support, clumsy and uncoordinated. Anna realizes the woman is actually a kid, with copper skin—someone from the rez. The girl reminds Anna of Grace, and then of Tina Peltier, who left for Lafayette a year ago. Anna calls out “Tina?” but the girl does not respond. She continues down the stairs, and Anna watches her disappear around the landing.

Anna stands at the edge of the fourth-floor landing, torn between following the girl and checking suite 808. Her feet make the decision for her: she takes the stairs two at a time up to the eighth floor. The door is locked from the outside, but she pulls her access card from her sock and swipes it. She runs to suite 808, hesitates, then uses her keycard. The room is dark, empty, and trashed: overturned chairs, busted beer bottles, a splintered pool cue, and what looks like spit on the wall above the headboard. The usual signs of occupancy—melting ice, wet towels, cigarette smoke—are present, but the violence is new.

Anna’s nerves settle, and she fetches supplies from the housekeeping closet. She restores the suite to its original state, then descends to the office. She does not see Fox, so she leaves the can of shaving cream on his desk. After clocking out, she unbuttons her uniform and finally registers what the girl in the stairwell was wearing: not a dress, but a Vanda green chambermaid coat, identical to her own.

Key Events

Anna hides on the eighth floor to surveil suite 808, but Fox catches her and sends her away.
Fox asks Anna to cover Miss Jenny’s morning shift for Tanya, and she agrees.
Fox sends Anna to deliver shaving cream to room 216, but the guest says it is the wrong room—Anna realizes Fox lied.
Anna takes the stairs instead of the elevator and encounters a disoriented young girl from the rez descending in a green coat.
Anna chooses to go up to suite 808 rather than follow the girl, using her access card to enter.
She finds suite 808 empty and trashed, with overturned chairs, broken bottles, a splintered pool cue, and spit on the wall.
Anna restores the suite to its original state, leaves the shaving cream on Fox’s desk, and clocks out.
Only after clocking out does Anna realize the girl wore a Vanda chambermaid coat identical to her own.

Character Development

Anna’s behavior in this chapter shows a deepening conflict between her curiosity and her instinct for self-preservation. She risks being caught by Fox to observe the suite, and when she encounters the girl in the stairwell, she briefly considers following her—but her desire to see what is happening in 808 wins out. This choice reveals a growing obsession with uncovering the truth, even at the cost of ignoring a vulnerable person in need. Her decision to restore the suite, rather than report what she saw, also marks a troubling step toward complicity. She cleans up evidence of violence without questioning her role, and she does not tell anyone about the girl. The final realization—that the girl wore the same chambermaid coat—hits Anna only after she has clocked out, suggesting that she has been suppressing the connection between the hotel’s work and the disappearances of Indigenous women. Fox, meanwhile, is shown as manipulative and controlling, using a false errand to move Anna away from the eighth floor while he himself lingers near suite 808. His request for Anna to cover a shift is framed as a favor, but it also keeps her within his orbit.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Surveillance and Deception: Anna’s hidden observation is countered by Fox’s lie about the shaving cream. Both characters use secrecy to control information, but Fox’s deception is more deliberate and sinister.
Violence against Indigenous Women: The trashed suite—overturned chairs, broken bottles, a splintered pool cue, and spit on the wall—suggests a recent violent encounter. The girl in the stairwell, disoriented and from the rez, hints at the human cost of this violence, though Anna does not yet connect the dots.
Exploitation and Complicity: Anna’s act of restoring the suite makes her an unwitting participant in hiding evidence. The chambermaid coat she wears is the same as the girl’s, symbolizing how the hotel’s labor force—largely Indigenous women—is both exploited and implicated in the cycle of violence.
Curiosity vs. Self-Preservation: Anna’s internal debate about whether to follow the girl or check the suite encapsulates her struggle. She chooses the suite, prioritizing her need to know over her instinct to help, which may have consequences.
Hidden Violence: The violence in suite 808 is concealed by the hotel’s routine—the melting ice, wet towels, and cigarette smoke mask the signs of struggle. Anna’s restoration of the room perpetuates this concealment.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter is pivotal because it brings Anna face-to-face with the physical evidence of violence that has been hinted at throughout the novel. The trashed suite is the first concrete sign that something terrible happens in room 808, and Anna’s decision to clean it up—rather than report it—marks a moral turning point. The encounter with the girl in the stairwell, who wears the same chambermaid coat as Anna, directly ties the hotel’s staff to the victims of the disappearances. Anna’s failure to follow the girl, and her later realization about the coat, sets up a growing sense of guilt and responsibility that will likely drive her actions in subsequent chapters. The chapter also deepens Fox’s role as a manipulator, showing how he uses lies and favors to control Anna and keep her away from the truth. For readers, this chapter raises the stakes: Anna is no longer just a curious observer but an active participant in the hotel’s secrets, and the cost of her complicity is only beginning to surface.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Anna choose to go up to suite 808 instead of following the girl in the stairwell?

Anna’s feet make the decision for her, taking the stairs two at a time up to the eighth floor. Her curiosity about what happens in suite 808 overrides her instinct to help the disoriented girl. She has been waiting for over a week to see who emerges from the suite, and when she finally has a chance to investigate, she cannot resist. The girl’s resemblance to Grace and Tina Peltier does not stop Anna; she is focused on uncovering the truth about the room, even at the cost of ignoring a vulnerable person.

2. What does Fox’s lie about the shaving cream reveal about his control over Anna?

Fox’s lie—sending Anna to room 216 when no one called for shaving cream—shows that he is willing to deceive her to keep her away from the eighth floor. He uses a mundane errand as a pretext, and when Anna discovers the lie, she realizes he is actively managing her movements. This reveals that Fox sees Anna as a tool to be directed, not a person to be trusted. His control is subtle but effective, and Anna’s compliance—she delivers the shaving cream and later leaves it on his desk—shows how easily he can manipulate her.

3. How does Anna’s act of restoring suite 808 make her complicit in the violence?

By cleaning up the overturned chairs, broken bottles, and spit on the wall, Anna erases the evidence of whatever happened in the suite. She does not report the damage or the girl she saw, and she does not question why Fox is so interested in the room. Her restoration makes the violence invisible, allowing the hotel to continue its operations without scrutiny. This act of complicity is underscored by the final revelation that the girl wore the same chambermaid coat as Anna, suggesting that Anna is both a victim and a participant in the system that exploits Indigenous women.