Chapter summaries The Missing Half Ashley Flowers

Chapter Twenty-Three Summary: The Fishing Trip Alibi

⚠️ 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

Nic arrives at her childhood home on a Saturday evening, feeling exasperated that Jenna has not messaged her. The past few days have been a blur of work at Funland and an extra AA meeting, leaving little time to coordinate with Jenna. Their plan is for Nic to have dinner alone with her dad, then claim a friend is picking her up so Jenna can engineer an entry. As Nic eats ham-and-cheese sandwiches with her father, she makes small talk about work and his job at the fish hatchery. Jenna fails to show up, so Nic decides to proceed with the questioning herself.

She steers the conversation toward Brad, asking when her dad last saw him. Her dad mentions their weekly beers, but Brad missed last night because he went to Nyona with Sandy for a reunion. Nic then asks about the annual fishing trip they take every summer. Her dad confirms it happens the first weekend in August and has been a tradition since before Nic was born, but then he hesitates and reveals they missed one year—2012. He starts to say it was “right before” something, then cuts himself off, and Nic knows he almost said “right before Kasey went missing.” The revelation suggests Brad may not have an alibi for the time of Kasey’s disappearance.

Key Events

  • Nic arrives at her father’s house, anxious and without Jenna.
  • She and her father share a meal, making cautious small talk.
  • Nic asks about Brad’s weekly visits and the annual fishing trip.
  • Her father confirms the fishing trip is a long-standing tradition.
  • He then recalls that they missed one year: 2012.
  • The chapter ends with Nic realizing this was the year Kasey vanished.

Character Development

  • Nic: Shows determination as she takes on the questioning alone despite her nerves. Her relationship with her father remains strained; she avoids direct references to Kasey and feels the weight of their conversational landmines. The revelation gives her both relief (Brad might be innocent for Jules) and new worry (2012 alibi gap).
  • Nic’s Father: Portrayed as a man who avoids painful topics, especially the DWI and Kasey’s disappearance. He is proud of the fishing tradition but reveals the missed year without realizing its significance. His clear discomfort when almost mentioning Kasey shows his lingering grief.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

  • The Unchanged House: The living room and furniture remain frozen in time, symbolizing how the family is stuck in the past and unable to move past Kasey’s disappearance.
  • Conversational Landmines: Nic must navigate topics her father refuses to discuss, representing the family’s avoidance of painful truths.
  • Memory and Denial: Her father’s initial confident claim that the trip never wavered, then his correction, shows how memory can be selective—and how denial can shield a person from confronting the past.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter delivers a crucial piece of the puzzle: Brad’s alibi for Kasey’s disappearance is called into question. Until now, Nic assumed Brad was innocent of involvement with Kasey, but her father’s offhand remark that the fishing trip was missed in 2012 opens the door to a direct link between Brad and the night Kasey went missing. It also deepens the emotional rift between Nic and her dad, as she must dig for answers while he remains oblivious to her true motives.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Nic feel exasperated when she first arrives at her father’s house?
She sees no notifications from Jenna, who was supposed to join her for the interview. Nic had been too busy to check in, and Jenna’s silence makes her worried that the plan will fall apart.

2. What does Nic learn about the 2012 fishing trip, and why is it significant?
Her father remembers that Brad could not make the trip in 2012, the same year Kasey disappeared. This absence means Brad does not have a reliable alibi for the night of Kasey’s abduction, casting suspicion on him.

3. How does Nic’s strained relationship with her father affect the conversation?
She must carefully choose words to avoid triggering her father’s defensiveness, especially about Kasey and his DWI. The conversational landmines make the interview tense and indirect, highlighting the emotional distance between them.

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