Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter Summary

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then, Silas had seldom visited Chabot. On these visits, he had always spent his evenings with his old school friends rather than with her, refusing to see that his mother was starving from loneliness. The cabin is completely overgrown with vegetation and he has to push it back to find the front door. Inside is still their old furniture. The glass from the window is broken and he can see that somebody has dug a grave underneath his old bed. It seems, that he has found the place where the missing girl is buried. Chapter 9 Larry makes a new friend, Wallace Stringfellow Larry is now thirty-one and his mother has just moved into the nursing home. He notices that someone is going into the barn while he is not at home. He tells his mother about it and she advises him to lock the door. But Larry tries it in a different way: One day he doesn't go to work but hides in the barn. When he hears someone coming in, he puts on his old zombie mask and scares the person. It is a blond, dirty, tanned boy without any shoes. The boy jumps up and runs away. Ten years later, the boy comes back. He tries to sell Larry a satellite dish, but Larry doesn't need one. The visitor asks him, if he could stay a bit and Larry doesn't know a reason why not. As Larry mentions his name, the man doesn't seem to know him, but they find out, that the two of them went to the same high school and left before graduating. The man promises to come back on friend towards Larry. Silas tells French everything about him and Larry, except that they are half-brothers. French advises him not to confess anything. Back in 1982 when Cindy disappeared, he should have come out with the truth. It might have been possible to convict Cecil Walker for the crime. Now however, too much time has passed, and Cecil is dead anyway. For French, Larry's innocence in the Walker case does not prove his innocence in the Rutherford case. It is hard for Silas to talk to Larry now that he knows the truth. Larry cannot forgive Silas for the things he did in the past, twenty-five years ago. Silas gets drunk to forget the events of the day. In the bar, he meets Irina, the woman with the snake in the mailbox. She tells him, that her roommate Evelyn has had a strange relationship with a man named Wallace Stringfellow. He had a lot of snakes and guns at home. Irina invites Silas to come home with her, but he resists the temptation to sleep with her. Chapter 13 Larry realizes who killed Tina Rutherford and decides to tell French Alone in his hospital room, switching between the different television channels, Larry's head is full of memories. He thinks about all the times his mailbox has been destroyed by teenagers, riding past and knocking it down with a baseball bat. He is tired, not just physically, but generally tired of all the things that have been done to him since Cindy went missing. The day of his date with Cindy was the last time Larry and his parents were happy. Larry has lost his trust in Silas after the day's revelations. Wallace seemed to be taking refuge on Larry's porch. Wallace liked to think of himself as someone who didn't have to obey the law. Larry wanted to give him a chance to find something he was good at, just as he was given one. He questions whether any of the friendships in his life have been genuine. He understands that the innocent world he grew up in has disappeared. The evidence of Wallace's guilt becomes clear to Larry. Larry remembers reading about a way to make mailboxes stronger, so that they cannot be destroyed by vandals, and decides to do this when he leaves the hospital. He is tired of being a victim. Chapter 14 Silas goes to Wallace Stringfellow's house to confront him Silas wakes up the next morning with a terrible hangover, but still just about in time for work. He doesn't remember everything about the previous evening but is relieved that he woke up in his own bed. Angie has left him two messages during the evening, asking where he was. The alcohol has helped to rise his guilty conscience. Silas realizes he has never taken responsibility for his past actions. The media will make Larry's life more miserable than ever. Someone has returned to Larry's yard since the police had last been there. Silas examines the tire tracks and decides to drive to Wallace Stringfellow's house to pay him a visit. There is a fierce guard dog like the one Wallace described to Larry. Silas does manage to check the tire tracks before Wallace comes out. There are no signs of drugtaking inside the house. Larry's zombie mask is on the shelf. Silas has to fight off the dog that Wallace released on him. He finally manages to shoot the dog. He shoots Wallace in the leg, but he escapes into the forest. Silas is left lying on the ground, injured and trying to stay conscious. He manages to drag himself into the house to look for a phone, but only finds the base unit. Still bleeding heavily, he stumbles and falls over a table, knocking over one of the aquariums. It breaks and a rattlesnake escapes. He starts to feel very cold and is no longer able to stand but can only watch as the snake slides past. Chapter 15 Larry tells French about his relationship with Wallace; French now also believes in Larry's innocence The next morning, when Larry asks, he is told that French is not available to talk to him. Since his wrists are still restrained, he asks the nurse to put the copy of "Night Shift" into his hand so that he can read. In the afternoon, he speaks to Skip, the deputy guarding his door, again, wanting to know when he will be able to meet French: "I got something he'll want to hear." However, Skip tells him that another crime has been committed and that French is investigating that. Larry realizes it must have been Wallace who attacked Silas. Larry is finally able to see French in person and to tell him what he knows. The injuries to Silas's arm may be permanent. Larry sees that he befriended Wallace because there was nobody else. He tells French that Wallace must have killed Tina Rutherford. Larry deliberately did not tell Silas about Wallace. He also thinks about Wallace and wonders whether, in some way, he himself is responsible for Tina Rutherford's death. He realizes that, in a twisted way, Wallace admired him and wanted to copy what he thought Larry had done to Cindy. Larry now regrets "sending him home that night instead of understanding". He also wonders what might have been different if he had spoken to Silas a couple of days ago instead of ignoring him. Perhaps Wallace Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter Summary: Chapter One: An introduction to Larry Ott The book starts with two important facts: A girl is missing and there is a monster waiting for Larry Ott at his house. Larry Ott is forty-one years old, single and lives alone in the former house of his parents in Amos, a small town in Mississippi. It is an isolated place; his nearest neighbor lives a mile away and there are no shops nearby. On the morning the story begins, he starts his day like always. He is going out with his tractor to cut the grass and to feed his chickens. Larry works as a mechanic, but only in theory. He has a small workshop with space for two cars and an old Ford pickup truck, that belonged to his father. He keeps tools in it in case someone needs help with his car. There is a gun rack in the truck, but Larry only uses it hold his umbrella because he is not allowed to own a gun, due to an incident in his past. After feeding the chickens, Larry puts on his boiler suit and makes himself breakfast. Once again, the missing girl is mentioned in the news because she hasn't been found yet. After watching the news, he makes his way to his truck and drives to work. He hopes that, once in his life, he would have a customer. But, as usual, he knows that he will be spending the day drinking Coke and reading at his desk. But today, something unusual happens. He gets a call from the nursing home where his mother lives. She tells him, that she's having a good day and wants to eat lunch with her son. Larry decides to go home first to get a photo album because looking at old photos usually helps his mom to remember some things. Since he wants to get to the nursing home as quick as possible, he drives really fast, although he knows that it is a bad idea because the police have an eye on him. Apart from local teenagers who sometimes come to his yard in the middle of the night to disturb him and his sole friend Wallace Stringfellow, Larry's only visitors are the police. There is one police officer, Roy French, who comes to his house from time to time with a search warrant and searches his house and property. met Larry in exactly this barn and they had spent a wonderful day there, just the two of them. Silas is waiting for French, who has visited Larry in the hospital. They investigate the house together, but don't find anything that might be important, except a case of beer in the fridge. They wonder, if Larry has started to drink, but Silas is quite sure that this is very unlikely. The gun which has been used is a .22 that has been fired once. French believes that Larry tried to commit suicide but Silas wonders, if Larry came home and found a drug addict in his house, who tried to kill him. Later this evening, Silas notices that his answering machine is blinking, and he presses "play". He hears Larry's voice, asking him to call him back, because he has something important to say. Chapter 5 The friendship between Larry and Silas comes to an end one summer The story is back in the past. Larry and Silas have become friends and are spending a lot of time together although Alice has forbidden Silas to be friends with Larry. Larry tells Silas about Cindy Walker, a girl he really likes. Larry often went to her house alone, to see her sunbathing or smoking a cigarette but this time, Silas accompanied him. When they arrive at her house, Cindy isn't there but Carl and Cecil, Cindy's step-father. After a while, Cindy appears, only wearing a small towel. Cecil begins to argue and pulls on Cindy's towel until she is half-naked. Before Larry can even think about it, Silas jumps up and helps Cindy get away from her stepfather. As soon as Larry gets home, he in trouble. His father wants to know where his gun is, and Larry has to admit that he has lent it to Silas. Carl is furious and orders Larry to bring it back to him the next day. Larry's mother is angry, that Silas and Alice are still living in the cabinet and issues an ultimatum to her husband. She says, that if they don't leave right away, she and Larry will. Carl shows his dislike for his wife and son and storms out of the house. The next morning, Larry leaves the house and heads over to Silas. Once again, he asks him to give him the gun back, but Silas refuses because it's the only one he has got. But out of nowhere, Carl appears and forces the boys to fight against each other. He is very drunk and threatens to beat them with his belt if they don't do what he says. Silas is about to win the fight when Larry calls him a nigger. Silas lets go of him, pushing him one last time to the ground and running Larry never complains about these visits, he even understands why the police keeps coming. Larry knows that he is the kind of person who could be suspected of killing a girl. But this time, he gets a shock when he steps into the house. A shoe box is lying open on the table and when he turns around, he sees the face of a monster. He knows that the person is wearing a gray zombie mask that belongs to him and that he has kept hidden in the shoe box. This is something that French, the police officer, has never discovered. Before he can say a word, the man in the mask points a gun at him and accuses him of kidnapping the girl. Larry is defenseless and doesn't get the chance to tell the man that he didn't kidnap either the Rutherford girl, who has been missing since last week, nor Cindy Walker, a girl who disappeared twenty-five years ago. The man pushes the gun into Larry's chest but just before he fires it, Larry recognizes something about the man's eyes. When Larry opens his eyes again, he is lying on the floor. The man is staring at him, leaning against the wall. The attacker is breathing hard and is visibly shacking while he tells Larry to die. Larry can feel his own blood flowing from his chest but peculiarly he feels sympathy for the man. Larry can hear a buzzing sound in his head. When his attacker once again tells him to die, he knows that he would be glad to do so. Chapter Two: An introduction to Silas Jones Silas Jones is the only police officer in a small town in Mississippi, Chabot. Most of the time, the people call him either "32", the number on his baseball shirt when he played for the town, or they call him "Constable", his job title. While he is out on patrol one day, he notices a lot of buzzards in the sky flying over a particular place. The birds are a sign that there's a dead body and because of this fact, he decides to take a closer look. He drives down a small dirt road, looking for a dead animal. He reaches a gate with a "No hunting" sign on it, which shows that the land belongs to the Rutherford Lumber Company. The Rutherford's are a rich family. Since the place where Silas stopped is very isolated, he thinks that the missing girl, Tina Rutherford might be here. She is a nineteen-year-old student at "Ole Miss", the University of Mississippi. At the end of the summer, she left home to would still be alive, and Silas would not have been injured. While Larry is still thinking about all of this, another patient is wheeled into the room in a bed. It is Silas. Chapter 16 Larry and Silas share a hospital room, giving Silas the opportunity to reveal that they are half brothers Silas wakes up on his back in the bed next to Larry's. Not noticing that Silas is awake, Larry is once again clicking through the channels on the television. In Silas's imagination, this could have been reality for the two of them, that they could have been "normal brothers all the years of their rearing, both black or both white, sleeping side by side in matching twin beds". He is lucky not to have been more seriously injured. Silas could have let Larry feel included on the one evening he felt he belonged. Wallace killed himself before the police could arrest him. At first, Larry does not seem prepared to listen to Silas. It is not easy for Silas to tell Larry about their father. In a way Larry guessed the truth. Carl preferred a son like Silas to one like Larry. For Alice, accepting the coat meant sacrificing her dignity. It is hard to say who was worse off: Larry growing up with a father like Carl or Silas growing up without one. Chapter 17 Larry is still refusing to talk to Silas Unlike Larry, Silas has a lot of visitors while he is in hospital. Angie has forgiven Silas, relieved that he is okay. She shows sympathy for Larry. She offers him a way to start going to church again. Silas gets a lot of praise for his actions. French turns up, smartly dressed in a shirt instead of his usual T-shirt. He stands at the end of the curtain between the beds so that he can see both patients at the same time. He tells Silas that the attractive anchor woman from the news wants to talk to him, but Silas asks him to release Larry from the restraints before he does anything else. He does so with an apology. Larry rubs his sore wrists and starts watching TV again. French pulls the curtain back, asking Larry to switch off the television as he wants to talk to the two of them. There is now little doubt that Wallace shot Larry. Silas and Larry have become local celebrities. Chapter 18 Silas starts trying to make amends for the way he has treated Larry Angie drives Silas to the town hall. He is still in a lot of pain and feeling very tired, but he is happy to have left the hospital. Earlier that day, he has given an interview to Shannon, the local police reporter who has been trying to reach him for days. He wants her to have exclusive rights to the story, rather than one of the big networks like CNN. She asks if Larry will confirm the story, but Silas says she will have to ask him herself. At first it is not clear what the mayor wants to tell him. Silas is going to be rewarded rather than punished. He is not very comfortable with going to visit Larry but feels that he should do so. Silas tries to bring his friendship with Larry back to life. Since no one else has punished him, Silas is punishing himself. Nobody knows what really happened at the Walker place. Silas wants Larry to have a fresh start when he gets out of the hospital. Silas gives back the rifle. A part of hope is Angie. Chapter 19 Silas and Larry make the first steps towards rekindling their friendship Larry does not feel he owes it to Silas to talk to him. Five days after Silas was discharged, the doctor examines Larry and tells him his wounds are healing well. He should, however, take better care of himself, eat more healthily and get more exercise. The doctor gives him permission to leave his room and walk around the hospital corridors. He is finally allowed to leave the hospital room. He finds it hard to believe his ordeal is over. Larry leaves the hospital without telling anyone. He wants to walk to his shop where he will be safe. He does not know if he will ever escape his reputation as Scary Larry. Silas sets off in his Jeep to look for Larry. Larry allows Silas to drive him home. The crime committed at the Walker place is starting to fade to memories. Larry walks slowly towards his house, then stops and turns. He tells Silas he can bring the Jeep over to the house tomorrow and he will take a look at it there. Silas says he will. With difficulty, Larry climbs the steps to his porch and lets himself into the house. He is completely astonished when he discovers that his house has been cleaned and polished. There are flowers on the table, a basket of fruit and scented candles in the room. Angie and Silas have put food in the refrigerator and had satellite television installed. Silas has even found a way to drive the tractor with one hand and has been able to move the chickens around onto fresh grass. He has collected the eggs for Larry, too. Silas drives away again through the "country dark", so different from the bright lights of the city. Silas towards the forest. Larry knows that he has said something unforgivable, which has suddenly changed everything between them. Chapter 6 Silas makes a surprising discovery while looking through Larry's house One morning later, Silas is glad that Larry hasn't woken up until then, because that means that he doesn't have to see him yet. All the time, he has used Larry's insult as an excuse to avoid him. Silas goes back to Larry's house and because of the daylight, he can now see things he couldn't see the day before, like little splinters of glass and the butt of a joint. While investigating the house, Silas finds a shoebox in the attic. It contains old photos, mostly Larry as a baby. One photo shows baby Larry sitting on a black woman's lab. Silas gasps for breath as he recognizes that it is his own mother! When he was thirteen, his comfortable life in Chicago changed forever. Although Oliver, his mother's boyfriend had never liked Silas and ignored him they led a fairly normal life but then, Oliver was arrested by the police for assault. He has never liked Silas and ignored him all the time. He tried to escape but the police caught him. Alice had enough money for bail, but Oliver told her to scrape as much money as possible together because there was another warrant out there for him and once the police realized that and came to arrest him, he would have to go into prison for a long time. But when the police arrived, Alice and Silas had already left. They headed towards south but had difficulties to find a place to sleep. Silas couldn't shut up asking his mother what they were going to do and for the first time she slapped him in public. He turned to run away but his mother caught hold of his wrist and said: "Don't you dare run from the one person in this world that loves you." The bus driver insisted on driving them to a motel, but Silas knew that his mother had to sleep with him to pay him for that. Silas didn't want to be a part of that and jumped off the truck. He ran down the street, hearing his mother and the bus driver, Charles, screaming his name. After a while, he had lost all sense of time and space. Suddenly, somebody pulled him behind a garbage can and took all his things, including his shoes. Silas tried to scream for help and Charles appeared and chased the thieves away. Back in the truck with his mother and Charles, he fell asleep and at the time he woke up, they were somewhere in Minnesota. His mother told him about her Monday. Larry recognizes him as the boy who he has frightened off in the barn ten years ago. On Monday evening, Larry sits on his porch, waiting. But Wallace doesn't turn up. In fact, he turns up but two months later. Wallace asks him, if Larry doesn't like him but Larry answers, that he doesn't even know him. But he admits that he doesn't get many visitors and Wallace makes a joke about it. Larry cannot help smiling, which is something very rare. The next time Wallace visits, he brings a whole case of beers with him and Larry is worried how drunk he is getting. He admits that he recognized Wallace as the boy who had been in the barn and Wallace tells him, that, although he was too frightened to return to the barn, he often went fishing in the creek on the land of the Ott's. Wallace reveals that he has seen Larry before in a church in the nearby town. Wallace was outside with some other kids, who started talking about "Scary Larry". One of their mothers told them to go inside and Wallace took a seat at the back of the church. After the service had started, Larry came in and sat at the back too. Just before the end of the service, Larry quietly left. Wallace followed him and even called after him, but Larry didn't turn around. Larry remembers the incident and also remembers Wallace sitting in the church, looking at him curiously. Because of him, he never returned to the church. Wallace starts to smoke a joint. It's the first time Larry sees one, but he doesn't want to try it. On Christmas Eve, he finds a shoebox on the porch, which contains an old .22 pistole. There is a message: "Merry X-Mas, Larry, from Santa". On New Year's Eve, Wallace turns up and the two of them spend a wonderful time together. After that evening, he starts to come around once or twice a week. He asks Larry if he really killed Cindy and wants to know why they didn't have sex. Wallace is aroused by the idea of raping a woman. Larry is uncomfortable with this discussion and goes to bed. He sends Wallace home, but out of sudden, Wallace gets aggressive and threatens to go to the police and tell them, that Larry confessed to him that he killed Cindy. This finally gets a reaction from Larry. He goes back outside and tells Wallace that he would never hurt anybody in his life. After smashing the headlights and the windshield of Larry's car, Wallace drives away. return to college, but never arrived. Since that incident, every police officer in the state has been looking for her. Silas opens the gate and drives through it. He hopes that his Jeep will break down, because then he might get a new one. His car is very old and not really suitable for the kind of roads he has to drive on, but the town administration doesn't have the money to buy him a new one. Silas gets out of the Jeep and the closer he comes to the buzzards, the stronger the smell becomes. Finally, he can see a body in a creek and although the birds have already eaten a lot of it, he knows who it is. A few days before, a burning car had been reported and from the M&M on the vanity license plates, he had known that the car belonged to Morton Morrisette, with whom he had played baseball at school. After he had to give up work because of an injury, Morrisette had made money by selling marijuana. Although the police knew about it, they had never arrested him because he wasn't selling hard drugs. Because of the burning car, the police knew, that he has been seeing a well-known drug addict called Charles Deacon. A search of Morrisette's house had shown that somebody had been shot there and that the body had been taken away. A few days later, they found his hat in a tree several miles from his home. Silas sits with some distance to the body. The face looks terrifying: swollen and partly eaten by the birds. When Roy French, his boss appears, Silas jumps up. French is glad that Silas didn't change anything at the crime scene, and he doesn't seem affected by the terrible smell or sight of the body. He puts on some waterproof pants and goes down into the water to take photographs. The two police officers speculate about how the body came to be in the creek. They agree that the killer must have been more intelligent than the drug addict Deacon. The next persons arriving at the crime scene are two paramedics and the coroner. One of the paramedics is Angie, Silas's girlfriend. The coroner simply confirms that the person is dead. The paramedics put on their protective clothing and go down to deal with the body. A local reporter and a couple more police officers arrive now, and Silas goes for a walk because he doesn't want to see how they put the remains of M&M's body into a bag. Later in his office, Silas regrets that he and M&M had lost contact after high school. But nevertheless, he knows that he and M&M would not have been friends because he is a police officer. Chabot only has a few buildings. Apart from the town hall, where Silas and Voncille, the only other full-time employee of the town, have their offices, there is the mayor's real estate office, a post office, a bank, a combined diner and convenience store called "The Hub", as well as a grocery store and a drugstore that will probably have to close soon. There is a bar called the Chabot Bus where Silas and Angie often meet for drinks. Apart from this, there are just two more buildings, former offices that are no longer used, except by homeless people and drug addicts. Since there is no ATM (cash machine), the citizens have to drive 11 miles to Fulsom to get cash. Cell phones don't always work in the city. French tells Silas that he visited Larry Ott a few days before, because he is always a suspect when it comes to missing girls. French notices that Silas calls him Larry, implying that they are friends. Silas tries to deny it by saying that he knows him from school. Silas is surprised to hear that Larry's shop is closed at the moment, because he knows that this is completely out of character for him. Without really thinking about it, Silas finds himself heading for Larry's shop later that afternoon. Instinctively he feels that something is wrong. He thinks about the couple of times Larry tried to contact him since his return to Chabot and that he never called back. But a couple of weeks later, Larry caught him at home, but Silas ended the conversation as soon as possible because he didn't feel comfortable. Silas knows that people have avoided Larry the past years but didn't know why, until he came back to live in the town. Silas knows that Larry's business has not had any customers since Larry took over from his father. When Silas stops at his shop, he notices that Larry's truck really isn't there and his instinct tells him, that something is wrong. Silas has to go to another part of the town, he privately named Trash Avenue, because somebody called, that there is a snake in a mailbox and Silas has to get rid of it. While he does so, Irene, the owner of the mailbox, starts to flirt with him. After that, Silas has to direct the traffic and while he is standing there, thinking about that this isn't the job he wanted to do as a kid, he gets a call from Angie, who is at Larry's house. Her only comment is "Oh my God". Wallace doesn't return for months. Larry has even bought a case of beer in case he should show up. But nothing happens. Chapter 10 Silas finally admits the truth about his relationship with Cindy Silas is exhausted. A week has passed since he found Tina Rutherford's body in the old hunting cabin. When he called French to tell him about the find, his boss could hardly believe it. Instead of admitting how he found it, Silas lies and says it was just luck. After half an hour, the criminal agents confirmed that there was a body buried. It was too much for Silas and he ran outside to vomit. The girl was lying on her stomach, naked and her face didn't look human anymore. Meanwhile, Larry is still lying in a coma under police guard. In the hospital, other patients come to try and catch a glimpse of the alleged murderer. Larry is now the only suspect in the Rutherford case. The newspapers speculate that Larry may be responsible for other unsolved cases of missing girls. Silas is trying to protect his old friend. He always asks if Larry has had any visitors but nobody apart from the police, hospital stuff or the reporter ever comes. He tries to talk to Larry but gets no response. Silas feels the need to warn his old friend about how bad things are going to be for him. One day a man of Wallace's description has been to the hospital. The visitor hasn't been caught on the security camera because the camera is broken according to Jon. Silas discovers that Larry's house is now a crime scene and he doesn't have access anymore. One evening at the hospital Silas sees a person but doesn't manage to catch up with. Silas helps Mrs Ott who is lying in her own feces after a discussion with Brenda. He finally forces one of the male nurses to clean Mrs Ott and the bed sheets. He hopes to find out the truth about his mother, but Mrs. Ott is too confused. There are a few moments when she remembers Silas, but most of the time she is in her own world. Angie finds out that Silas dated Cindy Walker. Silas remembers how Cindy became his girlfriend. One day when they were walking along a street a white man in a car slowed down and asked if Silas was bothering her. They said, "mind your own business, doofus". Nobody should find out about their relationship. But it seemed that Silas took their relationship more seriously than Cindy did. Silas's mother tried to make him break things off with Cindy. Angie has been listening carefully to his story. Silas says he had no idea that Larry would be the one who drove Cindy to their agreed meeting place, and that Cindy persuaded him to do so by saying she was pregnant. Cindy ran away before Silas could stop her. He went away to live in Oxford, and he justified his actions at that time by being young and not fully aware of the grave consequences for Larry. It plan. She wanted to go to Chabot, a place she knew. After eating something in a diner, they caught a bus to Chabot. Back in the present in Larry's house, Silas decides to keep the photograph. He knows that it is forbidden to take something from a crime scene but it's the only photo he has from his mother and thinks that no one will miss one single photo. Chapter 7 The story of what happened on the evening Cindy Walker disappeared The story continues in a flashback to the year 1982. Larry is proud to have his first date ever with Cindy Walker. He doesn't want to tell his parents but actually, it wasn't him who asked her out but her who asked him if he wanted to go to the drive-in cinema. Larry's mother is excited about it, Carl, his father, makes fun of him. The boys in school cannot believe that Cindy has agreed to go out with Larry. They ask him if he has a condom and because he hasn't got any, David gives him one. Larry drives to Cindy's house to pick her up. Cecil, Cindy's stepfather, is sitting on the veranda. He threatens Larry not to harm Cindy and gets physical. The only thing that stops him, is Cindy stepping out of the door. Cecil calls her a whore. Cindy goes inside to speak with him for a moment, then comes back and the two of them walk to the car. After a couple of minutes, Cindy tells him the true reason why she has asked him on a date: She wants to see her secret boyfriend, because otherwise her stepfather would kill her. Larry is very disappointed and tries to convince Cindy to stay. But she tells him, that he is the only person who can help her and that she is pregnant and if her father finds out about her pregnancy, he will kill not only her but the father of the child as well. She tells him to drive to the cinema and to pretend that she is with him in the car. At 11.15 pm, he should pick her up. Larry follows her rules and watches the film alone. He starts worrying when she isn't at their meeting point at 11.30 pm. He wonders if Cindy and her boyfriend might have had an accident, but he can't find anything suspicious. Larry is afraid what he should tell Cecil. Thinking, that she may have already gone home, he drives around the corner into their street, but the house is completely dark. Out of a sudden, Cecil appears Chapter 3 A flashback to Larry's and Silas's first meeting Larry and his father, Carl, are driving to school and pass Silas and his mother at the side of the road. Larry convinces his father to drive back and pick them up. It is obvious that Silas and his mother Alice are very poor. But another thing that is obvious, is that Larry's father and Alice must have met before. Larry doesn't have many friends in school. The white kids are teasing him, the black kids are bullying him. Larry hopes, that he and Silas could be friends, but as soon as they arrive at school, Silas disappears. After school, Larry tells his mother what happened. She doesn't seem to be happy about it and Larry feels bad, that he told her, because the tension between his mother and his father is very strange. The next day, Larry's mother drives him to school and slows down when she sees Alice and Silas. She gives them two coats, but Alice doesn't want to put hers on. Larry's mother becomes angry and says, that she has never minded using other people's things. It is clear, that they know each other. Since that day, Larry and his father don't pick them up anymore. We get to know, that Larry's father isn't very proud of his son. He thinks of him like he is some kind of loser. Larry has the idea, to teach Silas how to shoot with a gun, wondering if they can be friends. Larry goes to the little cabin where Silas and Alice are living. It is on the property of Larry's family. Silas's first thought is, that Larry wants to shoot him, but Larry says, that he just wants to go hunting. Silas asks him, if it is possible to borrow the gun, so that he can shoot some squirrels for his mother to cook. After Larry showed him how to use it, he says that Silas could keep it. Chapter 4 Silas and French investigate Larry's house after the attack Back in the present, Angie reports to Silas that she has found Larry lying on the floor in his own blood, a gunshot wound in the chest and a gun in his hand. It's not clear if he will survive or not. Silas calls French who sends him to Larry's house. Silas can see a lot of footprints in the mud, but nothing else interesting for him. When he reaches the barn, a lot of memories come back to his mind. He once and screams at Larry, because he wants to know where Cindy is. Larry confesses that he has dropped her off. Cecil knocks him to the ground and tries to strangle him. Larry is only saved by Cindy's mother returning from work. A little while later, the sheriff arrives. At that point, he doesn't believe that anything has happened to Cindy, tells everyone not to worry and to call him if Cindy hasn't turned up the next morning. But unfortunately, she doesn't turn up the next days and things are getting pretty ugly for Larry. Being the chief suspect in a murder case although Cindy's body has never been found, he can't go to school anymore; his father starts to drink heavily, and his mother can't go to church anymore. About a year after the disappearance of Cindy Walker, Larry joins the Army. It suits him pretty well and he is trained to be a mechanic. Whenever he goes home, his parents have become stranger. He tries to spend so much time as possible out of the house or in front of the TV. One evening, Carl crashes his truck while driving drunk and dies of his injuries. After three years in the military, Larry is sent home to look after his mother. Silas has moved away and there has still been no trace of Cindy. The Walkers have moved away, and their house has fallen into disrepair. Larry takes his mother to a nursing home because she has Alzheimer's. Since then, he has spent every day waiting for customers, his evenings reading and his nights alone. Chapter 8 Silas discovers an unexpected connection between himself and Larry Silas meets Angie at the diner where his mother had worked for 20 years. He tells her, that he has to work on the case of Larry's shooting. Angie is sure, that Larry has shot himself, but Silas doubts it. When she asks Silas why he doesn't believe this, he tells her, that Larry and he had been friends at school and that he used to live on their land. He tells her, that Larry always wanted to get attention from the others but didn't get any. He was a strange kid, without any friends. Silas mentions, that Cindy Walker was part of his group of friends. Angie wants to know whether Silas has ever dated Cindy, but Silas doesn't answer this question. He says, that Cindy's stepfather was the kind of man, black boys stayed away from if they had any sense. feels at home here now. In his house, having sat down for a while, Larry gets up and discovers the rifle in the gun cabinet. Slowly, he walks through the house, switching off the lights, and gets into bed. His last thought before falling asleep is that he will have to call Silas in the morning and tell him to buy a carburetor kit so that he can repair the Jeep. is only now that he can admit his guilt. His relationship with Angie has become strained since he has told her the truth. If Larry dies it will make things far easier for Silas. He realizes that he lacks the courage to do the right thing. While he is thinking about this, his phone rings. Jon from the hospital is calling to tell him that Larry has woken up. Chapter 11 Larry has woken up in hospital and has to face accusations from the police Larry wakes up in hospital and is perplexed. He has been dreaming about himself and Silas sitting in the trees, then he sees himself with Wallace. He dreams of the evening in the haunted house when he was wearing his zombie mask. The doctor checks whether Larry remembers anything. Larry's first thought is the missing girl. Larry finds out that he owes his life to Silas because he called the ambulance. The wrist restrains are a sign for Larry that he has not only been injured, but that he is also in trouble. He has a violent reaction when he hears what happened to Tina Rutherford. When Larry wakes up again, French and the sheriff are back. Larry wants to talk now, and the police stay in the hospital. He is surprised about the things Silas has been doing to help him. A friendship between Larry and Silas seems unlikely to French. Larry's refusal to sell the land where the cabin is, comes across as suspicious. French tries to convince Larry that he killed Tina Rutherford. He suggests that Larry kidnapped Tina for a bit of companionship, but she became frightened, and perhaps attempted to get away. Larry asks French if he thinks he committed the crimes and French says yes. A mask like Larry's mask makes an attacker anonymous taking away their guilt for the crime. French brings Larry to the point where he is ready to make a confession. Chapter 12 Silas admits his part in Cindy's disappearance At the hospital, Silas hurries up to Larry's room, afraid that French has already persuaded him to confess. Silas tries to get a few minutes alone with Larry but French refuses. Silas confirms that he and Larry were friends and he confesses, that he was the boyfriend Cindy mentioned and met that night. Larry asks if Cindy is the reason he went away to Oxford and also wants to know whether Cindy's and presumably Silas's baby was a boy or a girl. Silas tells him Cindy wasn't pregnant after all. After all these years, Larry finds out that Cindy must have been killed by her stepfather. Silas cannot honestly say he behaved like a