In November, Norma drives Saint sixty miles to Darby Falls for a vigil honoring Callie Montrose, the missing daughter of a police officer. The gathering takes place on the banks of Hunter Bayou, where Callie once spent time with friends before vanishing after separating from them on her walk home from school. A pastor leads prayers, lanterns are set afloat on the still water, and the ceremony turns Callie’s disappearance from a headline into a visible community wound for Saint.

After the music and prayers, Saint leaves Norma and approaches Callie’s father, who stands surrounded by other officers. Saint apologizes and explains that she came from Monta Clare, connecting herself to Patch, the boy whose case was also flattened by public retellings. Because Saint wants something more truthful than the newspapers ever gave about Patch, she asks Mr. Montrose to tell her what Callie was really like.

Mr. Montrose answers with painful honesty. He says the newspapers make Callie sound like an angel, but what he misses are her rough edges: stealing cigarettes from his truck, sneaking alcohol at Thanksgiving, and the unruly spirit she would likely have grown out of. His response gives Saint a more human picture of Callie and shows that grief is tied not only to innocence lost, but to all the ordinary flaws and habits that made a person distinct.

Saint then asks the question beneath the vigil itself: whether they ever come back. Mr. Montrose cannot answer. As Saint turns back toward the water, she spots Dr. Tooms quietly launching a lantern. A girl beside Saint calls Tooms a creep and says she has seen him sitting in his car outside the high school, watching girls go by. The vigil therefore leaves Saint with both deeper sympathy for Callie’s family and a sharper, more concrete reason to distrust Tooms.