On weekends, Saint works at the public library in Panora and uses the quiet hours to continue her private search for Grace. While handling loans, orders, and the card system, Saint writes to coroners across many jurisdictions and calls hospital receptionists within a thousand miles of Eli Aaron’s house. She keeps pursuing the girl from Patch’s painting despite her own doubts and Norma’s insistence that Patch cannot truly know Grace’s face.

Saint also learns that Patch is conducting his own search by contacting the parents of missing teenage girls and carrying notes in a red folder on his trips to the St. Francois mines. For a year, Saint combs through public and state records, concentrating on death certificates and widening her search by assuming Grace might be older than Patch believes. That decision leads Saint into professional licensing records, after which she makes hundreds of calls to possible matches and their families, eventually reducing her approach to one blunt question: whether they know a boy named Patch.

As the search drags on, Saint briefly considers requesting federal records but gives up because she has too little identifying information. She also stops watching Dr. Tooms after a year, deciding that whatever he concealed, it was not Grace. Patch remains a constant presence in Saint’s life through late-night phone calls and three tapes of rambling messages, some frantic and confused, others tender and full of sensory memories of Grace in captivity. Saint muffles the phone so Norma will not hear, recognizing that Patch’s calls are irrational but also her remaining connection to him.

At school, Saint channels herself into achievement and rises to the top of her class while disengaging from talk about college and prom. She changes her appearance, ignores fashion, and watches Misty stand out socially. One morning, Jimmy Walters arrives with roses and a bouquet to ask Saint to prom. Norma encourages Saint to give Jimmy a chance, reminds Saint that Patch is going with Misty, and adds that Sammy will be showing his paintings the following weekend, forcing Saint to confront how far her life has diverged from her peers and from the future she once imagined.