Unable to sleep after the attack, Saint studies her map through the night and traces the route the van took with a yellow highlighter. The details of her bare room and strict routine underline how fully she has narrowed her life to school, church, and now finding answers. At dawn, Saint sees that her grandmother, Norma, has also spent a sleepless night.

When Saint asks about the bees, Norma silently confirms there is no news. Saint washes up and, in the privacy of her room, thinks of Patch: chasing him through the corn on the Hinton farm, sitting close beside him, and the way his smile affected her. Her private prayer, asking God to let Patch come home that day, makes clear both her fear and her growing attachment to him.

Norma cooks eggs, but neither of them can eat. Norma tells Saint that school has been closed, and Saint admits she had no intention of going anyway. Their brief exchange shows the town-wide disruption caused by Patch’s disappearance and Norma’s effort to reassure Saint that the boy will be found.

Later, Saint goes to the woodland, where Chief Nix has organized a search party after putting out a late call for volunteers. Nearly a hundred people from Monta Clare gather for the grim task, understanding that finding Patch may mean finding evidence of something terrible. Chief Nix instructs them to move in line, stay quiet, and search carefully.

Chief Nix narrows the group to the most capable searchers and refuses to let Saint join, leaving her frightened and powerless. Behind her, farmworkers, laborers, and teenage boys wait with a tense, ugly excitement, as if the search carries a thrill as well as dread. The chapter ends with Saint shut out from the effort to find Patch, forced to watch others search for the boy she desperately wants returned alive.