As cold rain beats the windows, Saint sits at the old piano and plays while her grandmother rocks nearby. Weeks have passed since Joseph Macauley disappeared, and Saint is wasting away under the belief that they have lost him. She barely eats or sleeps, says little at school, and keeps noticing the empty seat at the back of the classroom where he should be.

Saint keeps replaying the night she fled Dr. Tooms's house. After she told Norma, "It's him," Chief Nix took them to the Tooms farmhouse, but instead of arresting the doctor, Nix spoke with him for a long time and then apologized. Because that confrontation produces nothing, Saint begins secretly watching Tooms's property for hours from the woods behind her house with Patch's telescope, even as Norma insists blood and screams can have innocent explanations. During these vigils, Saint occasionally notices a shadowed vehicle on the far side of the property and wonders what it means.

Another week passes, and the reward reaches two thousand dollars after Saint helps distribute handwritten letters around town. Even so, other tragedies take over the news, and Joseph's case fades from headlines into gossip. In that atmosphere, Saint reads about abortion politics and clashes with Norma, arguing that women should control their own bodies and bitterly saying her mother might still be alive if that had been true. Saint also resents being kept from publicly standing with Misty and the other girls, which shows how grief is widening into anger at the world around her.

As summer gives way to fall, Saint turns her grief into compulsive searching. She spends long hours in the woods staring at the ground, misses curfew, and even walks near the highway like bait, hoping that if the attacker is still hunting, he will take her. Chief Nix repeatedly finds her and drives her home, and Norma's anger turns into fear and desperation, leading her to suggest counseling. By the time bonfire smoke fills the evenings and Joseph's name is spoken only in whispers, Saint can also see Ivy Macauley deteriorating at church. When Ronald Reagan announces his candidacy and others talk of change, Saint looks at the cold morning outside and feels only dread.