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Summary
Nick, Jess, Concierge, Jess, Mimi, Jess, Jess, Ben, Nick, Jess, Sophie, Jess
Nick
Nick invites Jess over to his sparse apartment, where he offers her a beer. Jess voices her concerns about Ben’s absence but Nick notes that it would be typical for Ben to disappear for a few days, perhaps in his investigations as a journalist. He and Ben had been close friends in their college days at Cambridge, and it was Nick who helped Ben find his apartment. After asking to use his computer, Jess asks Nick about his screensaver, a photograph of him and Ben. Nick informs her that it was taken during a holiday in Amsterdam, a very happy time in his life.
Jess
Nick tells Jess that he has business to attend to elsewhere and Jess leaves his apartment, but not before she asks for his Wi-Fi password. When she returns to Ben’s apartment, she receives a text from Theo, the newspaper editor, who says that he doesn’t know where Ben is but can meet her at the cafe where he is working. She accepts the invitation and gets ready to head out, but before leaving she notices an odd metal card in Ben’s wallet, without any words or forms of identification other than an image in a firework-like pattern. As she makes her way out of the building and past the courtyard, she sees the Concierge sweeping and again attempts to ask her about Ben. Cryptically, the Concierge warns Jess that there is nothing there for her in the building, but refuses to explain herself further.
Concierge
The Concierge watches as Jess exits the building for her meeting with Theo and reflects upon Sophie’s request that she closely monitor the young woman as she comes and goes. She and Sophie have an uneasy alliance, as both wish for Jess to leave the building quickly without drawing outside attention to recent events that have occurred there. For reasons that she does not disclose, she has stayed at her job in the building for many years and feels that she cannot leave it. Jess reminds her of Ben, who used to ask her questions about her life, which surprised her, as nobody else in the building had expressed any personal interest in her. Previously, she admitted to him that she came to Paris to follow her daughter, though she quickly became uncomfortable with his questions. She resolves to find a way to encourage Jess to leave.
Jess
Jess rushes to her scheduled meeting with Theo. On the Metro, she cannot shake the feeling that she is being watched, and she briefly mistakes a stranger for Ben. At the cafe she meets Theo, a disheveled man from East London who tells her that Ben was working on a major story, though he doesn’t know any details about it. Jess shows him the mysterious metal card that she found in Ben’s wallet, and he takes it so that he can investigate the card further. Together, they listen to the final voice message from Ben and realize that, at the end of the message, they can hear a floorboard creak followed by Ben asking someone what they are doing in his apartment.
Mimi
Mimi has been watching Jess from the window of her apartment, which looks directly into Ben’s. Previously, she had enjoyed watching Ben through his window. The second time they met, she recollects, was in a record store. She was surprised that he remembered her name and finds herself drawn to him. Flattered by his attention, she tells him about the dumbwaiter in the apartment building, and when she returns home, she finds a note from Ben, who has left a record as a gift for her in the dumbwaiter. In the present day, she looks in the dumbwaiter and is shocked to find a knife covered in blood.
Jess
Jess decides to return to the department despite Theo’s warning that it might be dangerous. On the way home, she calls the police, but hangs up when they say that they will make an official report, as she is worried that they will look up her name and see that she is wanted for a crime in England. On the Metro, she again feels that she is being followed and spots a beautiful young woman, who says that she is also looking for Ben. When Jess pushes for more details, however, the woman runs away.
Jess
Back at Ben’s apartment, Jess finds his notebook. In it are a series of cryptic notes, one simply saying “La Petite Mort,” and others asking about various residents of the building. Ben, Jess realizes, had been collecting information about his neighbors. That night, she wakes up around 3 AM to the sounds of someone walking through the apartment. When they leave, she attempts to follow the intruder but finds no trace of them. She also realizes that Ben’s notebook is gone.
Ben
Thirty hours earlier, Ben is attacked in his apartment and realizes, while staring at his own blood, that he is going to die. He crawls towards the window and sees that someone else is watching from another window. As the violent attack resumes, he thinks about Jess, who is scheduled to arrive later that night.
Nick
Nick returns to the building after a long run. He knocks on an apartment on the second floor but receives no answer. Moving upstairs, he runs into Jess, who tells him about her meeting with Theo. Nick offers to take her to the police station in order to report that Ben is missing, and she is happy for his assistance because she does not speak French.
Jess
Together, Jess and Nick go to the police station, where the officers are on high alert because of riots in Paris. At the police station, Jess requests that her name be kept off the report, and Nick agrees to file the report in his own name. Jess discloses that, before leaving for Paris, she took the money out of the cash register of the pub where she worked and locked the owner in the restroom in retaliation for him exposing himself to her. At the police station, they speak to a man named Commissaire Blanchot, though Jess cannot follow the French conversation. Jess is relieved that Nick is there to help her.
Sophie
In the penthouse, Sophie prepares to host the others in the building, as she does every month. She recalls a previous evening, when Ben first showed up at one of her soirees, impressing her husband, the wealthy businessman Jacques, with his charming manner and knowledge of antique rifles. That evening, Antoine drinks heavily as his wife, Dominique, flirts with Ben.
Ben heads to the roof terrace to smoke a cigarette, but when Sophie catches him in Jacques’ study, he claims to have gotten lost. Dominique joins Ben on the terrace, irritating Jacques, who threatens Ben and smashes his own wine glass against a wall, leading Jacques to kick him out of the penthouse. That night, Sophie masturbates in the shower while thinking about Ben.
Jess
Jess hears conversation coming from the penthouse and attempts to eavesdrop at the door but is caught by Sophie, who invites her inside. There, she finds an odd grouping of people: Mimi, Antoine, and Sophie. She also sees a large painting of a man whom Sophie identifies as Jacques, her husband, who works in the wine industry and is away on business.
Analysis
These chapters deepen the characterization of many of the other residents of Ben’s building, most of whom have secrets that they wish to keep hidden. In particular, the charming and handsome Ben becomes an object of attraction to many of his female neighbors. Despite her antagonistic attitude towards her new neighbor, whom she regards as cocky and overconfident, Sophie has a sexual fantasy about Ben in the shower. Dominique flirts shamelessly with him in front of her husband, Antoine. Mimi, who was raised in a convent school and has very little experience with men, is particularly fixated upon Ben, whom she thinks of as an outsider, like herself. She examines him voyeuristically through her window, watching him undress and making close observations about his body. The small, intimate details she notices about him, from the smell of his sweat to the details of his body hair, reflect her growing obsession with Ben, a fixation strengthened by her alienation from others and sexual inexperience. At this point in the novel, it is unclear whether Ben is deliberately fostering this attraction for his own purposes. Jess’ discovery that Ben has been keeping notes about his neighbors, making cryptic comments in his journal about Sophie, Mimi, and the Concierge, suggests that he might have his own reasons for getting closer to the women in his building.
As Jess furthers her own investigations, she becomes increasingly suspicious of the other inhabitants of the building, many of whom are evasive when she questions them about Ben’s whereabouts and seem to be hiding something. In this atmosphere of suspicion and paranoia, Ben’s college friend Nick seems to be the only person she can trust and rely on. Nick speaks frankly about his relationship with Ben, which cooled down for several years after college until their reunion in Paris. Jess considers Nick the sole friendly face in the intimidating and foreign environment and is happy to receive his assistance when he offers to take her to the police station.
In her interactions with Nick, Jess cannot help but feel a sense of attraction towards him due to his good looks and courteous manner. There are, however, several indications that Nick’s life is not as tranquil as it seems. His obsessive exercise, running to the point of unconsciousness, suggests that he is trying to avoid thinking about some topic, quite literally running away from his problems. Further, the oxycodone that Jess finds in his bathroom implies that there is some hidden source of torment in his life from which he desires to escape.
Jess’ ransacking of Nick’s bathroom is one of many indications in these chapters that she is somewhat unscrupulous in achieving her goals. She is certainly not above bending the law, trespassing around the building, stealing objects from people’s apartments, and eavesdropping through keyholes. Her reluctance to go to the police despite the mounting evidence that Ben might have been the victim of foul play speaks to her own criminal past, and she admits in her narration that she robbed the bar where she previously worked as retaliation for her boss’ sexual harassment. The exploitation of women is a major theme throughout the novel, and Jess’ sympathy for other women such as Dominique stems from difficult experiences in her past, as does her distrust of law enforcement. While Ben, raised in a wealthy family and educated at Cambridge, is able to talk his way out of problems, Jess is less capable of charming and manipulating her way out of tricky situations—it’s not a talent she had the opportunity to learn while being bounced around in the foster care system.
