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Summary

The Prisoner: Chapters 187–209

It is 1998, and Patch is in prison once again, this time for the murder of Jimmy Walters; he’d punched Jimmy one time, causing him to hit his head and die as he fell. Patch spends his days working in the prison library with Cooper, the librarian. He’s befriended a guard, Blackjack, and is trying to stay out of trouble. However, he is often targeted by prison gangs wanting him to join them and punishing him when he refuses. A year and a half after his sentence begins, he writes a letter to Warden Riley asking to provide library services for the prisoners on death row. Riley is tough and conceited, but agrees to let Patch bring books to death row inmates. Riley has—unknowingly—one of Patch’s paintings hung in his office: a painting of Grace’s house.

Saint is now chief of the Monta Clare Police Department. One day her deputy, Officer Michaels, tells her that the school is calling—Charlotte is getting into trouble once again. Saint goes to the school to fetch Charlotte and accept her week-long suspension for beating up a boy for grabbing her butt. She is exhausted by Charlotte’s misbehaviors and her own new role of parent-figure for the girl in Patch’s absence. These days Charlotte’s family consists of Saint, Norma, Sammy, and Mrs. Meyer, who all gather for dinner together on the last Friday of every month; Charlotte has become a wonderful cook and beekeeper under Saint’s tutelage. 

Patch visits Tooms on death row; he asks if Tooms killed Grace, to which Tooms responds by crying. Each week Patch anxiously awaits his time with Tooms, during which he talks about Grace in hopes that Tooms will offer a response and tell him where Grace really is. 

Norma brings up her disappointment with Saint once again, blaming Saint for her abortion and divorce and claiming that it takes time to mold a man into a good husband. In the end, though, she opens her arms and embraces Saint, demonstrating that she loves her granddaughter despite her supposed sins. That night, Saint worries over Charlotte, who is on a lengthy date with Matt Leavesham; eventually she goes to the boy’s house and separates the kids, dragging Charlotte out with her. Charlotte is furious with her, and insults Saint for getting an abortion. At that, Saint reveals to her that Jimmy beat her. Charlotte runs away, and it takes Saint more than an hour to track her down. She finds Charlotte sitting in front of the TV, watching a program that shows Eloise Strike, one of the missing girls Patch painted, reunited with her family by way of someone recognizing the girl from Patch’s portrait. Charlotte begins to cry, having understood finally that her father killed Jimmy Walters because of what the man did to Saint.

Saint and Charlotte are interrupted by Sammy, who tells them Norma is in the ICU after a heart attack. Saint sits beside Norma’s hospital bed and cries, apologizing to her unconscious grandmother for letting her down. 

Sammy visits Patch in prison, telling him that his first painting, Grace Number One, would likely cost seven figures. Patch tunes him out but thanks him for watching over Charlotte, and asks Sammy to bring him a copy of a 1965 Playboy that Patch has owned his entire life. 

Finally, Tooms begins to speak during Patch’s weekly session with him. He tells Patch he is sorry about Patch’s mother, and that he is afraid. Patch remembers that Tooms was always looking out for him and his mother, and Tooms tells Patch it is good to hear his voice. In another session, Patch begs Tooms to tell him where Grace is, and Tooms promises to do so the following week. Patch writes countless letters lobbying for Tooms’s life, but discovers that the man is slated to die in two weeks.

After Norma’s funeral, Saint gets a call from Sister Cecile, saying that Eli Aaron just visited the church in Black Rock. Saint sets off for Florida, backed by the FBI, and discovers that he’s taken a girl named Ashlee Miller. The police now know his license plate and van, and they locate him at the Black Coal campground. Saint goes on the search through a landscape of bogs with other officers; they find and save Ashlee Miller, but Eli Aaron eludes them.

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