Previous Next

Summary

The Prisoner, continued: Chapters 234–253

Saint succeeds in freeing Tooms at the last second, and the two sit together and talk. Tooms tells her that his DNA was found at Eli Aaron’s house because he had suspected Eli Aaron was a bad man and went to threaten him. Tooms reveals that he had been performing secret abortions on young women who didn’t want anyone to know that they wished to terminate their pregnancy, and that he didn’t know Eli Aaron was seeking out and killing them until it was too late. He tells Saint that he lied about Grace’s death to Patch in hopes that it would help him move on. 

Saint asks about Callie Montrose, and Tooms cries, for the first time telling someone that Callie Montrose hemorrhaged during the abortion and died. The night Saint came to his house and reported him to Nix, Nix found out the truth and did not report it because he and Tooms were lovers. Tooms refused to tell the judge about the abortions, having sworn to protect the identity of the girls he’d helped. Callie Montrose told him, as she lay dying, that her father had raped and impregnated her. The letter Tooms gave to Patch before he escaped prison was the same one beside Richie Montrose’s father; Nix figured out the truth, and shot Richie Montrose. 

Patch calls Charlotte from Grace Falls, Alabama, and she tells him the police are after him; Saint is alerted to this by Himes, who had put a trace on her phone line. Patch sits in a diner in Grace Falls and converses with Katie, a young waitress who tells him she knows of the house he’s searching for. Patch walks a mile out of town, exhausted, and finally arrives at the house, which is now old and crumbling. 

Back at the prison, White—the kid who attacked Patch—tries to barter his way out of solitary by telling Warden Riley where Patch has actually gone. 

Patch knocks at the door but receives no response. A thunderstorm is moving in, and as lightning strikes Patch runs for cover in a nearby barn. He closes the door, thrown into utter darkness, and feels a hand slip into his. At first he thinks he is dreaming, but realizes when she speaks that he has, at last, found Grace. Lightning flashes and he sees her: the spitting image of Grace Number One. Grace is elated to see him, but tells him he must leave before her father finds Patch. 

Saint arrives at the house in Grace Falls. She knocks on the door, and after getting no response, heads for one of the nearby barns. Inside, she is hit with a strong chemical smell, and sees that the barn has been turned into a darkroom. She sees the picture of her teenage self that Eli Aaron once took. She draws her gun, but it’s too late—a hand grabs her and covers her mouth before she can scream. 

Grace pulls Patch to the door, frantically urging him to leave. He refuses, and she begins to cry, begging him to leave before he gets killed. Patch realizes that Eli Aaron is Grace’s father, and that he’s been imprisoning her in a bunker here just like the one he’d kept Patch in. He asks where Eli Aaron is and before she refuses to tell him, her eyes flicker to another barn. 

Eli Aaron disarms and chokes Saint, who is unable to break free. He is about to kill her when Patch picks up Saint’s gun and shoots Eli Aaron in the head, killing him. Patch helps her up, and tells her he found Grace, sirens beginning to blare a little ways away.

Previous section The Prisoner, continued: Chapters 210–233 Next section Myths and Legends: Chapters 254–261

Take a Study Break