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Summary

The Pirate and the Beekeeper, continued: Chapters 19–38

Saint sneaks out one night, armed with the slingshot Patch taught her to shoot, and goes to the Tooms farmhouse to look for Patch, believing Dr. Tooms to be his kidnapper. After failing to get inside and making to go back home, she hears a horrible scream. Tooms finds her, and she sees that his hands are covered in blood before she runs away. She tells Chief Nix, who does nothing, believing Tooms to be innocent. Saint grows more depressed each day, and notes at church that Ivy Macauley smells strongly of vodka. 

The seasons change, and winter comes on in Monta Clare. Saint confides her depression in Chief Nix, who comforts her and tells her to stop searching for Patch. She stops caring about being bullied, and learns that Ivy has stopped paying rent, too drunk to take care of herself. Saint remembers beautiful moments that she shared with Patch—how he praised her piano playing, accepted her offers of help when his mother couldn’t care for him, and took punches from Chuck Bradley and the bullies for her. 

Saint goes to a vigil held for Callie Montrose, where she speaks to Callie’s father, a cop. While there she sees Dr. Tooms; another girl tells Saint that Tooms is a creep, and is often seen hanging around her high school. For Christmas Norma gives Saint a Nikon camera, and she begins taking pictures of animals and nature. Jimmy Walters, a boy from church, attempts to get close to Saint, something Norma encourages despite Saint’s lack of interest in him. 

One day, Saint accompanies Norma to another town, where Saint goes to get her film developed. While at the store, she sees an advertisement for photo services featuring a picture of Misty Meyer. The clerk at the shop, Larry, tells Saint that Eli Aaron, the photographer, is a creepy guy. He’s also the photographer for many schools in the area, and Larry doesn’t trust him. Saint goes to Chief Nix to tell him about Eli Aaron, but Nix tells her to back off the case. 

Saint finds Eli Aaron’s address and sets out to find the man, armed with her grandfather’s gun. She runs into Jimmy Walters on her way out, and tells him that she is going to shoot a man named Eli Aaron and find Patch. She takes several buses and walks to a nondescript address, where she sees a navy van like the one that took Patch. There she finds Eli Aaron, a threatening, burly man. She shows him the poster of Misty and asks to be photographed, admitting that she came here alone. Eli Aaron brings her into his barn, and Saint knows then that she’s in deep trouble. 

As he sets her up to be photographed, Eli Aaron mutters a funeral prayer. The lights go out, and Eli Aaron admits to kidnapping the girls who have been disappearing. Saint is gripped with fear and gropes for her gun in the dark, only to have it grabbed from her. Her glasses break, and she crawls towards the main barn, where she sees pictures of the girls strung up with halos drawn over their heads. She also finds a wall of monitors, each of which show security footage of different parts of Eli Aaron’s buildings and property. In one, she sees a bunker with a mattress and a dark shape. She tries to run but struggles to see; she hears a gunshot and Eli Aaron laughing. Panicked, she begins to crawl, realizing that the barn is now on fire. She finds a window and breaks it, only to be hauled out and rescued at last by Chief Nix. 

Saint sits in an ambulance after telling the police everything. She begins to cry to Nix while they wait for the others to search the woods for Patch. Eventually the police give up. Crazed with desperation, Saint makes a run for it. An hour later the police find her, kneeling in a shallow pool at midnight, clutching an unconscious Patch.

Previous section The Pirate and the Beekeeper: Chapters 1–18 Next section The Lovers, the Dreamers: Chapters 39–51

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