Previous Next

Summary

PART VII: Self-Reliance

Alice: 1961–Judyta, August 1975: Day Four 

Alice: 1961 

Searching the house for Bear, Alice opens the door to her husband Peter’s room and finds him and Delphine asleep together. The sight of this shocks her, and she replays past moments, remembering how Peter always acted indifferent toward Delphine and frequently traveled to Manhattan. Now, she wonders if their whole marriage was a lie. She suspects their affair has been happening since the beginning and that others may have known. Peter may have chosen her because she was young, inexperienced, and easy to control, while Delphine is the kind of woman he truly desires. 

A flashback takes Alice to the early days of her marriage, when she felt isolated and uncomfortable sharing a bed with Peter. Standing in the room now, she considers making a scene but instead stays silent. She needs an escape, so she goes to the sunroom, drinks gin on an empty stomach, and becomes severely drunk. Severely intoxicated, she suggests taking Bear out in the rowboat despite the incoming storm. Peter II refuses, saying they have other plans to go on a hike. Alice, afraid to go against the family, agrees but still heads toward the boathouse, as she plans to go out on the water alone. As she drags the boat toward the lake, she hears the boathouse door close behind her. 

Alice: 1961 

Alice wakes up disoriented, unable to recognize her surroundings. Her mouth is dry, her body aches, and she is desperate for water. The room is dark, and she cannot tell what time it is. She realizes she is lying on a hard surface, still wearing a dress that feels stiff, as if it had been soaked and dried. 

Struggling to gather her thoughts, Alice attempts to push open the door but finds it locked. With no way out, she lies down on the floor, trying to see underneath the door. Before she can make sense of her situation, the door suddenly opens, and Peter II stands before her. 

Judyta,  August 1975: Day Three 

At the end of her shift, Judy rushes to find Hayes to share what Mrs. Van Laar told her about Vic Hewitt, but he has already left for the day. Another investigator dismisses her concerns with a sexist remark. She ignores him and instead enters the director’s cabin alone to investigate. 

Inside, she mistakenly enters T.J.'s room, recognizing it by the feminine undergarments in the drawers. She moves across the hallway and confirms Vic Hewitt’s room by spotting a metal cane and dentures, but he is nowhere to be found. In her search, she finds a pile of black-and-white photographs, including one from the year Bear disappeared. 

Urgently, she calls Hayes at home to tell him what she’s found, but his wife refuses to pass along the message. That evening, as she arrives at the Alcott Family Inn, her father confronts her in the parking lot, furious that she has not come home. He blames her for her mother’s distress, but Judy stands firm. She reassures him that the inn is safe, she has received a raise, and she can take care of herself. After an intense exchange, he leaves, and for the first time, Judy is completely on her own and independent. 

Judyta, August 1975: Day Four 

Judy wakes up at the Alcott Family Inn and enjoys her solitude. As she steps out of the shower, a news report catches her attention: Jacob Sluiter has been captured. She rushes to the television, listening as the New York State Police confirm his arrest. 

At work, Hayes briefs the team. Sluiter is in good health and willing to talk, but no solid evidence puts him at Van Laar Preserve when Barbara disappeared. Judy wants to question him, but she is instead assigned to track down parents of campers. 

Later, she tells Hayes that she left a message with his wife, who never passed it along. She also shares what she discovered about Vic—his absence from his room and the signs that he had been living in the director’s cabin. Hayes listens, then reassigns her to track down Vic.  

Judyta, August 1975: Day Four 

At Camp Emerson, Judy finds that most of the camp is empty except for troopers, rangers, and investigators. The only employee expected to be present is T.J. Hewitt, who is gone. When Judy returns to the Staff Quarters, she discovers that the door to the room where she last saw T.J. is secured with a padlock. She knocks, but there is no response. 

She spends several hours asking around, but no one has seen T.J. since the previous day, and her truck is gone. Although she is not an official suspect, Judy grows suspicious of T.J. and her father’s relationship with the Van Laars. At noon, Judy heads to the Director’s Cabin for lunch, where she finds Hayes hanging up the phone. Hayes asks her about Vic, but she has no updates. He then reveals that Jacob Sluiter is willing to speak to a female investigator. Despite her nerves, Judy agrees. 

Two hours later, Judy watches Sluiter from behind a one-way mirror in an interrogation room at Ray Brook. In his fifties, Sluiter is thin and appears physically weak, but she knows he was much stronger when he was killing decades ago. A forensic psychologist has prepped Judy, warning her about Sluiter’s past and advising her to not show weakness. 

Inside the interrogation room, Sluiter immediately tries to intimidate Judy with personal and inappropriate questions. He mocks her, asks if she’s a virgin, and attempts to manipulate the conversation. Judy remains composed but struggles internally. She asks him about Barbara and whether he was near her home recently. Sluiter evades answering directly, making her suspect he knows more than he lets on. 

Just as Sluiter’s behavior escalates, Captain LaRochelle and the other investigators interrupt the interrogation and order Judy to leave. As she walks out, she hears Sluiter’s taunting, mocking compliment of her interrogation skills. 

Outside the room, Judy is emotionally drained and frustrated, believing she could have gotten more out of Sluiter. She watches through the mirror as he crosses his arms and refuses to speak further to LaRochelle or the other men. The chapter ends with her debating whether she had truly made an impact or if Sluiter had simply toyed with her the entire time. 

Previous section Survival (continued, p. 6) Next section Self-Reliance (continued)

Take a Study Break