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Chapters 11 & 12

Summary: Chapter 11, What He Did Next

On the morning of their last day at the cottage, John wakes up close to noon. He makes breakfast while snippets of his dreams fly through his head. He calls for Kathy, but when he receives no answer, he figures she’ll show up soon. John decides to clean up. He throws away the dead houseplants. Then he does chores, exercises, and goes through his paperwork. John fixes himself several drinks while thinking about plans. Half dozing, he thinks he feels Kathy touch him. Early that evening, John goes to the dock and feels something isn’t right. He gets a flashlight and searches for Kathy down the road. When he doesn’t find her, he becomes convinced she is at the cottage, but she’s not. John drinks more and wonders if he should call for help. At midnight, he has an idea and goes to the boathouse to find the motorboat is gone, just as he expected.

John drives to the home of the cottage’s owners, Claude and Ruth Rasmussen. Ruth gives him coffee to sober him up. She believes Kathy just got stranded with the boat. Claude and John drive back to the cottage to poke around, while Ruth calls people, looking for Kathy. They check out the boathouse and dock. In the cottage, Claude asks John for the phone, which is under the kitchen sink, unplugged. Claude wants to drink and wait for Ruth, while John wants to search or call the police. Claude explains that nothing can be done at this hour. He asks if John and Kathy had a fight, which John denies. Claude then talks about politics and the election, while John grows antsy. Ruth calls with no news of Kathy. They will call the authorities in the morning. Then Claude notices the dead plants and asks what happened. John says it was an accident.

Summary: Chapter 12, Evidence

Family members and friends share their recollections in this chapter. Pat says that Kathy thought of John as Sorcerer too, and Bethany says Kathy knew about the spying. Eleanor reveals that John’s father had to be treated at a rehab center. Tony talks about the insecurity of political candidates.

Other snippets include quotes from a magician’s handbook about hiding the machinations of a trick and excerpts about the shock and rage caused by political defeat and the danger a soldier poses after losing a battle. A nonfiction book discusses the aftermath for soldiers who served in Vietnam. “The Nuremberg Principles” are also quoted, saying that a person carrying out orders is not relieved of responsibility for actions. The final primary election results also are shared, showing John lost by fifty-two points.

Analysis: Chapters 11 & 12

John’s behavior on the day of Kathy’s disappearance is almost as strange as his behavior the night before, though far less violent. For most of the day, John appears to be unconcerned about Kathy’s whereabouts. He sets himself the tasks of cleaning up the past and preparing for the future as if trying to convince himself that everything will be okay. However, John starts drinking at 1:30 in the afternoon and doesn’t stop, which seriously undercuts the suggestion that John has the capability of recovering and making a better life for himself and Kathy. Further, readers may wonder why John drinks so much that day. His continuous consumption of alcohol indicates that he is perturbed, either by Kathy’s disappearance or because he knows what happened to her.

Finally, close to 6 p.m., John grows worried and looks around the property and down the road by himself. When he fails to find Kathy, instead of plugging the phone back in and calling for help, he convinces himself that she will be home soon. This chain of events is peculiar. If John were concerned enough to start searching for Kathy, why would finding no evidence of her calm his worries? Possibly, this is merely the fantasy story that John tells the police later. Or possibly he has been successful at imagining Kathy returning to him in the typical manner that he uses to imagine other events into reality. He thinks, “Any time now she’d come skipping up the road.” He could see it. “Absolutely. It had to happen like that.” Possibly, John even knows Kathy is dead and he is just making up a story in the mirror, as he did with his father. Since the choices that John makes that afternoon are so odd, they invite the reader to hypothesize about what they mean and what happened, much as the narrator does in the “Hypothesis” chapters.

This strange day is followed by more evidence that shows that John, who has already killed at least one man whom he considered to be a brother, is capable of anything, even killing his wife. The various pieces of evidence, particularly the quotes about the rage and shock of political losers and the danger of the post-battle period, illustrate John’s instability. Readers already know that Vietnam and Sorcerer were involved in death and violence. They know that John has significant skills with tricks and illusion and hiding the truth. With all that, it is impossible to believe with any certainty that Kathy will return home safely.

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