47 pages • 1 hour read
Tom FranklinCrooked Letter, Crooked Letter
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 10-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary
Silas hasn’t been sleeping since he discovered Tina Rutherford’s body in the cabin on Larry’s property. French wonders how Silas found the cabin when it is camouflaged, and Silas lies and says he was “Just lucky.” The mill, owned by Tina’s family, shuts down, and the town goes into mourning. Silas continues going to Larry’s house to feed the chickens and collect their eggs. Silas has also been going to the hospital to keep watch over Larry and keep people from bothering him. Larry is now suspected for Tina’s murder, and he has constant surveillance over him. Silas tells an unconscious Larry that things will be bad once he wakes up and warns him not to confess: “[...] don’t say nothing, Larry. Hear? Nothing” (189).
Silas learns a young, stringy guy has been visiting Larry and asking if he woke up. Suspicious of this, Silas tries to get surveillance footage, but there is none; French thinks there’s no point in pursuing the lead, since the description could match anybody in Mississippi. Silas falls asleep while watching over Larry and sees a stringy guy passing by the room, but when he calls after him, the man runs off. Silas learns that Ina is having a good day and goes to visit her at the resting home. Finding her sitting in her own feces, Silas must force one of the workers to clean her up. Ina goes in and out of recognizing Silas, and she tells him Alice was once their maid but got pregnant out of wedlock and had to be sent away.
Coming back from the resting home, Silas is late for his date with Angie, who gives him the cold shoulder. Angie knows Silas was lying about dating Cindy. Silas tells his story of falling in love with Cindy as teenagers, the two of them having to sneak around because of their race. Alice warned Silas it could only end badly. Cindy told Silas she first started to like him when Cecil tried to take off her towel and he defended her; Cecil did that sort of thing often. On the night she disappeared, Silas and Cindy fought about running off to Chicago; he thinks she must have been lying to Larry about being pregnant but doesn’t know for sure. Silas dropped Cindy off by her house as planned before Larry arrived, and he believes Cecil must have killed her. Alice figured out Silas’s part in everything and sent him off to Oxford to live with his coach and play baseball. Angie wonders how Silas could let everyone believe it was Larry all this time, and she challenges him, “What you gone do?” (205). Silas receives a call from one of the orderlies at the hospital, telling him that Larry has woken up.
Chapter 11 Summary
Larry goes in and out of consciousness, remembering Silas coming to visit him but not knowing if it was a dream. When Larry wakes, the doctor asks him questions to see if he remembers who he is, and Larry asks, “Did they find that girl?” (209). French and Sheriff Lolly come to interview Larry, and they tell him that Silas saved his life. Lolly and French ask Larry if he shot himself, and Larry can’t remember. French and Lolly ask Larry about Tina Rutherford, telling Larry her body was found on his property in the cabin. Larry panics and passes out. When he wakes up, Larry asks the nurse if somebody can look after his chickens. French and Lolly return and reassure Larry that Silas has been taking care of his chickens and seeing after his mother. Larry wants to talk to Silas, but French denies him: “This is what we call out of his jurisdiction” (214).
Sheriff Lolly paints a picture for Larry of what he may have gone through, emotionally, to drive him to take Tina. Lolly suggests maybe Larry took Tina because he was lonely, but she fought back, things got out of hand, and Larry accidentally killed her. Larry begins to vaguely remember being shot by someone in a mask but confusedly thinks it might have been a masked version of himself who shot him. Larry tells French he doesn’t know why he would have killed Tina: “I didn’t even know that Rutherford girl. I don’t know anybody except my momma and she don’t know me” (216). French reassures Larry that he’ll feel better if he just confesses, and Larry agrees.
Chapter 12 Summary
Silas interrupts French and Sheriff Lolly as they continue to interview Larry. Larry is happy to see Silas and asks him to tell the other cops they used to be friends, and Silas confirms, “We was.” French and Lolly try to guide Larry toward a confession, but Silas interrupts and finally admits, “It was me” (221). Silas retells the whole story of his involvement with Cindy, informing Larry that Cindy was never pregnant. Larry and Silas piece together that it must have been Cecil who killed Cindy between when Silas dropped her off and when Larry showed up. The doctor orders the police out of the room. French and Lolly take Silas back to the sheriff’s department and interview him. French tells Silas that Cecil died of cancer: “If it’s any consolation, he had a tough go at the end” (224). Despite Silas’s confession, French still thinks Larry killed Tina Rutherford, and he tells Silas he’s off guard duty.
Silas returns to the hospital to try to convince Larry not to confess to Tina’s murder. Larry is angry at Silas for keeping silent all these years: “All this time people thinking it was me” (225). Silas thinks whoever shot Larry must have killed Tina, but Larry shuts down and won’t tell Silas anything. Silas goes to the bar and drinks. Irina, one of the women who had the snake in her mailbox in Chapter 2, drinks and flirts with Silas. One of her roommates, Evelyn, went on a date with a man who kept snakes in his house and got rough enough with her that she had to pull a pistol on him: Wallace Stringfellow. Silas pieces together that this was the man he pulled over on the four-wheeler in Chapter 8, remembering the pillowcase that could have been carrying a snake. Silas and Irina go back to her place, but Silas thinks of Larry and Angie and leaves before anything can happen.
Chapters 10-12 Analysis
Silas finally owns up to his part in Cindy Walker’s disappearance, explaining his avoidance of Larry all these years. The revelation of this truth presents a huge moment of growth for Silas: For most of his life, he has put himself first, as shown through his interactions with Larry, his mother, and Cindy. For example, Cindy confides in Silas that Cecil has been mistreating her: “Trying to see me without my clothes, come stumbling in the bathroom with his thing in his hand” (202). Silas cares for Cindy, but he won’t sacrifice his future for her: “I had my baseball career ahead of me, and my momma was after me not to see her” (222).
After Cindy’s death, Silas allows his mother to persuade him to leave town, and he tries to put the whole ordeal out of his mind, even knowing that everyone suspects Larry. When Silas returns to town, he has any number of opportunities to tell Larry the truth, but he avoids him as much as possible and tries to bury the entire thing in the past. Silas finally stepping forward and putting Larry’s well-being ahead of his own shows that Silas is coming to terms with his actions and trying to fix the mistakes of the past. Silas can no longer make reparations with his mother or Cindy, but Larry can still be saved.
Larry has only had two friends in his life: Silas and Wallace Stringfellow. Both, in their own ways, have led to him being suspected of murder. Silas never spoke out about his involvement with Cindy Walker, leading people to believe that Larry must have committed her murder; Wallace killed Tina Rutherford and buried her on Larry’s property, knowing Larry would take the blame because of his past. Even before the incident with Cindy Walker, Larry felt alienated from his father and constantly felt as though he didn’t belong. Larry has lived an enormously lonely life in which he has been forced to take scraps of affection wherever he can find them. For this reason, Larry continues to reach out to Silas and insist to Lolly and French that their friendship meant something: “We were friends” (214). Though Silas and Wallace have paralleled each other in some ways up to this point, Silas’s actions prove the sincerity of his friendship, even as they expose his role in destroying Larry’s life. Unlike Wallace, Silas puts Larry’s well-being before his own in an act of true friendship that cannot restore the past but might potentially enable a better future.
