Daisy Darker

Daisy tries to comfort Trixie, who looks traumatized and collapses. In the library, a “Wall of Achievements” celebrates the family’s successes. The wall mostly features Rose’s academic accomplishments. There is also a dark poem written by 11-year-old Daisy.

Daisy looks at the frame that contains Conor’s first cover story for a local newspaper. When his father disappeared on the night of Halloween 1988, Conor moved to Seaglass, and his cover story was an interview with Nana. Daisy notices that Conor’s article has been replaced by a letter from a laboratory confirming the results of a DNA test. The letter states that Conor is Trixie’s father.

Conor insists that Lily did not tell him he was Trixie’s father. Daisy recalls the circumstances of Mr. Kennedy’s disappearance. His car was discovered on a cliff top the day after Halloween. A note on the dashboard stated that his heart was broken by his wife’s death and the loss of his son to the Darker family. There was a funeral, but his body was never found.

Conor leaves the library to confront the intruder. Trixie is inconsolable as they listen to Conor walk up the stairs and check the bedrooms. After he shouts an all-clear, they hear someone fall down the stairs and land outside the library door. Rose switches off the lights as a second person walks down the stairs.

The footsteps stop outside the library. Someone tries the door and shakes the handle when they realize it is locked. Next, the group hears the cupboard door opening and something being dragged inside.

Rose suggests they may be able to wade to the mainland now the tide is lower. She looks at the poem on the wall and reluctantly asks if Daisy is responsible for what is happening. Daisy denies involvement, and Trixie defends her.

Rose leaves the library and opens the door of the cupboard. Daisy tells Trixie to stay in the library as she creeps forward to get a better look. Over her sister’s shoulder, she sees the bodies of Lily, Nana, Frank, Nancy, and Conor. Conor has a yo-yo wrapped around his neck and a newspaper article stuffed into his mouth. Daisy goes to the kitchen, feeling nauseous. She notices that Rose’s lines have been crossed off the chalkboard. Daisy hears Rose say, “I can see you breathing” (299), and then the sound of gunfire.

Rose is bleeding profusely as the clocks strike six. She opens her eyes, and Daisy reassures her sister she will be alright. Before dying, Rose smiles and speaks affectionately to Daisy. Turning to Trixie, Daisy asks why she shot Rose. Trixie runs upstairs with the gun still in her hand.

Rose

A poem describes Rose as clever and beautiful but lonely.

Daisy finds Trixie in her bedroom, calmly going through the contents of her suitcase. She wonders if her niece is traumatized or suffering an adverse reaction to the sedative Lily gave her. However, Trixie reveals that she did not drink the drugged tea. The teenager is amused when Daisy asks if she remembers what she has done, claiming her aunt is the forgetful one. She admits that she had help killing her family, as she could not have done it alone. Daisy asks why Trixie did not murder her as she is the last survivor. The teenager reveals that Daisy is already dead.

Trixie calmly changes her clothes. She advises her aunt to sit down as she often faints when reminded that she has been dead for years. Daisy insists she is alive, pointing out that she works at an old people’s home. Trixie reveals her aunt visits dying people in the home as they are the only ones who can see her. She explains that is why Rose finally saw Daisy in the moments before she died. Trixie urges Daisy to recall the events after the Halloween beach party in 1988.

Daisy remembers running away from Conor and Lily after seeing them together. She found Rose and blurted out that she had seen Conor and Lily having sex. Laughing, Conor and Lily denied the claim, and Rose believed them. Rose suggested that Daisy had been lying for some time to cause a rift between her older sisters, guessing that she was responsible for destroying her designer dress. Lily then realized it was Daisy who had cut off her hair. Rose and Lily taunted their little sister about having a crush on Conor, and Daisy ran away.

On the walk home, Daisy wore her ghost costume for warmth. Hearing a car, she stopped in the middle of the road believing Conor had come to save her. However, Conor was drunk and distracted and did not see Daisy. Realizing that Conor had hit something, Rose and Lily urged him to pull over. Daisy’s heart had stopped, and she was unable to speak or move.

Unable to find Daisy’s pulse, Rose said they must get to a phone to call an ambulance. However, Conor admitted that he had not passed his driving test and took his father’s car without permission. Conor argued that Rose and Lily were equally responsible for the accident as they let Daisy stay at the party. He also pointed out that Daisy’s life expectancy was short, and she would not want their lives to be ruined by her death. As a solution, Conor suggested throwing Daisy off the cliff.

Daisy, who could hear everything, was certain they would not do as Conor proposed. However, after Rose’s initial protestations, all three picked her up, swung her by her hands and feet, and, on the count of three, let go. The shock of adrenaline as they released Daisy restarted her heart. Opening her eyes, she saw the horror on her companions’ faces as she fell toward the sea.

Trixie tells Daisy she has reminded her of her death numerous times. Revealing a scar on her chest, she says she can see her aunt due to having the same heart condition. Trixie collapsed and briefly died when she was 10 and woke up to find Daisy by her bedside. Only Poppins shares her ability to see Daisy’s ghost. Trixie once told her mother about it, but Lily became angry and refused to believe her.

Daisy realizes that her family was ignoring her because they could not see or hear her. Trixie says she committed the murders to fulfill Daisy’s wish to be noticed by her family, both during her life and after it. Inside the teenager’s suitcase are a spool of red ribbon and several items beginning with the initial B, including a Scrabble letter and the B key from the piano. Daisy remembers that Trixie’s full name is Beatrice and realizes she was leaving clues to her identity. The suitcase also contains a copy of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and Trixie’s poems about each member of the Darker family. Trixie invites Daisy downstairs to meet her accomplice.

Nana is waiting in the kitchen for her granddaughter and great-granddaughter. Trixie explains that she will act as an interpreter as Nana cannot see or hear Daisy. A couple of years earlier, Trixie told Nana that she was in contact with Daisy and told her how she died.

Nana reveals that on the night of Daisy’s death, Rose and Lily returned from the Halloween party pretending everything was fine. Her disappearance was discovered the next day, and her body was found by Nana and her agent, washed up at Blacksand Bay. When the police questioned Conor and his father, they discovered Daisy’s blood on the headlight of Mr. Kennedy’s car. Conor’s father consequently died by suicide, convinced he had killed Daisy while drunk driving.

After discovering the truth about Daisy’s death, Nana told Nancy. However, Nancy admitted that she and Frank already knew. Lily had confessed to her, and they kept the secret to protect their surviving daughters. Nancy also revealed that Daisy was given the chance of surgery to prolong her life, but she did not permit her to have it. Nana could not forgive any of the family.

Nana explains how she staged her death using blood from her chickens and a fake joke shop wound. By meditating, she slowed her breath so that Rose could not detect a pulse. She tells Daisy that she wanted justice for her death and felt it would be irresponsible to allow the rest of her family to live. Trixie came up with the murder methods, deciding that each victim would be killed by something they loved. She also injected herself with Lily’s insulin to detract suspicion.

Adding sugar to her tea, Nana says she longs to see Daisy but is also troubled that her spirit has not “moved on.” She explains that she asked Conor to take a Polaroid picture of the family as she hoped to see an image of her dead granddaughter. Daisy looks at the photograph on the fridge and sees that the chair where she was sitting is empty. Nana reveals how her grief after Daisy’s death left her unable to write. However, when she saw her agent the previous day, he reminded her of Daisy’s wish to tell her story. The story of a “dysfunctional” family is Daisy’s, and she believes her granddaughter must tell it to finally be free.

After finishing her tea, Nana suddenly sees Daisy and cries with joy. She reveals that she poisoned herself with the sugar so she could glimpse Daisy one last time. Nana tells Daisy she loves her and dies.

Trixie reveals that she had the groundbreaking heart surgery Daisy was denied. However, her life expectancy is still only 20. She suggests that they both need to be free. Trixie points out that Daisy’s only powers as a ghost are related to words. She can turn the pages of books, type, and move Scrabble letters but little else. The teenager suggests that Daisy should use the pen Nana’s agent gave her to write her story. Daisy finds the agent’s card and pen still in her dress pocket.

Trixie announces she is taking Poppins for a walk. Daisy watches them cross the causeway but is unable to leave the house. Now alone, Daisy realizes that she finally wants to leave Seaglass. The clocks chime seven, and she notices her card below the punch clock, which was last stamped in 1988. Daisy finds Conor’s laptop and deletes the word “Boo!” She types the title of her story, “DAISY DARKER.” As the sun rises, Daisy sees birds and dolphins and types the first sentence, “I was born with a broken heart” (335).