51 pages • 1 hour read
Emma HealeyElizabeth is Missing
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A 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
Maud’s at the library but she’s not sure why. She’s forgotten that she asked Helen to take her there to ask about Elizabeth’s overdue notice. She tells the librarian, “I’m looking for something […] I just can’t recall” (141). The librarian directs her to the crime section, but the book titles and covers upset her. Looking at the books reminds Maud of how she and Sukey used to press flowers into books.
Maud misremembers the last time she saw Sukey. She remembers giving her a comb, but she now thinks Sukey pressed it into a book and it fell apart. She picks up a library book by the same author she and Sukey had pressed flowers in and shakes it. The librarian scolds her for mistreating the book.
Maud leaves the library and focuses on following Helen, thinking that it might lead her to Sukey. When it turns out that Maud was following someone else, Helen sharply asks Maud who she was following. Maud tells her that she was following Douglas.
Maud thinks about the morning she followed Douglas. She’d been sick in bed for weeks and was suspicious because Douglas had been stealing food and lying about his whereabouts. She hoped that he knew where Sukey was. Having been ill, Maud barely had the energy to follow him. She caught him coming out of a van in Sukey’s yard. At first, Maud suspected that Sukey was in the van, but Douglas told her that the mad woman lived there and that he’d been bringing her food. Douglas thought that the mad woman may have seen something and was hoping she’d tell him something about Sukey. Maud found the comb she gave Sukey on the last day she saw her, broken on the floor, and asked Douglas, “How did she get this? […] Where did she get it? What’s happened to my sister?” (147).
Returning to the present time, Maud discovers Helen using her phone and becomes very upset. Maud pulls the phone from the wall and kicks the alarm clock. After she orders Helen to leave, she picks up the pieces of broken glass and tries to piece the shards together, remembering the time she found Douglas’ broken records. Looking at the room again a few moments later, she wonders who came in and made a mess.
Maud remembers a time that Frank shouted at her: Frank came home drunk one afternoon when Maud was visiting Sukey. Frank complained about Sukey’s friendship with Douglas and said that Douglas didn’t think Frank was good enough for Sukey. Sukey sent Maud away, and when Maud came back for her coat, Frank shouted, “What the hell are you still doing here?” (152). Maud went home in tears, afraid of Frank and increasingly suspicious of him.
Chapter 11 Summary
Maud leaves the house, thinking that she’s heading to Frank’s house, but gets lost, and a police officer picks her up. In her confusion, she tells the police officer that she’s going home and that her mother’s waiting up for her.
Maud remembers running into Frank who was waiting by their house. He asked if Sukey said anything about him or her whereabouts to Maud, and Maud said Sukey didn’t. Maud hoped that Sukey had run away from Frank. Frank misses Sukey, her perfume, her lipstick, and her blue and silver compact.
Frank took Maud to a local pub where he told her that she looked just like Sukey. He asked how things were at home. Maud told him everyone at home was upset about Sukey’s disappearance. Frank mentioned that he had been in jail the past two weeks, but Maud already knew. Someone teased Frank, telling him that Maud’s too young for him. Maud observed that everyone seemed to think she was Sukey; Frank disagreed and said that Maud still looked like a kid.
Frank told Maud that her parents wanted nothing to do with him because they think he killed Sukey. He showed Maud a note that her father dropped off at Frank’s house, accusing him of hurting Sukey. Frank blamed Douglas for turning Maud’s father against him, calling him “your fucking lodger” (161). Maud told him that he’d used bad language three times and left.
Maud is in the police station where a woman is swearing loudly, and a drunk football fan is singing. Maud is frightened of the other people in the station and confusedly mutters, “Her perfume was Evening in Paris […] And she had earrings that looked like sweets” (162). When Helen picks up Maud, Helen scolds her for going out so late and suggests taking Maud back to the doctor. Maud picks up a striped earring that reminds her of one that Sukey had, but Helen tells her “don’t collect old rubbish” (163).
When Sukey first went missing, Maud would look for discarded items that might have belonged to Sukey. She avoided going home after school and wandered around the town looking for “bits of paper, nail files, hairclips, an earring” (163). Maud began to believe that if she collected enough clues, they might lead her to Sukey.
Chapter 12 Summary
The doctor gives Maud a series of cognitive tests; she’s unable to identify a pencil or draw a clock. When the doctor asks her to write a sentence, she writes, “My friend Elizabeth is missing” (171). When he asks if she’d like to hear some music, she mimics the laughter at the end of the “Champagne Aria,” which she remembers as one of the first songs Douglas played for her and Sukey on his gramophone.
Maud remembers listening to records in Douglas’ room before Sukey went missing. After Sukey disappeared, Maud would sneak into Douglas’ room when he was away at work to listen to records. She’d also go through his things, looking for clues. She found nothing other than a “shabby” black umbrella that reminded her of the mad woman.
In the present time, Maud finds herself holding a booklet on dementia. Katy is playing old songs on her computer, trying to jog her memory. Katy reveals that people are coming to look at the house, but Maud’s not supposed to know. They listen to the “Champagne Aria” together. Maud helps herself to bread and butter, ignoring the “no toast” sign, and Katy lies on the floor laughing along with the song, just as Maud did when she was a girl.
Maud returns to her memories of coming home from the pub with Frank and finding the letter Sukey had written to Douglas. In the letter, Sukey told Douglas that she was sorry, they should be friends again, but that she “really must tell Frank” (179). Maud wondered if Douglas and Sukey had been lovers and realized that this would explain their interactions and Frank’s jealousy.
Maud’s parents returned from talking to Frank who was drunk when they ran into him on the street. Frank told them he thought Sukey was living with them. Maud’s mother wondered how Frank could become so disheveled so quickly, and Maud’s father wondered why Frank took a van up north but came back on a train. Maud’s father’s final question is, “[D]id he take her to London with him or did something happen here?” (181).
Chapters 10-12 Analysis
Maud is increasingly confusing the past and the present. While with Helen, Maud thinks she’s following Douglas. When Maud gets lost, she tells the police officer that her mother’s waiting up for her. She confuses the day she gave Sukey a comb with the times they pressed flowers into books. This last episode shows that her memories of the past, which were once so clear, are starting to blur together.
As Maud becomes more confused, she is also more agitated and destructive. She orders Helen to leave her home, rips the phone from the wall, and kicks the alarm clock.
Young Maud continues to gather clues about Sukey’s disappearance, and she’s suspicious of both Frank and Douglas. We learn that Frank is prone to anger: Maud first sees his angry side when he drunkenly ordered her to leave his house. After Sukey’s disappearance, he swore at Maud while at the bar. Maud was afraid of Frank but also drawn to him.
After seeing Douglas search Sukey’s suitcase and call to the mad woman in the park, Maud felt that Douglas “was up to something” (144). Determined to figure out whether he was stealing food, she followed Douglas to Frank’s house. When she found Sukey’s comb in the van behind Frank’s house, Maud confronted Douglas, and he explained that he’d been feeding the mad woman. After reading the letter Sukey sent to Douglas, Maud wondered what other secrets Douglas might be keeping.
