Hidden Bodies

Joe gets in line for breakfast in the morning. He burns his waffles, and a father from another table brings him a fresh one, which boosts Joe’s spirits. Outside, he overhears two elderly people gossiping about Peach and her mother. Then he runs into Officer Nico at the Art Café. Nico had had an encounter with Joe right after Joe killed Peach and got into a car accident. Joe had told Nico his name was Spencer Hewett, the name of his boss’s nephew. Nico then figures out where he remembers Joe from. Joe shakes his hand and says he saved his life. Nico gets distracted by other conversations and Joe is able to tell him good-bye and leave.

In the hotel, Joe itches. He flips his mattress but sees no bedbugs. As he worries about not being able to get the mug, he says “I want to marry her” (362) out loud. Love is all that he wants. Suddenly, there is a knock on the door. It is Love.

Love is appalled that Joe didn’t think she could find him. She demands to know why he won’t tell her things. His behavior has been so odd that sometimes she has wondered if he has cancer. She asks why he is there and says she can’t do this. Joe knows she has told him more of the truth than he has told her. He then tells her everything, including all of the murders.

Love responds by telling him about a puppy the family had when she and Forty were children. Its name was Roosevelt. He disappeared. Love says that Forty starved Roosevelt to death after tying him to a wall because he liked sleeping with Love more than him. She says it’s not easy to be a twin with a monster, but that she never told anyone what her brother did. She also blames the dog for ignoring Forty. She also blames Monica, her parents, and Milo. Love has to defend Forty, because no one else will. The dog cried when Forty tried to hold him. She asks Joe: “Tell me. Who has the right to hate anyone?” (369). Love says that she can deal with Joe because all she knows how to do is love. “Finding someone who gets you is special” (370). She says she can forgive him, and that she is pregnant. She found him so that she could tell him in person. He showers after they have sex. When he tries to get out, the door is blocked. He thinks Love probably lied about it all to get him to confess so she could leave him and barricade him in the bathroom while calling the police.

Joe bashes himself against the door until he is bruised. He screams for help. He believes that the baby was a lie, and that Love is probably with the police right now. He imagines everyone laughing at him, and pictures Beck, the girlfriend he killed in the last novel, smiling as she digs herself out of the ground. Then he is in too much pain to hit the door again. He wonders what prison will be like. He imagines Milo will be hitting on Love. Then he hears the sound of a keycard opening the hotel door. It is Love. She comes into the bathroom and kisses his chest. She is wearing a trench coat and an odd dress. Then she gives him the mug from the Salinger house.

Love parks near Brown University and they eat at a Greek restaurant. She says she had gone into the Salinger house, passed the reporters and cops, broken down sobbing in front of the family, and said she was Peach’s lover. She blamed Beck for the murder. Joe understands that Love’s love for him is deeper than he thought. She told the family to let it go, knowing that they’d keep quiet because they didn’t want anyone to hear that Peach was a lesbian. Love then asked to go upstairs to the bed she claimed to have shared with Peach and found the mug before offering to make a police statement about her affair with Peach. She is not worried about being recognized when Boots and Puppies comes out, because she changed her hair and wore the odd dress as a disguise.

Joe and Love have sex in the bathroom. Ray calls later to tell Love that Forty is alive. Someone found him in the desert and apparently, he doesn’t remember anything. Joe then gets a text from Forty that says, “See you soon, Professor” (383).