Home Is Where the Bodies Are

When Beth answers, she is greeted by her old boyfriend, Lucas, who has returned to town to look after his aged mother. Knowing about Laura’s death, he came to offer his condolences. On impulse, Beth invites Lucas to join her on a walk the following morning, and Lucas accepts. As teens, they used to go on morning runs together in the nature preserve.

That night, the siblings share a pizza and continue their argument about Emma. Michael ends the discussion by saying, “Let’s just finish going through everything, and if we find enough to give us an idea of what actually happened to Emma or where her body is, we’ll report it. If not, we’ll move on with our lives,” (97). Beth and Nicole sullenly agree to the plan. Nicole suggests going through Laura’s journals to look for clues.

On June 15, 1999, Laura records the events on the afternoon of the summer festival. Emma’s mother, Susan, congratulates her on putting the event together. They watch the potato sack race, in which Emma beats Christie for first place. Emma goes on to win the egg toss next. Laura casts an eye around to see what her children are doing. Beth is making out with Lucas while Nicole is drinking beer with her underage friends. Michael gets eggs thrown at him and runs home for a clean shirt.

Meanwhile, Brian is calling the community bingo game. When he finishes, Laura asks him to keep an eye on their seedy neighbor, Charles Gallagher. “Not only is he an eyesore but so is his yard, which is filled with run-down vehicles he refuses to get rid of” (105). He’s watching a group of teenage girls a little too closely. Laura is troubled by the feeling that something bad is about to happen.

The following morning, Beth prepares to meet Lucas at seven o’clock in the morning. She thinks about the three notes her mother left and convinces herself that some part of the mystery will be resolved when the letters are opened after the funeral. She hides the lockbox key under her mattress to avoid Nicole’s prying eyes. Lucas arrives on time, bearing a cup of iced coffee made just the way that Beth used to like it. As they walk toward the trail, they catch up on each other’s lives. Lucas knows about Beth’s divorce and admits that he has been divorced for a few years, too. His wife wanted children, but he didn’t after the trauma of losing his sister.

Surprisingly, Lucas says that he doesn’t want to know what happened to Emma. He believes she is dead: “She’s been missing for twenty-three years, and it’s highly unlikely she’s just out there living her life. There’s an ounce of me that believes otherwise, but if I knew what happened to her, I’d lose that crumb of hope” (114). His mother has dementia and sometimes doesn’t realize that Emma is missing. Beth confesses that she sends an email to her absent father every week, even though she never gets a response. She just wrote to tell him that Laura died. Beth finally breaks down, and Lucas holds her as she cries.

Nicole reads a few of her mother’s journal entries and realizes that she didn’t know about Laura’s doubts or fears at all. She reflects, “You can know a person your whole life but never really know them. Because they only have to show you what they want you to see” (118). She notices that some entries surrounding June 15 have been ripped out of the notebook. When Beth returns from her walk, Nicole asks her to drive to the treatment clinic, where she has an appointment to receive methadone. Because Nicole has disappointed Beth so often, she doesn’t expect any cooperation. Much to her surprise, Beth agrees to take her.

Beth waits for Nicole in the car outside the clinic. Fifteen minutes later, Beth grows anxious and goes inside. The clerk says that Nicole finished and may have left out the back door. In the back parking lot, Beth sees a man handing Nicole an envelope. Assuming this is a drug deal, she interrupts the transaction. However, the man is a former classmate, Casey Dunn, who is now a detective with the Walworth County Sheriff’s Department. Nicole told him that she is writing a book about Emma Harper’s disappearance, and he is giving her the case file. Afterward, Nicole is angry at Beth’s lack of trust. Beth, however, thinks that “[Nicole has] lied for so long about her addiction and the things she’s done that I don’t think she knows where the truth starts and ends” (127).

The narrative shifts back to Laura’s journal entry on the night of June 15, 1999. Emma’s mother comes to the house frantically looking for her daughter. The Thomas children don’t remember seeing her after the egg toss that afternoon. Everyone goes to join the search, and Laura tries to reassure Susan that all is well. Deep down, she doesn’t believe her own words.

Beth and Nicole don’t speak on the ride home. Michael pulls into the driveway at the same time they do. When the siblings enter the house, they find that it’s been ransacked. Beth fears that the videotape has been taken, but it’s still lying in plain sight in the living room. Nothing else has been stolen, either. Michael goes searching for his father’s pistol in case the intruder returns. Amid the mayhem, Beth realizes that she has received a message from their father. Brian apologizes for not writing and expresses his sadness that Laura is gone. After saying that he isn’t far away, he cautions his children not to come looking for him: “I wish I could have been a better father, grandfather, and husband. But sometimes we’re not the people we want to be. We just are” (139).

The siblings wonder about their father’s unexpected reappearance. Beth admits that she has been sending him weekly emails and reveals their mother’s dying disclosure that their father didn’t disappear. However, she keeps her mother’s words about “trust” a secret. Nicole is outraged and eager to find their father.

Beth feels that Nicole is idealizing his return because she lost the past seven years to addiction. Her substance abuse disorder began after a car accident while she was out looking for their father. Nicole became addicted to prescription painkillers during her recovery, and the doctors cut her off after she was released with no plan for weaning her off opioids.

Since Michael works in technology, Nicole urges him to trace the IP address that sent the message. Beth isn’t sure that she wants to know, fearing that their father might be dangerous. Michael has no trouble finding the location. “Juda, Wisconsin. About an hour west of here” (145). Michael and Nicole are keen to make the trip, but Beth stays behind.

During the drive to Juda, Michael and Nicole swap stories of their mother’s rejection. Laura told Michael never to come back after he said that it might be for the best that Brian was gone. Similarly, Nicole was told to stay away until she had a treatment chip implanted. When the siblings reach the house in Juda, it appears to be abandoned. Nicole is crushed and craves drugs to ease her disappointment. She asks Michael to drive her to a motel where she has been staying with a friend so that she can pick up her things. Not realizing that Nicole is lying, Michael agrees.

Michael waits in the parking lot of the motel while Nicole runs up to her friend’s room. The motel’s appearance tells him that this is a spot where people congregate to use drugs. When Michael hears yelling coming from the room Nicole entered, he hurries to see what happened. A drug dealer is threatening Nicole because she owes him money. The drug dealer confesses that he broke into Laura’s house to steal anything of value but found nothing worth taking. He is at the point of hitting Nicole when Michael attacks him, breaking his nose and a few ribs. After learning that Nicole owes the dealer $500, Michael gives him the money and threatens him: “Here. Now she owes you nothing. […] If you come near my sister again, next time I won’t stop” (155).