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51 pages 1 hour read

Jeneva Rose

Home Is Where the Bodies Are

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024

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Chapters 24-35Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 24 Summary: “Beth”

While Michael and Nicole are out of the house, Beth uses the time alone to straighten up the mess and watch another videotape. This one is from Michael’s birthday party in November 1999. Beth feels envious when she sees that Michael received a computer as a gift and thinks that he was given more than his sisters. Beth also notices that her mother wasn’t interacting well with Brian as she filmed the family. She comes to the conclusion that “[t]here’s nothing typical about this home video tape or how it was filmed. Mom wasn’t capturing the moment. She was studying us” (159).

Beth’s solitude is interrupted when Lucas stops by to invite her to take a walk by the creek. She has no desire to visit the scene of Emma’s death but wants to spend time with Lucas, so she agrees. As they walk, they talk about Laura’s funeral arrangements. Her ashes are to be scattered over the property the following day at sunset. Lucas asks if he and his mother can attend, and Beth consents. Lucas confides that he’s missed being with her. Overcome with emotion, they kiss. Beth thinks, “Although I haven’t kissed him in decades, when our lips touch it feels like everything I’ve ever lost has been safely returned home” (166).

Chapter 25 Summary: “Laura”

Laura records a journal entry for the night of June 16, 1999. She is still shaken by the events of the evening: “Brian told me we had to get rid of Emma’s body. That there was no other way. Telling the police would destroy us” (168). Although Brian says that he never harmed Emma, he refuses to say more about who killed her. The following morning, the family goes through its usual routine, but Laura is having a difficult time treating Brian the same. She writes, “He smiles warmly, and his thumb grazes over my hand again. It feels like a razor blade, but I don’t wince. It doesn’t matter if I trust him. It only matters that he thinks I trust him” (172).

Chapter 26 Summary: “Michael”

On the way home from their day trip, Michael takes Nicole for her methadone treatment. Back at the house, the two notice that Beth has tidied up. Nicole swears Michael to secrecy about their trip to the motel so he can’t tell Beth about the robber’s identity or motive. Nicole shuts herself in her room to go through more of Laura’s journals while Michael and Beth engage in yet another round of recriminations about who got the best treatment from their parents. Nicole abruptly interrupts to show them a newspaper clipping from October 31, 1999. Three days earlier, 17-year-old Christie Roberts went missing. This was the odd girl who wanted to befriend Beth. The police concluded that she ran away voluntarily.

Chapter 27 Summary: “Laura”

Laura’s journal entry from November 1, 1999, picks up a day after Christie’s disappearance is reported in the local news. She secretly suspects that Brian had something to do with it. After dinner that night, Susan arrives to bring even more disturbing news: Charles Gallagher, the neighbor up the street, has confessed to the murder of Emma Harper.

Chapter 28 Summary: “Nicole”

Back in the present, Nicole shows the clippings to her siblings. They don’t know how to interpret Christie’s disappearance, but Beth suspects she ran away: “Christie’s parents were strange. They were overbearing, kept her sheltered, didn’t let her go to school or anything” (186). Christie had a habit of wandering around town snapping pictures, and she often photographed Beth without her knowledge. Michael is inclined to agree with Beth that Christie had no future in town, and so she left.

Nicole continues to read from the clippings about Charles’s arrest. He admitted to killing Emma and dropping her body in a dumpster in the nearby city of Janesville. Nicole is skeptical of the confession. She says, “Charles Gallagher was an easy target. He was the town creep. I feel like every small town has one. A person no one else understands” (188). The clipping says that Charles was arrested based on an anonymous tip and circumstantial evidence indicating that Emma might have been in his yard the day she disappeared. After 16 hours of interrogation with no lawyer present, he admitted to the crime. The siblings argue about whether Charles was guilty or innocent until they discover that the charges against him were dropped.

Chapter 29 Summary: “Laura”

Laura’s next journal entry is dated December 2, 1999. She looks out a second-floor window at her family in the yard. Emma’s father appears, and he has a quick chat with Brian. After he leaves, Brian glances up at Laura, still standing by the window: “His eyes tighten and he shakes his head—clearly disappointed in me. I know they found Emma’s bicycle. I know that because I made sure they would” (194).

Chapter 30 Summary: “Michael”

The siblings go to the local dive bar, the Boar’s Nest, to discuss the plans for Laura’s funeral. From Michael’s perspective, the place hasn’t changed. The chatty bartender, whom he’s known since high school, tells him about her life, and he thinks, “It’s always the least interesting people that have the most to say, like their existence would cease if they didn’t speak of it. I know I sound cruel. But how else do you survive a place like this and manage to get out?” (196-97).

Michael, Nicole, and Beth argue some more about the details of the upcoming funeral ceremony until their conversation is interrupted by Nicole's detective friend, Casey Dunn. He asks to speak to Nicole outside. Once they leave, Michael proposes buying their mother’s house from Beth. He offers her $400,000 for the property, which is above market value. Beth initially declines out of spite: “Because you get everything, Michael. You always have. I just don’t want you to get your way…for once” (203). Michael dismisses her misplaced envy and concludes that she will accept his offer eventually.

Chapter 31 Summary: “Nicole”

Nicole talks to Casey outside. He produces two more files for her to study. One is from the Christie Roberts case, and the other is a missing persons report for Charles Gallagher.

Chapter 32 Summary: “Laura”

Laura’s journal picks up on December 16, 1999. Feeling bad about the harassment that Charles is receiving from the community, she brings over a hot dish and some cupcakes for Charles and his elderly mother. Warily, Charles invites her in, and they discuss his arrest. He says the confession was forced out of him: “Funny how quickly you can turn on yourself, mistake a lie for the truth. Then they told me if I confessed, it’d all be over. And I believed them” (212). The only reason he was released was because Emma’s bike was discovered by the creek while he was in prison, proving that she didn’t disappear from his yard.

Chapter 33 Summary: “Beth”

The siblings drive to the funeral home to collect Laura’s ashes. As they travel, Michael and Beth both criticize Nicole for accepting police files off the record from Casey to conduct her research. She tells Beth and Michael about the missing persons report filed by Charles’s elderly mother: “She said Charles walked over to the Boar’s Nest for a drink the night of December 27, 1999. It was the first time he left his house since his release. The next morning, she realized he had never come home” (215). Nicole insists that Charles wouldn’t abandon his sickly parent, but Michael and Beth aren’t sold on her theory.

Chapter 34 Summary: “Nicole”

Back at the house, the siblings prepare to scatter their mother’s ashes at sunset. Lucas arrives, pushing Susan’s wheelchair. The old woman is having trouble keeping the past and present straight. She asks where Emma is and where Laura has gone. Attempts to explain matters only worsen her distress. Susan says, “Laura and I were just talking the other day. She said she knew where Emma was, that she’d show me” (220). Lucas apologizes for his mother’s mental state and takes her back home. After they leave, the siblings speculate that Laura might have shown Susan where Emma’s body was buried. With the sun quickly setting, they hurry to complete the task of scattering Laura’s ashes.

Chapter 35 Summary: “Laura”

Laura’s next entry is dated December 27, 1999. She awakens at three o’clock in the morning to the sound of water splashing in the bathroom. Brian is up and taking a shower. He tries to bluff his way through the suspicious behavior, but Laura finds a pile of discarded clothes, and there are bloodstains on his jacket. He says that the blood isn’t his. He then accuses Laura of staging the discovery of Emma’s bicycle, and she protests that she isn’t going to help convict an innocent man. Brian says, “Well, you won’t have to worry about that anymore…because Charles Gallagher is dead” (225).

Chapters 24-35 Analysis

This segment continues an exploration of how Trust Issues Break Apart Families by examining Laura’s eroding trust in her husband. Brian refused to explain his involvement in Emma’s death, forcing his wife to conclude that he may be a murderer. While she helps him bury the body, she doesn’t know why they can’t go to the police, and Brian isn’t forthcoming with an explanation. Instead, he asks for his wife’s blind trust, and Laura pretends to give it. She writes, “It doesn’t matter if I trust him. It only matters that he thinks I trust him” (172). Brian continues to destroy Laura’s trust with the additional steps he takes to secure his alibi. For example, he phones in an anonymous tip suggesting that Charles Gallagher was responsible for Emma’s disappearance. From Laura’s point of view, her husband might not only be a murderer but he is also trying to pin the blame on an innocent man. This is confirmed by the last entry in this chapter grouping when Brian confirms that Charles is dead. As more details emerge about the events in 1999, the web of deceit surrounding the Thomas family expands to include more victims, increasing the suspense.

Laura herself also indulges in some untrustworthy behavior when she goes behind Brian’s back and plants Emma’s bicycle by the creek for the police to find. This contradicts the theory that Emma was near Charles’ house when she disappeared, and the case against him is dropped. Since she has placed the bike at her death site—though not where her body is located—she renews the evidence trail that could lead to the real killer being caught. Her good-faith action does not have the intended consequences; when Brian returns home with bloodstains on his jacket and announces that Charles is dead, he goes so far as to pin the blame on Laura, suggesting that planting the bicycle was the reason for Charles’s death. As the three siblings read these journal entries, their distrust of their parents deepens. Both Brian and Laura are now implicated in two missing persons cases, and a clipping attached to Laura’s journal entries speaks of the disappearance of Christie Roberts. Initially, Beth and Michael dismiss a connection between the three, but Nicole remains suspicious. The second victim and the possibility of a third heighten the tension and the stakes as the siblings try to solve the mystery.

To a lesser extent, these chapters also revisit the theme of how Trauma Traps People in the Past. The oppressive nature of small-town life hits home when the siblings visit The Boar’s Nest for a drink. Once again, Michael is the outsider who recognizes the static nature of life in Allen’s Grove. He chats with a waitress he knew in high school, whose life seems as lacking in momentum as his own sisters’ lackluster progress. He says of the bar’s atmosphere:

My eyes flick to the clock on the wall. I know the time is off by at least forty-five minutes. Behind. Not ahead. A place like this would never be ahead. No one here cares though—because for them, there’s nothing to look forward to, so you may as well slow it down, savor the futile moments (196).

A similar sense of the futility--of lives stuck on hold--is depicted in Laura’s encounter with Charles. Feeling sorry for the man, she brings food to his home during the Christmas season. The derelict condition of his house where he lives with his disabled mother reflects the derelict life he has endured as an outcast in Allen’s Grove. While none of the town’s inhabitants is a model of worldly success, Charles is the starkest example of remaining stuck in the past. Laura describes a home showing signs of hoarding, from cat urine to piles of newspapers and dirty dishes. Like other mental health conditions, hoarding is a coping mechanism. Sparked by a traumatic event in one’s life, it reflects an inability to heal or move on from this moment, a physical manifestation of being trapped by one’s past. This challenge is compounded by the harassment that Charles has endured since being arrested and then released, and his financial and familial responsibilities keep him rooted in place. His plotline, culminating in his death, shows how people dealing with trauma can be victimized by bad actors.

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