What Happened to the Bennetts

The Bennetts huddle in the hospital while Allison is in surgery. Their clothes are covered in Allison’s blood, and they are still in shock at the evening’s events. They reflect on the ambulance ride and convince themselves that Allison is doing well. Lucinda and Jason reassure themselves that they are in one of the best hospitals in the Philadelphia area. They expect her to survive. Lucinda talks about Allison’s plan to attend her homecoming dance with her boyfriend, Troy, and hopes that she will recover in time. They have the dress picked out and a hair appointment scheduled. Jason recalls recent conversations with Allison about her self-esteem.

Ethan is worried about Moonie, who they had to leave in a patrol car. He asks Jason not to blame Moonie for Allison’s shooting, and Jason realizes that Ethan is talking about himself. Jason convinces Ethan that it was not his fault by using logic from his professional experience with the law. He explains that the real people responsible are the carjackers. Everything else is a “but for” cause. For example, “Allison would be fine, but for the fact that we won the game” (18). Jason puts on a calm exterior, but he is seething with anger when two county detectives arrive to ask questions.

Jason questions the two detectives, Bill Willoughby and Jim Balleu, on whether they have caught the criminal. He repeats the information he gave the uniformed officers at the scene. The detectives say that have not caught him, and they have follow-up questions. Jason remembers a new detail: before he exited the Mercedes, he read the lips of the larger man calling the slimmer man “Junior” (24). The detectives are skeptical, but Jason insists that he is trained to read lips as a court reporter. The detectives question Jason about his job, and it becomes clear that they suspect Jason of killing the carjacker.

Despite his anger, Jason manages to repeat in detail everything he remembers from the event, drawing on his experience as a reporter. Afterward, the detectives ask the Bennetts not to post about the incident on social media (27).

After the detectives leave, the doctor comes in and informs them that Allison died. Jason is upset and demands that the doctor explains in detail what happened. He feels like he is falling apart emotionally but knows that he cannot for the sake of the family. He says, “I was the center and the center had to hold” (28). He does not think he will be able to forgive himself for not doing more at the scene to prevent Allison’s death.

Jason and Lucinda visit Allison’s body. Jason apologizes to Allison over and over. Jason cries and imagines the future that Allison will never have. Afterward, the Bennetts go home. The neighborhood looks the same as before, but “everything had changed” (32). After Ethan falls asleep, Jason and Lucinda talk about how unreal everything feels. They struggle to accept Allison’s death. Again, they cry, and Jason thinks about all the mundane tasks they will have to perform over the next few days: telling people, making funeral arrangements, and picking out Allison’s dress—not the homecoming dress but her “forever” dress (34).

They eventually fall asleep, too, but around three o’clock in the morning they are woken by Moonie barking and a knock on the door. Outside, there are two FBI agents: Special Agents Dom Kingston and Wiki Hallman. They inform Jason that the FBI has taken over the investigation from the local police and that they need to speak with his family immediately.

In the Bennetts’ living room, the agents explain that they have identified Allison’s murderer as John Milo and the other man as George Veria Jr., known as Junior. The FBI believes Milo, not Jason, shot Junior. They explain that both men belong to the George Veria Organization (GVO). GVO is a criminal network that distributes and sells OxyContin, fentanyl, and other opiates in central and southeastern Pennsylvania. Junior is the boss’s son.

The agents explain that Milo and Junior had just killed two street-level drug dealers in the next town: Walter Jersey and Gary Reid. They believe Milo and Junior targeted the Mercedes as a getaway car and that the Bennetts were in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, the agents also believe that Milo plans to frame Jason for Junior’s murder because Milo made a point to kill Junior with his own gun. The only reason Milo didn’t kill the rest of the Bennetts was the approaching car.

Dom tells Jason that his family is in danger and that they need to enter the witness protection program. He also says that they need to leave now. The news shocks the Bennetts, who begin to list reasons why they cannot leave their lives. Both Jason and Lucinda own their businesses, and Lucinda’s mother is in assisted living nearby. Dom assures them that the danger is real and that the US government will help them sell their businesses and set up new lives. The chapter ends with Jason saying that the family needs to talk it over in private.

Jason tells Lucinda and Ethan that he thinks they should enter the program. Lucinda and Ethan protest, arguing that they can be extra cautious. Ethan is afraid of leaving school and his friends. Lucinda is especially worried about her mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease. She would feel guilty abandoning her mother after her mother steadfastly stayed at her sister Caitlin’s side when she was battling breast cancer. All three struggle to comprehend leaving the place where Allison grew up. They look at the trees in the backyard where Allison used to practice lacrosse. They look at the kitchen threshold where the kids marked their height each year. Finally, Jason insists that they must leave to protect Ethan.

The FBI agents drive the Bennetts to Delaware in the middle of the night. During the drive, everything reminds Jason of Allison. They pass by places he’d taken her. By the time they reach the coast, it is morning. The FBI safehouse is part of a Delaware beach community called Reeford that is mostly empty vacation homes. The safe house, like many of the homes in the area, faces the beach and has a second-story deck in the back that looks out over a marsh. The house is on stilts, and beneath the house are an outdoor shower, propane tanks, and an air conditioner on elevated platforms. Jason, because he is from farm country, feels uneasy surrounded by water and wetlands.

When they park, Jason looks around. On the property is a detached apartment where the two FBI agents will stay. He then walks to the beach and thinks about taking Allison to a beach when she was three years old. He remembers her first time floating in water. Then a blue heron flies by, snapping him out of it and bringing tears to his eyes. The heron, Jason thinks, is “graceful and strong, the hue of heaven itself” (59). He takes it as a sign, a symbol of Allison’s soul taking flight, and falls to his knees crying.

Jason wakes up the next morning still thinking of Allison. He makes coffee and imagines Allison upstairs drying her hair. He turns on the television, but there is no news about the events of last night. Dom brings groceries and explains that his partner is called Wiki because he knows so much. They are not investigators but rather the “Babysitter’s Club.” Their job is to protect the Bennetts until they hand Jason, Lucinda, and Ethan off to the US Marshals. They can only relay information about the investigation that they receive from agents Joe Watanabe and Matt Reilly. There has been no news regarding the whereabouts of Milo.

Dom explains that the FBI will be doing the grocery shopping. (They bond over Tate’s chocolate chip cookies.) He tells Jason that there is no public information about Allison’s murder yet because the FBI is keeping the details secret for the sake of the investigation. He explains that Ethan will need to be homeschooled for the time being and that, when Jason goes for his runs in the morning, Dom will join him as his bodyguard. He explains that there are security cameras outside.

Finally, Dom gives the Bennetts Apple laptops and old flip phones programmed with the FBI’s phone numbers. He reminds Jason that the Bennetts cannot communicate with anyone, and they cannot log into anything online which might give them away, including his cloud storage. He explains specifically that the Bennetts cannot “go on Facebook, Instagram, or any platform that shows you as a live user” (71).

Dom tells Jason that they cannot attend Allison’s funeral because it is too dangerous and against FBI procedure. This shocks Jason, and he tries to bargain with Dom to make it possible. He demands that the FBI move the funeral to another state or let Lucinda attend undercover. But Dom explains that with social media, it is too difficult to hide their identity; Lucinda takes too many selfies (77). The FBI will attend the funeral and the Bennetts can watch on CCTV.

Still processing this news, Jason goes on his new laptop and begins researching Milo, Junior, and George Veria Sr., known as Big George. He discovers that Milo had been arrested for murder before but was not convicted. He logs onto the database of the Courts of Common Pleas using his office manager’s access code and finds that the Milo case was dismissed with prejudice (80). Then he finds a pattern of GVO members beating charges on procedural grounds. Jason discovers that their lawyer, Paul Hart, works at one of the most prestigious firms in Philadelphia, Lattimore & Finch. Jason looks at a photograph of Hart and likens him to the worst kind of lawyers, those “who weaponized the law against justice” (82).

Jason finds his family in bed looking at photographs of Allison. Jason cannot imagine looking at photos of her right now and notes how differently he has been grieving in comparison (84). He tells them about the laptops and phones that Dom gave him and about how they cannot communicate with anyone or even go on Facebook. Lucinda badly wants to see what her friends are saying about them.

When Jason realizes that Lucinda is selecting photos of Allison to use in the funeral, he tells her (after Ethan leaves) that they cannot attend the funeral. Lucinda gets angry, both at the FBI agents for withholding information from them and at Jason for continuing to side with the FBI instead of her. She believes the FBI has other motivations and only cares about manipulating them for the sake of their investigation.