What Happened to the Bennetts

Back inside, Jason raises concerns to Lucinda about Ethan’s eating habits. He proposes a three-meal-a-day routine. At first, Lucinda defends Ethan and resents the idea that they might enforce a structure, but then she realizes that Jason is right. Ethan is too thin and might have developed an eating disorder from guilt over his sister’s death. They agree they need to get him into therapy as soon as possible.

That night, Lucinda is making fish tacos for dinner while Jason drinks a beer. It is the best they have felt in a few days. They joke about Wiki, and Lucinda admits that she is starting to like Dom too. She believes that Dom cares about them. They reminisce about Jason meeting her parents for the first time and embarrassing himself by overdressing. When Ethan comes downstairs with Moonie, he sees the fish tacos and seems to perk up, too, to the delight of his parents. Lucinda stumbles over Moonie and drops the fish onto the floor. At first, they are all in shock but then start laughing. Dom enters with the objects that Gupta salvaged from the burned house. He brings out the cedar boxes of Max’s and Wendy’s ashes. Then he brings out the other item Jason had asked for, which turns out to be the kitchen threshold where the kids marked their heights as they grew. Seeing it reminds everyone of Allison.

While running with Jason the next morning, Dom apologizes for surprising them with the items from the house. Jason admits that seeing the kitchen threshold made them feel guilty for having fun when they should still feel sad. Dom tells him that grief has ups and downs, and Jason thinks about how much easier it was to deal with his father’s death. He had been able to make peace with it before it happened. Jason tells Dom that it is time to set up therapy for the whole family, and Dom thinks it is a good idea.

Jason then asks Dom if Lucinda can visit her mother. With Allison’s funeral coming up, he wants to do this one thing for Lucinda to cheer her up. They discuss the logistics and decide that a video phone call might be possible, and Dom says he will ask Volkov. They also discuss Krieger, the amateur detective, and Dom tells Jason to ignore him. Dom admits, however, that the FBI is not prepared for amateur internet detectives.

The FBI sets up a FaceTime call between Lucinda and her mother. The CEO of Bay Horse, the assisted living facility, agreed to keep the call confidential, and an FBI agent posing as Claire’s lawyer, Special Agent Lingermann, coordinates the call. Claire, who has Alzheimer’s disease, clutches at a doll, calls her hand lotion “Jo,” and behaves erratically. She doesn’t understand the concept of a video call. But eventually, Claire recognizes her daughter, and they talk for a few minutes.

Claire loses focus again when Ethan joins the call. She drops her doll and cannot find her hand lotion, which was taken by a new nurse named Gabrielle Hooke. Other things are missing, too, like a photo album of the family and other lavender-scented objects. She becomes distraught and leaves the room to cry in the bathroom, ending the call.

Afterward, Jason checks on Lucinda in the bedroom. She has been drinking wine and feeling bad about how her mother is doing without her there to visit. Jason reflects that Lucinda had always been there for her mother. They talk about how both Lucinda and her mother had lost a child and how hard that is. Lucinda confesses that she isn’t handling it well. She never wants to leave the bed. She wants to give up but knows she can’t because of Ethan.

Lucinda talks about a portrait class she took once. The teacher described a good portrait as one that captures not only the present but the past and future too. She compares the loss she feels to a story Jason told her of a farmer whose arm was amputated by a hay baler. She feels like Allison was one of her arms and her mother was the other. She doesn’t think she can ever overcome the loss. Jason says he will take care of everything, but she tells him that he can’t. Nobody can put their family back together.

Things get even worse during the weekend leading up to the funeral. Lucinda spends time finishing a video of Allison, and Jason lets Ethan stay in his room all day. In the meantime, Jason checks Krieger’s website again. He is surprised to find that Krieger interviewed Lucinda’s friend Melissa. He listens to the audio file.

Melissa says she is doing the interview because she wants to put pressure on the police to do something about the missing family. Krieger prompts her to divulge drama about Jason and Lucinda’s marriage. He is still pursuing the theory that Jason killed his family because of an affair. Krieger’s questioning upsets Melissa, but she confesses that Jason and Lucinda had recently had a “rough patch” (216).

Jason remembers a few arguments with Lucinda about him working too much, but Melissa makes it sound like a bigger deal than it was. Krieger pushes the narrative that Jason had been out late at night too often. He accuses Melissa of sleeping with Jason. Finally, Melissa snaps and says it’s not true, that it wasn’t Jason having an affair. It was Lucinda. Jason rewinds and replays the last part. He is stunned. Melissa mentions that she gave the name to the police but refuses to repeat it. Krieger posits that Jason murdered his family in retaliation, and Melissa ends the interview.

Jason goes to the bedroom and closes the door. Lucinda wants to talk about the song for the video. But he bluntly tells her that he knows she had an affair (221). Lucinda denies it, but then she admits it, collapses, and apologizes. She tells Jason that it was someone she did a corporate portrait for and that it was brief and meaningless. Jason suddenly gets angry and ridicules her corporate portraits. Then he asks who it was. Lucinda says it was a lawyer at the firm Lattimore & Finch named Paul Hart. Jason tells Lucinda that Hart represents Milo.

Jason storms out of the room and goes downstairs. He is upset that Lucinda slept with the man responsible for Milo being free to kill their daughter. He is also upset that she cheated on him with a lawyer. He remembers one of their first big arguments. It was about him wanting to drop out of law school. She fought the decision. Now he wonders whether that moment was a crack in their marriage and now that crack was opening beneath their feet to swallow them. Jason then sees a car pull up outside. Special Agent Reilly steps out talking on the phone. Jason reads Reilly’s lips.

Special Agent Reilly is talking about Milo. He says “if he delivers Big George, he’s worth it” (226). Jason realizes that Milo is an FBI informant, and the FBI has been lying to him. They were protecting Milo. He wonders if Dom knows. He wonders if there can ever be justice for Allison. He decides that he must act on his own. He can no longer depend on the law.

The Bennetts watch Allison’s funeral on TV. Jason and Lucinda are avoiding each other. Jason is mad at Lucinda and mad at the FBI agents on TV pretending to be mourners. Lucinda and Ethan are crying, but Jason feels disconnected. He watches Dom put on Lucinda’s video. He looks at Allison’s casket and vows to get her justice.

After the funeral, Lucinda wants to talk. Worried that the FBI is spying on them, Jason takes her to the marsh. Lucinda wants to talk about Hart. Jason resists at first. He is mad and cannot see how they move forward as a family after her betrayal. He accuses Lucinda of cheating with Hart because she thinks he’s better than him. He launches into a speech about how lawyers lie but court reporters tell the truth. He says her greatest crime is that she hasn’t been paying attention.

Lucinda pushes past Jason’s anger to tell him about Hart. She explains that Hart was very controlling. After she told Hart that she wouldn’t leave her husband, Hart threatened to kill Jason and gestured to knowing people who could make it happen. Lucinda has a theory that Hart sent Milo to kill Jason. He believes her theory. Lucinda blames herself for Allison’s murder, but Jason says she is not responsible. When Lucinda mentions telling Dom and Wiki about the affair, Jason realizes he needs to tell Lucinda about his plan.

Lucinda and Jason continue to avoid each other. Jason checks Krieger’s blog and finds a new post. While investigating Lucinda’s clients, Krieger called Hart’s wife Pam. In the audio file, Krieger asks Pam if she knew that Hart was having an affair with Lucinda. Pam says no but confirms that Hart had many affairs. The chapter (and Part 1 of the novel) ends with the line: “Tomorrow, everything changed” (240).