The Woman in the Library

The next day, Freddie reads a newspaper article that identifies Boo as a man whose body has turned up at the beach. Someone cut his throat. Freddie fears something bad has happened with or to Cain, who may be involved in Boo’s death. Freddie knows she should tell the police about the connection between Cain and Boo, but she is strangely reluctant. Leo B shows up and agrees to take Freddie to the crime scene where the police found Boo’s body. When they arrive, Lauren Penfold, a reporter for The Rag, is there.

Leo A writes that he thinks Marigold is probably in danger from Cain, whom Hannah is doing such a good job of writing as a man restraining his anger. Leo finds the characterization “so exciting!” (125). Hannah should have Cain rape Marigold and kill her brutally as she fights him; the reader didn’t see what he did to Caroline, so a killing like this is an “opportunity to tear the reader apart with the horror of” the killing (125). He tells Hannah that he went down to the beach where Hannah had Boo’s body wash up. Leo A took a picture of a man sleeping on the beach for Hannah. The man might have died later, given the cold.

Freddie, Marigold, and Whit discuss their worry over Cain. Freddie still can’t reach him by phone. Two police detectives come over to question Freddie about Cain, and she confirms what she knows of the encounter between Boo and Cain. They tell her that Cain was sentenced to prison at 16 for killing his stepfather and served seven years before his release, and they seem surprised she did not know. After the interview, she doesn’t say anything about what the police told her. Whit already knows Cain was convicted of murder and changed his name, however.

In his email to Hannah, Leo A says he’s really enjoying the suspense. He also sends Hannah pictures of a crime scene at which the victim has been disemboweled—more research for her book.

In a letter from the FBI to Hannah, Agent Michael Smith thanks Hannah for forwarding the disturbing photos Leo A sent her. They say the people in the photos match the victims in several unsolved murders in Boston. They warn her to end contact with Leo A. An FBI agent will be liaising with their equivalent in Australia.

In a letter from Peter Kent, Hannah’s lawyer, to the FBI, Kent outlines the parameters of Hannah’s cooperation with the FBI, which the FBI negotiated during a face-to-face meeting with Hannah. Hannah will continue her correspondence with Leo A and pass on any crime scene photos or other information. The email ends with standard legal language about holding Hannah harmless for any crimes that may result from Leo A’s interactions with her.

The doorman at Freddie’s apartment delivers a gift of fancy cupcakes from an unnamed benefactor. Freddie finally reconnects with Cain at the Boston Public Library. Over lunch, Cain has a candid conversation with Freddie about how he ended up in prison. The killing happened after his stepfather tried to sexually assault him; the stepfather believed that Cain survived in Boston after he ran away by doing sex work. Cain’s stepfather was a respected law enforcement officer; he thought sex work was shameful and was particularly upset that his co-workers knew Cain might have engaged in sex work.

Leo A writes that he is glad to hear from Hannah; he feared he offended her in some way because of the gap in communication. If it weren’t for travel restrictions, he would have traveled to Sydney to re-connect with her. He is glad to hear she was able to retrieve her manuscript after her computer crashed, and he enjoys working with her because of their “shared vision and craft” (140). He is pleased that Hannah has made Cain a more sympathetic character.

Cain sleeps it off at Freddie's. When he wakes up, the two make love, and Freddie learns more of his story. When he was in prison, another inmate (a former surgeon) stabbed him for getting out of line. The cut was precise, and if it were a millimeter over, and it would have killed him. Freddie is shocked, but Cain tells her the surgeon is dead, killed with a stab in the exact place where Whit was stabbed. Marigold abruptly shows up, claiming she was worried because she had not heard from Freddie. She forces Cain to agree to accept their offer to clean up his apartment, which was wrecked by the police during their search. Marigold’s emotion as she insists strikes Freddie as a sign of emotional fragility.

In his email to Hannah, Leo A says he is heard that there is flooding in Australia, and he wishes Hannah the best as she deals with even more disastrous weather. He gives her some unsolicited advice: She should have made the love scene less happy, either by making Cain frustrated and impotent or by making it be a sex scene in which Cain feels aroused by humiliating Freddie or vice versa. He refuses to give his land address to Hannah so she can send him something special.

Cain’s apartment is uninhabitable because of the damage the police did in their search. Marigold suggests that Cain spend the night at Freddie’s apartment. Cain is hesitant at first, but he eventually agrees with her. Marigold whispers to Freddie that she should be careful and then leaves. Freddie takes her warning to heart. As they drive to her apartment, Cain asks if she feels strange about him or about him spending the night in her apartment. Freddie feels aroused by the possibility of a night with him. She assures him she feels no caution about being with him, so they go back to her apartment. Cain tells her he relied on autobiographical detail to write his first novel, which is about an ex-convict who has a hard time adjusting to life outside of prison. It was a bestseller and a much-praised debut novel. Freddie admits that she hasn’t read it and agrees that she will. Cain warns her that she might not much like it because it includes the bitter anger of a formerly incarcerated person.

Leo A writes to Hannah that he gets writing an autobiographical novel. He believes that an autobiographical first novel is something like a “tantrum” (153) and that it allows the writer to get their demons out so they can do good work in the future. He also tells Hannah that he just happens to have some pictures of a crime scene where a woman was killed brutally by a blow to her head. He encloses the picture in his email and says that he hopes they will be helpful to Hannah as she writes her novel. He says that he wouldn’t be shocked if Cain didn’t kill again. You don’t really know that you will enjoy killing until you experience the “incomparable thrill of holding existence in your hands and snuffing it out” (153). He finds the increasing violence in the novel “exciting” (153).