Part 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4: “Tuesday, February 7: Minus Five Days”
Part 4, Chapter 1 Summary
When Jack awakens, she isn’t sure where she is. Her abdominal injury throbs, her head aches, and she recalls terrible nightmares. She tries to wait out the “sickish” feeling in bed but soon realizes that it isn’t going away. She must take her backpack because she’s not sure she’ll be returning to the hostel after going to see Cole. Jack deposits her room keys on the hostel’s counter and leaves.
Jack is alert to security cameras everywhere she walks, hoping the police don’t have facial recognition technology. She arrives at Cole’s workplace, Cerberus Security. He suggests they walk to a nearby church to talk. Once inside, Jack realizes Cole is crying and wonders why she can’t and hasn’t since she found Gabe’s body. Cole is concerned by Jack’s appearance, and she understands because she was “shocked” by her reflection in the hostel’s bathroom mirror that morning. It is only three days since Gabe’s death, but she looks gaunt and tired.
Jack tells Cole that she’s on the run from the police and they think she killed Gabe. Cole is shocked. She explains about the insurance policy and expresses her uncertainty, wondering if Gabe bought it because he felt he might be in danger or if she’s being framed. She tells Cole the police have her cell phone and most of Gabe’s devices and that a hard drive is missing from their house. Cole helps her to set up her burner phone to be untraceable by the police.
Cole offers Jack the use of his girlfriend’s cabin outside the city. He is worried, though, that she wants to pursue Gabe’s killer. She explains that it is the only reason she has to live now that Gabe and their future together are gone. She hugs Cole, wishing the tears would come. Jack won’t let herself think too far ahead because it is overwhelming, so she focuses on trying to take one step at a time.
Part 4, Chapter 2 Summary
Now at the train station, Jack feels vulnerable even though Cole helped her cut her hair and gave her his sunglasses and a coat his girlfriend left in his office. She fixes her fleece around her middle to look like she is pregnant and pretends to be checking her phone as she passes security cameras. When she boards the train, a young man gives his seat to her, an apparently pregnant woman, and Jack feels a pang of guilt.
Jack takes a cab to Cole’s cabin. She can only provide a small tip and feels guilty about this too. When the driver wishes her good luck with her baby, she feels even more contrite. Walking along the beach, Jack is surprised by her lack of stamina; she is exhausted, and her wound is throbbing painfully. She begins to doubt her ability go on, and she considers allowing the waves to carry her out to sea. However, “something steely” inside her urges her to continue. As fog rolls in, Jack finds the cabin and is grateful to be safe for now.
Part 4, Chapter 3 Summary
The electricity is out, so Jack lights oil lamps and candles. There’s no heat, but the stove runs on gas, so she makes pasta with sauce that she finds in the kitchen. She gets a message from Hel, who says she is also using a burner phone now, on Cole’s advice. Jack tells Hel that she’s safe, and Hel asks her what she’s going to do next. In one message, Hel uses an “uncharacteristic smiley” emoji, but Jack rationalizes it by considering the abnormal situation.
Hel asks if Jack has heard from Jeff, and when Jack asks why Hel would bring him up, Hel explains that maybe someone killed Gabe to hurt Jack. Hel can think of only one person who would be “sick enough” to do that. Jack cannot imagine that Jeff would go to such lengths to punish her for a relationship that ended years ago. Further, he was at the police station at the time Gabe was murdered, giving him an alibi.
Realizing her phone’s battery has only 15% remaining, Jack ends the conversation. She doesn’t think Jeff is a murderer, but she remembers his threats when she broke it off. He’d said, “I’ll make you regret this, you stupid cunt. If I can’t have you, no one can” (169). Jack realizes that she’s not sure of much these days.
Part 4 Analysis
Jack’s health continues to decline, lending greater urgency to her pursuit of Gabe’s killer. She has been waking up ill every day, and she is utterly exhausted, leading to her haggard appearance. The pain in her side rapidly worsens. However, she tells Cole that her “only way out is through” (153). She must find Gabe’s killer to survive this situation. He wishes she wouldn’t, for her own safety, but chasing Gabe’s murderer is the only thing keeping her going, as, she says, “[I]f I don’t find out who killed Gabe, my life is over anyway. I have nothing to live for, don’t you get that?” (154). She has expressed many times that she has no future without Gabe, and yet some hidden store of strength pushes her despite everything. She describes it as “something very deep, close to the core of [her]” (161). Something is giving her strength, despite her near hopelessness.
Cole’s employer is Cerberus Security, described as “a tech company that specialize[s] in privacy and security apps for mobile phones” (145). In Greek mythology, Cerberus is a three-headed dog who guards the gates to the Underworld. The allusion suggests that Cole’s company guards something hellish or evil. While Jack and Gabe tried to protect people’s identities and financial information from criminals, Cole’s company seems to protect the information of criminals so they can hide from justice. A world without justice could be a lot like hell. Further, Cole reveals that he likes to walk in the graveyard of the church where he and Jack talk, strengthening his link to death.
In addition, Jack’s name begins to accumulate even more meaning. Her initials, JC, are the same as Jesus Christ. In many ways, she is a Christ figure. Her last name is Cross, and she carries a great burden for which she is not personally responsible. In addition, she is persecuted for a crime she did not commit and is wounded in the side as Jesus was speared in his side while dying on the cross. Jack understands moral responsibility; she feels guilty when she cannot tip the cab driver as much as she thinks he deserves and when a teenager gives up his seat for her because she looks pregnant even though (as far as she knows) she isn’t.
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