The Lovely Bones

By Summer 1974, there have been no new developments in the case. Jack continues to suspect Harvey, but whenever he mentions something that contradicts the police theories, Abigail tells him that Len says it doesn’t mean anything. She adds that she trusts the police to find out what happened. Meanwhile, Jack has lost faith in the police, and instead trusts his gut instinct that Harvey killed Susie.

Susie watches Harvey inside his house, which is laid out identical to the Salmon house. Harvey keeps his house spotlessly clean and spends his time building dollhouses, listening to the radio, and sketching blueprints for his next kill spots. He maintains his regular pattern so as not to draw suspicion, but late at night he counts the trophies he has taken (as well as his mother’s amber pendant) “like the beads on a rosary” (129). Although Harvey does not remember the names of all the girls he has killed, Susie is able to see the moment of their death and know their names. Susie also sees that Harvey has killed a number of neighborhood animals and counts their bones in an attempt to keep away his fantasies about killing another teen schoolgirl: “What I think was hardest for me [Susie] to realize was that he had tried each time to stop himself. He had killed animals, taking lesser lives to keep from killing a child” (131).

In August, Jack’s frequent calls to the precinct leads Fenerman to establish some boundaries for both their sakes. Visiting the house, Fenerman tells Jack that he needs to stop calling about Harvey and that, while Harvey is odd, there’s no evidence connecting him to Susie’s death. Fenerman tells the family that since they have stopped finding any new evidence, they are stopping the investigation. Watching Abigail react to the news, Jack realizes that she believes Fenerman over him.

That night, Jack stays up by himself in his study writing in his journal as his world falls apart. At work, he is making more mistakes and fears he is going to be fired. He also finds Abigail pulling away from him when he tries to touch her but notices her blooming in the presence of Fenerman. As he is about to retire for the night, Jack sees a flashlight moving in the direction of the cornfield. Thinking it is Harvey returning to the scene of the crime, Jack heads out, grabbing a baseball bat. As he leaves, he turns out the porchlight, which the family has left on every night since Susie’s disappearance.

Jack follows the light into the cornfield and announces that he is here to finish it. However, the person turns out to be Clarissa, who calls out for Brian, and Jack drops the bat. Jack stumbles forward in the dark and runs into Clarissa, knocking them both down as he calls out Susie’s name. Brian, heading to meet Clarissa in the cornfield, hears Susie’s name called out and runs to meet her, beating what he thinks is her assailant with his flashlight. Brian grabs the bat and continues to beat Jack, breaking his knee. Susie can do nothing but watch helplessly and snuff out the candle that remained lit in the study.

At home, police sirens awake Abigail and the children. Lindsey goes to wake Jack, but he is not in the study chair, which has become his bed. Abigail realizes that Jack has gone after Harvey and gotten himself in trouble. Lindsey wants to go out and find him, but Abigail refuses, telling her that they are going to wait at home and stay out of it. When the police call about Jack, Abigail goes to the hospital, telling the children to stop there. However, Lindsey sends Buckley to his friend’s house and gets a ride to the hospital from Samuel’s older brother Hal. When Lindsey gets to Jack’s room, Abigail is not there, and Lindsey softly sings a song to him that he used to sing to her and Susie when they were children.

Fenerman arrives at the hospital at Abigail’s request, and the two touch hands tenderly. They go out to smoke while Jack is in surgery and Abigail asks Fenerman how his wife died. He explains that she committed suicide shortly after they were married, but that he never knew why she did it. Abigail pulls Fenerman in, kissing him and putting his hands on her body. They have sex up against the wall as Abigail attempts to use him to drive her dead daughter out.

Susie recalls how the Abigail, who had an MA in English and dreamed of being a teacher, would talk about mythology while she bathed Susie and Lindsey. However, Abigail’s dreams faded when she became unexpectedly pregnant with Buckley, causing her to seal the more mysterious part of her personality off. Susie realizes that Abigail has always been lonely: “[I]t was my father who grew toward us as the years went by; it was my mother who grew away” (153).

Abigail comes back inside, and Hal tells her that Lindsey is with Jack so that she can compose herself. Abigail sees Lindsey sleeping in a chair with her hand on Jack: “[She] saw that my sister and father together, had become a piece. She was glad of it” (154).

Returning to school in Fall 1974, Lindsey is now not just the sister of a murdered girl, but the daughter of a crazy crackpot. Brian and Clarissa are now in high school and use the story as “a varnish of cool they could coat themselves with” (156). Buckley has now started kindergarten, and the teachers unwittingly treat him differently than the other children because of what happened. Susie sees that, however haphazardly, everyone she knew was growing up. By October, Jack is able to start walking again. Abigail continues to perform her duties as a wife and mother but becomes steadily more distant from them and frequently thinks of Fenerman.

In November, Jack watches Buckley play and can’t shake the thought that someone could also take his son from him at any moment. Jack continues to delay his return to work but decides to return after Thanksgiving to distract himself and to be away from Abigail. Grandma Lynn is due to arrive for Thanksgiving, and Lindsey follows the beauty routine she set for her. Abigail continues her affair with Fenerman, “not because she was in love with him, but because being with him was the fastest way she knew to forget” (160).

Two weeks before Lynn’s arrival, Jack takes Buckley for a piggyback ride around the house, despite his pain, for a moment of father-son normalcy. They run into Lindsey shaving her legs in the bathroom, and Jack feels a double pain—not just that his daughter is getting older, but that Susie never got to experience this coming-of-age moment. Jack sends Buckley away and gets a fresh razor for Lindsey to use, thinking that Abigail should be the one teaching her instead. Lindsey asks Jack if he still thinks that Harvey killed Susie, and he tells her that he has no doubts. Lindsey points out that if someone found something of Susie’s in Harvey’s house, the police could arrest him. Jack hesitates before saying that breaking into Harvey’s house would be illegal and that he never thought of it. However, Lindsey knows that Jack is lying but needs someone to do it for him.

When Lynn arrives, she immediately realizes that something is different with Abigail, and Lynn forces Abigail to come on a private walk with her, although the two have never been close. Lynn reveals that Abigail’s father had a long-term affair with another woman, and that she never mourned his death properly. Lynn asks Abigail about the man she’s been having an affair with; Abigail denies the implication but asks if she can use her father’s cabin if she ever needs to get away. Abigail then smells foreign cigarettes and follows the smell, away from her mother. She finds Ruana Singh smoking in her backyard while her husband is inside hosting a dinner party, and the two share a cigarette.

As Lynn walks home alone, she deliberately passes Harvey’s house. She finds it radiating malevolence, leading her to conclude that Jack has been right: Harvey killed Susie. Lynn realizes that she can do nothing but sympathize with Abigail and decides to tell her that she can use the cabin whenever she needs it.

Harvey knows that the Salmon family is investigating him, as it has happened in other towns. However, he has practiced his narrative with the police and found that pretending to be a widower (using the name of his previous victim) helps him avoid suspicion. Every afternoon, Harvey drives out to a local park where he watches school children tour George Washington’s log cabin. Whenever confronted, he talks about an imaginary family, saying that he met his wife there or that he used to bring his children to the park.

All year, Lindsey has been training with the boys’ soccer team in preparation for an attempt to qualify for the all-male high school soccer league. For a week, she has been using her laps around the neighborhood to case Harvey’s house. On November 26, she pretends to have a menstrual cramp while running and slips between the trees into Harvey’s yard. She breaks the window that leads into the basement and lowers herself in, then climbs the stairs to the main floor. Although the houses are identical, “Harvey’s house was much emptier than [hers]” (179). Lindsey thinks she sees Susie run into the dining room where Harvey builds his dollhouses. Susie pushes hard to send a signal to Lindsey but fears that she “might hurt her when [she] meant to help” (180).

Lindsey finally goes into Harvey’s room upstairs and sees his sketchbook, but then she hears Harvey’s car pull into the driveway. Looking through the sketches and notes, Lindsey recognizes the picture of the hole underneath the cornfield: “[N]ow she saw what I wanted her to know. I had died inside that hole; I had screamed and fought and lost” (183). Harvey, now inside and making something to eat, hears the boards creak above him and realizes someone is in the house. Lindsey rips out the sketch of the cornfield hole, breaks the window, and rolls down the roof, landing in the bushes. Harvey gets upstairs in time to see Lindsey running away, wearing a soccer shirt with her number on it.

The Salmons are sitting together with Samuel when Lindsey returns home, covered in cuts. She admits that she broke into Harvey’s house and shows Jack the sketch. Abigail refuses to look at it and leaves. Lindsey tells Jack that she is sure Harvey killed Susie but thinks that he saw her when she ran away.

Susie, watching from the gazebo, is relieved for her sister’s safety. As she walks home, Franny gives her a folded piece of paper and tells her to look at it when she is stronger. Two days later, she follows this map into a field she has never been to before. As she enters a clearing with an old olive tree, Susie sees another young girl who introduces herself as Flora. Susie introduces herself and then “began to cry with comfort, to know another girl he had killed” (186). Flora says that Harvey’s other victims will be there soon.