Things We Do in the Dark

Paris is confused—she knew Drew when she was Joey Reyes, not Paris Peralta. “The past is melding with the present” (297). Drew assures her that he did not come all the way from Toronto to hurt her or mess up her life. “I just needed to see for myself that you’re really alive” (298). Paris bursts into tears, and they hug. “For nineteen years,” Drew tells her, “I blamed myself for your death” (300). Now Drew wants an explanation.

Paris tells Drew everything about that New Year’s night, even the $100,000 that she made off with. Drew is uncertain whether to trust Paris even now. Paris opens up. “You don’t know what it’s like to be born into a life of cruelty and abuse, and you don’t know what it’s like to have to claw your way out in order to have any sense of self-worth” (302). Paris suggests that Drew spends the night so that they can talk in the morning. Drew agrees to stay.

In the morning, Paris, who expected Drew to leave (like everyone in her life has), is surprised to find Drew in the kitchen making coffee. Paris is happy—it feels “exactly right” to have Drew with her (306). Zoe stops by and reminds Paris that now she is a millionaire. Zoe suggests that Paris should begin to direct some of the inheritance money into the charitable foundations that Jimmy started. Paris agrees. Then Elsie arrives.

Drew agrees to stay in Jimmy’s room. Paris remembers that, shortly before his death, Jimmy complained about the tremors in his hand and that this signaled “the beginning of the end” (312). As she helps Drew to get his things in the room, Paris notices that Jimmy’s collection of expensive straight razors is all there in the drawer in his bedroom. Four of them. However, crime-scene photos showed that two razors were missing on the night of Jimmy’s death. The police had taken one as evidence. How had the fourth razor returned to its place? Paris thinks back. The police confiscated Jimmy’s cassette player—he would practice telling his jokes into the machine to work out his timing. Right before Jimmy shut off the cassette player the night that he was killed, Paris remembers hearing Elsie in the background. Paris turns now to confront Elsie.

Paris knows now that Elsie had been in the house the night that Jimmy died. Elsie knew the codes to the home security system and could easily have wiped away any evidence that she had been there. Paris states: “You killed him […] And then you tried to make it look like a suicide” (318). Elsie collapses and confesses. She was despondent that she had lost Jimmy to Paris. It was never about money. For more than 50 years, Elsie had loved Jimmy from afar: “I wanted him” (319). However, she felt spurned by Jimmy. When Elsie saw the revised will and saw the amount that Jimmy was planning to leave to his wife of all of three years, she told him that he would be “crazy” (319) to give so much money to a new wife he barely knew. When he casually told her to “get a life” (319), to stop depending so much on their friendship to give her life purpose, she snapped: “After everything I’ve done, that he would say that to me” (319).

Elsie is arrested and confesses. She had only meant to get Jimmy’s attention by waving the straight razor. They struggled, and the slash was an accident. She had tried to make the scene look like death by suicide. The DA agrees to charging her with manslaughter.

Leaving the police station, Paris asks Drew about why he never married. He admits that he has never been able to sustain a relationship since Paris—no woman has compared to her. Drew tells her that they need to return to Toronto and settle with Ruby, who now wants $10 million.