What She Knew

On the Day 9 of the investigation, Jim and Woodley drive to Nicky’s cottage to interrogate her. Jim is convinced she’s their prime suspect, and their goal is to get a confession out of her. Nicky is wary when she sees them at her door. She wonders why the police are bothering her when they already have a suspect in custody, and her sister is frantically trying to reach them. Jim is unruffled by her aggression. He and Woodley have already worked out a “good cop-bad cop" strategy to handle Nicky. Jim accuses her of envying her sister’s son and wanting a boy of her own. While Nicky affirms his theory, she flatly denies that she took Ben. Jim feels he is on the verge of breaking her when Woodley gets a call from Fraser. The detectives are told to return immediately to headquarters. 

The narrative now shifts to Rachel’s point of view. She’s received no news about the progress of the case, and her efforts to find Ben again through his online game have failed. Rachel decides to visit headquarters in person and force some information out of the police. Fraser meets with her personally. The chief is kind and supportive but reminds Rachel that every moment spent in conversation with her is a moment taken away from the investigation. Rachel apologizes and waits for an officer to drive her back home.

She meets Joanna May in the foyer, also waiting for a ride after her latest interview with the police. Bennett agrees to drive them both. Joanna offers Rachel sympathy when Rachel insists Ben is alive. She says how difficult it must be for Ben to settle down to sleep without his nunny. This comment arouses Rachel’s suspicions. Ben has never told anyone about nunny, his security blanket, because he’s ashamed that he still needs it. The only way Joanna could know is if she abducted Ben. When Bennett pulls up in front of Joanna’s house, Rachel accidentally knocks Joanna’s open purse on the floor of the car. As Rachel scrambles to put the purse to rights, she steals Joanna’s house keys.

After Joanna exits the car, Rachel tells Bennett her suspicions. He blandly assures her that he’ll tell Fraser about her theory. When he drops Rachel off at her own home, she goes inside, pockets a small kitchen knife, and slips out the back unseen by the press. Joanna’s house isn’t far away, so Rachel runs there and lets herself in. Joanna isn’t home, but a neatly packed suitcase is sitting on her bed.

Rachel searches further and finds a locked door in the basement. She opens it and sees a room decorated to suit the tastes of an eight-year-old boy. Rachel knows Ben wouldn’t have liked the colors or sports theme. Her son isn’t there, but Rachel notices a dent in the wall and the residue of a shattered laptop sprinkled all over the bed. She immediately calls the police. When the detectives arrive, they discover Rachel in shock. As a team prepares to process the room for evidence, Rachel is bundled up and sent to the hospital in an ambulance.

During the ride, Rachel listens to the police radio and learns that someone walking in Leigh Woods has reported an unconscious boy lying on the ground. He’s covered with a garbage bag and is barely breathing. Ben is suffering from a hypothermia-induced coma. Paramedics arrive to stabilize his condition and take him to the Bristol Children’s Hospital.

Accompanied by Bennett, Rachel goes to see her son. The doctors tell her that Ben was very near death when he was found but is recovering now. At first, Rachel has trouble waking him, but Ben eventually responds. The two hug one another. Rachel is happy and relieved to have her son back but is also troubled by his withdrawn emotional state. “Did you want catharsis? So did I. But there was none. I’m sorry” (489).

The final section of the chapter returns to Jim’s narration. He’s upset that Bennett was on the scene when Ben was found. “I hated him for being there when it should have been me, and I hated myself for letting harm come to that boy, any harm at all” (475).

The detectives learn that Joanna has been apprehended at the Bristol Airport. Fraser wants Jim and Woodley to interview Joanna’s parents because they gave her an alibi for the afternoon of the abduction. The couple is old and absent-minded. Joanna told them that she left their house at four-thirty, but they aren’t sure if that was really true. Nobody bothered to check the time.

Joanna’s parents tell the detectives that Joanna was a manipulative, controlling child. She lied constantly. She was troubled by the fact that she couldn’t conceive a child of her own. This is probably the reason she abducted Ben, but they caution the detectives not to expect the truth from her. Joanna never admitting to wrongdoing as a child, and it’s unlikely she’s changed.