Chapter 9 Summary

Swede takes a phone call from Czechoslovakia that turns out to be Rita Cohen, who has been trailing Merry and knows he has seen her. Now Swede does not know how much truth Merry has told him about anything. As Rita rages at him on the phone, he decides that she does not even exist, and he hangs up on her, immediately regretting it. Rita's awful personality has grown as Merry has deteriorated. Sheila comes in and tries to comfort him, but he confronts her about hiding Merry. Sheila claims she didn't know the truth until just before Merry left, and could not violate her trust. Merry made Sheila wonder if Swede really was a bad man, that something bad had happened in the Levov home. She felt Merry had changed dramatically, but that she was strong and needed to run. Swede felt...