Chapter 1 Summary

Andrew is a businessman in charge of the advertising for a pharmaceutical company. Andrew is recently separated from his wife and has come home to bury his recently deceased mother. Andrew hopes to fix up his childhood home for sale, and to return to work within a week.

Andrew is attempting to sleep on a hot, humid night, but a vivid dream of a childhood memory wakes him. Andrew has recalled the night Eden Close, his neighbor, was attacked in her bed, raped, and her father murdered. The dream is so vivid, Andrew can recall the sound of Edith Close's screams and the feeling of being seventeen again. It is a dream he does not wish to end, but the heat is too overwhelming. Andrew sits up and looks out the window toward the Close house, recalling how he did this very thing...