Chapters 8 through 12 Summary

In Chapter eight, "How the Night Passed," the author returns to the night of Kathy's disappearance. John wakes twice during the night, the first time moving toward Kathy and the second time he gets up, thinking about the election and what happened to cost him the victory. He refers to Tony Carbo, saying that Tony had called the situation "ambush politics." John recalls the defeat in the election, the fact that there had been news stories with "certain secrets," that friends had slipped away and money already pledged had dried up.

After he gets up that night, he goes to the kitchen and heats an iron kettle of water to the boiling point. He uses a dishtowel to pick up the kettle and goes to the living room where he pours the boiling water on every plant in the room, killing...