Chapter 21, Chapter 22, and Chapter 23 Summary

Esther Wilson has decided to seek out her niece Mary Barton after visiting the scene of the murder. She found a bit of paper there with Mary's name written on it in Jem Wilson's hand. She takes this to be evidence against Jem, and returns it to Mary with promises not to tell. Embarrassed at her situation, Esther pretends that she is living somewhere else with her husband, even borrowing some new clothes to look presentable when she sees Mary. She struggles not to cry because she wants Mary to know how much she cares.

In chapter twenty-two, after Esther leaves, Mary Wilson goes into her father's room. She realizes that the true murder is her father, and that the paper came from a poem Jem had written out for him. She finds the poem and matches...