Summary

The first part of this section of the book is titled “8 Hours,” and returns to the second-person, present-tense narration describing the last day of Anson Packer. This section begins with a description of the intense, hallucinated screaming of Baby Packer that drives Packer into collapse – and, as the narration reveals, into doing anything (including killing the Girls [sic]) to try and make the sound go away.

Packer then recalls how a detective interrogating him about killings he committed when he was seventeen managed to manipulate him into confessing. This description juxtaposed with Packer’s recollection of how he realized that telling the story of the baby crying to Shawna made her feel sympathy for him, and therefore easily manipulated. He also recalls how an attempt to have sex with a young female co-worker ended in embarrassing failure when the sound of Baby Packer...