Summary

In “The Disappearance, Last Day Seen, Friday, December 3, 1926,” Nan recalls the night she and Archie were together at the Godalming cottage. He had held her “in . . . the same way” he had held Agatha 24 hours prior (251). He saw Nan and Agatha “as possessions” (252).

Nine days after Agatha’s disappearance, Archie started wondering where Nan had gone. She was the balm for the ills Agatha had caused (253). He saw this time as the “age of disappearing women,” but this era had begun long before Agatha’s disappearance (254). Nan’s plan to marry him had also begun long ago.

In “The Disappearance, Day Eight, Saturday, December 11, 1926,” unlike Agatha, Nan had no fictional worlds in which to escape.

Finbarr came to see Nan at the hotel. He insisted they would have another child and a new family. Nan insisted she had to finish her plan...