Summary

Chapter 7 opens with the ominous lines, “She shouldn’t have been wearing a skirt…It was her own damn fault” (190). This is what Bo said about Ellie in reference to an unspecified event. The chapter then rewinds to the circumstances leading up to this event.

The chapter is framed in a close third person POV focused on 19-year-old Jake, who worked on the same construction crew as Bo and Ellie in 1981. Bo and Ellie were not yet a couple at this point. Bo had a habit of harassing Ellie with lewd and disparaging remarks. The other members of the crew were the foreman, Chick, and Tiny, who had a way of watching people that disturbed both Jake and Ellie.

On Thursday, the crew was in the process of renovating a Victorian house on the edge of Belle Haven when Ellie’s sister arrived to...