Summary

In Chapter 11, the narrative steps back to November 2, 2006, with a focus on Detective Sparkes’s point of view. The reader is introduced to Stan Spencer, a man who is described as unusually excited and involved with the Bella case. Stan was an avid member of neighborhood watch, and tended to thoroughly watch the neighborhood and write down his observations each day. On the day Bella went missing, he claimed to have seen a long-haired man in the neighborhood. The detectives realized that there were pages missing from Stan’s notebook, and on this particular day was where a page was torn out. Stan was very embarrassed, and they asked him again if he actually saw this long-haired man. Stan finally admitted that he just wanted to help the case and did not actually see anyone. Due to his input, they had wasted a...