Chapters 21 - 30 Summary

Chapter 21: Mrs. Paulsson stares at her daughter's toothbrush in the bathroom and starts crying. She collects herself somewhat and returns to Gilly's bedroom, where Scarpetta and Marino wait. Marino pulls up a chair for her. Mrs. Paulsson decides she likes Marino. He asks her if she recalls whether Gilly's window was open or shut the morning she died. Open, she thinks and fear grips her heart when she sees that Marino has dusted the windowsill for fingerprints. They look out the window into the backyard and Marino asks who lives in the house behind hers, just beyond the backyard fence. Mrs. Paulsson tells him there used to be an old woman, but she imagines she's dead by now. Scarpetta asks more questions and Mrs. Paulsson becomes hysterical. She cries out that "they" took her daughter. Marino wants to know who "they...