The Overnight Guest

The girl watches the snow fall from the basement window. Her father has been more consistent about bringing them food, but her mother still hoards food in case he disappears again. Her mother grows increasingly pensive, moving closer to the basement door each day. One evening, the father plans to have a party upstairs. Not trusting the woman and girl to be silent, he binds and gags them. As the girl cries, she listens to the festivities taking place above her and imagines herself as a part of the party.

Matthew rushes to Josie’s side as she screams. He pulls her away from the scene and calls for help. Police and paramedics arrive as Josie cries with Caroline. Matthew, Caroline, and Josie wait for news as crime scene technicians survey the scene. Santos eventually approaches and confirms that Ethan was murdered by being beaten and strangled the night of his parents’ murders. The officers try to regroup and plan how to find Becky.

A volunteer brings a bloodhound to sniff for Becky. The dog leads her to a bloody rag in the ditch close to the Henley farm.

By 4 o’clock in the morning, Wylie battles with exhaustion, having stayed up to re-read her manuscript. She resolves to submit it to her publisher and return home to reconcile with Seth as soon as the storm is over and the woman is safe with her child. When Wylie sees the child is awake, they chat briefly, although the girl is reluctant to give any additional information. Wylie also returns the toy action figure to her, recognizing the statuette as a hero from her childhood.

The woman wakes. Wylie brings her aspirin and water. As the woman holds out her hand, Wylie sees a small scar in her palm. Shocked, Wylie grabs her hand before regaining her composure, not revealing that she has a matching scar on her own palm.

The basement becomes freezing as winter sets in. The girl’s father’s moods grow increasingly irregular: sometimes he is cheerful and gentle, but he is quick to become violent. He also increasingly binds the woman and girl. The girl wakes one morning to find her mother gone; her mother returns with some small bills and change from upstairs. She swears the girl to secrecy and spends much of the day deep in thought. The woman spends weeks collecting items from the upstairs.

One day, she wakes her daughter and hurries her to get ready. She shaves the girl’s head and asks her to pretend to be a boy. The man’s calendar lists a cattle auction that day, meaning it is the only opportunity for the two to escape. The girl chooses her blanket and an action figure to take with her as her mother finishes preparing. However, when the woman tries to pick the basement door lock, it does not work. The little girl gets the idea to break the basement window.

Wylie reels, trying to understand if the woman in front of her truly is Becky. She grapples with her long-standing guilt and trauma over Becky’s disappearance. Wylie reveals that after the murders, she moved away with her grandparents and ultimately adopted a new name made from her family members’ initials as part of her new identity. Her birth name was Josie Doyle.

The little girl sees lights approaching the house. The mother pulls her daughter away, but Josie explains that the vehicle is just a snowplow. When they see the light stopped by the truck, Wylie prepares to go meet the driver and radio for help. She opens the door and finds herself staring at a man in winter gear who she recognizes as Jackson Henley, “the man who murdered her family. The man who took Becky” (264).

Santos submits a request to search the Henley property for Becky while she does a background check on Jackson. She discovers that, while in the military, Jackson had a history of alcohol abuse, defying his superiors, and emotionally and sexually harassing his female peers. Officers receive a warrant and approach the property; they smell burning rubber and realize Jackson is burning something. Santos serves the search warrant to June.

Levi interviews local sex offenders to collect their alibis when he receives news that Ethan’s body has been found. He starts driving to the Doyle farm but receives news that the calls made to the Allen house posing as Becky’s kidnapper came from the Cutter farm. Levi begins searching for Brock and spots his truck. He begins a high-speed chase as Brock attempts to avoid him, but the dust of the gravel roads impairs his vision. Brock hits a telephone pole, and Levi crashes into his truck. Levi, legs broken, spots Brock dangling out of the driver’s side window with a gash in his neck.

The mother breaks the basement window and clears away the glass. She and the girl dig their way out of a snowbank and climb out into the yard as an ice storm begins. Using spare keys that she has collected over the last few months, the mother lets the little girl into the garage, where an old black truck waits. The mother seems inexperienced at driving, and the storm slows their journey, but they make gradual progress down the road. While they drive, the mother makes the girl swear that if they get stopped, she will run and find somewhere safe. The mother, briefly distracted by making her daughter promise not to reveal her identity, crashes the truck into a tree growing at a split in the road. The girl escapes the truck and, through the storm, spots a light in the distance. She walks toward it.

Santos confronts June, who gives no helpful information. Santos searches the house and has an officer call the fire department to put out the tire fire Jackson has set, believing he may be burning evidence related to the murders or kidnapping. June insists that Jackson had nothing to do with the crimes. Santos hears a gunshot and runs outside, where an officer tells her that Jackson is throwing guns and munitions onto the tire fire. He is guarding the fire with a shotgun, preventing anyone from approaching.

Santos approaches the fire and engages in a standoff with Jackson. Jackson drunkenly explains that he wanted to help Becky when she was bleeding, but no one will believe his story. Santos tries to coax him away from the fire. Jackson kicks a gasoline can into the blaze, causing an explosion that catches him in the fire. Santos saves him by using her jacket to beat out the flames.

Wylie resists her instinct to attack Jackson. She lies, claiming to have a husband and to have found the truck empty, the crash survivors presumably having escaped the truck before she got to see them. She then convinces Jackson to help her bring wood in from the barn—once he’s close enough to the barn entrance, she shoves him inside and locks the door. As she walks back to the house, she realizes her gun is no longer in her pocket.