Chapter 7 Synopsis
Ellie reads the letter, which is full of grammatical and spelling errors. She realizes that whoever wrote it was trying to make it seem as though it was written by someone with a rudimentary education, because he or she spells complicated words correctly while misspelling the easier ones. Doug says that when he held the paper up to the light in his kitchen, he spotted what looked like a watermark. Althea places the letter under a lamp and they all see the mark: a large H with a circle around it, which was the letterhead that Marvin used on the scratch pads out front. The only problem is that anyone could and did take the pads home, so there is no way of telling for sure if the letter actually came from Marvin or Troy. Ellie turns her letter over hoping to find some more clues and discovers a crude map drawn on the back in purple marker. It's of the old Hoffman's, with an X marking a spot just under where the front counter used to be and where the bar is now. Hoping that maybe it will be a clue to finding Aubrey, Doug, Ellie, Kirsten, and Althea pull up the floorboards and find a dark blue shirt with brown stains. Ellie recognizes the stains as blood, and Doug recognizes the shirt as the one Charlene was wearing when she vanished.
Chapter 8 Synopsis
Ellie takes the shirt into the police as solid evidence that Charlene was the victim of foul play. While there, Tom tells her that he thinks Aubrey might have gone with someone that she trusted and knew, and that could make it even harder to find her, especially since it's coming up on 48 hours missing. There's been no demand for ransom, which makes Tom think whoever took Aubrey had something else in mind. Ellie begs Tom not to tell Doug this, as he's already stretched to the breaking point with worry. After Ellie leaves the station, her phone beeps. It's a text from Aubrey, and all it says is FIND ME. Ellie tries texting back, but is unable to get any of her messages to go through. However, she is encouraged by the fact that Aubrey is clearly alive.