Chapter 15 starts with Patricia driving down Middle Street toward James Harris’s house, only to find the white van she had expected replaced by a red Chevy Corsica parked in the yard. The sight of the car stirred an unsettling feeling in her gut as she drove slowly past, hoping the van might reappear. After the drive, she visited Grace’s house, feeling anxious about a troubling thought. Inside, Grace offered her a cup of coffee while she pulled out a spiral-bound notebook from a drawer. Patricia took the notebook, opened it, and began reading through the entries that detailed descriptions of vehicles and their license plates. As she flipped through the pages, she came across an entry that sent a chill down her spine—a white Dodge van with a license plate matching one Mrs. Greene had written down from a car seen in Six Mile.

Patricia shared her concerns with Grace, noting that she had seen James Harris’s van with the same license plate number, which connected him to an unsettling series of events. Grace dismissed her worries, attributing the connections to coincidences. Despite Grace’s skepticism, Patricia’s thoughts raced as she recalled Harris’s odd behaviors—his mysterious identification story and his connection to a large sum of cash he claimed to have found in Ann Savage’s home. Patricia couldn’t ignore the mounting suspicion, particularly after hearing from Mrs. Greene about a suspicious white van seen near Six Mile shortly after Harris had moved into the neighborhood. She speculated that Harris’s story didn’t add up and that there might be something more sinister lurking beneath his friendly exterior.

As Grace continued with her routine of cleaning her grandmother’s wedding china, Patricia’s doubts deepened. She was consumed by the unsettling possibility that James Harris might be involved in something far darker than anyone realized. Grace, however, remained resolute in her belief that Harris was just an ordinary neighbor, brushing off Patricia’s concerns as the product of too much reading and worry. But Patricia couldn’t shake the sense that something dangerous was unfolding right under her nose. Despite Grace’s dismissive attitude, Patricia’s mind wouldn’t let go of the troubling pieces of the puzzle—pieces that all seemed to point to Harris, his van, and the strange coincidences surrounding him.

Patricia found herself unable to focus on anything else. She struggled to reconcile the life she knew in her quiet, suburban neighborhood with the possibility that a threat could be hiding in plain sight. As the evening wore on, her mind kept returning to the troubling details she had uncovered. She couldn’t ignore the fact that a local child had recently committed suicide, and another might be at risk. Patricia was consumed with the idea that, even if these suspicions turned out to be nothing, she couldn’t live with the thought of doing nothing. She called Mrs. Greene, hoping to talk to Destiny Taylor’s mother about the strange occurrences in Six Mile, and found that the only way to get answers was to confront the uncomfortable truth head-on.

Patricia’s internal conflict only grew as she made plans to visit Mrs. Greene, wondering if she was overreacting or if her instincts were right. She reached out to her son, Blue, to let him know she would be gone for a while, though he was busy reading in his room. Patricia’s heart ached as she thought about the disconnect between her family life and the growing unease in her own mind. It seemed that her fears were taking over, turning her ordinary life into a maze of suspicions and hidden dangers. Yet, in the midst of her anxiety, she was determined to seek the truth, even if it meant facing uncomfortable truths that no one else wanted to acknowledge. The tension of the evening was palpable, and Patricia knew that she had to act quickly if she was going to uncover the truth about James Harris and the dark mystery surrounding Six Mile.