Chap­ter 18 opens with Patri­cia wak­ing up feel­ing phys­i­cal­ly drained, her body aching as if she had fall­en down the stairs. Her joints crack and pop as she moves to get out of bed, and every move­ment seems to make her body groan in dis­com­fort. When she reach­es for the cof­fee fil­ters, her shoul­ders feel stiff and sore, as if they are packed with bro­ken glass, a sen­sa­tion that lingers with every slight motion. As Patri­cia undress­es for her show­er, she notices the bruis­es on both hips, reminders of the rough ride in the back seat of the police car the pre­vi­ous day. Despite the phys­i­cal toll, she forces her­self to get through the morn­ing, attempt­ing to car­ry on with rou­tine tasks.

Carter, her hus­band, had to go to the hos­pi­tal even though it was Sat­ur­day, leav­ing Patri­cia alone to han­dle things at home. She gives Blue, their son, the free­dom to roam out­side, but with a stern warn­ing to be back before dark. She knows it’s not safe to let him out of her sight after dark, espe­cial­ly with every­thing that has been hap­pen­ing. Patri­cia can­not yet ful­ly com­pre­hend what James Har­ris is, or what he might be capa­ble of, but she does know one thing—he nev­er goes out into the sun. While she wants to reach out to her friend Grace and explain every­thing she has seen, she holds back, know­ing Grace’s skep­ti­cism might pre­vent her from under­stand­ing what has tru­ly been hap­pen­ing. Patricia’s mind races, but she forces her­self to take deep breaths and calm down.

Unable to bring her­self to vac­u­um or clean the cur­tains as she had planned, Patri­cia set­tles on doing laun­dry instead. She irons clothes for hours, even iron­ing socks in a des­per­ate attempt to focus her ener­gy else­where. How­ev­er, her mind keeps drift­ing back to the hor­ri­fy­ing image of James Har­ris, stand­ing over the blood­ied body of a young girl in his van. The mem­o­ry clings to her, each attempt to think of some­thing else futile. She cleans the bath­rooms, watch­es the sun move across the sky, and tries to remind her­self that her daugh­ter Korey is still away at soc­cer camp, giv­ing her a brief reprieve from the chaos. But then the phone rings, pulling her back into the unset­tling real­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion.

On the oth­er end of the line is Mrs. Greene, whose voice trem­bles with fear as she tells Patri­cia that Des­tiny Tay­lor, a young girl who had been in con­tact with James Har­ris, has been tak­en by social ser­vices. The doc­tor had dis­cov­ered a sus­pi­cious mark on Destiny’s leg, a mark that mir­rors the one Patri­cia had seen on the chil­dren James had inter­act­ed with. Patri­cia is fran­tic, know­ing that if she does­n’t act quick­ly, the sit­u­a­tion could spi­ral even fur­ther out of con­trol. She tells Mrs. Greene that she will call the police offi­cers from the pre­vi­ous night and have them speak with Destiny’s doc­tor to straight­en things out. But even as Patri­cia tries to remain calm, she can feel the weight of the sit­u­a­tion bear­ing down on her—she made a promise to pro­tect the chil­dren, and she can­not let this go.

She dials Carter’s office, hop­ing to get some answers, but he is pre­oc­cu­pied with his own work, bare­ly lis­ten­ing to her as she explains the urgency of the sit­u­a­tion. His focus on his pro­fes­sion­al career, espe­cial­ly with the depart­ment head posi­tion just out of reach, becomes clear as he dis­miss­es Patricia’s con­cerns. He refus­es to get involved, his tone cold and dis­mis­sive as he tries to jus­ti­fy his inac­tion. Patricia’s frus­tra­tion builds, but she does her best to con­tain it, focus­ing on the one thing she can control—her own actions. She tries to con­vince Carter to make the nec­es­sary calls, but he remains stead­fast in his reluc­tance. Patri­cia real­izes she is on her own in this bat­tle, and she can’t wait any longer.

As they sit down for din­ner, Blue brings up a dis­turb­ing top­ic, men­tion­ing Himm­ler and the atroc­i­ties com­mit­ted dur­ing the Holo­caust. Carter, try­ing to keep the con­ver­sa­tion light, dis­miss­es Blue’s com­ments, but Patri­cia can­not focus on any­thing except the press­ing issue of Des­tiny Taylor’s dis­ap­pear­ance and the dan­ger James Har­ris pos­es. When Patri­cia brings up the doc­tor who treat­ed Des­tiny, Carter quick­ly diverts the con­ver­sa­tion, refus­ing to dis­cuss the mat­ter any fur­ther. Patri­cia, feel­ing the weight of the sit­u­a­tion, press­es him again, demand­ing to know if he has con­tact­ed Destiny’s doc­tor. Carter responds with deflec­tion, down­play­ing the sever­i­ty of the issue and focus­ing on his own career. Patri­cia is left alone in her frus­tra­tion, real­iz­ing that her hus­band does not ful­ly under­stand the dan­ger they are fac­ing.

Just as Patricia’s frus­tra­tion reach­es its peak, the door­bell rings, send­ing a chill down her spine. She feels an over­whelm­ing sense of dread as she approach­es the door, fear­ing that she knows exact­ly who it is. Stand­ing on the oth­er side is James Har­ris, smil­ing as if noth­ing were wrong. He is stand­ing on her doorstep, and she is forced to con­front him, know­ing that this moment will be piv­otal. She forces her­self to main­tain com­po­sure and wel­comes him into her home, hid­ing her fear behind a forced smile. James Har­ris, ever the manip­u­la­tor, speaks to her with an unset­tling calm­ness, remark­ing on how often he seems to inter­rupt her fam­i­ly meals. He is test­ing her, try­ing to gauge her reac­tion, and Patri­cia knows that she must keep her guard up.

As the con­ver­sa­tion con­tin­ues, Har­ris sub­tly tries to pro­voke Patri­cia, hint­ing that he knows she is sus­pi­cious of him. His words are care­ful­ly cho­sen to make her feel uncom­fort­able, to make her ques­tion her­self. But Patri­cia is resolute—she will not let him get to her. She plays the role of the gra­cious host­ess, offer­ing him dessert, even though every part of her wants to shut the door in his face. She con­tin­ues to pre­tend to be the per­fect neigh­bor, even as every fiber of her being screams to expose him for what he tru­ly is. This is a dan­ger­ous game they are play­ing, and Patri­cia knows that the stakes have nev­er been high­er.

Lat­er, when the evening winds down, Patri­cia finds her­self trapped in a con­ver­sa­tion with Carter and James Har­ris, both of whom are try­ing to down­play the sever­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion. James Har­ris is care­ful with his words, pre­tend­ing to be inno­cent and friend­ly, but Patri­cia knows bet­ter. She recalls the details of the evening, the unset­tling way Har­ris spoke, the hint of some­thing dark lurk­ing beneath his charm­ing exte­ri­or. She can’t shake the feel­ing that she’s in a race against time, and every moment she spends with him brings her clos­er to uncov­er­ing the truth—or to being con­sumed by it.