Chap­ter 15 opens with Saint engulfed in emo­tion­al tur­moil, her days con­sumed by the after­math of a life-alter­ing event. Four days have passed since the inci­dent, and dur­ing this time, she has been unable to sleep or eat, leav­ing her drained and rest­less. She spends the major­i­ty of her time wan­der­ing aim­less­ly through the woods, the silence offer­ing no solace, and stand­ing out­side the local police sta­tion in hopes of get­ting answers about the case that has tak­en over her life. Her repeat­ed vis­its, how­ev­er, have begun to wear thin with the offi­cers inside, and her pres­ence is no longer seen as a con­cerned cit­i­zen but as an irri­tat­ing incon­ve­nience to their rou­tine. As she waits out­side, she strug­gles to sup­press the grow­ing sense of help­less­ness that has gripped her, know­ing that time is slip­ping away with every unan­swered ques­tion.

The nar­ra­tive shifts focus to a meet­ing between Offi­cers Cortez and Hark­ness, who are casu­al­ly dis­cussing the case. As they flip through files, they spec­u­late on the moti­va­tions of the boy involved in the inci­dent Saint is inves­ti­gat­ing. Cortez sug­gests that the boy may have stolen out of neces­si­ty, while Hark­ness talks about the boy’s back­ground, hint­ing at his impov­er­ished cir­cum­stances and dif­fi­cult upbring­ing. The con­trast between the offi­cers’ laid-back con­ver­sa­tion and Sain­t’s intense emo­tion­al state is jar­ring. As Saint lis­tens from the wait­ing area, her frus­tra­tion mounts as the offi­cers engage in triv­ial dis­cus­sions about cof­fee, pas­tries, and even foot­ball, com­plete­ly obliv­i­ous to the weight of the sit­u­a­tion that has been con­sum­ing her every thought. Their lack of urgency only serves to deep­en Sain­t’s sense of iso­la­tion, as she watch­es them casu­al­ly go about their busi­ness while she is trapped in a world of unan­swered ques­tions and mount­ing dread.

While eaves­drop­ping on the offi­cers’ con­ver­sa­tion, Saint hears a name that res­onates with her—John Stokes. She rec­og­nizes this name instant­ly, hav­ing heard it tied to trou­bling events with­in the com­mu­ni­ty. The offi­cers briefly men­tion Stokes’ trou­bled past, includ­ing his fam­i­ly’s chaot­ic home life and the lack of prop­er doc­u­men­ta­tion, fur­ther com­pli­cat­ing the boy’s case. The dis­cus­sion paints a grim pic­ture of the envi­ron­ment the boy is com­ing from, yet the offi­cers con­tin­ue to speak of it with such detach­ment, as if it were just anoth­er case to be solved rather than a life hang­ing in the bal­ance. Saint, in con­trast, is deeply affect­ed by this new infor­ma­tion, her mind rac­ing as she tries to piece togeth­er the sig­nif­i­cance of these details. It becomes clear to her that the boy’s life, his future, and the truth of what has hap­pened are all inex­tri­ca­bly linked, and with each pass­ing moment, she feels more deter­mined to uncov­er the truth, despite the emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal toll it is tak­ing on her.

On Fri­day, in an attempt to make progress, Saint meets with Daisy Crea­son, a reporter from The Tri­bune, in hopes of gain­ing more pub­lic expo­sure for the case. Daisy lis­tens atten­tive­ly to Saint’s sto­ry, show­ing gen­uine inter­est and com­pas­sion for the boy’s sit­u­a­tion. This meet­ing becomes a piv­otal moment for Saint, as she begins to see the pos­si­bil­i­ty of the sto­ry reach­ing a larg­er audi­ence. Daisy promis­es to write an arti­cle and help orga­nize a reward fund, an idea that gives Saint a renewed sense of hope. The idea of involv­ing the com­mu­ni­ty, of get­ting oth­ers to care about the boy’s plight, feels like a break­through, and for the first time in days, Saint allows her­self to feel a glim­mer of opti­mism. Yet, despite this new­found sense of pur­pose, Saint can’t shake the over­whelm­ing sense of time slip­ping away. The four days that have already passed seem like an eter­ni­ty, and though her actions are start­ing to make progress, the weight of the wait­ing game con­tin­ues to bear heav­i­ly on her. She feels that she is los­ing pre­cious time, unable to move for­ward fast enough to ensure that the boy will be found and that the truth will come to light.