Things We Do in the Dark

Paris’s attorney gives her good news: The border-security surveillance cameras confirm Paris’s timeline for her return from Vancouver. She could not have killed Jimmy. In addition, the official coroner’s report lists the cause of death as undetermined. The knife wound could have been self-inflicted. The DA withdraws the murder charge. Paris is released. She is free now, she tells herself, to grieve. She returns home, still haunted by Jimmy’s death. She settles down to music when there is a knock at the patio door. She is stunned to see Drew there.

Paris is confused—she knew Drew when she was Joey Reyes, not Paris Peralta. “The past is melding with the present” (297). Drew assures her that he did not come all the way from Toronto to hurt her or mess up her life. “I just needed to see for myself that you’re really alive” (298). Paris bursts into tears, and they hug. “For nineteen years,” Drew tells her, “I blamed myself for your death” (300). Now Drew wants an explanation.

Paris tells Drew everything about that New Year’s night, even the $100,000 that she made off with. Drew is uncertain whether to trust Paris even now. Paris opens up. “You don’t know what it’s like to be born into a life of cruelty and abuse, and you don’t know what it’s like to have to claw your way out in order to have any sense of self-worth” (302).