Into the Water

Mark threatens Lena and slams her head into the table. He insists that he did not kill Nel, claiming that Nel felt guilty and wanted him to take the blame. Mark tells Lena that he will tell her the truth if she promises to tell the police that she and Josh lied about his relationship with Katie. When Lena lies and agrees, Mark tells Lena that he found Nel’s bracelet in Helen’s desk. Lena picks up the nail again and goes towards Mark as Mark tries to tell Lena that Katie’s death is her fault, saying “She killed herself for you” (310). 

On his way to the town of Craster, Sean learns that Mark’s car is there, but Mark and Lena are not. Sean recalls that he stopped seeing Nel after the altercation with Patrick, and he knows interviewing her after Katie’s death was unprofessional. Nel met him at the cottage once again after Katie’s death, saying, “she was tired of telling stories, she just wanted the truth” (314). She asked Sean why Nickie would want to tell her that Sean’s mother had been murdered.

Lena, convinced Helen killed her mother, feels relief in knowing it. She runs away from the seaside house, looking for someone who can help her. 

Sean arrives in Craster; Erin calls him and tells him they need to talk when he’s back in Beckford. While looking at the seaside cottage, Sean gets a call that Lena is in the village up the coast. Sean goes to Lena, who recoils. He observes: “She knew who I was and she was afraid of me” (320). 

As Jules is wishing Nel would “talk” to her, she receives the call that Lena is safe and coming home. Lena arrives home, clearly reeling from her experience. Jules demands to know where Mark is. Sean says they’re looking for him. When Jules asks if Lena needs a hospital, Lena declines, and Jules notes: “For the first time, I saw myself in her, not [Nel]” (323). Lena insists that she isn’t hurt, though all the adults suspect that Mark molested her. Lena tells Jules that she wasn’t raped and shows her Nel’s bracelet, asserting that Nel “didn’t jump” (325). 

Lena washes off the stress of the last “day and night and week and month” (326). She wants to tell Jules the truth (as she believes it) about Helen killing Nel but is unsure if Jules will believe her. 

Lena tells Jules about her time with Mark, including his telling her that Helen had had Nel’s bracelet. Jules keeps Lena company as she tries to sleep. She tells Lena “[a]ll the things I should have told [Nel]” (331), including the truth about Robbie and what she believed of Nel for years. Lena questions why Jules would blame Nel instead of Robbie.