Pretty Girls

Claire Scott, age 38, sits at a busy bar while waiting for her husband Paul, a demure and punctilious architect. Paul is late, which is very unlike him, so Claire amuses herself by flirting with the bartender and watching the news about a missing 16-year-old girl named Anna Kilpatrick. Claire and Paul have been married 18 years and are meeting at the bar to celebrate Claire finally getting her ankle bracelet removed. She does not drink for fear of her parole officer, but she is not worried. After all, her curfew is lifted and her record will be expunged after a year of good behavior. Paul finally arrives, and they pair banter as they drink. Paul promises he will always be there for Claire. The sexual chemistry is palpable, and Paul initiates sex in the alley behind the bar. The encounter is not tender; Paul is rough with Claire, pushing against the wall hard enough to cut her cheek. They are interrupted by a man with a snake tattooed on his neck who robs them at knifepoint, stabbing Paul in the chest. Paul bleeds out on the ground while Claire holds him.

Lydia Delgado, Claire’s estranged sister, attends her daughter’s high school basketball game. Her daughter Dee attends Westerly Academy on scholarship, and Lydia is very aware of this social difference among the mothers present. She mockingly calls the rich, nosy, perfect Westerly women the Mothers. Even though the Delgados are no longer poor thanks to Lydia’s successful dog grooming business, the tough days of single motherhood still haunt Lydia. She has struggled with her weight her entire life, and she can’t tell if she is fat or “Westerly Fat” because of the Mothers’ upper-class standards. One of the unofficial leaders, Penelope Ward, corners Lydia with questions about Rick, her longtime boyfriend. However, this friendliness comes under the guise of teasing out Dee’s complicated family history for gossip. Dee’s father is a deceased cokehead who died before she was born, and Lydia’s long-term boyfriend Rick is more of a father to Dee than anyone else. Rick comes to watch the game and tells Lydia that he heard about Paul’s death on the police blotter. Lydia hopes Paul suffered as he died.

Sam Carroll’s second letter addresses his missing daughter, noting that she has missed four birthdays since her disappearance. He spends this time of year looking at pictures and feeling overwhelmed by old memories for exactly two hours before he breaks. Next, Sam goes to the sheriff’s office, where he fights for access to the unfinished case file. The sheriff believes that Julia just ran away as “free spirits” are wont to do, but Sam knows his daughter’s habits and motivations are different. He chronicles her movements on the day she disappeared, leading up to a cafe concert on a Monday night. Julia was never seen again after 10:38 p.m. on March 4, 1991. Sam recalls his ease that night and labels himself a “fool” for being unaware of the looming danger.

Claire leaves Paul’s funeral in a mournful daze. She reminisces silently alongside her mother Helen and grandmother Ginny while they drive back to Claire’s house in Dunwoody, Atlanta. Claire is wracked with grief and finds no comfort from her shallow friends, who are probably gossiping out of earshot. Ginny mentions an assault charge, and Claire corrects her, saying that her conviction was mere “disorderly conduct.” She remembers how Paul wanted a big family because he never had one after his parents died in a freak car accident. She also recalls her father Sam, who was a sad, broken man before his suicide years ago.

As the funeral limo pulls into the driveway, Claire sees police cars swarming her house. They report that her house was burgled that morning while she attended the funeral. The local police chief, Captain Jacob Mayhew, tells Claire he is personally attending the case at the request of local congressman Johnny Jackson. Claire knows Johnny through Paul’s work; he had awarded Paul’s architectural firm numerous government contracts beyond its limited reputation. Captain Mayhew asserts that the burglary was committed by a gang of roving outlaws who check obituaries for empty houses and that Claire wasn’t the first victim. Claire leads the detectives through the garage to the security cameras, and the men gawk at her wealth, which deeply offends Claire in her state of mourning. One of the officers, Fred Nolan, flips his FBI badge and questions Claire a little too boldly for comfort, although he admits he thinks the burglary is not connected to Paul’s death. Despite its opulence, the house was easily burgled through a smashed front window. Claire phones Adam Quinn, Paul’s architecture partner, to request their insurance contact and alludes to a previous affair between them. Adam asks her to send Paul’s half-finished work files. She opens Paul’s computer only to find a porn video in which a young woman is chained to a concrete wall, macerated with a machete, and raped by a man wearing a leather mask.