Dark Places

On the drive to Magda’s house, Lyle tells Libby there has been a slight change of plans. Instead of having a swap meet, Magda has invited the women in her Free Day Society, the group trying to get Ben out of prison. Lyle is running out of money, but Magda will pay for Libby to investigate Runner. In Kansas City, they pass a billboard with a photo of Lisette Stephens and a phone number to call with information about her disappearance.

The meeting is awkward. Magda tells Libby they have all forgiven her, but she needs to right her past wrongs. Several of the women stand and talk about how they met Ben—mostly through charity work at the prison. The women tell Libby their theories about Runner: Two weeks before the murders, Patty had filed a child support claim against Runner, and Runner was thousands of dollars in debt to other people. They provide weak circumstantial evidence for Runner’s presence in the house that night. Most importantly, his girlfriend, Peggy Bannion, plans to recant her testimony, which gave him an alibi. Peggy is at the meeting; she is petite and has short gray hair. She says Runner was out that night, but she told the police he was home with her.

Libby agrees to find Runner. Before she leaves, she steals a candy dish from Magda’s living room.

Patty and Diane return home and find the house in chaos: Michelle is frying salami on the stove and yelling at Debby; the grease has burnt Libby, who is sobbing on the floor. Diane and Patty quickly sort out the situation. Diane makes the girls soup and goes to make some calls for news about Ben. Patty tends to Libby. Diane is the assertive sister while Patty is always filled with doubt.

Diane returns and tells Patty the Cateses started the rumor about Ben. Several families are at the Cateses’ house, comparing notes about what Ben did to their girls while he was monitoring the after-school program. Patty is devastated: It must be a mistake. She decides to go and talk to the parents. She and Diane take Libby, who is still crying, and tell Debby and Michelle to behave while they’re gone.

The Cateses live in another town, in an area unfamiliar to Patty. Mrs. Cates answers the door and is alarmed when Patty introduces herself. She calls Mr. Cates, a 6’5” “slab-like” man (186), and they usher Patty and Diane into the house. In the living room are four girls, including Krissi, and their families. A social worker is using dolls to ask one of the girls where Ben touched her. Patty’s presence appalls everyone and agitates the children. One of the mothers is Patty’s old classmate. She insults Patty: “You’ve got four kids at home […]. You can’t afford a one of them. Their daddy’s a drunk. You’re on welfare. You leave your little girls alone with that … jackal. You let your son prey on girls. Jesus Christ, you’ve let your son do this!” (187). Now the girls are crying, and Mr. Cates grabs Patty by the arm and pulls her toward the door. Krissi looks at Patty and says: “Ben is going to hell” (188).

Libby wakes up from a dream, in which Runner uses a shovel to kill a horse that has metal wheels “like a hospital gurney” (189). He brings a bag of fingers to replace the one Libby lost to frostbite, but none of them fit. Runner tells Libby her mom is alive, but Peggy appears and reminds Runner that they killed her. When Runner remembers that he killed everyone except Libby, he gets the shovel, which has become an axe, and comes toward her.

Libby visits Ben in prison and asks him questions about the night of the murder. She asks why the light was on his bedroom: If Runner or Lou had killed the Days, there would be no reason for them to be talking in Ben’s room. Ben says he returned home and got in a fight with Patty about Krissi. After, he snuck out and left the light on so Patty would think he was still at home. She asks about Diondra, and Ben says she was just some crazy girl, not his girlfriend.

Ben is upset that Libby is asking him questions about the murder. Magda visited and told him Libby is helping them find the real killer, but Ben wants to talk to Libby as a family member, not someone who only knows him as a convicted murderer.

Diondra is pregnant; she wears baggy clothes to school, but when she is naked, Ben can see how large her belly has gotten. She often makes him feel the baby kicking, and he doesn’t like it. He knows she doesn’t care about the baby: She smokes and drinks and doesn’t plan for the future. This alarms Ben, and he buys some secondhand baby clothes, mostly underwear and t-shirts of different sizes. Diondra says they will have to leave town because her parents can’t find out that she is pregnant. Ben thinks about quitting school to get a job but worries that he won’t be able to support Diondra and the baby. He fantasizes about her losing it, even about her dying. He is angry because Diondra left animal entrails in his locker, probably from her biology class. He does not like Diondra’s tendency to make a fool out of him.

Michelle found a note Diondra had written to Ben (the same one Libby found decades later) and made him give her $10 so that she wouldn’t tell Patty. Diondra worries that Michelle will find out she’s pregnant; she’s angry at Ben for letting Michelle find the note. She tells him to ask Runner for money, but Ben knows Runner is always broke.

Trey reveals that Runner is a drug dealer. Trey and many others buy marijuana from Runner, and Runner always overcharges them. Runner owes Trey money, and Trey decides they should go find him and get the money.

Libby knows Ben is lying about Diondra and thinks he may have killed her on the same night as the murders. His erratic behavior during their last meeting made her suspect him again.

The mail brings a letter from Runner. He has cancer and only months to live. He apologizes for being a bad father and says he knows who the real murderer is. If Libby can send him $500, he can visit and tell her. Libby is angry because the letter is an excuse to get money from her. She decides to go to Oklahoma and talk to him.

Her doorbell rings, and it is Krissi Cates. They drink gin, and tearfully, Krissi says she lied about Ben molesting her. She describes the kiss that happened between them and says she bragged about it to her friends at a sleepover. One of the girls told her parents, and the adults pressured Krissi to tell them everything Ben did to her. At first, she said they only kissed, but when her mother pressed her further, she made up lies. Her friends did as well, like it was a game. Krissi asks Libby if she remembers coming to her house with Patty that day, but Libby only remembers sitting in the car and eating a donut. After the gathering at the Cateses’ house, Krissi confessed to her parents that she had made it all up. They were angry with her, and they stopped looking for Ben. The other girls also recanted their stories.

Libby remembers her therapist doing the same thing to her about her family’s murders; the more he pressed her and rewarded her for giving gory details about Ben murdering the family, the more elaborate her story became. After the incident, Krissi’s family fell apart. They moved to a new town, and less than a year later, her mother left. 

Before Patty and Diane leave the Cateses’ house, the detective in charge of the case, Detective Collins, stops them. They go to a Dunkin Donuts, and he asks Patty questions about Ben. Patty assures him Ben would never do anything to the girls, especially not to his sisters, as Collins proposes. He insults Patty’s parenting, implying that Ben’s behavior is her fault. Collins found animal entrails in his locker and claims that it’s evidence of Satan worship. He recommends they find Ben as soon as possible so they can talk to him.

At home, Patty finds Runner blasting the heat, drinking hot chocolate, and watching TV with the girls. He asks Patty for money for a trip to Texas and becomes violent when she says she doesn’t have any. Before he leaves, he says, “You are really going to be sorry about this, Patty” (229). He slams the door until it leaves a hole in the wall.

Krissi spends the night at Libby’s house, but she is gone by the time Libby wakes up. She leaves a note saying, “Thanks. Sorry” (231). Libby is not angry at Krissi; her story confirms that Lou Cates did not kill her family.

Libby drives to Oklahoma to find Runner. She wonders why Ben had the note from Diondra if it really wasn’t meant for him. She knows that if it were, Michelle would have blackmailed him and written about it in her diary. Ben was rough with Michelle: “Ben had tolerated me, had dismissed Debby, but he’d hated Michelle actively” (232). Libby remembers him grabbing Michelle by the arm or threatening her more than once. She thinks about how common allegations of Satanism were when she was a kid; everyone knew secondhand rumors about people who were into devil worship though no one ever had evidence.

When Libby reaches Bert Nolan’s Home, Bert tells her Runner has left again. He reluctantly tells her that Runner is in town, probably at a bar called Cooney’s. At Cooney’s, three grizzled men tell Libby that Runner is sleeping at an abandoned worksite that is toxic from arsenic being dumped in the ground.