The Whisper Man

Jake has had a confusing day: He got in trouble at school, and while the principal was reprimanding him, he worried that Owen might be messing with his Packet of Special Things. Then, after his father stood up for him, he took him to a police station. Jake finds it all interesting more than anything.

He meets Pete, who he doesn’t know is his grandfather. He likes Pete instantly but feels a strange tension between Pete and his father. Pete asks Tom about Jake’s mother, and when he asks if Tom has any family to stay with, he says, “No, both of my parents are dead” (172).

Pete says that they’ll go to the house and gather what they need under police supervision. This irritates Tom, but he gives in and asks Jake what he wants. Jake says the only thing he wants are his drawings.

Amanda goes to interview Norman Collins, who is smug and indignant. He has an answer to all her questions. He’s playing his role as an interested collector who visited with Victor Tyler for that reason. Collins has a solid alibi for the night of Neil Spencer’s disappearance, which Amanda knows already; she’s more interested in questioning him about why he was lurking around Tom and Jake’s home.

Amanda reveals that they found Tony Smith’s body there, and Collins feigns surprise, though he remains sure that they don’t have anything on him. Amanda pivots and asks him about the night of Dominic Barnett’s murder. When she reveals that police found his fingerprints were on the hammer that killed Barnett, Collins pales, refuses to answer any more questions, and requests a lawyer. Although charging him with that murder is a victory, Amanda knows that it doesn’t make them any closer to solving Neil Spencer’s murder.

Back at his home, which police are searching, Tom hesitates to think of Pete as anything but an investigator, and he thinks that Pete feels the same way—aside from the way he looked at Jake. Nevertheless, Tom’s upset that he must ask Pete for permission to enter his own home. As Tom packs up his laptop, Jake asks Pete if the body they found was Neil Spencer, and Pete responds that it’s another boy who went missing long ago that he hadn’t stopped looking for.

Pete takes Tom and Jake to a small apartment where they’ll be staying. Outside, Pete and Tom talk about Jake before turning to each other’s relationship. Pete admits that he “decided it would be best […] to keep out of your life” (182). Tom sees that the man in front of him has genuinely changed in the interim but internally asserts that they’re nothing to each other now.

Pete asks about Tom’s mother, Sally, which angers him. Tom insists that her death is none of Pete’s business. As Pete leaves, Tom tells him that he remembers the night he left and the violent confrontation. Pete doesn’t reply.

Back at home, Pete struggles to not drink, waging an inner war between his feelings of worthlessness and his desire to stay strong. He pours himself a glass of vodka but before he can drink it, a text message from Amanda interrupts him. The message is about Collins’s arrest. Pete knows that he should recuse himself from the case, as his son’s involvement is a conflict of interest, but he longs to see it through.

Sitting there, still contemplating drinking, he considers the son he’s just met. He never allowed himself to think about who his son might have become, but he decides that it was good for Tom that he wasn’t there, that Tom succeeded despite his absence. He’s troubled, though, by the intensity with which Tom described his last night in the house, as it differs significantly from Pete’s memory of that evening.

Pete decides to stay sober for two reasons: to catch Neil Spencer’s killer, and to possibly get to know his grandson, Jake. For the first time in many years, Pete feels a sense of hope.