The interview with Sandy Watters convicts the Jacobs family in the eyes of the public. Friends and neighbors who were once supportive now “cut their eyes away from [Krissy’s]” (189) in town. The detectives continue pursuing Krissy as a suspect, especially after police find fibers from January’s nightgown in the trunk of her car. Krissy sticks to her story that an intruder murdered January, and after months of no leads the case goes cold.

Years go by, and Krissy tries to dull the pain of “losing her daughter and the torture of living with the boy who’d killed her and a man who’d never been what she needed” (190). Ten years after January’s death, Krissy’s world changes when she falls in love with an old high school acquaintance, Jodie Palmer. Jodie and Krissy strike up a conversation after running into each other at a bar in South Bend. Krissy finds Jodie surprisingly easy to talk to and at the end of their meeting, Jodie suggests they meet again. Krissy tries to let Jodie off the hook, saying, “[Y]ou probably don’t wanna go around town with a murderer” (194), but Jodie says that she does not believe Krissy killed January.