Bright Young Women

The police ask Pamela if she wants to press charges against Roger; she’s hesitant because she doesn’t want to support the false belief that he was responsible for the attacks. Pamela decides to go to Colorado with Tina and invites Carl as well. She hopes they’ll find information to link The Defendant to the attack.

In Colorado, Tina, Carl, and Pamela meet with a prisoner named Gerald Stevens, who shared a cell with The Defendant for more than three months. Gerald reveals very little information, and they have only a few minutes to speak with him. Afterward, Pamela observes that had they been allowed to stay longer, they would have had “enough time for him to tell us whatever it was they did not want him to tell. We’d stumbled onto something here in Colorado, and possibly it was the truth” (166).

Ruth and Tina arrive in Aspen and check into a luxurious resort. As part of the conference, Tina will be performing a mock therapy session on stage in front of an audience. The demonstration doesn’t go well, because Tina asserts, “I’d like to propose that anger in women is treated as a character disorder, as a problem to be solved, when oftentimes it is entirely appropriate” (177). Many of the other doctors mock Tina.

Although Pamela and Tina planned to return to Florida the same day, they miss their flight and need to extend their stay in Aspen. Tina checks herself, Pamela, and Carl into a luxurious hotel. When Pamela calls Brian to tell him about the delay, he tells her that he learned that Ruth and Tina were lovers. When Pamela asks, Tina readily confirms that she and Ruth were in a romantic relationship.

Pamela is angry, arguing, “You left out an important piece of the puzzle in order to convince me to be in cahoots with you” (184). Pamela and Tina argue, and Tina accuses Pamela of repressing her ambitions and potential: Pamela intends to go to a low-ranked law school so that she can remain close to Brian, even though she was also accepted to Columbia Law School (which is much more prestigious and challenging). Tina argues that Pamela should pursue her dreams.

After Tina’s presentation, she and Ruth go to dinner, and Tina shares more about her past. She met her late husband, Ed, when she was a child and competed as an equestrian. Ed’s daughter, Deb, owned the barn where Tina rode; he sometimes dropped by and was struck by Tina’s beauty, even though he was in his seventies and she wasn’t yet a teenager. Ed began wooing Tina, and her parents condoned it because they were dazzled by Ed’s wealth. He proposed to her the day after she turned 17, and her parents encouraged her to accept so that she could enjoy total financial security: “[O]n Tina’s wedding day, her mother […] compared the whole thing to punching in at an undesirable job for a solid retirement package” (194).

Tina eventually became interested in psychology and counselling; she also became close to a woman named Frances, who worked as a therapist. Because Tina wanted to be closer to Frances, she persuaded Ed to move to Seattle. Tina implies that Frances was eventually responsible for Ed’s death: She fed him shellfish knowing he was severely allergic. After Ed’s death, his children turned against Tina and even became suspicious that she was somehow involved in his death. However, Tina inherited the Seattle mansion and significant assets, leaving her financially independent for life.

Pamela wakes up during the night with a realization; she goes to Carl’s room and tells him that when Gerald (the Defendant’s former cellmate) told them they needed to talk to the “right guy,” he might have been implying Sheriff Dennis Wright (punning on his name). Pamela desperately wants to know whether Colorado police knew something about what would happen in Florida, and Carl suggests trying to bribe them. If Pamela can find solid evidence that The Defendant intended to go to Florida and commit further attacks, Carl will publish an article with this information. However, Pamela feels a lot of pressure as to what to do about Roger: She’s afraid that if she doesn’t press charges, Roger may hurt other women, but if she does, it will encourage police to blame the sorority house attack on Roger, and increase the chance of The Defendant going free.

Pamela and Tina encounter a guard named Sammy, who agrees to tell them about The Defendant’s escape in exchange for money. Sammy gives an account of various police errors and incompetence that enabled The Defendant to escape in December 1977. During the conversation, Sammy suddenly recalls seeing a university brochure that The Defendant kept in his cell and realizes that it might have been for Florida State University. All the materials from The Defendant’s cell have now been sent to Seattle. Carl, Pamela, and Tina decide on a plan: Carl will go to Seattle and try to learn more, and Pamela should go ahead with pressing charges against Roger.

Pamela arrives at some sort of institution to meet an unnamed individual who is housed there. As soon as the individual catches sight of her, he rushes toward her and attacks her.

In the hotel, Ruth chats with a woman named Gail who is a forensic investigator. Gail mentions that she’s investigating the murder of a woman named Caryn Campbell, who was abducted from that very hotel a year earlier; Caryn’s body was found a month later, and Gail is trying to uncover more details such as whether she “was […] kidnapped and held for a period of time” (214). Gail is analyzing soil and vegetation from where Caryn’s body was found, since “in some cases, even decades after human remains are found, plants that should grow green foliage can grow bright red” (214).

Pamela and Tina return to Florida; they prepare the sorority house for the girls to move back in. By this point, Pamela feels very close to Tina.

As Ruth and Tina return to Seattle, Ruth tells Tina about the conversation with Gail. Tina is horrified to learn about Caryn’s murder and compares it to the women who have been disappearing around Seattle. Tina mentions that she’d feel safer if Ruth came to stay with her, but Ruth is hesitant to do so. However, after a confrontation with her mother, Ruth decides to stay with Tina after all. She arrives abruptly at Tina’s home, and the two women kiss.

Pamela presses charges against Roger, though she makes it clear that she still doesn’t think Roger was responsible for killing Denise and Roberta. A few days later, Carl visits Pamela. He explains that he eventually got the Seattle police to show him a copy of the list of “every item in The Defendant’s possession during the time he was incarcerated in Colorado” (234). There was indeed a brochure for Florida State University in his cell, which Pamela considers confirmation that The Defendant planned and carried out the sorority house attack. Carl plans to start writing the article; however, his editor is hesitant and will publish it only “if and when The Defendant [is] arrested and charged” (236). Pamela shows the article to the Florida sheriff, hopeful that it will renew interest in looking for The Defendant. However, weeks pass, and nothing happens.

On February 9, 1978, a young girl named Kimberly Leach is abducted, assaulted and killed in Florida, not far from Tallahassee. On February 18, police ask Pamela to look through photos of men to see if any of them are the man she saw on the night of the attack (at this time, Pamela is unaware of the other attack). Pamela confidently confirms that one of the men from the photo lineup is the man she saw: The Defendant. The next day, Pamela learns that The Defendant has been arrested; he caught the attention of a police car because he was driving a car reported as stolen, and then more information came to light. Police now think that he was responsible for the sorority attack and the murder of Kimberly Leach.