Bright Young Women

After The Defendant’s arrest, his crimes become a major news story. Pamela’s parents urge her to come home to New York, so she flies home, accompanied by Brian. Even though The Defendant has been arrested and charged with multiple murders and attempted murders, Carl’s editor still refuses to run Carl’s story. In New York, Pamela’s mother reveals a secret: When Pamela was four years old, the family vacationed in Florida. Pamela’s mother left her unattended for a few minutes after Pamela cut her foot, and when she came back, Pamela had vanished. Pamela was missing for four days, and was found miles away: “There’s no way you could have gotten to where you were on foot. Someone took you” (260). Pamela was unhurt when she was found and didn’t seem to remember what happened to her. However, her mother found it uncanny that Pamela was inexplicably drawn to study in Florida years later.

Pamela and Brian have lunch with her father, a successful and well-known lawyer. They discuss the legal aspects of The Defendant’s case; unusually, he plans to represent himself. Pamela mentions possibly pursuing legal action against the Colorado Department of Corrections because “[t]his all should have ended in Colorado. Two adults and a child are dead because of their negligence” (268). Additionally, Pamela is growing increasingly annoyed with Brian for being unsupportive and uncomfortable about her spending time with Tina. After lunch, Pamela tells Brian that she wants to attend law school at Columbia and ends their relationship. She’s tired of pandering to him and undermining her ambitions.

Ruth runs into Rebecca and spontaneously invites her to the dinner party she’s hosting with Tina. Rebecca has married Ruth’s brother and has two young children. At the party, Ruth feels relaxed and happy in her new life; she shares her plans to attend culinary school. However, Rebecca becomes annoyed and rebukes Ruth for openly pursuing a relationship with another woman: “This behavior with Tina? Psychologically, it will damage you” (278). Rebecca leaves the party abruptly.

More than a year has passed since the attacks at the sorority house; Pamela graduated, moved to New York, and has almost finished her first year at Columbia. Retrospectively, Pamela provides details about how her life subsequently unfolds: In one of her classes, she meets David and is attracted to him; he drops out of law school after the first year to work in theater, and they don’t keep in touch. In 1987, Pamela returns to Florida to attend the funeral of Catherine McCall, the woman who took in the sorority girls right after the attack. She runs into David, who is Catherine’s grand-nephew. Pamela and David eventually marry and have a daughter together, Allison.

Returning to the main storyline, in April 1979, Pamela learns that she’ll be deposed by The Defendant himself. She’ll meet with him in a Florida jail in a few weeks. Pamela phones Tina in Seattle to tell her, and Tina promises to come to Florida to be with her. Tina also wants to confront Carl; he never published the article about the negligence in Colorado and kept making excuses. He has also begun covering the leadup to the trial and reporting in a positive tone about The Defendant. Pamela and Tina see this as a betrayal.

In Florida, Pamela and Tina meet and show up unexpectedly at Carl’s home. They confront him, and Carl admits that he decided not to run the initial article, that he finds it more profitable and beneficial to write coverage centering on The Defendant, and that he’s even sometimes sympathetic toward him. Carl tries to rationalize that he needs the money to care for his ailing father and that he might potentially publish a book. Tina and Pamela leave, feeling furious and betrayed.

Retrospectively, Pamela explains that Carl later published a bestselling true crime novel and made a significant profit from the novel and its adaptations. They never speak to Carl again, although Tina hopes for years that Carl will reveal some information that sheds light on Ruth’s disappearance. Although her body was never found and her disappearance was never officially connected to The Defendant, Tina remains convinced that he killed her.

In 2021, Pamela receives a letter from Dr. Linda Donnelly, an alum from the sorority who helped Pamela in the aftermath of the attack. Dr. Donnelly explains that she has begun treating Carl, who has dementia. Carl has referred to having recordings he made while meeting with The Defendant. These recordings contain confessions and information that has never been public; Dr. Donnelly doesn’t know whether this information is true but wanted to let Pamela know. This letter prompts Pamela to return to Florida so that she can meet with Carl before his memory declines further.

Ruth debates whether to attend a memorial service honoring her father, especially because she has become increasingly alienated from her family. Tina encourages her to stand up for herself, and Ruth eventually tells her mother that she won’t attend, though she feels sad and uncomfortable about this choice.

Pamela goes to the jail for her deposition. She quickly realizes that The Defendant is taking a grotesque pleasure in forcing her to relive gruesome details about the attacks. However, because of this fixation, he doesn’t ask her any questions that undermine her statements. When a member of The Defendant’s legal team, Veronica Ramira, begins questioning Pamela, the stakes become much higher. Pamela realizes that Carl has told Veronica what she confided to him: that Roger sexually assaulted Bernadette. Pamela is legally required to answer Veronica’s questions about this event and about Roger’s kidnapping Pamela, and Veronica insinuates that Roger is a dangerous man who is a viable suspect in the attack, thus potentially weakening the case against The Defendant.

Pamela recovers after an attack. The text reveals that she was visiting Carl in the assisted care facility when he violently attacked her. Dr. Donnelly tends to Pamela, who calls her daughter, Allison. Allison has a close bond with Tina, who is her godmother. Tina now lives in the Pacific Northwest, teaches at a university, and is recognized as a leading expert on complex grief. Allison also knows that Tina has been trying for decades to get more information about what happened to Ruth, and she can see why her mother was determined to learn anything she could. Pamela plans to try again to meet with Carl but doesn’t yet want to share any news with Tina because she doesn’t want to get Tina’s hopes up.

July 14, 1974, the day of the memorial service for Ruth’s father, is an extremely hot day. Ruth and Tina plan to go to a local beach on the shores of Lake Sammamish. That morning, Ruth second-guesses herself, deciding that she wants to attend the memorial after all. Tina disagrees, and they argue.

In July 1979, The Defendant’s trial begins in Florida. Tina and Pamela go to the courthouse together. Pamela worries that the case isn’t particularly strong: “There was not so much as a hair of forensic evidence linking The Defendant to the scene at The House” (314). In addition, Pamela is confused that she’s not called to testify on the first day of the trial. When she returns to her hotel, Ruth’s mother, Shirley Wachowsky, is waiting to confront her.