Duma Key

The next afternoon, Edgar confides about his mysterious vision to Wireman. To Edgar’s surprise, Wireman is perfectly ready to believe Edgar saw Riley. According to Wireman, there is something off about Duma. Ever since Wireman has been on the island, he can sense the thoughts of other people. Wireman suggests Edgar contact Pam so she can warn Riley.

Wireman takes Edgar to the hacienda to say hello to Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s house is the largest and southernmost on Duma Key Road and is surrounded by an enormous wall. Inside, her parlor is crowded with porcelain figurines. There are also harpoon spear-guns hung on the wall. Elizabeth is a known patron of arts in the community; she has rented Big Pink to many great painters, including the 20th-century surrealist master Salvador Dali. When Elizabeth shows Edgar her Dali sketch, he notes its subject matter—a sunset featuring a small ship—is exactly the same as his. Later, Edgar asks Wireman if Elizabeth herself ever painted. Wireman replies that he suspects she has, though Elizabeth would say no if asked.

The novel flashes back to Elizabeth’s childhood.

At first, young Elizabeth’s paintings impress everyone, including her mean older sisters Maria and Hannah. When their interest in her work dies down, Elizabeth starts including surrealist elements in her paintings, such an upside-down heron and a smiling rocking horse. It is then that something dark slips into the picture, “using little Libbit as its channel” (171). When Elizabeth draws her doll Noveen, who reminds her of her beloved nanny, Nan Melda, the doll starts talking to the child. Sometimes the doll tells her stories in the voice of Adie, her oldest sister. But soon it talks in a voice Elizabeth does not recognize. The doll goes on talking even when Elizabeth asks it to be quiet.

Back at Big Pink, Edgar phones Pam and asks her if she thinks Riley may be depressed. Pam acknowledges that Riley has been off his antidepressants for a while. Edgar urges Pam to speak to Riley because Edgar is sure Riley is having suicidal ideation. Upset that Edgar knows about her relationship with Riley, Pam hangs up.

Meanwhile, Edgar shows Wireman his paintings. Wireman is blown over by the power of Edgar’s work. However, Wireman also warns Edgar against tapping too deep into his subconscious while painting, because “Duma Key […] magnifies certain kinds of people. People like you” (185). Edgar notes Wireman’s left eye is watering and wonders about Wireman’s past.

That night, Edgar paints Wireman sitting at a dining table, with a pistol, an apple, and an orange in front of him. Edgar can sense Wireman will close his eyes and reach for a piece of fruit. If it is an apple, he will shoot himself. Wireman picks an apple.

The next day Jack Cantori arrives at Big Pink to take Edgar and Wireman to the Scoto, an art gallery in Sarasota, Florida—the mainland, off the Keys. Jack wants Edgar to show his works to Dario Nannuzzi, an agent at the Scoto. While Nannuzzi is inspecting Edgar’s works, gallery-goers crowd around the paintings, some wanting to buy them. Mary Ire, an art critic, advises Nannuzzi to take on Edgar. Nannuzzi announces that the paintings are not for sale, but tells Edgar he will be happy to arrange a solo showing.

On their way back, Wireman has a seizure. Edgar asks if Wireman wants to see Edgar’s neurologist, but Wireman evades the question. At Big Pink, Edgar finds a message from Elizabeth on his answering machine. Elizabeth asks Edgar to never have his daughter return to Duma Key. She also tells him to show his artwork at a mainland gallery so it does not accumulate on Duma. Letting artwork stay in Duma gives the work too much unnatural power. She ends the message by saying that her father was a skin-diver (an underwater diver).

Life seems normal after Elizabeth’s mysterious phone call. Edgar keeps trying to get answers about Wireman’s past, but to no avail. Ilse emails that things with Carson, her fiancé, are going well. Pam calls and tells Edgar visiting Riley was a disaster: Riley thought he and Pam were getting back together, but when Pam told him she was only enquiring about his mental health, Riley grew angry and asked Pam to leave his house. Pam fears Edgar’s meddling may have made Riley more emotionally volatile.

Since Wireman has work in Sarasota, Edgar agrees to watch Elizabeth for the afternoon. Elizabeth is in one of her less-lucid phases, and struggles for words. Edgar finds a porcelain doll in the house with its face clawed off. After Elizabeth goes to sleep, Edgar inspects a family portrait of the widowed John Eastlake, his six daughters, and their nanny Nan Melda. John holds a skin-diver’s face mask and a harpoon gun, possibly meant to spear fish and treasure. Nan Melda holds a heavy-seeming picnic basket and wears three silver bangles on her wrist.

The novel flashes back to Elizabeth’s childhood.

At first, Noveen serves as a muse for Elizabeth, coming up with fresh ideas for things Elizabeth can draw. Elizabeth loves this creative surge, though she sometimes feels guilty when her drawings come true, such as a splattered cake. In 1927, Noveen tells Elizabeth it would be fun to draw a big storm and buried treasure for her father. Elizabeth draws both, and soon enough, a big storm hits Florida. Elizabeth begs her father to go look for a treasure at the place she has drawn. Nan Melda convinces John to go because she has noticed Elizabeth has a sixth sense. John tells Elizabeth that if he finds a doll in the wreck, it is hers. John does find a treasure at the spot Elizabeth drew on the beach.

Around Valentine’s Day, Edgar starts a series of paintings featuring a rotten ship that exudes malice. In them, there is a girl with red hair in a rowboat. Sometimes, the girl wears a dress printed with tic-tac-toe, just like a dress Ilse had when she was little. Edgar decides to call the paintings the Girl and Ship series. The same day, news breaks out of the rape and murder of 12-year-old Tina Garibaldi in Sarasota. The killer is a man called Candy Brown. Candy is arrested and housed in jail. His lawyers want to plead insanity for him. Edgar is horrified by the news, and is haunted by one particular CCTV shot of Candy holding Tina’s wrist. The crime triggers Wireman as well, and he finally reveals his backstory to Edgar.

Wireman was happily married to Julia, and they had a toddler called Esmerelda. One day when Wireman was at court, Julia got a call from Esmerelda’s daycare that the child had choked on a marble. In a rush to get to Esmerelda, Julia collided with a truck and was killed instantly. Esmeralda died too. In the wake of the deaths, Wireman shot himself in the temple to end his life. However, he survived. He woke up after the shooting seeing only red. The bullet lodged itself in his brain, too deep for surgery, and Wireman lost vision in his left eye. Wireman has another contrecoup injury; the bullet is slowly moving towards his brainstem and will eventually kill him.

Edgar experiences the itch in his missing arm again. He draws the CCTV screen grab of Candy Brown, but in Edgar’s picture, Candy is missing his nose and mouth. Soon after, Wireman calls Edgar to give him the good news that Candy Brown has been found dead in his cell. Edgar knows he caused Candy Brown to die by painting his picture.