Home Before Dark

Jessica is done with ghost talk and refuses to entertain Ewan’s ideas about the Ouija board. Jessica refuses to believe any of it is real and blames Ewan for encouraging it. She throws a coffee mug and says she won’t be there to clean up if he makes the wrong choice. Four bells ring, one at a time. Then the pattern repeats, like a code. Ewan takes the Ouija board from the trash and uses the letters to decode the rhythm of the bells. The first word is HELLO. Ewan questions the spirit, which says it’s CURTIS CARVER. The spirit admits that he said Maggie would die there. He also says that he doesn’t plan to kill her. Then, Carver says he didn’t kill his daughter.

Prince says the Carver piece was his first big story and that Marta Carver had been happy when he interviewed her. He says that Curtis was cremated, at Marta’s request. Marta also refused to bury him near Katie, and a rumor holds that she threw his ashes away. He and the town admire Marta for staying and thriving. Maggie considers, for the first time, that the current events surrounding her return also affect Marta in ways she might be unaware of. As far as Prince knows, Marta never returned to the house.

Maggie decides that she needs to speak with Marta and goes to her bakery. At the counter, she asks if they can talk. Marta surprises her by agreeing and saying that they’re alike: Baneberry Hall has changed them both. She says she’ll come to Maggie and face the house with her together.

Petra babysits Maggie after Jessica leaves for work and Ewan goes to Marta’s bakery. She’s reluctant to talk until he tells her that he’s worried about Maggie. She asks to meet at the library in 10 minutes. Marta tells him that she never saw anything to make her think the house was haunted. However, she says Curtis heard noises sometimes, which startles Ewan. That means the noises he hears probably aren’t related to Curtis.

Marta says Katie was ill. They even took her to an oncologist, but every test was negative. When he asks what happened that day, she says, “My husband murdered my daughter, then killed himself” (297). He asks for more details, for Maggie’s sake. Marta says she found Curtis first, on the study floor. She heard a thud and then went to the study and found his body with the bag on his head. Then, she found Katie, but she won’t say more. When he asks what time she heard the thud, she confidently says it was 4:54am.

Ewan is starting to believe that Curtis isn’t threatening them but warning them. He wonders aloud if something else killed Curtis and Katie. The question disgusts Marta. When he says her husband told him he’s innocent, Marta says Ewan is more cruel than naive. He’s sorry to upset her, but he thinks something is about to repeat itself in the house. On the way out of the library, he notices Garson’s portrait again. For the first time, he sees that Garson is holding a cane, which reminds him of the tap-tap-tap he hears every night in addition to the thud in the early mornings.

Marta comes to the house with a cherry pie and says she hopes they can be friends. Maggie worries aloud that her father was right and hopes Marta can help her find out the truth. Marta says her part in the book is mostly accurate. However, she also says that Ewan lied about something she said. He wrote that she didn’t think Curtis was guilty. This was fiction, and Marta claims that she always believed Curtis was the murderer.

Maggie asks if Marta ever wondered if Ewan had been right. Marta says Curtis left a suicide note that didn’t make it into the police reports. Curtis was depressed and Katie’s illness exacerbated the problem. He wrote that he wanted to end their suffering, and forensics prove that he was responsible. Marta believes that Ewan wrote the book to justify his own crime. She cryptically says that it’s only now that she understands what his crime actually was. Maggie is confused when Marta says that now understands why Maggie is selling things from the house on the auction site, including the most recent item: a letter opener. Maggie doesn’t know what she’s talking about until she looks at the website, which shows the letter opener she found on the desk, for sale.

Ewan doesn’t tell Jessica about his conversation with Marta. He goes to the Ditmer cottage with Maggie to see if Petra can babysit. Elsa answers and says Petra is being punished. He hears Petra praying in the background. Elsa offers to watch Maggie for one hour. On the way to the house, Elsa says Maggie sees things the rest of them don’t and adds, “In this house, all daughters are in danger” (310). She advises him to leave quickly. While Elsa and Maggie play outside, he looks at the articles he copied at the library. The 1926 car accident killed Garson’s 14-year-old granddaughter. Her father had been driving.

The 1941 drowning was the four-year-old daughter of the film producer who bought the house. Her father said he had been with her, but he had blacked out. During the bed-and-breakfast years, a 15-year-old girl fell from a window, and a 13-year-old girl died in her bed. They were each accompanied by their fathers. In 1974, a five-year-old girl fell down the stairs. Her father was the witness.

At least seven girls, all under 16, have died in Baneberry Hall. He feels a presence and asks if Curtis is there. The record player starts playing “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” and the player sticks on the words “better be careful.” Ewan believes it’s Curtis’s message that William Garson is making fathers in Baneberry Hall murder their daughters, recreating his own crime against Indigo. Maggie will be next if he can’t find a way to resist.

When Maggie goes to the Ditmer cottage and accuses Hannah of selling the items, Hannah doesn’t deny it. Inside, she says she’s been selling things for two years, ever since Elsa got sick. Maggie thinks Hannah is the one ringing the bells, lighting the chandelier, and turning on the record player. Hannah confesses, saying she wanted to scare her away so she could profit on the house. However, she says that Maggie really was terrified on the night of the sleepover.

Hannah is confused when Maggie mentions Buster, the teddy bear. When Hannah goes to get the house keys, Elsa enters the room and tells Maggie she’ll die if she stays in the house. Maggie pities Hannah and gives the keys back. She says in one week she can sell everything that’s left behind. Hannah says she never used the keys to sneak in; she used the hidden door behind the ivy at the back of the house. She says that Elsa showed it to her.

Ewan wakes to Jessica punching his chest and face. She screams at him and accuses him of hurting Maggie. He goes to Maggie’s room and finds her in bed with red marks—which resemble fingers—around her throat. Jessica said she watched him get back into bed minutes before Maggie screamed. He denies hurting her, but then he tells Jessica that, if it happened, William Garson made him do it. Jessica threatens to call the police, and he thinks she should. If they lock him up, Maggie will be safe. Jessica packs suitcases for herself and Maggie as Ewan protests his innocence. He knows they’ll be safer outside the house, and he’s relieved after they’re gone. Then, he watches the bells and waits.