House Rules

Part 2 opens with a case study labeled “Irony 101,” which explores the story of Imette St. Guillen, a criminology student who was murdered after a bar crawl with her friends in 2006. Imette was killed in such a gruesome way that her case was studied by future generations of criminology students.

The chapter segues into Emma’s perspective as she thinks through the daily routine of Jacob’s care—a multi-faceted process that includes a restricted diet, specialized supplements, and medications. Emma observes that there is no cure for autism, so she has to treat Jacob’s symptoms as best she can. As Emma prepares Jacob’s food and pills, she thinks about the theory that autism is caused by vaccines. In Emma’s opinion, the intersection of autism and vaccinations is shrouded in shades of gray. She observes that both Jacob and Theo received all their recommended vaccines when they were babies, yet only Jacob has autism. Emma sees this as evidence that vaccines alone do not cause autism although she remains confused about the root cause of the condition.

The story then switches to a new point of view, introducing the character of Oliver Bond. Oliver is a young and inexperienced lawyer who became an attorney after deciding that his English degree was unlikely to lead to a successful career. However, he hasn’t succeeded as a lawyer either, and Oliver is disappointed. As he desperately seeks new clients, he lives and works in a small studio apartment above a local pizza restaurant with his poodle, Thor.

Oliver and Jacob cross paths that afternoon when Jacob meets his social skills tutor for a session at the restaurant. His tutor, Jess, is a grad student who is specializing in the study and treatment of autism. Thinking that he is practicing polite small talk, Jacob blocks Oliver and Thor’s path and begins telling Oliver unsolicited facts about poodles. Jacob is confused when Jess tells him that he is invading Oliver’s personal space and that rattling off facts without saying something like “hello” is unsettling to others.

Jacob counters Jess’s point; if something is not honest or informative, Jacob doesn’t understand why it needs to be said. Jacob and Jess talk through this until Jacob notices that Jess’s boyfriend, Mark, is waiting for them. In his head, Jacob makes a list of reasons why he dislikes Mark: He has seen bruises on Jess and suspects that Mark hits her; Jess often cries because of something Mark has said or done; and Mark bullies Jacob when Jess is out of earshot.

Jacob wants Mark to leave their session, but Jess insists that being polite to people you dislike is an important social skill. Jacob tries but feels frustrated when Mark makes rude and sarcastic comments throughout the session and Jess does not stop him. Jacob concludes that he would be a better boyfriend to Jess and attempts to ask Jess out on a date. Jess misunderstands and thinks that Jacob is practicing appropriate social skills. However, Mark realizes what Jacob is doing and ridicules him for it, calling him an ableist slur. Mark tells Jacob that Jess isn’t really his friend; she only spends time with him because she is paid. This announcement is a tremendous shock to Jacob; he had no idea that she was paid to tutor him. Jess and Mark argue until Mark storms out of the restaurant, and Jacob, unable to recognize that Jess is upset, asks her out on a date again. Jess is shocked by his insensitivity and yells at him before running away in tears. Jacob doesn’t understand what happened and returns home.

Emma is at home reflecting on her life. She works from home as an agony aunt for the local newspaper, writing a humorous but practical advice column. She sees the irony of her employment; although she is paid to give other people advice, she often feels clueless when she has to solve the problems in her own life. Jacob arrives home, and she confronts him about a call she received from the principal of Jacob’s high school. The principal has informed Emma that Jacob attacked his math teacher during class. Jacob explains his side of the story; he corrected a math problem that the teacher got wrong. His teacher was angry that Jacob corrected him, so he retaliated by making fun of Jacob’s handwriting. Jacob felt hurt and embarrassed, so he shoved the man away from him.

Emma empathizes with Jacob but reminds him that attacking someone is never acceptable. Jacob counters that Emma has always told him to stand up for himself if someone bullies him. Emma feels heartbroken; for her, this exchange highlights the fact that the world is often unfair and confusing—for everyone, not just people with autism—and she wishes that life could be simpler for Jacob.

The story then switches to Theo’s point of view; having overheard Emma and Jacob’s conversation, he reflects on his own attempts to help Jacob defend himself against bullies, even when helping Jacob has caused Theo to lose friends or be ostracized in school. He acknowledges that his feelings for his brother are often torn between loyalty and anger. As he ponders his relationship with Jacob, Theo sneaks into an unlocked house, hoping that surrounding himself with another family’s normality will soothe his own heart and mind. Theo often lies to his mother by telling her that he has an active social life and is spending the afternoon at a friend’s house so that he can sneak into other family’s houses and find comfort in the detritus of others’ normality. Alone in houses that don’t belong to him, Theo pores over the families’ dirty breakfast dishes, snoops through their TV history, and plays with their children’s toys. He makes himself sandwiches in other people’s kitchens and imagines that the food is being made for him by a mother who cares about his day. He wanders into the families’ home offices and holds one-sided conversations with an imaginary father who is invested in his life. Each time he leaves a house, he carefully erases all traces of his presence so that the homeowners don’t feel unsettled or afraid. As he explores this house, Theo steals a pink iPod from the kitchen and feels a sense of voyeuristic glee when he accidentally walks in on a young woman in the shower. He spies on her for a moment but panics and flees when he recognizes her as Jess.

The next section is narrated by Jacob, who is upset that he hasn’t spoken with Jess since their argument. He soothes himself by reading through his collection of Christmas cards from the Steinberg family. Every year, the Steinbergs send a Christmas card to the Jennings family, who owned the house before the Hunt family did. The Hunts and Steinbergs have never met, and Emma is annoyed by the annual receipt of holiday cards from people she doesn’t know. Jacob then reflects on the fact that Jess was supposed to call him before their next session, but she hasn’t, and Jacob doesn’t understand why. Nevertheless, the day of their next session has arrived, so Jacob sticks to his routine and goes to her house as scheduled. The chapter concludes with Jacob stumbling back home, unable to speak, before falling into a catatonic state.

Upon arriving home, Jacob immediately runs to his room. Emma chases after him, finding him on his bedroom floor, distraught and caught in a meltdown (it is later revealed that he has just found Jess’s dead body in her house). When she asks if something happened with Jess, he bangs his head against the wall. Emma holds him tight to keep him from injuring himself. Eventually, Jacob falls asleep.

Part 3 opens with an overview of the BTK case. Between the 1970s and 1990s, a serial killer who named himself BTK—an acronym for Bind, Torture, Kill—terrorized the community of Wichita, Kansas. For more than 25 years, the BTK killer evaded capture, until he typed a taunting letter to the police, and metadata from the document revealed that it was typed on a Microsoft Word account belonging to someone named Dennis. Police investigation led them to Dennis Rader, a church deacon and Boy Scout troop leader who (unbeknownst to his friends and family) was also a serial killer. The case study overview concludes with an ominous warning that one’s online activity is never really private.

The narrative then shifts to Detective Matson’s point of view as he talks to Sasha’s second-grade class for career day. Rich feels guilty when a child asks him if he always catches the bad guys and Rich lies, encouraging the kids to believe that the world is a safe place because detectives like him are protecting them. Later, Mark calls Rich’s police department to report that Jess is missing. He encourages the police to suspect Jacob of kidnapping her, citing his social awkwardness and his special interest in forensics as indicators that Jacob could be guilty of harming Jess.

That evening, the local news station announces that the police are appealing to the public for any information about Jess’s disappearance. Emma assumes that Jess’s sudden absence has constituted a traumatic disruption to Jacob’s routine and, thus, triggered his catatonic state.

The story then switches back to Rich’s point of view as he interviews Jess’s friends, classmates, and teachers at the University of Vermont. He learns that Jess was thriving in her graduate program and was well-liked by teachers and students. However, Jess’s friends suspect that Mark was abusing her. Rich intends to immediately re-interview Mark, but a teacher mentions that Jess also tutored a boy with autism, so Rich decides to visit the Hunt family first.

Jacob is slowly emerging from his catatonic state, but he is still fragile, so Emma is reluctant to let him be interviewed by the police. Rich promises to be gentle in his interview technique and, upon recognizing Jacob as the teen who crashed his crime scene, chats with Jacob about forensics instead. Although Rich makes it clear that he doesn’t understand autism—and isn’t interested in understanding it—he is respectful of both Jacob and Emma and the interview is uneventful.

However, Rich’s relationship with the Hunt family changes the next day when Emma discovers Jess’s backpack in Jacob’s closet. Emma questions Jacob and he admits that he took the backpack from Jess’s house. He confesses that, when he went to Jess’s house for his lesson, Jess was gone, and he saw signs of a struggle. Emma immediately calls Detective Matson and insists that Jacob share this information with him. Rich believes that this new evidence suggests that Mark attacked and murdered Jess, so Mark is promptly arrested.

At 3:00 am, while Mark is in police custody, Jacob takes a quilt from his bedroom and rides his bike to a culvert behind Jess’s house. Jacob’s inner monologue reveals that he knows that Jess is dead because he brought her here five days ago; her body has not moved, and her skin is cold to the touch. He wraps her in the quilt and pulls out a notebook, where he writes about Jess as if she is a victim on Crime Busters and he is a detective solving her case. When he is finished writing, he tells Jess that he misses her and that she is the best friend he ever had. He then uses Jess’s cell phone to call 911 and leaves the phone with her body before returning home.