A Stranger in the House

Tom and Karen drive to the abandoned restaurant. They go past the police tape to look at the interior. She is revolted by the smell of rotting corpse. Tom goes to check the nearby parking lot where the gloves were found. Finally, they drive home. As they go inside, Tom feels his “despair deepe[n].”

Bob returns home to find his wife, Brigid, still awake. She tells him that the detectives went to the Krupp residence to interview them again.

Later that night, Karen’s memory begins to come back. She remembers Robert calling her on the home phone. He called her “Georgina.” She remembers that he wanted to meet her at the abandoned restaurant. She had grabbed her gun—which she had hidden in the furnace room—and the rubber gloves and rushed out of the house. She remembers getting to the restaurant, but not anything that happened afterward.

The next morning, Karen thinks about how she left her husband, Robert, the murdered man. They had been living in Las Vegas. She purchased a second-hand car in cash and stashed it near the Hoover Dam. She then purchased a fake ID online. Finally, she went to the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge, took a picture of herself at the bridge, and sent the photo along with the message, “You can’t hurt me anymore. This is it. And it’s on you” (138) to him. She destroyed the phone and drove away.

Karen goes to Brigid’s house. She asks Brigid if she heard them talking to the detectives. Brigid denies overhearing anything and acts shocked when Karen tells her they are investigating a murder. Brigid comforts Karen.

Tom meets with his brother, Dan, at a diner. Tom fills Dan in on everything going on in the case. He also tells Dan that he had an affair with Brigid before he met Karen. Brigid had told Tom she was planning on leaving her husband, Bob. Tom broke it off when he learned that Brigid had no intention of leaving her husband. He assures Dan he is no longer sleeping with Brigid, but he is troubled by what Brigid suggested about Karen having a false identity, given how little he knows about Karen’s past.

Tom returns to his office. Detectives Rasbach and Jennings arrive to question him. They tell Tom that they have confirmed that Karen’s identity is fake. Tom is shocked. He admits to the detectives he once had an affair with Brigid and that he was supposed to meet her the evening of the accident, but she never showed up.

After they leave, the detectives agree that Tom did not know about Karen’s fake identity.

That morning, Karen is panicked. She knows that eventually the police will identify the dead man as Robert Traynor and realize that she is his “late” wife, Georgina Traynor. Detective Rasbach calls her and asks her to come to the station for an interview. He tells her they have not yet identified the body. After they hang up, Karen begins packing a bag.

After talking to the detectives, Tom leaves his office and goes home. He walks into the bedroom to find Karen packing a bag. She is startled to see him. She explains that Detective Rasbach wants to interview her again and she wants to run, but she does not want to leave Tom. He asks if she killed the dead man, and she responds, “It’s not how it looks” (161).

She explains to Tom that the dead man is her first husband, Robert Traynor. They married six years ago in Las Vegas. She tells him that Robert was abusive, which is why she faked her death to escape him. She says she realized Robert must have found her when she began to notice things in the house had been moved while they were out. When Robert called her, she felt “as if [she] were right back there, with him” (164). She claims Robert threatened to kill Tom if she did not meet Robert at the restaurant. She says she never planned to kill Robert and that she only took the gun for her own protection, but she insists she doesn’t remember what happened. She insists she did not kill him.

Karen and Tom go to see lawyer Jack Calvin. Karen recounts the same story to Calvin about her past and the night of the incident, although she does not confirm ownership of the gun so as not to tell the lawyer “anything that will put [him] in a difficult position” (168). She insists she is not capable of murdering Robert. She notes that Robert was an “antiques dealer” with “shady” associates, and suggests that one of them may have killed Robert. She insists she had to fake her own death because Robert was abusive and it was the only way out.

Calvin tells Karen not to go to the police station. Karen tells Tom she did not share this information with him earlier because “there was never a good time” (172). Calvin warns that the police will soon learn the identity of the dead man and that the Krupps should prepare.

Tom makes Karen promise she is not going to run, and she agrees. He is not sure if he believes her. Tom drops Karen off at home and returns to work.

Brigid watches Tom drop Karen off from across the street. She knows her husband thinks she is obsessed with the Krupps, but she thinks he “doesn’t understand.” Brigid goes over to talk to Karen. Brigid notices that Karen seems upset and acts like she doesn’t want to talk to her. Brigid asks if Karen and Tom had a fight. Karen is taken aback and says “no.” Brigid thinks Karen is not as open as she should be, given everything Brigid has done for her. Karen says she has a headache and needs to lie down. Brigid returns home and watches out her window for Tom.

The detectives get a call from a pawnshop about a watch and a ring that was recently sold by a teenager. They go to the pawnshop and learn a boy named Duncan Mackie sold the items. They question Duncan. He admits he stole the watch and ring from the dead body. He gives the police the man’s wallet and they learn the dead man’s identity, Robert Traynor. At the police station, they find a picture of Georgina Traynor and realize it is Karen Krupp.