All the Little Raindrops

Evan travels to Texas to interview Lars, who is currently incarcerated. Lars tells Evan that he was kidnapped outside a bar and woke up inside a cage. A second cage housed another man, Hanh. During their imprisonment, captors attempted to get Lars and Hanh to sacrifice each other to save themselves, just like with Evan and Noelle. Lars survived his captivity by using strategies he learned in Vietnam. He reports that he and Hanh started getting “gifts” with their meals and that they used those items to escape. Evan realizes that someone watching knew Lars’s and Hanh’s strengths and tailored their gifts to them. It all sounds strikingly similar to Evan and Noelle’s experience, and Evan recalls the ancient gladiators “who won their freedom when they won the battle” (173). After he leaves the jail, Evan thinks again about the Roman Coliseum and how those events entertained audiences. He concludes that these captivities are likely a modern bloodsport enjoyed by the very wealthy.

Lars and Hanh were separated during their escape, and Evan cannot find any evidence of Hanh. He asks Aria to look for information about any bodies found with missing parts. He is now certain that he and Noelle are not alone in their experience, but he tries not to think of her often because it unsettles him too much: Though it hurt at the time, a clean break was best. Evan didn’t even speak of Noelle to the psychiatrist whom the police recommended, Dr. Caspar Vitucci. Vitucci helped him significantly, so Evan decides to ask his opinion about reaching out to Noelle now.

Evan and Dr. Vitucci catch up before Evan explains why he has come, as well as his complicated feelings for Noelle. Vitucci tells Evan that he and Noelle have shared trauma and that those bonds are very strong because they made survival possible. However, the overwhelming feeling associated with such bonds can be mistaken for love. Vitucci cautions Evan about getting involved with Noelle so that he doesn’t become emotionally stuck again. Evan wants to learn why he and Noelle were abducted—specifically, he wants to know why their kidnappers chose two people who knew each other prior to captivity, unlike Lars and Hanh. He thinks that this detail might help solve the crime.

Noelle disappeared from Evan’s life several years ago, but he locates her in South Carolina, working at Sweetgrass Cottages. He visits, finding her in one of the garden areas, and she explains that she is the assistant to the owner, Chantilly Calhoun. As they talk, Evan notices Noelle casting worried looks over her shoulder. Suddenly, a little girl runs up and calls her “Mommy,” and Evan realizes that the little girl resembles him. Noelle introduces him to the girl, Callie, who she confirms is Evan’s daughter.

Noelle explains that she didn’t know she was pregnant until she moved to South Carolina. At that point, she reasoned that she and Evan had parted ways to prioritize their health. Evan is angry that he was robbed of six years with Callie, but Noelle feels that her decision was justified: It might seem selfish, but she had to heal so that she could be a good mother. Evan asks to spend time with Callie, and Noelle agrees. They agree to attend a party on the beach the following evening and then discuss his reason for visiting.

A boy named Cedro Leon watches the man in the next cage vomiting into the metal toilet. He understands that the man has an alcohol addiction and is undergoing withdrawal symptoms because he saw his own father endure this. Cedro is 14 and an orphan. He was kidnapped after he crossed the US-Mexico border, trying to get to his 17-year-old brother in Arizona. The man in the other cage is named Grimaldo, but he goes by Grim. He knows that Cedro is a pickpocket, as the boy stole a locket from him once. A man enters and tells Cedro that he’s been rented and has a choice: go willingly or allow Grim to lose an eye.

Chantilly is 75, uses a wheelchair, and is glamorous and elegant. She immediately understands that Noelle is spending extra time on her appearance because of the man who just checked in. Noelle says that he’s Callie’s father, and when she starts to explain, Chantilly confesses that she looked up Noelle’s story when she first moved in. Chantilly says that Noelle is the strongest person she knows, and she encourages Noelle to embrace happiness as fully as she can.

Evan waits on the beach while Noelle and Callie approach. They are there to watch the baby sea turtles hatch and make their way to the water. Nearby lights are turned off so that the babies can follow the light of the moon. The trio watches the babies enter the water and then heads back for Callie’s bedtime. Once she’s asleep, Evan and Noelle talk, and she agrees to his request to work out a visitation schedule.

Evan tells Noelle that he’s looking into their case, telling her about Lars and Hanh. Evan says their own abduction was different from others’ because they knew each other before. He also explains that Noelle’s father filed a missing person’s report for Dow Maginn right before Noelle went missing. Noelle remembers Maginn being involved in computer hacking. She cautions Evan about getting “dragged back under” emotionally (225), comparing his investigation to Pandora’s box.

A few days later, Noelle watches Callie and Evan play. She remembers the planners that her father always used and how she put them in storage with other things she wasn’t prepared to give up. Chantilly suggests that it’s time to clean out that storage unit and say goodbye, so Noelle asks Paula to stay with Callie for a couple of weeks. She tells Evan about her father’s organizers and her plan to go with him to Reno, and he is thrilled.

Cedro chooses to go with the man, and Grim is shocked. He’s heard about this kind of situation from people who trafficked drugs and humans—a sick game that the rich play with the lives of people whom they see as unimportant. When Cedro comes back, Grim knows what happened based on the “unmistakable hand-size bruises on the jaws […] The split lips from being forced apart” (232). The dumbwaiters bring the captives bread and water, and Grim also gets a large paper poppy. Poppy was his nickname for his daughter, so he knows that someone wants him to think of her. Cedro gets two peppermint candies and says that his father used to give them to him.

Being among her father’s old things is painful for Noelle. She and Evan find a box of Meyer’s planners and take it back to the hotel. They locate the one that he was using when she was taken, and it shows an appointment with Maginn about a week before Noelle’s abduction. Another note suggests that Meyer thought Maginn was murdered. A third entry indicates an appointment with André Baudelaire, an antiques dealer. Noelle notes that she is still very attracted to Evan, though it feels less consuming and dysfunctional than before.

Evan is very attracted to Noelle, and the intensity of his feelings surprises him. They go to Baudelaire’s store, and Noelle recognizes her mother’s wedding ring in one of the cases. Baudelaire tells them that Meyer didn’t want to part with it but seemed desperate for money when he brought it in. Noelle is surprised that he didn’t pawn it earlier to pay for lawyers after her mother’s death. She cannot understand what could have made him so desperate for money six years after her mother’s death and plans to go back to the storage unit alone.

Noelle is disappointed when she can’t find her father’s laptop. The next day, Evan and Noelle locate Maginn’s sister, Louise. She can’t tell them anything except that her brother was brilliant with computers. She offers them a box of his things, so Evan and Noelle go back to his apartment. When Aria arrives unexpectedly, Evan introduces her to Noelle. Outside, however, Aria accuses Evan of using her for information so that he could reunite with Noelle.

When Evan comes back in, he wants to discuss his relationship with Noelle, but she denies that there is anything more than friendship. She thinks of Callie, who is a “beautiful paradox,” and believes that they shouldn’t do anything that could jeopardize their ability to move forward in a healthy way. In the box of Maginn’s things, they find a bag containing $10,000 in cash, the money that Meyer got from selling his wife’s ring to Baudelaire.