And There He Kept Her

In the small Minnesota town of Sandy Lake, two teenagers vanish in the middle of the night, setting off an investigation that exposes a kidnapper's basement prison and a web of small-town drug dealing. The novel alternates between the perspective of Ben Packard, a deputy serving as acting sheriff, and Emmett Burr, an enormous recluse whose house the teenagers broke into.

At 4:30 a.m. during a rainstorm, Jesse Crawford, a teenage boy, breaks into the basement of an old man's lakeside house to steal pain medication under threat to his sister's safety. He discovers a room with pink-painted walls, a stained mattress, a heavy chain bolted to the wall, and a steel door with no interior handle. His girlfriend, sixteen-year-old Jenny Wheeler, follows him inside. Emmett Burr appears at the top of the stairs with a double-barreled shotgun and fires both barrels. Jesse is killed instantly. Jenny, hit by birdshot and knocked unconscious, survives.

Deputy Ben Packard, a former Minneapolis police detective serving as acting sheriff while Sheriff Stan Shaw undergoes chemotherapy, receives a call from his cousin Susan Wheeler: Her daughter Jenny did not come home. Susan reveals that Jenny has type 1 diabetes, uses an insulin pump with roughly three days of insulin, and left her diabetes supply kit behind. Jesse is also missing, along with his mother's car. In Jenny's room, Packard finds her phone hidden under the pillow, its texts revealing the teens planned a late-night meeting and deliberately left their devices behind.

Packard came to Sandy Lake to start over. His oldest brother, Nick, disappeared from the family's cabin when Packard was twelve; his snowmobile was found submerged in a lake, but his body was never recovered. In Minneapolis, Packard had a secret relationship with Marcus, a fellow officer killed in the line of duty. Unable to grieve publicly, Packard moved to Sandy Lake, keeping his sexuality and family history private.

After Emmett's loveless marriage ended, he built a concrete-block prison in his basement, the pink room, inspired by fantasies of a captive who would obey him. He kidnapped a woman named Wanda, who killed herself with her chain. He later kidnapped a jogger who was brutalized by Carl Shaker, Emmett's neighbor and longtime accomplice. Carl killed a third woman in the room. Three women are buried on Emmett's land.

Carl chains the wounded Jenny in the pink room, showing predatory interest. Over the following days, Emmett grudgingly tends to her, bringing food and painkillers. Jenny tells him her insulin will run out within days and she will die without more. Emmett is initially indifferent but grows conflicted as Jenny bargains with him and reads David Copperfield aloud.

Packard discovers Jesse had a burner phone used for dealing drugs. At Sandy Lake High School, a student reveals she saw Jesse in a red Mustang driven by Sam Gherlick, Sheriff Shaw's grandson, who likely preceded Jesse as the local dealer. Under pressure from Emmett, Jenny reveals that Sam sent Jesse to steal Emmett's pills because Jesse owed Sam money. Sam, who once delivered Meals on Wheels to Emmett's home, had been skimming pills during those visits for years. Emmett orders Carl to kill Sam to sever the connection to the missing teens.

When Packard arrives at Sam's house, he finds Sam crushed beneath his red Mustang, with evidence suggesting the car was deliberately dropped on him. Inside, he finds Sam's sister Shannon Gherlick unconscious from a drug overdose, along with cash, bagged pills, and a .38 revolver inscribed "D. Chambers." At the hospital, Shannon confesses that Sam placed her at a pharmacy to identify patients filling opioid prescriptions and pass their names to him. She gave Sam a name the week before the disappearance, someone picking up 80-milligram oxycodone, but cannot remember who. Shannon also tells Packard that the entire town knows he is gay, a revelation that shakes him.

Emmett buys over-the-counter insulin for Jenny and visits the library for David Copperfield, where the librarian unknowingly tucks a MISSING flyer inside the book. Detective Jill Thielen, Packard's closest ally, visits Emmett to ask about a prescription bottle found at Sam's, but Emmett lies and turns her away. That night, Carl enters the pink room and attacks Jenny. She strikes him with her chain, but he overpowers her and promises to return. Emmett promises Jenny protection but warns he will eventually want something in return.

At midnight Sunday, Emmett and Carl tow Jesse's car to an abandoned quarry. Carl threatens to kill Emmett to eliminate the connection between them, but Emmett talks him down, then buries a knife in Carl's neck when Carl looks away. Emmett pushes both vehicles into the water and walks back to Carl's property, leaving blood on the locked front door.

Susan crashes her car after falling asleep while searching for Jenny. At the hospital, Packard admits his sexuality openly for the first time, first to a nurse and then to Thielen, who responds that no one is happy not being themselves.

Monday morning, the dispatcher connects the .38 to Emmett through his ex-wife's maiden name. Before Packard can act, Cora Shaker, Carl's wife, reports Carl missing with blood on her front door. Packard follows evidence to the quarry, where a diver confirms Jesse's car with a body in the trunk and Carl's wrecker with Carl inside. Security cameras at Gary Bushwright's dog rescue, across from Carl's property, show Emmett leaving with Carl the previous night and returning alone. There is no sign of Jenny. Packard realizes she must be at Emmett's house and that Thielen, whom he sent to question Emmett about the gun, is already en route, unaware of the danger.

That morning, Jenny throws the contents of her toilet bucket in Emmett's face and slips past him, having picked her handcuff lock with wire from her orthodontic retainer. Emmett catches her, forces her back into the pink room, destroys her insulin pump, and shoves oxycodone pills into her mouth to overdose her. He goes outside with a Bobcat, a small skid-steer loader, to dig her grave.

Thielen arrives, notices blood on Emmett's car, and enters the house, finding a prescription bottle for 80-milligram oxycodone matching Shannon's lead. In the basement, she discovers Jenny chained to the wall, barely conscious. Thielen goes outside to radio for help; Emmett uses the Bobcat to flip her car and fires at her. She retreats to the basement, finds a landline, and calls dispatch. Packard arrives with backup and passes naloxone, an overdose-reversal drug, to Thielen. Emmett drives the Bobcat at the officers, firing, but they return fire. The Bobcat lurches off the eroded shoreline and flips into the lake. Emmett drowns in the overturned cab. Paramedics rush Jenny to the hospital.

That evening, Packard visits Jenny's room. Susan sits beside her, injured from her own car accident. Packard asks Susan not to shut him out, and she promises to do better.

A week later, Packard adopts a three-legged Welsh corgi from Gary's rescue. Jenny is home, facing multiple surgeries on her hand. Jesse has been cremated. Cadaver dogs have confirmed three burial sites on Emmett's property. Packard discovers that Nick's cold-case file has mysteriously vanished from the department's records, an unresolved question pointing toward future investigations. He invites Michael, a nurse he met online, to visit Sandy Lake. Reflecting on letting go of his grief and accepting his identity, he names the corgi Frank, after his grandfather, and takes him for a walk.