The Secret Place

The narrative returns to the past. It is now the beginning of May. Julia, Becca, and Selena are all acting strangely, and Holly wonders what is happening. She runs into Joanne late at night, and Joanne shows her the video of Selena and Chris. Holly is shocked, but the video explains Selena’s aloof behavior lately. Joanne hisses that things are “over” between Chris and Selena, but she adds that Chris had better stay away from Selena in the future. Holly does not share this information with any of her friends. 

Becca has also noticed the group’s strange energy lately. Julia is always on edge, and Selena seems upset and claims to have a persistent headache. Becca does not believe this; she suspects that something is truly wrong and begins to observe her friends closely. She knows that she is more intelligent than most people give her credit for, and she resolves to figure out what has disrupted her group’s equilibrium. One day, she sees Selena hunched over a strange phone, and she also finds Julia’s condoms and is also sure that Julia has been using the secret phone. She reads the texts on the phone and figures out that Selena has been seeing someone. She then wonders if Julia is “sacrificing” herself to save Selena. It is obvious to Becca that Selena is being manipulated, so she reasons that Julia must have seen this as well. Becca reflects on the girls’ oath to remain single and grows furious that this oath has been broken. She vows to punish the boy involved, but she cannot figure out who it is, even after observing the Colm’s boys as they interact with her friends. To learn more, she sends a text from Selena’s phone, asking the unknown boy for a meeting. She then selects one of the garden tools from the shed, practices wielding it, and sets off for the meeting wearing gloves. She feels powerful.

In the present, Antoinette and Stephen meet up. He tells her the new information about Becca, and the two discuss it. The other girls told the detectives that Becca was deeply invested in their friendship and that if anything were wrong with any of them, she “would go mental” (384). The detectives speculate that Becca might have killed Chris because he was the reason for Selena’s emotional anguish. 

Although they need more information, the detectives agree that they won’t get it from Holly, so they decide to interview Julia. On a hunch, they head to the girls’ secret cypress glade. They find Julia there with her friends and pull her aside. They tell her that they know she was meeting Chris, as well as her reasons why. Julia admits that she was trying to keep him away from Selena. They explain that they know she’s been trying to protect Selena all along, and they reassure her that Selena is not a suspect and then ask for more information. Julia admits that she did think Selena killed Chris. She admits to texting them from Chris’s phone in order to redirect their attention away from Selena. She knew where Joanne’s key was because she herself suggested the hiding place. 

The detectives press her further about where she got Chris’s phone, and she explains that she found his phone in Selena’s secret hiding place on the day of Chris’s death; this is why she believed Selena to be guilty of murder. She had gone looking for Selena’s secret phone to get rid of it, but it was gone, and in its place was Chris’s phone. The detectives know that Holly had already taken Selena’s phone, but they do not yet know who put Chris’s phone in its place. Julia shares that Becca and Selena would have had to go back into their room that morning to get their instruments before instrument practice.

The narrative shifts to the past. The grounds outside of the school are overrun with police officers and school officials. Because several priests are present, Holly deduces that something happened to a Colm’s boy on St. Kilda’s school grounds. Ms. McKenna announces that Chris Harper has been found dead. Selena panics, and Julia quietly tells her to remain calm. Becca feels no fear or guilt and merely sits quietly. When the girls are dismissed, Holly pulls them into a fake hug to tell them that the detectives will interview everyone and that none of them should volunteer any information. She adds that the police often fabricate stories to fish for information. She specifically tells them that it’s possible the police might claim that Selena had been dating Chris or might even claim to have a video. If they do, she instructs Selena to deny this, even going so far as to deny that the video is of her. 

Holly’s mind is whirring. She does not know who killed Chris. It could have even been Joanne and her lot, but no matter who killed him, the detectives might ultimately discover his connection to Selena. Her father shows up and tries to take her home, but she refuses. Up in the girls’ room, Becca gives Selena a red phone and tells her to hide it. 

Later, the girls are interviewed one by one. They reveal nothing, even when the detectives ask them if Chris was dating Selena. Later, Selena checks the hiding spot in her bed but does not find a phone. Julia’s anxiety mounts, but as the days and weeks pass, no one is arrested, and Chris begins to fade from memory as the case goes nowhere. When the girls try to sneak out again, they discover that the locks have been changed.

The detectives confer. They cannot figure out why Becca put Chris’s phone in Selena’s bed. They need to speak with Becca again. They agree that during the entire investigation, the only time she seemed afraid was when one of the girls in the school claimed to have seen Chris’s ghost. They decide to use this insight to get more information out of her. 

Holly is inside with her father, but the other girls are still in the cypress glade, and the detectives speak to all of them at once. They ask why the girls think Chris’s ghost has been appearing, and they note that while Selena is distracted and sad, Julia and Holly are nervous, and only Becca shows signs of fear. Julia repeatedly denies the existence of ghosts and becomes increasingly agitated when Becca begins to engage with the officers. 

Tensions mount, and Becca agrees that ghosts appear when they are angry or upset. She tearfully explains that when she used Selena’s phone to set up the meeting, she didn’t know who would appear in the glade and was shocked to see Chris. He had been kind to her, and she was alone in thinking that he was a good guy. The detectives are stunned at this admission of guilt and ask Becca why she killed Chris if she thought that he was a decent human being. With a strange look in her eyes, she explains that the cause of the group’s troubles had to be sacrificed and that sacrifices mean more when they are “valuable.” In her mind, Chris was the best possible sacrifice because he was valuable. She explains that for this reason, she left a small bouquet of flowers on his body. Because this detail was never publicized, Stephen knows that Becca must be telling the truth: She killed Chris. Given the bizarre nature of her story, Stephen wonders if she is feigning a mental health crisis to lay the groundwork for a plausible legal defense. When he studies her, however, he realizes that her mental health crisis is genuine. 

Holly and Frank come running out, and Stephen tells her that Becca has confessed to murdering Chris. Holly is in a state of panic. Stephen asks her who she thought the killer was, knowing that Holly would never have brought him the card if she knew that Becca was the killer. She tells him that she assumed it was Joanne or one of her friends. The detectives bring Becca to Ms. McKenna; the police will have to come arrest her tomorrow. 

On the way back to the car, the detectives speculate that Selena might have written the postcard because she figured out that Becca was guilty. They assume that the information was too much for Selena to handle. Putting the information on the message board was a way to reveal it without incriminating her friend.

The narrative shifts to the past. Holly, Selena, Becca, and Julia return to St. Kilda’s for their fourth year. They do not mention the events of the previous year, including their vow to stop dating or the events surrounding Chris’s death. This year, the teachers make an effort to break up well-established friend groups whenever projects are assigned, and the girls spend less time together. Holly is considering a career in law, and her father counsels her to avoid defense work. She worries about Selena and suggests to Julia that they encourage Selena to speak to a therapist. However, she is surprised by Julia’s adamant insistence that they do no such thing, and she reluctantly agrees to drop the issue. Holly recalls being sent to a therapist when she was a witness on the case during which she worked with Stephen; it wasn’t helpful. 

She ponders the issue and decides that if Selena is still mired in grief about Chris, her mental health might improve if the killer is caught. Working slowly and meticulously, Holly fashions the postcard and pins it to the Secret Place when no one is looking. She is sure that Joanne is somehow involved in the murder, and she does not care if Joanne or her friends get caught. When it is obvious that the postcard has been seen, she takes it back down and brings it to Stephen.