The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoise

Question 1

Summary

Answer 1

• Louise finds herself parked outside Alison Needler’s house. The phone call she’d gotten was from a hysterical Alison, thinking her husband had returned to finish them off, but it had been a false alarm.
• Louise thinks back to yesterday, when she told Joanna that Andrew Decker has been released from prison. Joanna had held herself together.
• David Needler had shot his mother-in-law and sister-in-law at his seven-year-old daughter’s birthday party, killing a neighbor as well before fleeing. The difference with Andrew Decker was that he didn’t destroy his own family, he destroyed somebody else’s: “Men like Decker were inadequates […] maybe they just couldn’t stand to see people enjoying the lives they never had.”
• Andrew Decker had turned out to be a model prisoner and had gotten his university degree in philosophy. He’s only fifty now.
• Patrick calls, and Louise is shocked to realize it’s six o’clock, and her elaborate dinner plans are foiled. Patrick tells her she’s obsessed with the Needler case. Louise apologizes and promises to be home soon.
• Louise thinks about Jackson Brodie, who cares about missing girls and wants them all to be found.
• Patrick has just gotten a phone call. He cheerfully tells her that there’s been a train crash, and it’ll be “all hands on deck tonight.”