The Last House Guest

The day after the Plus-One Party, the police—including Detective Collins—question Avery about Sadie’s death. Avery gets a ride across town from Faith’s father. She stops inside the Blue Robin, takes note of its condition, and then walks back to her car. There is sand on the floor, which Avery attributes to Sadie brushing herself off after a beach bonfire sometime earlier in their friendship.

Avery reviews what she’s learned about the Plus-One Party and considers the possibility that Sadie did make it to the party alive. Avery pulls her car over to examine the trunk. She finds scratches and dents on the inside of the trunk’s lid, as well as a broken buckle from one of Sadie’s gold sandals. Avery realizes that Sadie was in the trunk, alive and fighting to escape, which was how she got from the party to the bluffs unseen. Avery also discovers that the $100,000 her grandmother received after her parents’ deaths came from the Lomans’ accounts.

Avery determines the Lomans were somehow responsible for her parents’ accident. While she is angry, she knows the evidence of the payoff could be seen as a motive for her to murder Sadie. Avery realizes that Parker’s scar, which Sadie made fun of, was not from a fight; it was from the accident.