Elizabeth is Missing

Maud’s at the library but she’s not sure why. She’s forgotten that she asked Helen to take her there to ask about Elizabeth’s overdue notice. She tells the librarian, “I’m looking for something […] I just can’t recall” (141). The librarian directs her to the crime section, but the book titles and covers upset her. Looking at the books reminds Maud of how she and Sukey used to press flowers into books.

Maud misremembers the last time she saw Sukey. She remembers giving her a comb, but she now thinks Sukey pressed it into a book and it fell apart. She picks up a library book by the same author she and Sukey had pressed flowers in and shakes it. The librarian scolds her for mistreating the book.

Maud leaves the library and focuses on following Helen, thinking that it might lead her to Sukey. When it turns out that Maud was following someone else, Helen sharply asks Maud who she was following. Maud tells her that she was following Douglas.

Maud thinks about the morning she followed Douglas. She’d been sick in bed for weeks and was suspicious because Douglas had been stealing food and lying about his whereabouts.