Where Sleeping Girls Lie

Sade reports the theft of the music box to Jessica, but she refuses to help. Determined, Sade waits until the matron leaves her desk, then sneaks into the security room and finds the camera filming Turing House while the guard goes on a break. She sees a figure wearing a hoodie with a logo that looks like a fish enter the building and then leave again, holding a box. However, the security guard returns. She is forced to hide under the desk and texts Baz, asking him to cause a diversion. Soon, the security guard hurries off to see to “an emergency in the science block” (100), where Baz has apparently released all the school’s hamsters and guinea pigs.

When Baz arrives at Turing House, he has a guinea pig named Muffin that he rescued from the science lab. Sade tells him about lunch with the Unholy Trinity, and then their conversation turns to the box. She remembers the first combination of Morse code from the letter, and when they type it into a translator, it reads “rats,” reminding Sade of the dead rat on their doormat. Their conversation turns back to lunch, and Sade tells Baz that she met Jude Ripely. Baz tells her that Jude is “ANA’s resident fuck boy” (105); rumor has it that he once flew a girlfriend to Paris for the night just to break up with her the next day. Sade agrees that he “sounds like an asshole” (105), but Baz suspects she has a crush on him.

On Saturday, students organize a vigil for Elizabeth. Sade is surprised to see August there. However, he claims not to know Elizabeth when Sade asks. She remembers that August is the deputy head boy and asks for advice on what to do if “an item” goes missing from someone’s room. He suggests she ask a teacher to watch the CCTV footage for anything suspicious. She admits that the missing object is a music box, and he assures her it will turn up. Just then, the vigil is interrupted by Headmaster Webber, who announces that the school has “corresponded” with Elizabeth’s great-aunt Julie. Elizabeth is safe with her aunt and has decided to withdraw from school. Sade should feel relieved, but something still seems wrong.

Back in her room, Sade continues to think about Elizabeth. She begins going through her roommate’s things, searching for answers. She is about to give up when she notices an envelope filled with photos stuck to the back of one of Elizabeth’s posters. Most of the photos are of Elizabeth smiling at the camera. However, the last photo shows Elizabeth and August, who recently told Sade he didn’t know Elizabeth. Elizabeth is kissing August’s cheek and smiling, and the words “three months” are written on the back. Sade is interrupted by a text from Baz. He tells her that Elizabeth’s great-aunt has been dead for two years.

Baz rushes straight to Sade’s room with Muffin. They assume the school corresponded with Elizabeth’s aunt via email, making it easy for someone to fake the messages. Furthermore, Elizabeth’s mother has early-onset Alzheimer’s and often forgets that her great-aunt is dead, meaning she wouldn’t challenge the story. Baz insists they need to read the email; he knows someone who can help them, and he rushes off to rowing practice before Sade can tell him about the photos.

On Sunday, Sade shows Baz the picture of Elizabeth and August and tells him about her exchange with August at the vigil. Shocked, Baz suggests they became friends when Elizabeth was April’s roommate, but Sade points out that August would have no reason to lie about that. Baz expresses his frustration over the school’s lack of urgency to find Elizabeth. He complains that ANA never would have given up so easily “if one of their elites went missing” (122), but the headmaster is only concerned about the school’s budget and students whose parents make large donations, not scholarship recipients like Elizabeth.

When Sade was young, her aunt used to call her “an evil spirit” who was “born to bring misery to her family” (125). Sade knows this is “dramatic,” but she cannot deny that bad luck follows her. She came to ANA hoping for a fresh start, but her bad luck seems to have continued.

In English, Persephone sits next to Sade and begins meeting her by her locker after class. Sade cautiously asks about “the blond guy” (129), pretending she can’t remember Jude’s name, and Persephone scoffs that all the boys on the swim team are “[a]ddicted to chlorine, cocaine, and toxic displays of masculinity” (129). Sade sometimes notices Jude watching her in the cafeteria, and on Wednesday, he approaches, asking if he knows her from somewhere. Sade feels “her heartbeat in her throat” (133), but Jude soon brushes off the familiarity. He invites her for coffee after his swim meet on Friday. Sade tells him she isn’t interested in dating, but he insists it isn’t a date; he will even invite August to prove it.

On Thursday, Sade watches the CCTV footage of Turing House with Mr. Michaelides, but the footage shows no one entering or leaving Turing House. The time stamps seem correct, but the figure she saw in the hoodie is nowhere to be found. Sade thinks that someone must be watching her and Baz.

Later, Kwame, Baz’s crush from rowing, has successfully hacked Headmaster Webber’s email, and they read the email allegedly from Elizabeth’s aunt together in Baz’s dorm. The writer identifies herself as Elizabeth’s great-aunt, Julie Wang, and explains that she and Elizabeth’s mother have decided to withdraw her from school. Baz adds that Kwame traced the IP address, and the email was sent from near ANA, not from Birmingham, where Elizabeth’s aunt lived. Sade feels a sense of dread, but Baz notes that one piece of good news is that his smartphone has finally been repaired and returned to him.

Back in Turing House, Sade finds the music box has reappeared on her bed. She texts Baz, but upon closer inspection, she sees the box is different. Instead of Elizabeth’s notes, it is filled with expensive jewelry. She realizes that August is the only other person who she told about the music box, and she decides to find him.

August is swimming laps in Newton as usual. Sade tells him about the photos she found, and August insists he and Elizabeth just “hooked up” a few times. He claims this is normal at ANA and doesn’t mean he knew her. They “weren’t together,” and he suspects she was seeing other boys. Sade wonders aloud why Elizabeth had photos of August but not any of these other boys, but August shrugs it off.

On Friday, Sade attends Juliette’s lacrosse game with Persephone and April. ANA is playing Nightingale Academy, and Sade is hit by “a wave of déjà vu” when she sees the girls’ uniforms (149). ANA wins the match, scoring the tie-breaking goal at the last minute. In the tension of the match, Sade doesn’t realize that she and Persephone are holding hands. As the girls congratulate Juliette, a player from the opposing team approaches Sade, asking if she knows her from somewhere. Sade denies it, but the other girl insists on Sade’s familiarity until April tells her to “get lost.” Sade excuses herself to meet Jude and August for their “not-date.” As they leave, Persephone notices Sade zoning out. She teases her about being “on Mars” and asks her to bring her back “something sweet.”

The “not-date” is better than Sade anticipated, and the three of them spend hours talking about swimming and school before the cafe closes and August peels off to go practice. When they are alone, Jude restates his desire to date Sade, telling her that his “charming personality” will win her over eventually. Sade knows differently and wishes him luck.

When Sade returns to Turing House, she finds Baz waiting for her, his face tear-stained and angry. Headmaster Webber and Miss Blackburn took all of Elizabeth’s things and refused to listen to him when he tried to tell them about Elizabeth’s dead aunt and the fake email. Furthermore, his old phone finished rebooting; Elizabeth had sent him her location the night she disappeared, along with five sandwich emojis, their secret SOS code. Her final location is somewhere between Turing and Hawking House, near the Newton Sports Center. Baz worries that “[s]omeone,” probably the same person who fabricated the email, “got to her” (161). Sade agrees that something is definitely wrong but argues that they need to find “something irrefutable” before they share their suspicions.