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Summary: Part 3, Chapter 1 and Part 4, Chapters 1-5
Part 3, Chapter 1
There is only one chapter in Part 3, consisting of a series of diary entries by Alicia in the days before the murder of Gabriel. Alicia writes that she was daydreaming when she noticed a man standing still on the other side of the road facing her house. His presence disrupts her concentration, though he is gone when she checks for him twenty minutes later. In her next diary entry, she describes attending the theater with Jean-Felix. They have an awkward conversation over drinks before entering the theater. The production of Alcestis has a strong effect on Alicia, who begins to cry, though she doesn’t understand her own reaction. After the show, Jean-Felix tells Alicia that she needs to be careful and not to trust those around her, though he walks off without explaining himself. In the next entry, she sees the man standing outside of her house again. At first, she thinks he might be a painter, like her, though he isn’t sketching anything. She calls Gabriel and tells him about the man, though she later regrets bothering him. When she sees the man next, he stands outside of her house for an hour. Gabriel is doubtful, first thinking it must be Jean-Felix and later doubting Alicia’s account.
In the next entry, she goes for a walk through the park and feels that someone is watching her. She sees the man from across a pond, and snaps a quick, blurry photo of him on her phone. She sees him again when she returns home, though he leaves when Barbie appears, and Alicia confides in her neighbor about the stalker. That night, she cannot shake the feeling that the man is hiding in the dark, waking an annoyed Gabriel, who checks the garden but finds nobody. The next day, he confronts Alicia and persuades her to talk to a doctor about what he considers to be paranoid delusions. She reluctantly sees Dr. West at his home, who reminds her that she has experienced bouts of intense paranoia in the past and prescribes her some medication. Gabriel seems pleased after the visit and insists that she takes the prescribed pills, though she spits them out when he isn’t looking, resolving to address the issue of the stalker on her own. She moves Gabriel’s gun downstairs, where she can easily access it. At Gabriel’s insistence, she attends a dinner with him and Max, who she confronts, believing him to be her stalker. He denies any knowledge of the stalking. The next night, she writes in her diary about sounds she hears downstairs and her conviction that the stalker has entered her home.
Part 4, Chapter 1
In his office, Theo finishes the diary. He is grateful for this perspective into Alicia’s frame of mind, though he remains unsure about her motives for handing him the journal. His attention centers on the “Dr. West” referenced in the diary, noting that there was no Dr. West present at her trial. After connecting the dots, he goes to the office of Christian, whose last name is West.
Chapter 2
Theo accuses Christian of being the “Dr. West” referenced in Alicia’s diary. At first, Christian denies his involvement, but when Theo reveals that he has possession of Alicia’s diary, Christian acknowledges that he treated Alicia prior to the murder of Gabriel. Theo realizes that Christian has good motivation to conceal this, as he never declared the fees that he collected for these “under the table” therapy sessions. Christian insists that he only treated Alicia at the insistence of Gabriel, an old friend of his, who wanted to keep Alicia’s struggles with mental health private. Christian begs Theo not to expose his undeclared sessions with Alicia, which could cost him his job or even his professional license. Theo demands that Christian tell him everything that he knows about Alicia.
Chapter 3
Christian insists that he only met with Alicia a couple of times, first after her father’s death, and then during the events described in her journal entries. He dismisses her story of being stalked, characterizing her as paranoid and delusional and noting that she had made similar accusations during the mental health crisis that followed her father’s death. At that time, she accused an elderly man who lived across the street of stalking her, though the man was blind and innocent of any wrongdoing. Further, he regards her previous suicide attempt as nothing but a ploy for attention. Against Theo’s protests, Christian maintains that Alicia is both mentally ill and untreatable.
Chapter 4
Later, Theo convinces Yuri to arrange a private conversation with Alicia, against the direct orders of Diomedes. Theo meets with Alicia in the art therapy room, but to his surprise, she largely ignores him as he explains what he learned from Christian. He is disappointed by her ongoing silence, but he nevertheless promises her that he is on her side.
Chapter 5
At home, Theo catches Kathy as she is preparing to leave the house for a walk. Suspicious, Theo offers to accompany her, but Kathy turns down his offer, insisting that she needs to memorize some lengthy speeches for a play. Unobserved, he follows her to the park where she meets a man, and the two kiss. Theo follows them into the woods and watches them as they have sex. As he thinks about the various ways in which he could murder the man, Kathy climaxes loudly, and the two scamper out of the woods. Afterward, a furious Theo walks around the park in circles.
Chapter 6
Theo returns to Jean-Felix’s gallery and looks closely at the Alcestis painting. He feels frustrated by his continued inability to interpret the painting, but he does notice a man in the background of the painting for the first time, which he assumes is a representation of Alicia’s stalker. Jean-Felix is surprised, but not especially pleased, to see Theo in the gallery. Confronting Jean-Felix about the discrepancies between his account and Alicia’s diary, Theo notes that the gallery owner has benefited from Alicia’s silence, continuing to display her works despite her stated intention to find a new gallery to represent her. After provoking Jean-Felix, Theo calls Max and informs him that he has Alicia’s journal. Max curses at Theo and hangs up the phone.
Analysis
Theo learns a good deal about Alicia from her final diary entries, which reveal significant discrepancies between her account and those of her friends and family. Christian has concealed his “off the record” therapy sessions with Alicia in order to profit from undeclared, and therefore untaxed, income. Jean-Felix has not told anyone about Alicia’s stated intention to find a new gallery to represent her work, continuing to profit from her art while she remains at The Grove and declining to visit her there. Paul lies to Theo about the significant sum of money that he has borrowed from Alicia. All these characters have benefited financially from Alicia’s silence, and all of them have strong motivation to keep her from speaking, deepening the mystery at the core of the novel.
Her diary entries also reveal that before she stopped speaking, her words were often dismissed or ignored. Gabriel does not take Alicia’s reports of being stalked seriously, pressuring her to see a therapist and hounding her to take the prescribed medication. By reminding Alicia of her own previous struggles with mental health, Gabriel is able to exert a sense of control over Alicia, even choosing Christian, an old friend of his, as her therapist. Christian works in tandem with Gabriel, insinuating that Alicia is insane and that her delusions have pushed the limits of her husband’s tolerance. Together, they make Alicia doubt her own senses, though she maintains some sense of independence by refusing the medication.
At this point in the story, it is still unclear whether Alicia is in fact being stalked, though her suspicions will later be confirmed. As Christian notes, Alicia experienced heightened paranoia as a symptom of a previous mental health crisis, even making false accusations of stalking against an innocent man. Still, Gabriel’s manipulative tactics suggest that he desires to exert a strong sense of control over his wife. Her other friends are more interested in talking than listening to her. She says little while getting drinks with Jean-Felix, who is happy to fill the silence, and Barbie similarly uses Alicia as an audience as she talks about herself.
After reading her diary, Theo at first feels that she is now an open book to him. And yet, he is still not satisfied, racing to the end as if he were reading a thriller rather than the notes of a patient, and feeling frustrated with the cliffhanger ending. He still wants to know even more about Alicia, and he uses the revelations of her diary to pressure her friends and family into answering even more of his questions. In his interrogation of Christian, he hypocritically chastises his colleague for unprofessional behavior despite his own persistent flouting of professional boundaries. Further, his annoyance at any suggestion that someone else knows something about Alicia that he does not reflects the increasingly possessive attitude towards his patient. This possessive tendency is also seen in his trailing of Kathy and the voyeuristic pleasure he takes in watching her cheat on him.
