The Life We Bury

Joe wakes up from a nightmare the next morning to Lila knocking on his door. She has read Crystal’s diary and made some notable discoveries. Crystal called Carl “the pervo next door” and “Creepy Carl” in her diary. Seven entries are coded using numbers instead of letters. Crystal starts using the code after something bad (she doesn’t specify what) happens. John Peterson, Carl’s lawyer, sent the code to the Department of Defense to see if they could crack it, but they never responded.

The diary entries seem to verify the prosecution’s argument that Crystal was being blackmailed by Carl after he saw her fooling around with Andy. On September 22, just two weeks before her murder, she writes, “If they find out, it’ll destroy me. They will send me to Catholic school. Goodbye cheerleading, goodbye life” (109). Lila also flags an excerpt from the trial transcripts—a testimony from Mrs. Tate, the school guidance counselor. On the same day Crystal was killed, she went to Mrs. Tate to ask if nonconsensual oral sex could be considered rape and if it would make a difference if the man was older.