When the Stars Go Dark

During Anna’s ongoing investigation of Cameron Curtis’s disappearance, she receives a police bulletin that contains details about a similar abduction about two hours south in the town of Petaluma. A 12-year-old girl named Polly Klaas had been abducted at knifepoint during a sleepover at a neighbor’s house. The girl was still missing, and the abductor still at large. Sensitive to the possibility that Cameron’s disappearance might be linked to this case, Anna and Will head to Petaluma to investigate. As the details of the abduction sink in, Anna begins to feel the agony and panic of the young girl, her “Friday night sleepover suddenly torn like a pink paper heart” (73). In Petaluma, Anna and Will are greeted by lead detectives. They are given access to witness testimony. They pore over the FBI profile of the abductor. Although Anna is impressed by the community’s effort to locate the missing girl—and she believes Mendocino needs to do something similar to raise awareness—in the end Anna intuits (rightly) that the two cases are not linked, that the 12-year-old’s disappearance does not fit the pattern of Cameron’s disappearance.

In the case of a missing teen, any similar events within a reasonable distance might prove a valuable connection.