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68 pages 2 hours read

Not a Happy Family

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

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Chapters 13-25Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 13 Summary

Jenna is on her way from the city to Dan’s house. She reflects on her parents’ murders—grisly, yes, but in many ways, they are all better off. Their father sabotaged Dan’s every ambition; mocked Catherine’s yearning to be a mother; and downplayed her own talents as a sculptor. She’s glad their father is dead and certain her siblings feel the same; she is ambivalent about their mother, who was very withdrawn. Jenna is also pleased about the inheritance: “It’s a lot of money, and it’s theirs now” (73).

When she arrives, her brother and sister are already there with her aunt, Audrey, all of them looking anxious. Catherine drops the “little bombshell” (76): Audrey has told her that Fred changed the will shortly before he died.

Audrey explains that a little over a week ago, Fred told her he planned to give her half of his estate, and how the rest, nearly $13 million, would have to be split among his three children. The children are in shock and refuse to believe her; Audrey thinks about how greedy they are.

Catherine rallies her brother and sister. She is the estate’s executor, and she will fight this change, although she worries over how a public fight over the will might look so soon after their parents’ murders. As she looks at her brother and sister, she cannot help but wonder whether one of them killed their parents.

Chapter 14 Summary

Detectives Reyes and Barr expand their investigation to the Mertons’ neighbors. They find a neighbor who noticed a pickup truck with flame decals parked near the Merton home late Easter night, sometime after ten o’clock. Another, out walking the dog, noticed Jenna’s distinctive Mini Cooper drive by “just after eight o’clock” (81).

Catherine and Jenna, for their part, coolly debate whether their father actually changed the will. Jenna reasons that had he done it, he would have relished telling them at Easter dinner just to watch their expressions: “He would have enjoyed it” (82). Catherine prudently suggests that Jenna keep such opinions about their father quiet—the police already suspected the killings were not a robbery. The two sisters leave to arrange for the funeral.

Chapter 15 Summary

Audrey leaves and goes to her friend’s house. Catherine and Jenna depart, too. After they’re gone, Lisa notices Dan looking at her with an “odd expression” (85). She worries about her husband. Since his father sold the company, Dan has been shaky and depressed. Now he just looks “empty” (86). It scares her. He admits that he keeps imagining his parents’ deaths, and Lisa tries to reassure him. She mentions the inheritance, and Dan frets over the possibility that their father did change the will—that the windfall he was expecting would be drastically cut. Lisa suddenly has a grim thought: The night of the murders, Dan went out for a drive, and she really has no idea where he went.

Chapter 16 Summary

Catherine knows she needs to talk to her husband. She tells Ted that she lied to the police, that she had not told them she drove back to her parents’ house after dinner on Easter. She tells Ted he needs to lie for her—Irena told her that the police were already beginning to suspect it was one of the children. Ted thinks of Dan, and Catherine says her siblings can’t know the truth: “I don’t trust them” (91).

Audrey shares the news of her windfall inheritance with her friend Ellen Cutter. Ellen, who at one time years ago worked for Fred Merton, wonders whether Rose, her daughter, knows about the murders. She phones her.

The detectives, meanwhile, focus on finding the bloody clothes the killer, or killers, must have worn. They begin to search the backyard for disturbed sites that might indicate a hasty dig but find nothing.

Chapter 17 Summary

The detectives begin to interview each of the siblings. They head to Dan’s house first and find Jenna there. They ask routine questions about whether their parents had enemies. Reyes observes them carefully. He mentions Sheila’s antianxiety medication; both siblings seem surprised. He also notices that Jenna lies, claiming she left the house around seven o’clock. Detective Barr asks about Easter dinner, but both siblings claim the dinner was nothing out of the ordinary.

Irena, anticipating that the detectives will come looking for her, broods over her worst fear: that one of the Merton children she practically raised had done this heinous crime. She knows the children will be suspects and hopes that they are smart enough to keep the truth about their “dysfunctional household” quiet (97). She thinks about how she tried her best to raise the kids well, “[a]nd now she has interfered with a murder scene” (97).

When the detectives depart, Dan confides in Jenna the extent of his money problems: how he lost his job, lost his hopes of running their father’s business, and then made a very risky investment that tied up he and Lisa’s remaining money. He panics, thinking the detectives will suspect him, and apologizes to Lisa and Jenna.

Chapter 18 Summary

The police hold a press conference about the murders. They keep the information general. Audrey, watching the press conference, listens as an investigative reporter questions the rumors about the gruesome nature of the killings. Audrey then heads to her lawyer’s office to confirm the changes in her brother’s will. The lawyer tells her that Fred intended to change the will but had not. Her hope for financial independence is gone “just like that” (102). She is certain that Sheila must have told one of the children about Fred’s intentions on Easter night—but which one?

The coroner confirms the detectives’ suspicions: Sheila was strangled by an electrical cord, and Fred had his throat slit and then was stabbed multiple times. The murderer must have had the cord with them, but the cleaned knife from the kitchen was the other murder weapon.

Chapter 19 Summary

Detectives interview the Merton family attorney, Walter Temple, who confirms the size of the Merton estate—$26 million—and that the bulk of the money would be divided among Fred’s children. Audrey is set to receive $1 million, as is Irena. Walter reveals a surprise: Fred named four, not three, children in his will. Fred had identified Rose Cutter, an attorney and daughter of a woman who once worked for the Merton home, as his fourth child. Walter anticipates this news will be “a rather unpleasant surprise to the legitimate children” (108). He also mentions Audrey’s insistence about Fred changing his will to give her half; Fred had indeed scheduled an appointment with the lawyer via his secretary, but they will “never know for sure” what he wanted (109).

Chapter 20 Summary

The detectives meet with Walter’s wife, Caroline. She tells them that she and Sheila were friends, but not close. She disliked Fred from all she’d heard about him: “He had a mean streak” (111). Sheila had told her about her antianxiety medicine, but hadn’t said why she was taking it. She also mentions that Sheila told her the will “wasn’t going to be what [the kids] expected” (111), and that they would be upset. Caroline tells the detectives that Fred and his children never got along, that Fred “seemed to enjoy mistreating them,” and that she’s “pretty sure Fred Merton was a psychopath” (112).

Ted does not go into the office. He is fretting over the lies his wife is going to make him tell the police. Jenna arrives, and Jenna, Ted, and Catherine talk about the obvious: The police are beginning to suspect the children, and the most likely killer is Dan. Jenna asks Catherine if she thinks Dan could have done it; Catherine isn’t sure. Catherine tells Jenna not to tell the police about their father’s bombshell announcement on Easter, and Jenna assures her she did not. Jenna also says she talked to Walter and confirmed that Fred’s will was not changed.

Chapter 21 Summary

Jenna orders the flowers for the funeral but notices her Aunt Audrey parked outside the flower shop. She suspects Audrey might be following her—angry about her loss of wealth—and waves.

The detectives ponder what they know about the Merton children as they attempt to define a motive. Dan is unemployed and his credit cards are maxed out. Jenna is living on an allowance her father provided, which could have been cut off without warning. They know blood tracks in the kitchen indicated that someone, most likely the housekeeper Irena, cleaned off the knife and returned it to the kitchen. But why? They decide to talk to Irena again.

Jenna stops by Irena’s house as Irena is on her way to the police station to answer questions. Jenna pushes the idea that the killings were a robbery gone bad, but Irena says the killings were too brutal, and besides, Sheila had let the killer in. Jenna drops a suggestion: “Catherine and I are worried about Dan” (118).

Chapter 22 Summary

Lisa confronts Dan with her suspicions about where he went Easter night after the dinner party. He says only that he went for a drive to calm himself and that he does not remember where he went. Lisa suggests they get their story “straight” (120), and that she will back him up if he says he was home all night. He did not kill them, she is sure, and once this is behind them, they will get all that money.

Audrey fumes as she waits outside the police station for Irena to arrive. Jenna seemed so confident outside the florist shop. Audrey is determined to conduct her own investigation to figure out which of the Merton children killed her brother. She is bitter because of the money. Whoever killed her brother “screwed her out of millions” (121). She knows the siblings won’t tell her the truth, so she will find out on her own.

The detectives ask Irena about her relationship to the Mertons; she admits she was closer to the children than the parents. Detective Reyes brings up Dan and Fred’s “falling out” over the family business, but Irena insists it wasn’t serious. She also claims the girls got along with Sheila and Fred. Finally, Detective Reyes tells her that forensic evidence confirms that Irena must have picked up the murder weapon, cleaned it off, and returned it to the kitchen.

Chapter 23 Summary

Irena denies tampering with the knife, even when the detectives suggest she is protecting one of the Merton siblings. She then claims she washed and put the knife back out of “habit” because she was in shock. Reyes mentions the killer wore gloves, so her alleged efforts were pointless. The detectives get her fingerprints before she leaves.

Irena departs and heads straight to Catherine’s. Jenna is still there. Irena confesses she cleaned the knife. The sisters understand the implication: Irena believes one of the kids killed their parents. Jenna asks her who she thinks did it, but Irena only apologizes.

Outside the police station, Audrey sees Dan’s car pull up. The detectives try to rattle Dan by telling him they know about how Fred hurt him by selling the family company, Merton Robotics. Dan admits to being unhappy, but continuously swears he didn’t murder his parents. He begins to panic: “Do I need to get a lawyer?” (130). Before he storms out, the detectives get his fingerprints.

Chapter 24 Summary

Lisa is worried over the optics of Dan bolting from the police. He tells Lisa not to tell the police that he went out Easter night after the dinner party. He’s certain Catherine will get him a good lawyer because “she won’t want the precious family name dragged through the mud” (131-32).

Dan drives to Catherine’s and joins Jenna and Irena. Irena tells him what the police suspect: that money was the motive, and that Dan seemed the most logical suspect.

It is Catherine’s turn to go to the police station. Catherine assures the detectives that her parents were proud of her, disappointed in Dan, and shocked by Jenna’s art and by her determination to be an avant-garde sculptor who makes “obscene” things. But, on the whole, she says, “they were a perfectly ordinary family” (124). The detectives press her about Irena, and Catherine says Irena confessed her interference to them. She stresses that none of the children killed their parents. As she leaves, she notices Audrey, who is still staking out the station.

Chapter 25 Summary

Rose Cutter drives to Catherine’s house, but Ted tells her this is not a good time. Catherine comes to hug her. The two had been close friends since high school despite the differences in their social and economic status and their circle of friends. Secretly, Rose is jealous of her friend’s advantages. She knows how dysfunctional the Mertons were—but they were rich. Rose knows the siblings “must not find out what she’s done” (158).

Jenna, during her police interrogation, tries to appear nonchalant when the detectives tell her that a neighbor spotted her car leaving about an hour after her other siblings. After she is fingerprinted and leaves, the detectives decide to check the siblings’ alibis.

Audrey sees Lisa arrive at the police station. With the detectives, Lisa holds up her end of the lie: The dinner, she says, was ordinary, and she and Dan went home and stayed there all night. Then Ted, in turn, lies to the police and assures them he and Catherine returned home Easter night and stayed there all night. After he leaves, Audrey decides to leave, too; police are looking for evidence around “the river near Brecken Hill” (142).

Chapters 13-25 Analysis

These critical chapters set in motion a contrapuntal narrative: two energies operating under different assumptions working against each other in an unsettling dynamic. Chapters alternate between scenes with the Merton children—in which they plot new and more elaborate lies—and scenes with the detectives, who move with due diligence and professionalism to try to uncover the truth. The more the Mertons invent, the more the detectives pursue. That rhythm involves the reader in the effort to solve the mystery, as only the reader sees all sides of the story.

Two important developments in these chapters center on The Dark Pull of Greed. First, there is the revelation from Audrey, Fred’s sister, that her brother changed the will shortly before he died. Later, it is revealed that Audrey is not entirely surprised by the news because she reasoned years ago that her brother owed her big for keeping the secret of how Fred murdered their father. But the news shakes each of the Merton children, far more than their parents’ murder. Then, the news gets flipped, and it is Audrey who must handle the rage and disappointment of being denied what she thinks is her rightful share of the inheritance. All of those involved with the Merton inheritance are so fixated on greed that when Detective Reyes welcomes Dan in for his interview by saying “I’m so sorry about your loss” (94), Dan initially thinks he is talking about the inheritance. Each of the Merton children feel their siblings and Aunt Audrey are incredibly greedy, and Audrey feels the same about them.

The second jolt in these chapters is the news that Fred had a fourth child, Catherine’s friend Rose Cutter. This revelation suggests again the toxic impact of Secrets and Lies. Rose is also set up as a suspicious figure: Catherine has clearly never suspected how jealous Rose is of her wealth and status. She also alludes to something she has done that must be kept secret. Later, it is revealed that she is the one who ruined Dan financially, as she convinced him to commit nearly half a million dollars in a fraudulent investment scheme. Walter, the family lawyer, does not relish telling the Merton siblings that their inheritance will be split four ways instead of three, as he understands The Pull of Greed.

Amid this toxic environment, Audrey begins to emerge as another agent of truth. This sets her up as an ironic foil against Reyes and Barr. The detectives pursue the truth because it is their duty, while Audrey acts purely from The Pull of Greed. Once she understands the will was never changed, her persistence in dogging her nieces and nephew reveals not so much her determination to find her brother’s killer but the corrosive impact of greed. She wants her money. Whoever slaughtered her brother and her sister-in-law, whichever one of the Merton kids killed them, cost her millions—and for that they will pay.

These chapters close with Audrey heading to the Hudson River to do some detective work of her own. The Merton siblings are crafty and suspicious, and their spouses—and Irena—are all dedicated to clearing the detectives’ suspicions. All of them are in sync, working against the detectives. Audrey, however, is a loose cannon. She is not bound to legality like the detectives are. She also has access to the family secrets, knowledge that the detectives are routinely denied. Thus, although she has been shut out of the family and the will, she has the best chance of finding the truth.

Lastly, these chapters further examine The Dysfunction of Wealthy Families. The siblings explicitly state that they do not trust each other. While they are all somewhat on the same page—they agree the detectives cannot know about their issues with Fred and they all want to protect Irena—but they are suspicious of each other as well. They work together to exclude Audrey, but they lie to each other, too. Walter’s wife provides another piece of the Merton family puzzle; the idea that Fred was “mean” and “a psychopath.” This hints toward violence and sadism within the family, further complicating the murderer’s possible motive. As the story progresses, more secrets will be uncovered, and the extent of the family’s dysfunction will be revealed.

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