Chapter 3

The narrative reframes the summer of 1981 with the growing specter of a serial killer later dubbed the Trawler. Disappearances and murders from 1980–81 (Katherine Latchford, Sarah Johnson, and soon Julie Selwyn) are linked by staged scenes, taunting calls, vanishing neighborhood pets, and preparatory break-ins. Early home invasions show an attacker who sometimes wept, then grew bolder after the first murder.

Investigators and leaks hint at ritualized mutilations and a methodical process: phone calls from pay phones, rehearsal entries into homes, rearranged rooms, and pets sacrificed in threes. By late 1981 the press will name the Trawler, but during this period the city remains in rumor and dread.

Against this backdrop, Bret describes his distance from his parents, alone in the Mulholland house while they travel. On Labor Day 1981 he manages chores and debates calling Ryan before driving to Encino to see Matt Kellner, the beautiful, detached stoner with whom Bret has maintained a purely sexual, secret arrangement since 1980.

At Matt’s pool house, Bret pushes for a final intense encounter while sensing something off. Afterward he realizes the room’s usual aquarium hum is gone: the tank is filled with water and lights but empty, the filter off; Matt’s cat, Alex, is also missing. Matt is indifferent and distracted, and Bret proposes they stay just friends, recognizing the connection has run its course.

Driving aimlessly, Bret stops outside Buckley. He spots a lone flashlight methodically scanning the library courtyard, then abruptly shutting off. Moments later the beam snaps on directly at his windshield from behind the gate, alarming Bret into fleeing.

Back home, wired and fearful, Bret activates alarms, tends to Shingy, and tries to read himself to sleep with Valium. The missing pets, the flashlight, and the Trawler rumors coalesce into a palpable sense of menace. Bret ends the night anticipating the first day of school and the arrival of the new boy, Robert Mallory.