69 pages • 2 hours read
Two Can Keep a Secret
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Chapters 25-27Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 25 Summary: “Ellery—Friday, October 4”
Ellery heads to the House of Horrors in the early afternoon to get to the bottom of Brooke’s lockpicking attempt. She makes up a lie about accidentally putting cash in the recycling bin, but her co-worker doesn’t have the key, so she’s forced to try and pick the lock herself. She succeeds and takes the contents of the recycling bin to Mia’s to sort through. Malcolm reveals that the police want to see his phone; there’s nothing incriminating on it about Brooke, but he’s worried that the texts with his brother will face undue scrutiny, as the local newspaper has continued to speculate about Declan’s involvement.
The night before, Ellery made a timeline of events for both Sarah’s disappearance and Lacey’s murder. When Ezra saw it, he pointed out that Sadie was in Echo Ridge for their grandfather’s funeral roughly nine months before the twins were born. This revelation troubles Ellery, as the story Sadie tells of their birth father always seemed sketchy.
This is what she’s thinking about when they find a bill for car repairs. The car listed is Katrin’s BMW, and though there’s a fake name listed, the contact number is Brooke’s cell phone. The repairs listed indicate an accident, and the car was brought in the day after Mr. Bowman’s death. It’s clear to Ellery that Katrin and Brooke were involved in the hit-and-run somehow.
Chapter 26 Summary: “Malcolm—Saturday, October 5”
On homecoming night, Malcolm watches Katrin with suspicion as she leaves with her date and friends. He doesn’t want to go to the dance himself, but he texts Ellery, and she agrees to come over and watch a movie. When Ellery arrives, Peter mentions that he knew Sadie and even dated her, but he thinks he “bored her to tears” (218). Malcolm’s parents leave them alone, and they talk about their parents and future. The two move to the couch and watch television; notably, Malcolm puts on The Defender, the movie that Sadie appeared in. Their conversation naturally turns to Brooke and what they found. The two don’t know if they can trust the police with the receipt, especially since it might cast more suspicion on Malcolm. Ellery admits that her obsession with true crime is born out of her desire to understand Sarah’s disappearance, which she knows is unhealthy. Malcolm talks about his own hang-ups from his family history and admits he’s attracted to her.
They finally kiss, but they are interrupted by Malcolm’s mother before long. Ellery says it’s probably good that they were interrupted, as she wants to tell Malcolm her theory: that Katrin is behind everything. Ellery thinks that Katrin hit Mr. Bowman, had Brooke help her cover it up, and then started the vandalism both as a distraction and to cast herself in a sympathetic light. If Brooke was feeling remorse, Katrin may have done something awful to keep her quiet. Malcolm thinks the theory might be true but balks at the idea of Katrin going as far as making Brooke disappear. The two realize that if Katrin is behind all of this, homecoming would be the perfect time to continue the vandalism. In the name of solving a mystery, the matter is settled: Ellery and Malcolm are going to homecoming.
Chapter 27 Summary: “Ellery—Saturday, October 5”
Ellery has to convince her Nana that homecoming will be safe, which also means nervously confronting questions about her feelings for Malcolm. Nana relents, but only if Ellery agrees to get a ride home with Daisy, who is chaperoning and agreed to bring Ezra home as well.
When they arrive at the dance, they’re confronted by Liz McNulty—the woman Declan broke up with years ago to date Lacey. She tries to keep them from getting in until Daisy intervenes. Once they’re away from Liz, Daisy asks Ellery about the bracelet: Why did she think Officer Rodriguez gave it to Lacey? Ellery recalls the story she heard from her mother about Officer Rodriguez being so upset at the funeral. Daisy says that’s not what happened, leading Ellery to question her mother’s motivations.
Ellery rejoins Malcolm, and they scan the room. Seeing that nothing bad is happening with Katrin at the moment, they decide to dance, a decision they both chalk up to the need to blend in. Malcolm brings up the small clown museum in town, which he thinks is “funny and sort of interesting” (240), before inviting her to come see it with him. She agrees, but she’s not sure if he means it as a date or not. While they’re dancing, they lose sight of Katrin. They spot her leaving the gym. They follow her out to the Echo Ridge High sign, and Ellery begins to take a video in case Katrin does anything suspicious, but the only thing Katrin does is throw up in the grass.
Chapters 25-27 Analysis
Two plot arcs come to a head in these chapters: The reader learns that Brooke and Katrin (or at least her car) were somehow involved in Mr. Bowman’s death, and Malcolm and Ellery finally kiss. The push and pull of these two storylines is used to amplify the tension in each; each time Ellery and Malcolm have a romantic moment, an interruption brings them back to the case, but it’s homecoming night, and they get caught up in their attraction to each other despite not being the type of kids to get excited about a dance. Ellery and Malcolm are part of a long line of fictional teenagers who are too cool for homecoming but find themselves in a situation that allows them to realize that typical high school experiences can be meaningful.
There are hints in these chapters that will pay off down the line—notably Ellery and Ezra’s discussion of the timeline of their mother’s visit to Echo Ridge—but the immediate concern for the protagonists is Katrin. In thinking about Katrin, Malcolm realizes she isn’t really close to her mother, and he also realizes that he doesn’t know her as well as he thinks he does. By the end of the novel, a clear picture of Katrin’s involvement doesn’t quite emerge; whether she is a victim of her father’s controlling nature or complicit in his crimes is, in some ways, a matter of perspective. At this point in the story, she knows that Peter is involved in Brooke’s disappearance, which may explain why Brooke became so drunk at homecoming, but Malcolm and Ellery’s belief that she is behind everything is far off the mark: She likely didn’t even know her car needed to be repaired, and her aborted attempt at vandalism (and later successful attempt) is another red herring, rooted in her belief that whatever her father did, she has no one else and needs to protect him. Katrin is a complex portrait of complicity and victimhood, and her treatment in the novel drives home an important juxtaposition between the drama of high school and the more harrowing, impactful drama that lurks underneath.
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