Chapter 9 Summary

Dave decides not to call the police about Charlie and instead takes a shower before a nap. As Dave sleeps, he dreams about his father and crab fishing in the marsh. In the dream Dave and his father catch a fish that is not saleable, but Dave's father tells him not to worry because they can live off the fish meat for several days. After the day's fishing, Anne appears. While Dave is talking to her on the deck of his father's houseboat, he smells something bad. It turns out a large alligator was injured by a boat and crawled onto a sandbar to die. Dave's father instructs him to dig in the soft ground to bury the animal.

After his nap, Dave picks up Alafair and learns that someone was watching her with binoculars at the school that day. Dave speaks with...