The Girl Before

Jane takes advantage of Edward going away to work on the new “eco-town” in Cornwall (175), to continue her investigation into Emma’s death. Before Edward leaves, he cautions her that “Housekeeper is showing that you’ve been looking for information about Emma Matthews” (176). He asks Jane to promise to stop looking into it, and Jane agrees. Jane tries to “resist” the “mystery” (179) but decides instead to find Simon, who is the one person who can tell her more about Emma.

As Jane continues to try to get in touch with Simon, she speaks with the real estate agent, Mark, who leased One Folgate Street to Emma and Simon. Mark informs Jane that “the police asked [Mark] if [he’d] ever seen any evidence [Simon] could be violent toward” Emma (189). Later that day, Jane meets with Simon for coffee, and he talks about his relationship with Emma, including that he “worshipped the ground [she] walked on” (190). Then Simon explains that “a week before she died, she told me she’d made a terrible mistake […] [Edward] couldn’t stand her having any thoughts or independence of her own” (191). While Jane feels conflicted about this new information that seems to go against her impressions of Edward, she also feels “a wave of sympathy for Simon” (192) and understands how difficult it would have been for Simon to move on.