Joe drives to Little Compton in Mr. Mooney’s old Buick. His vision is blurry, and his face is covered in wounds from Curtis’s attack. Most of Little Compton is closed in the winter. Animals walk across the road, and Joe crashes his car into a deer near Peach’s beach house. Leaving his car, he crawls back to the road and limps in a “zombie sidestep” (171) toward the house, where he hears Peach and Beck and smells marijuana and a log fire. Watching Beck through a window, Joe realizes that he does not have a plan. He breaks into a neighbor’s boathouse and falls asleep under a tarp.

Joe is woken by a police officer shining a flashlight in his face. Noticing Joe’s wounds and reading the name Spencer Hewitt on the hat Joe stole from Benji’s storage locker, the police officer takes pity on Joe and drives him to the nearest hospital where Joe sees a doctor. He is given painkillers, and the police officer starts asking awkward questions. Joe feigns tears, claiming that his mother recently died. The questions stop, the doctor stitches up Joe’s facial wounds, and then the police officer drives Joe to the station.