The Body in the Woods: A Point Last Seen Mystery

“‘Oh, good, you found my notebook.’ They turned. A white-haired man with silver-framed glasses and a full white beard hurried toward them. Take away his cargo pants, binoculars, and camera, and add a red hat and suit and another fifty pounds, and he’d make a pretty good Santa Claus. Alexis put the notebook into his outstretched hand.”

The first time the characters and readers meet serial killer Caleb Becker, they immediately dismiss him as a harmless old man. His white hair and beard recall Santa Claus, molding him into a cheery, innocent archetype and giving the sense that Alexis and Ruby are safe around him. Completing the deception is his birding gear, which successfully fools the teens into thinking he is a nerdy bird aficionado.

“Nick had joined SAR to prove himself. People at school saw a skinny kid who couldn’t sit still, a kid who couldn’t stop talking, a kid who didn’t fit in anyplace, but Nick knew that, just like his dad, he was capable of unimaginable feats of bravery.”

Nick is acutely aware of how other characters see him. He knows he is distracted, often doodling or jumping around to entertain himself. Because of this behavior, which stems from his ADHD, Nick wants to grow more serious. He aspires to be like his father, and to be able to find strength and bravery if given the opportunity. His closest chance at that is by succeeding in SAR.

“Clothing colors, shoe size, medical conditions—all things that were vital to search and rescue personnel, and all of them likely to be muddled, confused by the very people who were so anxious that you find their missing loved ones.”

Alexis, Nick, and Ruby learn in their SAR class that witnesses often become confused when asked for detailed information in traumatic or suspenseful situations. This will become relevant when Detective Harriman interviews Ruby about finding Miranda Wyatt’s body—unlike most people, Ruby hangs on to the details she’s observed because of her neuroatypical condition.

“Not only were northern spotted owls nocturnal, but they were also endangered. Just one of the thousands of species at risk of going extinct, thanks mostly to human beings ruining the world.”

Ruby is very knowledgeable about climate change and the environment. Her interest in endangered species parallels Becker’s obsessive birding hobby, though she uses her focus for good whereas he transforms his into evil predation on unhoused girls in and around Portland. This detail characterizes Ruby as a researcher, and foreshadows Becker’s use of the northern spotted owl to try to lure her to her death later in the novel.

“What was the point of doing anything at all if in the end you were just dead?”

Alexis and Nick feel hopeless after the discovery of Miranda Wyatt’s body. Alexis and Nick are both worried in ways Ruby can’t understand. Ruby is secure that her future lies in emergency medicine due to her privileged upbringing as the daughter of doctor parents who will open many doors, even despite her autism spectrum disorder. Nick and Alexis, on the other hand, are concerned about life after high school: Alexis knows she will have trouble affording college, while Nick worries his strength or bravery won’t be enough to live up to his father’s legacy in the army. Feeling overwhelmed, Alexis wonders why even try.

“His hands held the power of life and death. Of breath and stillness. Of thought and nothingness. The world didn’t really want him.”

As Becker sits in his car and watches the police congregate at Forest Park, his point of view shows that he is ruthless, narcissistic, and sociopathic—he sees himself as a godlike being with the power to take life away. His ego and belief that he is in control allow Ruby to notice the patterns and clues he leaves behind from each killing.

“Ruby felt 100 percent alive. Usually at home or school she was playing a role. She observed the people around her, studied their behaviors, and used that knowledge to create a character, like Quiet Chick or Smart Girl, that would allow her to blend in. But tonight she was in her element.”

Ruby’s mild autism spectrum disorder often makes her feel that she has to play a role to interact with others in a way they understand: With her parents, she acts the part of a depressed daughter when she doesn’t get her way; with Alexis, she does her best to play the supportive best friend.

“That’s called a continuity error. It happens a lot when they show the same scene from a different perspective. They forget that the character was supposed to have just been out in the rain or that someone was wearing a scarf.”

The concept of a continuity error is important because it shows Ruby’s ability to remember details with near-photographic memory. It is in this scene that Detective Harriman realizes how much of an asset Ruby is to the case.

“‘Locard figured out that when there is contact between two items, there will always be an exchange. Like walking on a carpet—some of the dirt on the shoes gets left on the carpet, and some of the fibers on the carpet get picked up by the shoes. That’s what makes crime scene evidence.’ She loved Locard’s exchange principle because it felt so balanced. So logical.”

Ruby shows Detective Harriman how knowledgeable she is about investigations—one of her autism spectrum disorder-related obsessive interests is true crime because it allows her to imagine solving what to her seem like logic puzzles. The shoeprint Becker leaves behind is an example of Locard’s theory.

“‘At least don’t go out alone at night. It’s not safe.’ The last few weeks, Alexis had tried to emphasize survival. Life and death.”

The theme of survival is used throughout the novel. Alexis is deeply concerned for her mother’s safety. Paradoxically, although one of the symptoms of her mother’s bipolar disorder is paranoid delusions, Tanya seems completely unaware of the real dangers outside their apartment.

“Their order had been based on irrational fears. She might be different from other kids, but being part of SAR was good for her. She was socializing with her peers, the way her parents always advocated. And because of the clues they were discovering, SAR might actually help catch a killer.”

Ruby has a very differing perspective from her parents. Her parents want to protect her from physical harm, but Ruby sees this as them basing their decisions on fear rather than logic. She believes they don’t understand how beneficial SAR has been for her emotional and psychological well-being.

“Ted Bundy used to put a fake cast on his arm and ask his victims to help him carry his books. Or organized serial killers will target people who willingly go with strangers, like prostitutes. They follow their own crimes in the media.”

Ruby tells Detective Harriman what she knows about serial killers: They always follow a pattern and are after fame. The detective initially dismisses this information as sensationalized, but by the end of the novel, the detective recognizes that Ruby had been right about details that he had gotten wrong, especially in the cases of DeShaundra Young and Miranda Wyatt.

“A lot of serial killers are sociopaths. They’re born without empathy. They don’t understand that other people have feelings, too. It’s like they’re born broken. Most of the time they try to fit in, but if you’ve got something they want, you’re about as important to them as the paper wrapper a hamburger comes in.”

As a neuroatypical person, Ruby has insight into the mind of a sociopath—her unemotional and logical approach can sometimes strike people as lacking empathy, although that isn’t at all the case. Unlike Becker, who cannot imagine that the young women he hunts are people like him, Ruby deeply wants to connect with others—she just has trouble doing so.

“Photo after photo of Miranda looking wasted, hanging out with people who looked sketch, in places that looked trashed, with broken furniture and tagged walls.”

Ruby can see Miranda Wyatt’s Facebook page because they have mutual friends. Ruby’s access characterizes her as someone who lives in a richer neighborhood; Miranda also comes from money and has been playing the role of an unhoused teen alongside other “oogles” to avoid her parents’ rules and school responsibilities.

“She had spent enough time waiting here to know that many of the people milling about under the shelters had no intention of riding the bus. Some were homeless. Some simply liked having a place to sit out of the rain. And panhandlers and proselytizers were drawn to a captive audience who didn’t want to walk away in case that was the moment the bus came.”

Alexis is a born observer with a keen eye for people’s intentions and motivations. She spends a lot of time at the bus mall since she doesn’t have a car; because of this, she has watched the kinds of people who congregate there, and is able to distinguish between those who seem threatening and those who are safe to talk to about her missing mother.

“Her phone was her life. She would rather skip a meal or even a whole day of eating if it meant she could keep paying for her phone. Her brother called her on that phone. Maybe sometimes he would say it was safe to come home.”

Tiffany Yee’s point of view is one of the novel’s windows into life on the street for unhoused teenagers. Tiffany has little of her own; this makes her phone even more precious—it is how she connect to jobs, her brother, and her case worker.

“Ruby was convinced she had found someone who would be her friend forever. Someone who could help her mix with normal people. Alexis had encouraged Ruby to tell stories, had merged her gracefully into other people’s conversations. Around Alexis, Ruby was no longer the weird girl hiding in the back of the room. Instead, Ruby had begun to turn into the part she was playing: Best Friend.”

The novel addresses a common misconception about people with autism spectrum disorder. Although Ruby struggles to read people, she is deeply caring. By the end of the novel, her friendship with Alexis has solidified as Ruby learns about Alexis’s own challenges and understands that she has to temper her natural curiosity since Alexis is a private and cautious person. When Ruby gives Alexis her French fries, Ruby shows she now understands that a gesture provides more support than words.

“Nick had been so excited that he had come here straight after school, long before Alexis arrived. She had only shown up a few minutes ago. With reddened eyes, she had talked about a homeless Hispanic girl she knew. A girl she now couldn’t find. Normally Nick would have loved to have her spilling her guts to him, but he knew they had to get into position. Five minutes ago, Nick had finally insisted they go to their hiding spots.”

When Alexis takes Ruby’s place during the scope-out mission for the running man, Ruby spends her time being grounded doing research. After she tells Alexis and Nick her theory that the killer is collecting girls of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, Alexis worries that her new friend Raina could be next.

“Alexis couldn’t speak. Instead she wrapped her arms around her mom so tight they both lost their balance and bumped into the counter. She pressed her nose against her mom’s neck.”

This is a moment of catharsis for Alexis. After nearly a week of wondering whether her mother is safe, alive, or dead, her mother is home and medicated. Her mother is much more aware of what’s going on while medicated and it’s the first time in the novel that Alexis has a real connection with Tanya, as she had been in a confused state during prior scenes.

“She sat down on the couch, put her head in her hands, and started to cry. Cry for all the girls and women they hadn’t saved. And a few tears for herself.”

This is Alexis’s breaking point. She has been tough, pushing her feelings down to keep moving forward. By allowing herself to grieve about everything she’s been through, she can start to come to terms with the traumatic experiences she’s undergone—just as Bran has been suggesting she do based on his trauma intervention training.

“‘No. I don’t think so.’ Ruby worked to make her words come out in the right order. ‘I really don’t want to go with you. I want to go back to my friends now.’”

Unlike the other girls Becker has targeted, who were isolated and thus all the more vulnerable, Ruby has friends that worry about her safety and the self-confidence to tell Becker no. One benefit of Ruby’s neuroatypical condition is that she is largely unconcerned about the possibility of being rude; in fact, her one attempt to go against this impulse goes wrong, when she drinks Becker’s hot cocoa despite the fact that the GHB makes it taste bad.

“Alexis’s mom cut out stories about them from the Oregonian and USA Today and pasted them into her scrapbooks. A few days later, Alexis, Nick, and Ruby had even been featured in People magazine. Each article was garbled in different ways. Even Alexis wasn’t exactly sure what the truth was. She had a feeling it would take months to untangle. And maybe it would never be straightened out.”

The novel offers a happy conclusion to the obstacles Alexis and her mother have been through. Her mother is home, safe, and proud of her daughter’s accomplishments. Tanya’s celebration of everything Alexis has achieved with the SAR team is incredibly validating for both of them.

“‘After all, you’re a hero,’ Bran said. ‘And everyone loves a hero.’”

Alexis refuses to see herself as a hero, but Bran argues that she is nothing short of that. Bran is flirting with Alexis in this scene, balancing his own hopes of having a relationship with her with trying not to take advantage of the fact that he is her trauma intervention counselor to force an unwanted intimacy.