Dark Places Chapter 3 Summary

How It All Goes Down

Libby Day—Now

  • Libby gathers some items to sell at the Kill Club, like a letter her sister Michelle wrote to her before the murder, and she heads to the building where they club is meeting.
  • The convention is in the basement, and Libby meets Lyle at the "Talk About a Bad Day!" booth (3.40). Ugh, people, really?
  • Libby demands her money first, which Lyle gives her. Then he shows her around.
  • Some of the people here are gross role-players, and others are fascinated by true crime cases, like Laci Peterson, Lizzie Borden, and a guy who "is like a Kevorkian for people who have bad credit and good life insurance. They call him the Angel of Debt" (3.81).
  • Libby almost attacks a guy who pretends to be a murderer, so Lyle takes her back to her very own booth for the "Satan Farmhouse Massacre" (3.76).
  • Most of the people in the group are women, and most of them believe that Libby's brother, Ben, is innocent.
  • One man runs down the facts of the case, with a super annoying way of saying "fact" before every fact—Michelle Day, 10, was strangled; Debby Day, 9, was killed by axe; and mother Patty Day was killed by shotgun, axe wounds, and a knife. Yikes. Did they not have a nuclear bomb on hand, too?
  • That man believes Libby's father, Runner, did it.
  • It seems there was a large footprint in the house, never identified.
  • Magda, a woman trying to exonerate Libby's brother, steps out and talks about how wonderful Ben is. She's been visiting him in prison.
  • Tired of everyone acting like Ben is a saint, Libby flips them off and leaves.
  • Libby has bad dreams that night and can't get all this stuff out of her head. She heard everyone getting murdered, so she ran and hid in a field.
  • Libby's brother, Ben, followed, calling her name, saying, "Stay where you are, sweetheart!" (3.159). But he didn't find her.
  • Libby later went back in the house, where everyone had been murdered, and called her Aunt Diane, who called the cops.
  • Waking up, Libby decides that she will work with the Kill Club enthusiasts, if only to make money. She figures she can make thousands if she agrees to talk to people who are suspects in the case.