Gone-Girl-by-Gillian-Flynn

‘When I first saw them, I thought: She bought children’s toys. Mom, dad,
baby. Because she was pregnant.’
‘Is she even pregnant?’
A sense of despair washed over me. Or rather, the opposite. Not a wave
coming in, rolling over me, but the ebb of the sea returning: a sense of
something pulling away, and me with it. I could no longer hope my wife was
pregnant, but I couldn’t bring myself to hope she wasn’t either.
Go pulled out the male doll, scrunched her nose, then lightbulb popped.
‘You’re a puppet on a string.’
I laughed. ‘I literally thought those exact words too. But why a male and
female? Amy clearly isn’t a puppet on a string, she’s the puppetmaster.’
‘And what’s: That’s the way to do it? To do what?’
‘Fuck me for life?’
‘It’s not a phrase Amy used to say? Or some quote from the Amy books,
or …’ She hurried over to her computer and searched for That’s the way to do
it. Up came lyrics for ‘That’s the Way to Do It’ by Madness. ‘Oh, I remember
them,’ Go said. ‘Awesome ska band.’
‘Ska,’ I said, swerving toward delirious laughter. ‘Great.’
The lyrics were about a handyman who could do many types of homeimprovement
jobs – including electrical and plumbing – and who preferred to
be paid in cash.
‘God, I fucking hate the eighties,’ I said. ‘No lyrics ever made sense.’
‘“The reflex is an only child,”’ Go said, nodding.
‘“He’s waiting by the park,”’ I muttered back automatically.
‘So if this is it, what does it mean?’ Go said, turning to me, studying my
eyes. ‘It’s a song about a handyman. Someone who might have access to your
house, to fix things. Or rig things. Who would be paid in cash so there’s no
record.’
‘Someone who installed video cameras?’ I asked. ‘Amy went out of town
a few times during the – the affair. Maybe she thought she’d catch us on tape.’
Go shot a question at me.
‘No, never, never at our house.’
‘Could it be some secret door?’ Go suggested. ‘Some secret false panel