The Woman in the Window

Back at the inn in Vermont, Ed and Anna realize that Olivia has overheard the argument they had while standing next to the ice machine, where Anna has gone to pick up ice to chill a bottle of wine. They find her in tears in the lobby of the inn, where the receptionist witnesses the family crisis. Olivia insists that she wants to go home, and the receptionist tells Anna that heavy snow is approaching; if they are going to drive home, “now’s the time” (156).

Anna, disoriented, wakes up in a narrow bed in a plain room. She screams, which summons “a scrimmage of shadows” (158) and receives an injection in her arm. When she wakes up again, a large man waiting at her bedside introduces himself as Detective Little. She is at Morningside Hospital; EMTs had found her at the park, unconscious. Anna tells Detective Little about the stabbing, acknowledging that she had had “[a] little” to drink before her panic attack in the park. She becomes exasperated at his inaction, but she tells the doctor about her “agoraphobia, my depression, and, yes, my panic disorder” (163), as well as her medications and her work with Dr. Fielding. After the doctor administers a sedative, the detective escorts Anna home.

As they drive to Anna’s home, Detective Little makes small talk with Anna as she observes her surroundings. As they approach her house, Anna notices that her home looks “decayed.” Detective Little asks Anna about her living arrangements, and she tells him about David, her tenant. He offers to carry her inside, but she is able to walk with his support. The detective notices photographs of Ed and Olivia as well as two empty bottles of wine and four pill canisters on the coffee table. Anna has a vision of Jane, and she asks the detective about Jane, but he does not answer her.

Alistair Russell appears at the door, accompanied by Detective Norelli, who is Detective Little’s partner. The detectives ask Anna questions about the stabbing in front of Alistair and play the 911 call. Detective Little tells Anna that he thinks that she was under the influence of drugs, alcohol, and a scary movie, and that she “saw something that wasn’t there” (178). When Anna bristles, Detective Little tells her that Mrs. Russell has been out of town. Alistair goes to the front door to let in Ethan and Alistair’s wife, and Anna is shocked because she has “never seen this woman in my life” (181). Jane Russell looks nothing like the Jane Russell that had befriended Anna, played chess with her, and drew her portrait just a few days earlier.

Anna challenges the woman’s identity to her face, asking Ethan for support. The detectives dismiss Anna’s frustration as the Russell family and Detective Norelli head to the door. Detective Little gives Anna his card and asks her to call him if she needs anything before he too exits. Anna washes down two pills with wine, recalling Ethan’s behavior during the meeting, all of which suggested fear and dishonesty to Anna. Anna calls Bina and asks her to come over before Anna falls unconscious; when Bina arrives, Anna wakes up and tells her the whole story, and she includes more details than what she was able to tell the detectives. Together, they research Alistair, Jane, and Ethan Russell online, and Anna explains to Bina that Jane Russell is also the name of a well-known movie star. The blinds are drawn at the Russell house, and Anna begs Bina to stay the night. A vision of Jane visits Anna, transforming eventually into the “other woman.” 

Bina leaves early in the morning, and when Anna wakes, she speaks with Ed about everything that has happened. She pours herself some wine as she looks at the Russell house. Alistair drives up in his car, and Anna photographs him as he walks to his house. The blinds are up, so Anna watches him move through his house; she sees his wife Jane as well. Anna’s landline rings, and Anna sees Jane making a phone call; Ed’s voice sounds on the answering machine, and Jane leaves a message for Anna, informing Anna that she will call the police if Anna does not stop taking photographs of her house.

As Anna tries to play chess online, she drinks wine and remembers that she could ask David what he thinks about what happened. He is not home, but she lets herself into his apartment and looks around. She notices an earring on his nightstand that triggers a memory for her, but she cannot place the memory. David opens the outside door to his apartment, cursing at Anna for her intrusion. When David’s anger subsides, she asks him about Jane Russell, whom he claims he has never met. Anna apologizes for entering his apartment without his permission.

On the Agora, Anna greets GrannyLizzie, who apologizes for leaving their last conversation so abruptly. They chat online, sharing their interests and discussing their families; Lizzie writes about her husband, whom she misses, and their sons. Anna gives Lizzie advice about how to formulate passwords, suggesting she use “a child’s, or a loved one’s birthday” (216) and substitute numbers for letters. As they sign off, Anna remembers what happened after she left the inn in Vermont with Ed and Olivia.

In a flashback, Anna drives as the snow falls harder and harder. Olivia, in the backseat, cries silently as Anna drives. As she drives, Anna thinks about a party she attended with Ed two weeks earlier; a friend noticed that Anna has been exchanging text messages with someone with unusual frequency. Anna’s phone rings as she drives through the snowstorm, and when Ed threatens to answer it so he can “have a word with him” (222), Anna loses control of the car, and they go over the edge of a mountain gorge.

In the present moment, David knocks on Anna’s door to apologize for his enraged reaction to finding Anna in his apartment. They have a glass of wine together as he explains that he spent fourteen months in jail after a bar fight, and his experience in jail causes him to feel “territorial.” David reminds her of her roof problem, and they go upstairs to look at the ceiling. David kisses Anna on the landing, and they go to bed together.

Anna wakes up in her daughter’s bed. She finds David in the kitchen, and he apologizes for what happened between them before leaving and explaining that he will be going to Connecticut to work that evening.

As Anna ruminates on her night with David, she notices that the box cutter he borrowed is back in its place. Anna continues to think about David, but her thoughts grow sinister as she remembers that he has done jail time and that he was at the Russell house around the time of the screams. She remembers the earring she spotted on David’s bedside table, suddenly realizing that it belongs to the Jane Russell that Anna befriended. Anna had complimented the earrings the afternoon Jane came over. Anna considers calling Detective Little before she barricades the door to David’s basement apartment.

Anna drinks wine as she researches Alistair’s previous workplace in Boston. She calls the number she finds online, asking to speak to Alistair Russell’s former assistant. A young voice identifies himself as Alex, and Anna talks familiarly about Alistair and his family. She finds out from Alistair’s former assistant that, according to a photo on Alistair’s desk, both “Jane and the imposter” (244) has dark hair and fair skin and that the reasons for Alistair’s transfer from the Boston office to New York are “super-mysterious.” When Anna requests a copy of the photo, Alex grows suspicious; Anna hangs up the phone. 

During a conversation with Ed, Anna tells him about her findings, and they compare the situation to a film. Ed reminds Anna to take her medications and to avoid drinking alcohol before Olivia takes a turn to speak with Anna. As their conversation ends, Anna sees Jane Russell leave her house and decides to follow her after taking a dose of her sedatives and grabbing her umbrella. Anna makes her way down the sidewalk, but she loses sight of Jane; she realizes Jane must have gone into the nearby coffee shop, so she enters the café. There, Anna sees the son of the Takedas, a young man named Nick, and, as Anna acclimates to the sights and noises of the coffee shop, she hears Jane order coffee. Jane notices Anna, and they talk briefly before Jane threatens to call the police. Nick Takeda notices Anna and helps her home, where they find Ethan waiting for her; Ethan goes inside with Anna, but he leaves abruptly after Anna asks him about his mother, telling Anna that he is “scared.”

Later, Anna drinks heavily and receives a phone call from Detective Little, who tells her that he will “let Mrs. Russell know that we’ve talked” (268). She tries to log on to the Agora, but her password no longer works. She resets her password and reads her messages before collapsing at her desk.  

In a flashback, Anna feels the airbag of her car against her face and notices that she is “upside down.” She tries to attend to Olivia, who is suspended from her seatbelt, and Olivia responds to Anna’s voice. After Anna drags Olivia out of the car, she tries to rescue Ed from the wreckage of the car. He barely has a pulse as Anna drags him over to Olivia. The car has crashed onto “a little ledge of rock jutting from the side of the mountain” (276), and according to Anna’s phone, which has no signal, the time is 10:27pm. Anna falls asleep, wedged between Olivia and Ed in the snow. Several hours later, Anna tries to give water to Olivia and Ed, who are both still breathing, and the sky seems “impossibly huge” to her as she looks up at the stars. At 11:10am, the following morning, the snowstorm starts again, so Anna moves Ed and Olivia back into the car. Shortly after 3:40pm, Anna’s phone battery runs out. At dawn the following morning, she observes her surroundings: “the valley, drenched in white; that faraway river; the plush snowfall beneath my feet” (282). She drags Olivia and Ed out of the car and holds them until help arrives.

When Anna wakes up, she decides to call Dr. Wesley Brill, her former business partner. Phoebe, the secretary, takes a message. Anna decides not to drink any wine this morning, in order to keep her wits about her for when Wesley returns her call. She plays online chess until an email message appears; the sender’s name is Jane Russell, and the email contains a photograph of Anna’s own face while sleeping, taken at 2:02am early that morning. Jane Russell’s email address is "guesswhoanna@gmail.com," which suggests to Anna that “[s]omeone is mocking me” (289). Anna suspects David is responsible for the photo and email and calls Detective Little. He is worried enough for her safety to instruct her to move towards her front door as he and his partner drive to her house. As Anna waits for the detectives to arrive, she finds the portrait of her face that Jane had drawn, and she observes Ethan leaving his house. Anna yells his name out her window, but he does not stop walking. Anna prepares for the detectives to arrive, so when the doorbell rings, she is surprised to see Ethan. He is still in Anna’s kitchen when the detectives arrive.

The detectives question Anna about her night, about David, and about the email she received. They suggest that she took the photo herself and emailed it to herself, and as Anna protests, the doorbell rings again. Alistair Russell walks in and orders his son to go home; he tells the detectives that Anna has called his old office and that she followed his wife into the local coffee shop. Anna produces the portrait of her face by Jane, insisting that everyone in the room accept it as proof of her story, as David walks in through the front door. The detectives question David, and Anna accuses David of taking the photo and mentions that he has in his possession one of Jane’s earrings. David explains he was in Connecticut with a woman named Elizabeth the night of the supposed murder and that the earring belongs to a woman named Katherine. Anna’s frustration intensifies as David, Alistair, Ethan, and the detectives all appear to doubt her; Detective Little mentions that he has spoken with Dr. Fielding, and Detective Norelli announces that Anna’s husband and daughter are not far away like Anna likes to imply; in reality, they are dead.

Detective Little summarizes what happened to Anna and her family as the others look on in shock: Olivia had lived through the two nights in the snowstorm, but Ed had died before they were rescued. As a result of Anna’s post-traumatic stress, she sometimes speaks to Olivia and Ed. Detective Little holds Anna’s hand as he encourages her to let go of her suspicions regarding the supposed death of Jane Russell and assures her that Alistair’s wife is, in fact, Jane Russell. When everyone leaves Anna’s house, she throws a wine glass against the wall and screams “louder than I’ve ever screamed in my life” (319).