The first bomb set by the man who calls himself “Thumper” (first mentioned in Chapter 10) went off at a King Kullen Supermarket in 1996. Over the course of his career, he injured roughly 50 people, but no one was killed until the 19th bomb. After each bombing, he sent the police a note threatening more attacks to come. After the nineteenth bomb, he set bigger bombs, wounding 20 and killing 3.

After 17 years, the police finally identified Kenneth Therriault as the probable bomber—but when they raided his apartment, he was gone. They found him on a park bench, dead by suicide, with a note saying he set one more bomb, the biggest yet.

Confronting the certainty of more deaths, Jamie is unable to refuse Liz—even though he knows she only cares about saving her dying career (as her bosses and coworkers suspect that she’s been dealing drugs).

Jamie wants to save lives, but also feels sympathy for Liz, who is struggling to save herself. They go to several places where they think Therriault might be hanging around. Jamie is struck by how smoothly Liz lies to get them into certain places. At the hospital where Therriault worked as an orderly, one of his coworkers remarks on how strange it is that they all worked with him for years and never knew the truth about him.