The Pact

Early in the novel, it is known that the gun that killed Emily belongs to James Harte. Chris brought the gun to the carousel where Emily died upon Emily’s request. Immediately, this brings suspicion onto Chris. He has knowledge of how to load and operate the gun and, having hunted animals since his adolescence, is accustomed with shooting live beings. Gus dwells often on the fact that Emily died by this gun. She wonders if she could have prevented Emily’s death by not storing guns in her home or not allowing Chris to access and use them. On one hand, the gun paints Chris as a possible murderer.

Chris insists he brought the gun to the carousel that night in keeping with his ploy to convince Emily that he too wished to die by suicide. He was certain that he could talk Emily out of it and that the gun would never be used. Much is made at the trial about Chris loading the gun with two bullets. In this way, the gun does not reveal the full truth of Emily’s death and Chris’s motives in the way that ballistics and forensics do in most murder trials. Chris maintains that Emily could not bring herself to shoot herself—not that she was physically incapable of operating the gun but that she was too scared to pull the trigger.