Rhoda's pet wire-haired terrier falling to its death is a remembered Baltimore incident that becomes newly disturbing to Christine Penmark after Claude Daigle disappears. The dog’s fall had once been treated as an accident; in retrospect, Rhoda’s detachment and the thinness of her explanation make it part of Christine’s growing suspicion about her daughter.

The Dog and Its Care

The incident began when Rhoda wanted a puppy after seeing one owned by another child in the apartment house where the Penmarks lived. Christine and Kenneth Penmark bought the wire-haired terrier Rhoda selected. Christine was pleased that her daughter seemed interested in something beyond herself, and Rhoda initially carried the dog around and showed it to people in the lobby, boasting of its cost and pedigree.

Kenneth regarded caring for the pet as a lesson in responsibility and kindness. But feeding and taking the dog outside began to interfere with Rhoda’s reading, jigsaw puzzles, and piano practice. The contrast between her early display of affection and her later reluctance to care for the animal gives the accident its troubling context, without establishing how the dog came to fall.

The Fall and Rhoda’s Response

The terrier fell from a window ledge into the courtyard below. Christine heard its dying whimper and went into Rhoda’s room, where she saw her daughter leaning out of the window and looking dispassionately at something below. Three stories down, the little dog lay with its spine crushed.

When Christine asked what had happened, Rhoda walked away as though the matter did not concern her. At the door, she offered the possibility that the dog had fallen out of the window, but Christine and Kenneth never received another explanation from her. The account leaves the cause unresolved: it records Rhoda’s proximity and indifference, not proof that she caused the fall.

Christine’s Recollection and Its Consequence

Christine remembers the incident during a conversation with Octavia Fern about the guard who had seen a girl in a red dress at the wharf around noon on the day Claude went missing. After hearing that sequence, Christine senses a vague connection between the two accidents. The memory does not settle what happened to either the dog or Claude; instead, it changes the weight Christine gives to an earlier episode she had not understood as evidence of anything more than misfortune.

Her unease becomes physical: her hand trembles and her teacup rattles in its saucer. She steadies herself before asking whether the Fern sisters are suggesting that Rhoda had anything to do with Claude’s death. Octavia responds that the possibility had never entered their minds, and Claudia says they would have been compelled to notify the authorities if they had suspected it. The dog’s fall thus returns not as a solved crime but as a private precedent that sharpens Christine’s fear and remains open to doubt.