Fred Peterson’s failed hanging attempt and rescue mark a further catastrophe in the Peterson family’s aftermath: Fred tries to die before the funeral, but his neighbor, Mrs Gibson, intervenes and keeps him alive. The rescue does not restore him to consciousness or safety; the doctors later tell Ralph Anderson that Fred has minimal brain function and very little chance of coming back.

Causes and Circumstances

On the night before the funeral, Fred goes into his backyard and prepares to hang himself. He has decided that the deaths of Frank, Arlene, and Ollie have closed the Peterson family’s story, and he hopes they have not gone far and that he might still catch up with them. The immediate pressure is also the next day’s funeral schedule: the family is to be buried at Donelli Brothers in the morning, while the man Fred believes responsible for their deaths is to be buried there in the afternoon. Fred feels unable to face both funerals.

The attempt takes place against the novel’s unresolved conflict over Frank’s murder. Ralph Anderson has rejected a supernatural explanation and concluded that, improbable as it may be, Terry Maitland was Frank’s killer; Terry is now dead. Fred’s decision to regard the family’s losses as a completed equation therefore comes while the case appears settled in a way that offers him no comfort. His plan is not presented as a response to one isolated incident, but as the consequence of bereavement and the unbearable prospect of the coming funeral.

The Attempt and the Rescue

Fred uses a footstool in the backyard and ties his rope to an old hackberry branch. When he kicks the stool away, the branch breaks instead of supporting him. A neighbor, Mrs Gibson, hears the disturbance and hurries into the yard, initially believing that Fred has shot himself. She sees the rope and the broken branch, drops her cane, and crosses the space between the backyards to reach him.

Mrs Gibson works to loosen the rope and then begins mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Her actions draw directly on her experience as a Home Helper: after retiring from work as a bank teller, she had taken the training required for that role, including resuscitation. When Mr Jagger arrives, she asks him to call 911 and to take over if she passes out. She continues breathing for Fred until he takes several breaths on his own, then begins chest compressions when his breathing stops again. The ambulance is approaching as the scene ends.

Outcome and Aftermath

Fred is brought to medical care, but being pulled through the immediate crisis does not mean that he recovers. A few hours later, Betsy Riggins sends a colleague to tell Ralph that Fred tried to hang himself in his backyard and that Mrs Gibson’s intervention saved him. The doctors’ assessment is grave: Fred has minimal brain function, and his chances of ever coming back are about one in a hundred.

The news reaches Ralph while he is on leave. It affects him so sharply that he turns away, fearing he will vomit, before answering the colleague who has brought the update. The failed attempt thus extends the Peterson tragedy beyond the family deaths themselves: Fred survives the immediate attempt, but remains in a near-unresponsive state, while the news forces Ralph to confront another devastating consequence of the case.

Narrative Significance

The episode turns the idea of rescue into an unresolved outcome. Mrs Gibson’s practical skill and persistence interrupt Fred’s attempt, but the report of his minimal brain function denies the event a simple recovery or consolation. Her intervention is concrete and procedural—calling for emergency help, giving breaths, and beginning compressions—while its consequences remain uncertain.

The timing intensifies the scene’s place in the larger story. Fred acts on the night before a double funeral, in a case where Ralph believes the responsible man has already been identified and is himself dead. Fred’s attempt exposes the human cost of that apparent closure without settling the deeper question of whether the case has truly been understood. Its ending shifts from the backyard rescue to Ralph’s reaction to the doctors’ prognosis, carrying the Peterson family’s grief into the investigation’s continuing aftermath.