Ethel

Ethel is a former prostitute who worked at Faye's brothel in Salinas, a house run by the motherly madam Faye before Kate took over. She is a minor character whose actions have major consequences, serving as a catalyst for Kate's final unraveling. Ethel's knowledge of Kate's past—particularly the night Faye died—makes her a persistent threat, and her fate demonstrates the cold, calculating violence Kate employs to protect her secrets.

Identity and Background

Ethel is described as a worn-out, aging whore, a woman whose life has been marked by poverty, illness, and misfortune. After Faye's death, Ethel drifted away from the brothel and fell on hard times. She contracted a venereal disease, was beaten by a customer who lost four teeth, and served multiple jail sentences for prostitution. By the time she reappears in the narrative, she is living in a cheap hotel, her flesh thickened and heavy, her clothes bearing "the strained cleanliness that means poverty" . She is not bright, but she is desperate, and desperation makes her dangerous.

The Blackmail Plot

Ethel's significance lies in what she knows. On the night Faye died, Ethel claims to have had a dream in which she saw Kate go out to the back of the lot, stoop over, and then creep back inside. The next morning, Ethel found smashed medicine bottles and a rubber eye-dropper tip buried there. She kept the broken glass in an envelope, a piece of evidence that could potentially link Kate to Faye's death. Ethel approaches Kate not with overt threats but with a veiled request for money, asking for a hundred dollars a month to keep quiet. Kate, recognizing the danger, initially pays her off but then arranges for Ethel to be framed for robbery and floated out of the county, a move that only postpones the problem.

Kate's Response and Ethel's Fate

Kate's handling of Ethel reveals her strategic mind but also her fatal miscalculation. Instead of simply paying Ethel off and keeping her close, Kate has her arrested and expelled from the county. This act, intended to silence Ethel, instead creates a loose end that Kate cannot control. Ethel disappears, but her story—the story of the broken bottles and the suspicious death—lingers in the air. Kate becomes obsessed with finding Ethel, sending her assistant Joe Valery to search for her in Watsonville and Santa Cruz. The fear that Ethel might tell someone what she knows gnaws at Kate, contributing to her growing paranoia and her eventual suicide. Ethel's ultimate fate is revealed indirectly: she is found dead, washed up on a beach near Santa Cruz, her body half-buried in the sand. The implication is that she was murdered, possibly by drunken fishermen, but the narrative leaves the exact circumstances ambiguous. What is clear is that Ethel, like so many others in Kate's orbit, is destroyed by her association with the madam.

Thematic Significance

Ethel functions as a mirror to Kate's own past and a reminder of the inescapable consequences of her actions. She is a figure of the abject, the discarded, the forgotten—the kind of person Kate herself might have become had she not been so ruthlessly clever. Ethel's knowledge of Kate's crime represents the one thing Kate cannot control: the truth. No amount of money or manipulation can erase what Ethel saw, and the fear that Ethel might speak drives Kate deeper into isolation and despair. In this sense, Ethel is not just a blackmailer but a symbol of the past that refuses to stay buried. Her death, while convenient for Kate, does not bring peace; it only confirms that Kate's world is built on violence and that violence will eventually consume her.