Content Warning: This section of the guide contains references to murder, violence, kidnapping, and child abuse.

Lola’s floral-sleeved jacket is a symbol of her identity to those who love her. Autumn made the jacket as her final exam in her fashion design class junior year, as a gift for Lola. Lola loved the jacket so much and wore it so constantly that Drew has “[a] thousand memories” of Lola in the jacket (159). The jacket is so much a part of Lola now that when Drew hears Meredith Hoyt describe it, he is sure that this means that the young woman wearing the jacket is Lola. Even Sheriff Roane is—at least temporarily—persuaded by this evidence. However, the floral jacket is really only evidence that Lola was at one time with Wayne—and this becomes clear near the end of the novel, when Drew realizes that it is in fact Madison who has been wearing the jacket. Wayne, who sees all young women who resemble his daughter as essentially interchangeable, has given the jacket to Madison. Madison’s reaction to the jacket is significant: She is not, in fact, interchangeable with either Mary or Lola. The jacket is tied to Lola’s identity, and Madison’s distaste for it makes it clear that she has her own entirely separate identity.