The Westing Game: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

Shin Hoo’s restaurant is empty when the bomber sets their next trap behind some cans on a shelf. The color-striped candle they are using as fuel is scheduled to burn down to the fuse at 6:30 p.m.—whoever is working will not be hurt. Shin Hoo’s, the bomber knows, will be extra-busy because of the closure of the Theodorakis coffee shop. At that very moment, Grace Wexler—the new seating hostess at Shin Hoo’s—tacks up a new ad for the restaurant in the elevator. Mr. Hoo interrupts his wife as she goes through an old trunk containing childhood mementos from China and brings her up to the kitchen to start cooking, then hurries off to stop Doug from jogging in the stairwell and urge him to put on his busboy outfit. When Hoo returns to the restaurant, he and Grace bond over how hard it is to be a parent.

As the restaurant opens for dinner, many of the heirs head up to the establishment for dinner. Chris and Sydelle sit together, as do Theo and Angela. Angela, making small talk, asks Theo about his college plans. Theo, however, says he isn’t going to college—the operation Chris needs to reverse his sudden-onset neurological disorder is too expensive. Angela admits that she herself only went to college for a year—she wanted to be a doctor, but her parents urged her to marry for money. Theo asks her if she’d go back to school if she won the inheritance. Angela looks down, unable to answer.

Ford and Flora sit together at dinner—they, too, struggle to find something to talk about. Flora talks about her dressmaking business, but when the conversation veers toward her daughter, she switches the discussion quickly to Angela and what a beautiful bride she will be. Flora says that Angela reminds her of someone. The judge asks who that might be. “Violet Westing,” replies Flora—Flora made Violet’s wedding dress.

Grace seats Jake at a table with the sour-faced Turtle, who is listening to the stock market report on her radio. Hoo comes over to take their order. He asks Jake, in a low voice, what the point spread is on the upcoming Packers game. Jake tells him to ask another time. Turtle matter-of-factly tells her father that she knows he’s a bookie. Sydelle and Chris continue talking, and Chris asks for Sydelle’s notes. Sydelle assures Chris she’ll show them to him soon. She abruptly stands up to leave and thumps toward the kitchen door to give her compliments to the chef before heading home. Otis Amber arrives at the restaurant, bundled up in snow boots and scarves. As he announces his entrance, the second bomb goes off.

As red sparks hiss through the kitchen and Hoo attempts to get everyone to stay exactly where they are, Grace tries to calm everyone down by insisting there’s been a “little mishap.” As Hoo comes back out of the kitchen, however, he asks for someone to call an ambulance. Angela runs into the kitchen. Jake calls 911. As everyone fusses over Sydelle, she insists she’s all right. Privately, she thinks about how she doesn’t want attention like this, but to earn it on her own terms. When the ambulance arrives, the paramedic tells Sydelle she has fractured her ankle. Angela frets terribly over Sydelle as she is loaded into the ambulance. Angela’s parents urge her to accompany her partner to the hospital—Grace tells her to check in with Denton while she’s there.

A policeman and a fire inspector arrive on the scene and declare the matter a gas explosion. Grace asks the policeman to address the burglaries, but he insists he’s with the bomb squad, not robberies. Jake points out how odd it is for two explosions to happen so close together, but the fireman says that with weather packing snow over the air ducts, such a thing isn’t really out of the ordinary. Grace and Jake return to their apartment and open up the windows, determined to keep their apartment in the clear as Angela’s bridal shower approaches—they do not know that the bomber has already chosen their apartment as the site of the next bombing.