The Westing Game: Chapter 14 Summary & Analysis

As the sun comes out and the snow melts, the streets clear once again and the residents of Sunset Towers are no longer snowbound. Angela follows up on one of Sydelle’s old hunches about their clues relating to “hood space” and checks beneath the hoods of cars in the parking lot, but she finds nothing. Flora and Turtle drive together to their broker’s office to watch their stocks. Turtle is disheartened by their losses—but she knows that it takes “nerves of steel” to play the market, and that she mustn’t give up hope yet.

Sandy returns a tip Ford gives him as he brings her car around—she has given him the entire $10,000 check, and he feels embarrassed accepting more. He explains that although he was fired from the Westing plant for trying to organize a union, he’s made a fine living for his family as a boxer. Ford now understands why Sandy has so many scars on his face and such badly-chipped teeth. Sandy excitedly tells Ford he’s made some headway on their clues. He believes that “skies” refers to Sikes, that “brother” refers to the Theodorakis brothers, that the “shin” in “shining” might refer to James Shin Hoo or Turtle’s shin-kicking, and that AM and BROTHER can be shortened to AMBER—as in Otis.

Ford is impressed with Sandy’s work, but she points out that the clues ought to point to just one suspect—not six. Sandy laments that he can’t figure out why some of the heirs have been selected—especially himself, who has no connection to Westing. He suspects Westing is out to get somebody from the grave—and Ford agrees.

Grace and Hoo get into an argument about the costs of redecorating—Grace insists it will take at least half of their check to redo the kitchen, and Hoo becomes incensed and orders her out. Grace returns to her apartment—once there, she finds Crow, who is cleaning her apartment, having an argument with Otis about having lost their clues. Crow insists she remembers them by heart. Otis is concerned someone else will find them. Otis is in a bad mood, exhausted from the deliveries he’s making. He tries to close the window to keep out the draft, but Grace warns him that she can’t have a gas explosion in the apartment. “Boom!” shouts Otis angrily before stalking out of the apartment. On the way down, he brushes by Denton Deere in the hall.

Downstairs, Denton meets with Chris. He insists he cannot help Chris with his disease—he’s only a plastic surgery specialist. Chris laboriously repeats the clues to Denton, desperate to have the intern help him play the game. All Denton wants is his half of the $10,000. He begs Chris to sign the check, but Chris refuses, knowing that as long as he holds out, Denton will have to keep coming back.

Angela embroiders in the lobby, waiting for Denton to come downstairs and drive her to the hospital to visit Sydelle. Angela never learned how to drive herself because her mother insisted that she was pretty enough to never be without a man who would  chauffer her around. Theo comes into the lobby and excitedly tells Angela he’s found the source of the quote Turtle was curious about: “May God thy gold refine.” He opens up a library book and reveals the quotation comes from a verse of “America the Beautiful.” Denton comes out of the elevator and hurries Angela from the lobby, past Sandy, who whistles the song as the couple walks out.

At the hospital, Denton chides Angela for going to visit her “crazy partner” who made up her wasting disease. Angela insists that Denton is wrong about Sydelle. Noticing how troubled Angela is, Denton asks her what’s wrong. He asks her if something’s wrong with the wedding preparations—or if she doesn’t want to get married at all. Privately, Angela thinks about how she doesn’t want to get married—but that she feels that she could never tell Denton or her mother her true feelings.

A psychiatrist emerges from Sydelle’s room. Angela stands up from a bench in the hall to greet him. She asks how Sydelle is. The psychiatrist replies that Sydelle isn’t crazy—she just wanted attention. Angela asks if it’s normal to try to shock people into noticing you. The psychiatrist replies that no one was hurt by Sydelle’s actions and urges Angela to go in and visit with her. Angela goes into Sydelle’s room. Sydelle asks her what the doctors have said. Angela replies that while Sydelle’s wasting disease is incurable, she could still live for many years. Sydelle, satisfied, asks Angela to fetch her makeup. Angela, who has brought Sydelle’s makeup along inside her own tapestry bag, finds a confusing, cryptic letter and two clues inside the bag: THY and BEAUTIFUL.