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From the moment Arnold Friend and Connie see each other he appears to have a kind of magnetism that she can not help but notice, “He stared at her and then his lips widened in a grin. Connie slit her eyes at him and turned away, but she couldn’t help glancing back…”(363). His bravado is just one of the facets of his control over Connie. When he and his friend pull up to the house “the horn sounded four short taps, as if this were a signal Connie knew”(366) and asks Connie if he was late. This kind of confidence would probably be attractive on some level to Connie who was used to the sweet gent
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Arnold’s appearance is puzzling. He never goes back on this promise. Arnold seems to be implying that he and Connie already have an established romantic relationship through the generous use of endearments like “sweetheart” and “honey” he uses when talking to her. Serial killers and stalkers feel very possessive, “I know my Connie”(368) toward their prey and go to great lengths to learn all that they can “I know your name and all about you, lots of things…”(368) which shows their control. They are only human and have human limitations. When speaking with Ellie, a mysterious character who only speaks when asked if he is needed to perform an unsavory task, Arnold lapses into a tirade of old fashioned and out of date sayings which highlights the fact that he is not exactly a hip teenager. When he is losing control of the situation he abruptly changes the topic to focus attention away from himself.
Arnold probably marked Connie for death from the moment he saw her. While all of this is supremely chilling it is not otherworldly. The fact that Ellie knows what to do regarding the phones implies that they are not new to this sort of thing. Believing he does not lie directly influences her actions.
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