Character Analysis
Gemma's dad wants to be a billionaire so frickin' bad. Actually, we don't know that for sure, but we're pretty certain since he's kind of obsessed with his job of "looking after other people's money" (1.38). From Gemma's perspective, he sure doesn't seem to think about a whole lot else.
Apart from his fascination with moolah, Mr. Toombs is a pretty stoic guy. We don't actually get to meet him until Gemma is returned to civilization at the end of the book, but we get glimpses of his character in her dreams and fantasies about the search for her going on back home.
She imagines that he "straightened his tie" (9.15) before police and reporters, and when she sees Ty cry, she's stunned because she'd "never even seen Dad close to crying" (15.7). On top of all this lack of emotion, he's also pretty demanding: "He always lectured me over breakfast, about getting good grades and about which universities I should start looking at in the summer" (25.5). So, yeah—dude's one of those type-A helicopter dads.
Let's not be too quick to judge Gemma's dad, though. When we finally meet him at the end of the book, it's clear that Gemma's absence has transformed him. When her dad sees her in the hospital for the first time since her disappearance, "He was smiling, his whole face wrinkling up with it, which confused me for a moment because Dad never used to smile like that. Not at me, anyway" (97.6). It's proof that not all bankers are heartless jerks. We half expect that once Gemma recovers, she and her family will go to the park and go fly a kite.