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Back Heaven, My Home Save as PDF
Chapters (40)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Marion County
  7. Part One
  8. 1.
  9. 2.
  10. 3.
  11. 4.
  12. Part Two
  13. 5.
  14. 6.
  15. 7.
  16. 8.
  17. 9.
  18. Part Three
  19. 10.
  20. 11.
  21. 12.
  22. 13.
  23. 14.
  24. 15.
  25. 16.
  26. Part Four
  27. 17.
  28. 18.
  29. 19.
  30. 20.
  31. 21.
  32. 22.
  33. 23.
  34. 24.
  35. Camilla
  36. Acknowledgments
  37. Discover More
  38. About the Author
  39. Also by Attica Locke
  40. Praise for Attica Locke’s

There were two cruisers parked in front of Leroy’s house, a pair of Marion County Sheriff deputies watching him walk out of the suspect’s home. Beyond the police, white men and women from the trailer park had lined up a wall of cars, all facing Leroy Page’s front door. There were rifle racks in pickups, handguns glinting on dashboards. They were armed and ready for battle, several loudly accusing the sheriff’s department of protecting a nigger who’d messed with one of theirs. The deputies did nothing to stop them, but neither did they let a single man or woman come closer to Leroy’s house. By now Margaret’s people had returned to her front porch. They had reclaimed their weapons, and even Margaret had a pearl-handled pistol tucked into an apron tied around her waist. The whole of East Texas history set out like figurines in the Civil War reenactments on Rosemary King’s lawn, the air resonant with a threat of violence; you could hear it in the rumble of all those car engines, in the sound of the shells Donald loaded in his gun. Darren thought it was altogether possible someone might die in Hopetown before Levi King was ever found.

15.

15.

LEROY PAGE was lying, Darren thought.

At least, he didn’t believe the man when he said he’d never heard the name Sandler Gaines. His plan had been to return to the Cardinal Hotel in town and see if he couldn’t track down the real estate developer and get a clearer idea of what was going on with the sale of Hopetown. Maybe it would reveal more about Mr. Page, what kind of man he really was. Levelheaded and sanguine about the potential sale of his homeland? Or angrier about it than he’d let on? Had Levi’s harassment, along with that of his mother’s boyfriend and his barefoot, red-faced goons, driven Mr. Page to sell against his heart? And had that driven Leroy into a fit of rage? Darren pictured the blond boy in the photo, tried to quantify in his mind the amount of grace owed a child, one who was merely copying the grown men around him. And that’s all it was, wasn’t it? He hated to think the country was growing racists like bumper crops, full of piss and venom, as bitter as the dirt from which they came. Levi King deserved the benefit of the doubt, didn’t he? Did Darren really want to live in a world where a nine-year-old wasn’t worth his hope?

He needed to find Sandler Gaines at the hotel.

Maybe change his shirt and freshen up a bit first.