Chapters (43)
- BY ACE ATKINS
- Dedication
- CONTENTS
- Epigraph
- Episode 1: Brandon
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- Episode 2: The Big Woods
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- Episode 3: The Search Party
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- Episode 4: The Teacher
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- Episode 5: The Sheriff
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- Episode 6: Quinn Colson
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- Episode 7: Maggie
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- Episode 8: The Witness
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- What’s next onyour reading list?
“The hellhounds are coming for his ass,” she said. “And I’m the only person who knows how to stop ’em.”
TWENTY-FOUR
The T-shirts. Holy fuck. All the damn T-shirts. Tashi Coleman couldn’t help but see everyone at the Vardaman rally as a walking billboard for their own personal agenda. I’LL KEEP MY GUNS, Y’ALL KEEP THE CHANGE . . . PRO-LIFE, PRO-GUN, AND PRO-GOD . . . YOU AIN’T ENTITLED TO NOTHIN’. And the one that brought an audible gasp from Jessica as they walked up into the high seats at the BancorpSouth Arena in Tupelo. JOURNALIST. ROPE. TREE. SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED.
“Did I just see that?” Jessica said. “Did we just enter a parallel dimension?”
“Keep walking,” Tashi said. “We’re not here to judge. Only observe. By the way, are you getting all this?”
“You mean the radio guys raffling off the AR-15, the youth chorus singing a song called ‘Mississippi Matters,’ or those two women getting into a fight over who was going to get their daddy’s four-wheeler when he died? I mean, the last one was hard to pass up. Did you see me just kind of hang there by their car, acting like I was checking my iPhone? The one woman said she’d choke that bitch if she even thought about getting on Daddy’s Yamaha.”
“Nicely done.”
“Vardaman isn’t going to speak to us.”
“Nope.”
“So why are we here?”
“Local color,” Tashi said, taking a seat and looking far down onto the arena floor, a large stage set up at the end draped in American and Mississippi flags. Mississippi still featuring the stars and bars of the old Confederate flag. One of the episodes would focus entirely on Tibbehah County history, a major battle fought for control of the railroad supply chain across the state. “This story has always been about more than just Brandon Taylor. Those photos Hubie Phillips found just gave us a reason.”
“And why would a kid be taking pictures of Vardaman’s hunting lodge?” Jessica said, scrolling the scanned photos on her phone. “You can clearly see it’s the same structure. The roof is a different color and there’s that massive addition. But it’s the same house. No doubt in my mind. Yeah, this is a big help.”
“Not that we needed a reason to stick around Mississippi,” Jessica said. “I see Cirque du Soleil will be here next week. We’ve can cover that, too. And, later on, Disney On Ice: World of Enchantment. Featuring Elsa the Ice Queen. Fuck Times Square and Broadway.”