“Mrs. Evans is here to make a statement, and she’d like your family to be there. It’s unusual, but we’ll allow it if you agree.”

Mama and I exchange glances. Lost at what she could possibly say to us when we got bigger things going on. Mama nods at Officer Clyde.

Steve motions for Officer Clyde to step out to talk to him before the Evanses enter.

Mr. Evans holds one arm around a rigid Mrs. Evans, whispering what must be words of comfort when they finally enter with Officer Clyde and another plainclothes officer. Dean doesn’t meet my eyes and takes a seat next to his dad.

Mrs. Evans puts down a photo. The photo. The one from the lynching. She closes her eyes as tears form. A coldness settles in my chest.

I study Dean’s mom. Whatever she’s been through has been ingrained in her since she was a kid. Her father left imprints of his beliefs on her. How much she’s held on to is a mystery. Still, it’s a choice.

“When I was ten years old, I witnessed a murder. One that my father, Charles Greene, Grand Wizard of the Galveston County chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, was involved in. They murdered a man named Minh Nguyen.”

I expect her to stop, but she chokes through several more names from the photo that she thinks we should know about, those who witnessed the murder like her. Two names jump out. “Cathy Marcom Davidson. Richard Brighton.”

“Wait. As in Cathy Davidson, Mark Davidson’s wife?” I ask.

Steve hushes me. I bite my cheek, holding back questions I’m dying to get answered.

Mrs. Evans stares down at the table, as if looking at us will make her stop talking. She begins with the night of the lynching.

“I couldn’t sleep after what I saw. It was so brutal. My father said that the man was nothing. Not to be so upset. But I couldn’t stop thinking about him…hanging there…wondering if his family knew…In the middle of the night, I snuck to the phone and called the police to leave a tip about the body. I didn’t think they’d trace the phone and show up at our house like they did.”

Mrs. Evans had called about the lynching, but the story on the news was only about Minh Nguyen disappearing. Not about a body being found. The cops did nothing.

“The officers arrived.” Mrs. Evans’s voice is strangled. “My dad joked with them. He knew them all. It’s no secret most probably knew who he was. Some were members. He told them I had a nightmare, and they believed him. I had defied my dad, and they left me there. Left me to suffer his wrath. After that night, I knew I could never speak a word about it again.”