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Back This Side of Night Save as PDF
Chapters (110)
  1. Cover
  2. ALSO BY J. TODD SCOTT
  3. Dedication
  4. Epigraph
  5. PROLOGUE
  6. I
  7. II
  8. PART ONE
  9. ONE
  10. TWO
  11. THREE
  12. FOUR
  13. FIVE
  14. SIX
  15. SEVEN
  16. EIGHT
  17. NINE
  18. TEN
  19. ELEVEN
  20. TWELVE
  21. PART TWO
  22. THIRTEEN
  23. FOURTEEN
  24. FIFTEEN
  25. SIXTEEN
  26. SEVENTEEN
  27. EIGHTEEN
  28. NINETEEN
  29. TWENTY
  30. TWENTY-ONE
  31. TWENTY-TWO
  32. TWENTY-THREE
  33. TWENTY-FOUR
  34. TWENTY-FIVE
  35. TWENTY-SIX
  36. TWENTY-SEVEN
  37. TWENTY-EIGHT
  38. TWENTY-NINE
  39. THIRTY
  40. THIRTY-ONE
  41. THIRTY-TWO
  42. THIRTY-THREE
  43. THIRTY-FOUR
  44. THIRTY-FIVE
  45. THIRTY-SIX
  46. THIRTY-SEVEN
  47. THIRTY-EIGHT
  48. THIRTY-NINE
  49. PART THREE
  50. FORTY
  51. FORTY-ONE
  52. FORTY-TWO
  53. FORTY-THREE
  54. FORTY-FOUR
  55. FORTY-FIVE
  56. FORTY-SIX
  57. FORTY-SEVEN
  58. FORTY-EIGHT
  59. FORTY-NINE
  60. FIFTY
  61. FIFTY-ONE
  62. FIFTY-TWO
  63. FIFTY-THREE
  64. FIFTY-FOUR
  65. FIFTY-FIVE
  66. FIFTY-SIX
  67. FIFTY-SEVEN
  68. FIFTY-EIGHT
  69. FIFTY-NINE
  70. SIXTY
  71. SIXTY-ONE
  72. PART FOUR
  73. SIXTY-TWO
  74. SIXTY-THREE
  75. SIXTY-FOUR
  76. SIXTY-FIVE
  77. SIXTY-SIX
  78. SIXTY-SEVEN
  79. SIXTY-EIGHT
  80. SIXTY-NINE
  81. SEVENTY
  82. SEVENTY-ONE
  83. SEVENTY-TWO
  84. SEVENTY-THREE
  85. SEVENTY-FOUR
  86. SEVENTY-FIVE
  87. SEVENTY-SIX
  88. SEVENTY-SEVEN
  89. SEVENTY-EIGHT
  90. SEVENTY-NINE
  91. EIGHTY
  92. EIGHTY-ONE
  93. EIGHTY-TWO
  94. EIGHTY-THREE
  95. EIGHTY-FOUR
  96. EPILOGUE
  97. I
  98. II
  99. III
  100. IV
  101. V
  102. VI
  103. VII
  104. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  105. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  106. Excerpt from LOST RIVER
  107. LITTLE PARIS
  108. DILLON
  109. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  110. What’s next onyour reading list?

Amé completed the thought for them: “He has to make calls each day to his men across the river. If I don’t help him, if he can’t get out of Texas, or if he doesn’t make those calls on time, my mama will be killed.”

—

THEY ALL SAT SILENT for a long time after that, watching the sun move outside Chris’s office windows. The lemon trees the city council had planted long ago all along Main Street were trying hard to cast thin, barely-there shadows. The trees had never quite taken hold, no matter how much care they’d been given. He’d stood under them once, afraid to lean against them for support, after he’d talked with Sheriff Ross about the skeleton he’d recovered from Indian Bluffs. The skeleton they all later learned was Amé’s brother.

“It’s bullshit,” Danny finally said. “He’s bluffing, both about who he is, and what he’s doing here.” He turned to Amé. “And this threat about your family? These mysterious phone calls? It’s crazy, I don’t buy any of it.”

“Maybe,” Chris conceded, “but it tracks somewhat with what Garrison told me. Think about it—if Fox Uno is on the run, what better place to hide than here? The one place no one is looking for him, or would ever expect him to be.” Chris penciled an empty circle on a piece of paper in front of him. It was a copy of an election filing form, something he’d forgotten to fill out until Mel had done it for him. He looked up at Amé. “Do you really think he’d let your mother, his own sister, die over there?”

But it was a question Chris hardly needed to ask. He’d read Garrison’s file—all the things Fox Uno had allegedly done. The tortures and beheadings and bombings. In 2010, some sort of suitcase bomb he’d meant for a rival had killed three small children. A couple of years later, he ordered the killing of three Catholic priests, who were strangled with their vestments. Those were only a few of the murders that had attracted attention, but how many more had not?

Amé agreed with a shrug, a small, desperate gesture. “I know I cannot reach my mama. I cannot reach anyone. If he is the man I know he is, then yes.”