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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?

AMADOR SAID THE ATTACK was the work of the mayor and his wife, who’d always been associated with the narcos. The mayor had started off as a simple street vendor, selling watches from the United States, and his wife had won a small local beauty pageant, years ago. They were royalty in Ojinaga now, owning several stores there and a second casa in Lomas de Chapultepec, in Mexico City. Carmelita was less sure, but to Chayo it made no difference who’d attacked the buses, or why.

None of that would return Castel or his other friends.

None of that would give Neva back her smile.

—

FOUR DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK, a picture appeared online first, and then was picked up by all the news.

It was everywhere, inescapable.

It showed a boy on a pile of garbage, half buried in mud. His clothes were pulled up, torn off in some places, and deep cigarette burns tattooed his chest and stomach. There were purple bruises around his throat, and his hands and feet had been severed.

There was a tennis shoe soaked in blood sitting empty and upright by an outstretched, handless arm.

His face had been peeled off, removed. His ojos had been taken as well, scooped out, and his ears were gone.

He’d been tortured and mutilated and thrown in a trash heap on the outskirts of Ojinaga.

He was faceless, nameless.

But he had the distinctive shaved head of a normalista from the Escuela Normal Rural Librado Rivera.

—

IN THE HOURS AND DAYS immediately following the attack, a few of the normalistas who’d survived came out of hiding, and it seemed that everyone in the world was still looking for the others. But after that picture, no one else returned.

The final number of students who’d disappeared was nineteen.

But not all who survived came out of hiding. Not Chayo. He recognized the tortured boy in the photograph, the tennis shoes and the ruined clothes.

He didn’t need the missing face to know it was Batista.

—

SHE COULDN’T SPEAK, but she didn’t have to.

Neva wasn’t crying anymore, but lay still and silent on the small bed Carmelita had made up for her. The old woman brought tortillas for him and soup and water for her, but Neva wanted none of it.

She just stared into the darkness, seeing and unseeing, and let Chayo hold her.