All the Sinners Bleed

In the morning, Darlene leaves early to take her mother to an appointment and then open her flower shop. Titus’s brother, Marquis, texts to check on Titus but turns down Titus’s invitation to come over. He always does this even though he lives close by. The narrative provides information on two other police officers on Titus’s force: Trey, the first Black investigator, who is now tasked with looking into the shooting of Latrell; and Pip, who used to be in the Peace Corps and is calm compared to the other officers. Upon reviewing the evidence, Davy, Steve, Carla, and Titus realize that the willow tree from Spearman’s painting is located on hunting grounds that many citizens have used. The land is owned by a man named Tank, who has a large property and charges locals a fee to go hunting there. (Tank is also known to charge Black people a higher fee than white people.)

Titus puts Tom on leave as well. He and the others go visit Tank, who is initially reluctant to let them dig up his land. However, once they tell him that murder victims may be buried there, he acquiesces. The officers dig for several hours and finally discover seven decomposing bodies, some of which have been buried for several years. Davy asks why they have never heard about these missing kids, and Titus surmises that it is probably because they are Black. He knows that the reality is that even though their families are probably looking for them, the disappearance of Black children would have been less likely to be on the news.

Titus goes home, lamenting that nobody paid their respects to the deceased children or buried them properly like they were able to do with his mother. Even though Titus has asked his deputies not to discuss the case with anyone outside the department, he discusses it with his father to mitigate the stress and trauma of watching the videos. Titus’s father, Albert, takes solace in the idea that the children are now in Heaven and that their early deaths were part of God’s plan. Titus, however, argues that faith and hope are dangerous because they lead to disappointment, and he also contends that a good God shouldn’t allow innocent people to die for a plan—not his mother and not these kids either.

Some state police officers arrive to aid in the investigation. Bodies go to the medical examiner in the state capital of Richmond so they can hopefully be identified. The state police initially treat Titus as though he is inferior, but once they learn that he is former FBI, they question why he would quit the FBI and move back to his small hometown. Because he is now hunting for a serial killer, Titus relies on his FBI training, including the skill of profiling criminals by assessing their personalities and trying to predict their behavior or learn their identity. Based on the evidence so far, Titus believes that the unidentified man in the wolf mask is a local white man who is obsessed with religion and has anger issues.

Near the Confederate statue, a young man has ripped a Confederate flag, and Ricky Sours, Royce Lazare, and the neo-Confederates are trying to “hold” the man so he can be punished. Titus breaks up the dispute and berates the men for their vigilantism. He states that the statue belongs to the Daughters of the Confederacy, the local chapter of which no longer exists. Titus sends everyone away. In a subsequent conversation, Jamal wants Titus to cancel Fall Fest, where the neo-Confederates plan to hold a “white power parade” (113). He also wants Titus to stand up to the neo-Confederates, as Titus’s mother would want him to do. Titus threatens Jamal for speaking about his mother.

Titus drives to Richmond, which he notes was the Confederacy’s capital as well as being the capital of present-day Virginia. In Richmond, the medical examiner, Dr. Kim, shares what she has learned so far. Most of the bodies that still have visible skin have words carved into them, including Biblical references to the Curse of Ham from Genesis as well as quotes that are not actually from the Bible but seem to imitate its style and subject matter. One such example is “Our salvation is his suffering” (120), and the same statement has appeared on signs for six of the county’s churches, including Emmanuel, First Corinthian, and Holy Rock of the Redeemer, the last of which is a small, nondenominational church run by a family on Piney Island (an isolated segment of Charon County). Titus thinks that the man in the wolf mask, whom the narrative refers to as the Last Wolf, might have been a member of one of the six churches, or he might just be a local person who saw the phrase. Later, Titus holds a press conference to discuss the case and reveals the basic facts to the public. However, he does not take questions.

Titus’s ex-girlfriend, Kellie, calls to say she has a true-crime podcast now and wants to come to town to report on the murders in Charon County. She asks Titus for an interview as well. He says he’s busy but knows she’ll probably show up anyway. They broke up to avoid having a long-distance relationship, but Titus still has feelings for Kellie. Meanwhile, he avoids Darlene. That evening, Titus gets a call from Davy, who is at a local bar called the Watering Hole, owned by a man named Jasper. Jasper is upset because Titus’s brother Marquis is allegedly tearing the place apart.