Summary

It is not yet July but it is oppressively hot in New Bremen, Minnesota, in 1961. A police officer calls Nathan Drum in the middle of the night. Nathan lets his sons Frank and Jake go with him to the jail. Jake is two years younger than thirteen-year-old Frank and has a stutter. On the way to the jail, Nathan tells the boys that Gus got drunk and got into a fight.

Inside the police station Frank spots Morris Engdahl, a bad sort, in a cell. Morris mocks Jake’s stutter. Morris was apparently involved in the same fight as Gus. Officer Blake and Nathan discuss the death of Bobby Cole. Officer Doyle questions how the Cole kid was killed on the train tracks. He knew the tracks so well. Doyle doesn’t plan on pursuing an investigation. Doyle cautions Frank and Jake not...