Shadow Boys (28 page)

He doesn’t know if those are the real names of the couple or not. He really doesn’t know anything. After a few moments, the man and woman look up and down the block as if suddenly realizing they are arguing in public. They go inside and the party breaks up soon after.

As the months go by it becomes increasingly evident that the woman doesn’t fit in.

The neighborhood is not to her liking. More and more she comes back from the mall in Brownsville with shopping bags from expensive stores, places that the other residents of Jefferson Street would never consider patronizing.

She drinks more.

A glass of wine on the porch in the afternoon becomes a bottle or sometimes two.

The man is concerned; this much is evident. He takes her to church but she doesn’t like the ritual, Cesar hears via another argument—the priest in his vestments, the confession booths, the candles.

Her downward spiral continues.

There is a car crash and a fight, each delivering and receiving blows. Both the crash and the fight are smoothed over with the local police by generous amounts of hundred-dollar bills that the man has in abundance, according to a friend of Cesar’s who works at the city.

Finally, in the fall, nearly six months after they moved in, the woman goes away. One day she is there, the next not.

The man and the boy and the old lady remain.

Cesar wonders if perhaps she joined the black man, but he knows better than to ask.

This is the border country, and people disappear all the time.

- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -

Creating a book for public consumption is an oddly communal effort. The raw material may have been mine but the finished product is the result of a group effort, a dedicated team of professionals who are as much responsible for what you hold in your hand as the author is. To that end I would like to thank the incredible team at Thomas & Mercer: Alison Dasho, Jacque Ben-Zekry, Gracie Doyle, Alan Turkus, Tiffany Pokorny, and David Downing.

I would also like to offer my gratitude to Jan Blankenship, Amy Bourrett, Victoria Calder, Paul Coggins, Peggy Fleming, Fanchon Knott, Brooke Malouf, Clif Nixon, David Norman, Glenna Whitley, and Max Wright.

Special thanks to Richard Abate for helping me navigate the waters leading to this book being published.

And finally, last but never least, thanks to my wife, Alison, for all her love, patience, and support.

- ABOUT THE AUTHOR -

Photo © 2013 Nick McWhirter

Harry Hunsicker, a fourth-generation native of Dallas, Texas, is the former executive vice president of the Mystery Writers of America. His debut novel,
Still River
, was nominated for a Shamus Award by the Private Eye Writers of America, and his short story
Iced
was nominated for a Thriller Award by the International Thriller Writers. Hunsicker lives in Dallas, where he works as a commercial real estate appraiser and occasionally speaks on creative writing.
Shadow Boys
is his fifth novel.