The action for Chapter 20 takes place just hours after the firebombing at the Brunsons’ house that concluded the previous chapter late on the night of February 7. In the wee hours of the next morning, February 8, police are called to Scott Street in West Augustine for a shooting into the home of Robert Hayling.

The chapter tells most of its story through Barbara Vickers, a Scott Street neighbor of Dr. Hayling’s who had grown up in St. Augustine. She is a beautician who often spends time with Hayling’s wife, Athea, and their two daughters at the beauty shop she runs out of her garage. But that night she returns from an outing with friends to see the street cordoned off. The shooting has penetrated the front door, killing the family dog, and traumatizing the two young Hayling girls who are home with their mother. Dr. Hayling returns to the scene moments later and realizes that the fight is on—that he needs to reenter the civil rights struggle in the city.