This chapter reconnects readers with Irv Cheney, who is haunted by his recent trip to Birmingham and his exposure to the bombing at the Birmingham church. Returning to Daytona Beach, he faces a series of stresses: piles of work at his own church, challenges in his role as president of the Halifax Area Council on Human Relations, and the troubling specter of a forthcoming visit from his parents (with whom his relationship has become strained following his break from Southern Baptism).

The stress deepens when he is contacted by a local Black minister asking Irv to “do a little spy work” at a scheduled Ku Klux Klan rally just outside of St. Augustine. He agrees, and takes in the horrifying event, seeing the burning cross, hearing the vitriol of Connie Lynch, and then watching the beating of the four Black men who had been captured. Irv slips away from the rally to call for help, and watches with great relief when he sees the beaten men alive in the back of a police car. Late that night, he types up a detailed account of the experience.