In the chap­ter titled “Chase” set in 1969, the omi­nous atmos­phere of an old, dilap­i­dat­ed fire tow­er over a mist-shroud­ed bog sets the scene for a star­tling dis­cov­ery by two young boys, Ben­ji Mason and Steve Long. As they ven­ture up the fire tow­er on an unusu­al­ly warm fall morn­ing on Octo­ber 30, 1969, their adven­ture takes a grim turn when they notice what appears to be a body in blue clothes lying motion­less in the mud below.

Alert­ed by the unusu­al silence bro­ken only by the dis­tant caws of crows, their ini­tial curios­i­ty quick­ly trans­forms into hor­ror when they real­ize the body belongs to Chase Andrews, lying dead with his eyes wide open and a leg grotesque­ly twist­ed. Despite their fear and aware­ness that their pres­ence in that area was for­bid­den, the grav­i­ty of their dis­cov­ery com­pels them to seek help. The prospect of crows descend­ing on Chase’s body adds urgency to their mis­sion.

In a pan­icked deci­sion, they agree nei­ther will stay behind alone to ward off the birds, a task both daunt­ing and macabre. Rac­ing back to town on their bicy­cles, they nav­i­gate the sand tracks to reach the sher­if­f’s office. Upon arrival, they find Sher­iff Ed Jack­son, a medi­um-height man with red­dish hair and freck­led skin, immersed in a mag­a­zine. Their abrupt entrance and urgent tone break the tran­quil­i­ty of the sher­if­f’s mun­dane activ­i­ty, set­ting the stage for the inves­ti­ga­tion into Chase Andrews’ death.

This chap­ter seam­less­ly com­bines the inno­cence of child­hood adven­ture with the harsh intru­sion of mor­tal­i­ty, all with­in the back­drop of a close-knit com­mu­ni­ty in 1969. The vivid descrip­tion of the set­ting and the char­ac­ters’ imme­di­ate reac­tion to their har­row­ing find evokes a sense of urgency and fore­bod­ing, lead­ing the nar­ra­tive into the unfold­ing mys­tery sur­round­ing Chase Andrews’ untime­ly demise.