Dirty Windows

TONY is riding high: Derek, his great boyfriend; the star quarterback of the Eagles; king of Greenwood High School. Then one night he finds himself stripped, gagged, and tied to the base of an ancient, gnarled oak tree. Tony is surrounded by white-hooded thugs, chanting what an abomination he is before the eyes of God. Understandably, he goes into a tailspin, especially in light of the fact they murdered Derek and threw the body in the woods like so much garbage.

That was January. In August he crosses paths with ROB and MATT, best friends since grade school and each separately wondering and worrying about all these thoughts and feelings they're having about other males. One weekend the two best friends come together sexually. They decide they must leave. Rob knows he can't stay, because he was there the night they tied Tony to the tree. (Rob’s family has belonged to the KKK for generations.) In fact, Rob is the one who cut Tony loose and let him escape. Matt, because of his dire misunderstanding of an off comment by his father, feels he must leave, too.

Rob and Matt come across Tony, hitchhiking, and they take off into the South Carolina woods.

The three teens aren’t the only ones in the woods that week. DETECTIVE BAILEY and DEPUTY LOGE, who is brand new to the sheriff’s office, start putting together clues to the teens’ whereabouts. They also soon realize the urgency to find Tony, Rob, and Matt, because they discover Rob's father Elias and Elias's KKK cronies are also hunting for the teens. The detective and deputy have no way of knowing their efforts are hampered by a mole in the sheriff’s office Elias put there years ago.

The week becomes a voyage of self-discovery and revelation, aided by colorful characters along the way. Wild-haired, homeless, drunken KELLY. GEORGE, Elias’s older brother, tries to be the voice of reason but remains driven by guilt. MRS. KNIGHT runs the women’s shelter where Rob’s mom MICHAELA goes with his two little brothers after she tells Detective Bailey everything.

In the end everything comes back to that gnarled old arthritic oak tree in that far-off hidden field. Elias has the three teens. Detective Bailey has only one person to turn to: the mole, and he’s not talking. The teens are hungry, filthy, exhausted, and terrified with nooses around their necks. Only an act of supreme sacrifice saves them all.​