My Pleasure Reading. Summary (pages 61-140)

Hightower a former clergyman is driven from his post at the church after his adulterous wife is found dead at a Memphis hotel, where she has been staying with another man. Byron has sought out Hightower for advice. He takes Lena to his residence at Mrs. Beard’s boardinghouse, telling that Lena would like to meet her husband and needs to rest.After a few days this house catches the fire , an unknown man finds Joe Brown drinking at the bottom of the stairs, suspiciously trying to deflect the man’s attentions from upstairs. Nonetheless,the man goes upstairs and finds Miss Burden lying on the floor, almost entirely decapitated.The man goes back downstairs, Brown has gone.
The next day Brown shows up at the police station , declaring Joe Christmas the killer. Brown reveals that Christmas has been Miss Burden’s lover for nearly three years and that Christmas promise to kill him if he spreads this information. When Brown senses that the sheriff is questioning his credibility, he reveals that Christmas is part “negro” blood. Sheriff is sure of Christmas’s guilt and locks Brown up and gathers a posse to search for the presumed fugitive.