The Bitterroots Quotes
"Because it was dark, there was no delineation between the fresh fuel in front of the blaze and the smoking cinders behind it. The fire seemed like a living thing, a snake, a nocturnal beast more alive at night than during the day."
"It had been the Summer of Fire in Montana, and it wasn’t over yet."
"I’m not a monster, I’m just a stupid drunk uncle who thought he was doing the right thing."
"She told me she loved me once and now she kicks me in the nuts."
"I’m waiting for the internment camps. I’m waiting for the armies of intolerance to take over the streets and round up the gays and brown-skinned immigrants."
"I’m telling you what I know and what I suspect."
"I didn’t come home. I came back. There’s a big fucking difference."
"If there are one or two good ones in a very large family it is as much as can be expected."
"I suffer no legal disabilities and have personal knowledge of the facts set forth below."
"I was surprised when instead of my mother waiting for me in the parking lot it was my uncle Blake."
"He said it was hard to talk to anyone these days because they were always on their phone—especially kids my age."
"He said he wanted to show me where he spent most of his time when he was growing up on the ranch."
"I thought that was weird, but most adults are weird. I didn’t feel threatened at that time."
"We went down a kind of rough dirt road up into the trees. It was in a part of the ranch I’ve never seen before."
"I know you aren’t supposed to go somewhere with a stranger. But Uncle Blake wasn’t a stranger. He was my uncle."
"I didn’t scream because I didn’t know what to do and there was no one to hear me."
"You bastard," Cassie said aloud. "I hope you rot in Deer Lodge."
"He was a good man, an honest cop as far as sheriffs went."
"The wine in her glass rippled and she could feel a low rumbling through the soles of her slippers from the floor."
"She knew it couldn’t have been the Lizard King. She knew he was dead."
"His face was panic but Cassie didn’t say a word."
"Instead, though, it drove home the fact time and time again how he paled in comparison."
"These little snowflakes had no idea what they were going to face when they got out into the real world."
"She knew she’d have to discreetly ask around for a name or two of counselors who could keep their mouths shut."
"The valley might be breathtakingly beautiful, she thought, but it cloaked one of the worst episodes from the settling of the state and the country."
"She was grateful she’d not brought him to her house to meet Ben last summer."
"Her instincts had been right on that count, even if they’d been a little skewed when it came to going out with Bryan in the first place."
"The sharp outline of Trapper Peak, at 10,157 feet, dominated the western wall of mountains."
"The Church of Trout, Cody claimed facetiously, was made up of hundreds of thousands of members who looked the part, dressed the part, and never went near a river."
"It used to be, she thought, that these tourists would no doubt be dedicated fly fishermen."
"There was still a half a bottle of wine but she knew drinking more would be a bad idea."
"There was no rumbling semi outside, and the only light was a dim beige frame of it on the borders of her drawn curtains from the streetlight in the parking lot."
"I work for the people of Lochsa County, even those who didn’t vote for me."
"It’s probably nothing," Murdock said. "Mistakes happen. Things get misfiled or lost in the mail."
"What you have to understand is that everything is a long way from everything else here."
"I told him the poem would be much more interesting if it was told from Helen’s point of view."
"I never allow myself to think that way. My only concern is to provide the best defense possible."
"You need to keep your hands on the wheel where I can see them. Do not make any sudden moves unless I ask you to do so."
"If you start to take notes like this is some kind of interrogation I’ll leave and you’ll never see me again."
"I’ve been married thirty-one years to the long-suffering Kendra Johnson. We have two daughters and five grandchildren."
"Blake couldn’t remember the last name of the barmaid he was fucking? That’s so Blake."
"We opened them for the cattle haulers and you slipped right through."
"He had a stroke recently. A pretty bad one. He’s slowly getting his speech back, but right now I’m the only one who can understand him. I’m kind of his translator."
"It’s a little hard to enjoy my meal with you standing there staring at us like we’re fuckin’ zoo animals."
"That guy you’re trying to save is a fucking limp-dick monster."
"My name is Cassie Dewell. I’m a private investigator."
"Please, dude. This doesn’t have anything to do with you. It’s my problem."
"He says Blake means nothing more to him than any hopeless loser he passes on the highway or cow shit on the bottom of his boot."
"You’ll regret what you just said, you fucking nutjob."
"He knows where all the bodies are buried out there on that place."
"I’ve been waiting for you to show up. May I come in?"
"If you ever say anything like that again I’ll find you and I’ll take you out."
"I’m sorry, but I’m not with the family. I was with Linda when she was killed."
"They run everything. It would be hard to prove, but that's the way things work around here. That's the way they've always worked."
"He treated the other kids poorly? He turned them into dependents instead of independent people."
"I don’t want anyone encroaching on my family, especially some dumb preacher’s kid who’d likely want to get married."
"You spent the night in jail. You weren’t supposed to ever get there."
"I sometimes wondered the same thing myself. Cindy Lou, too."
"I can't do it myself at the moment. Find out everything you can about Deb Rangold and call me back."
"We'll see. What did you have on Cheyenne and Franny to convince the girl to make up that story?"
"There wasn’t any rain here this summer, which is one of the reasons we have all the fires. His tracks could have been made days or even weeks before the assault accusation."
"I don’t know what to believe. Franny does come across as quite the drama queen."
"I thought you said we were doing this to discover the truth."