Paul recognized the jacket the young man wore. It belonged to Sheriff Dane’s son, Charlie — now the town’s prosecutor, leading the case against Joel.
Charlie had been “The Painter.” He had been secretly dating Nola in 1994. On the night she vanished, she had threatened to expose him for a different crime — one involving another missing girl. In a rage, Charlie struck her. Joel arrived too late. He helped hide the body, not out of guilt, but out of love for Nola — and to protect Charlie, who was his own illegitimate son, a secret Joel had kept for thirty years.
Aurora Falls was not quaint; it was a trap. Paul discovered that Lucy had been researching the 1994 case. She found a witness — an old groundskeeper named Silas. But before Paul could talk to Silas, the man’s house burned down. Arson. Inside, a photograph: Joel, Nola, and a young man whose face had been scratched out.
It was his old mentor, Joel D. — a literary legend who had retreated to the sleepy town of Aurora Falls twenty years ago. The “she” was fifteen-year-old Lucy Crain, Joel’s neighbor and protégée. And “just like Nola” was a reference to the unsolved 1994 disappearance that had haunted Joel’s most famous novel.
The Truth About the Case of Joel D.
The manuscript told a different version of that summer. It named three people: Nola, Joel, and a third person identified only as “The Painter.” The story ended mid-sentence: “And if anyone finds this, the truth is—”
The case of Joel D. was closed. The book Paul wrote became his masterpiece. But at the signing tour, a reporter asked: “Why did you call it ‘The Truth About the Case of Joel D.’ when Joel was innocent?”
Paul smiled. “Because sometimes the accused is the only one left to protect us from the truth.”