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“Hi, this is Mark Kallin from John Jay College in New York, returning your call.”

“Thank you for getting back to me, Professor Kallin.”

Denise snapped to a fresh page in her notebook.

Since returning to the newsroom after her doorstep interview with Carrie, she’d made a flurry of calls. In between talking with sources and double-checking details, she’d kept an eye on Lynn’s empty office, watching for her editor’s return.

Denise wanted to talk to her. She had a good story and wanted to get started writing. She was saddened by what it would imply, but she had collected key facts, and it was her job to report them.

Her call to Mark Kallin, a criminology professor, would strengthen her piece. As the author of a number of books, and a person who’d testified in major cases, Kallin was a leading expert on the psychology of false confessions. Denise took a few minutes relating her latest findings to him.

“Interesting,” he said. “I’ve heard about this Texas case.”

“What do you think?”

“Well, we know people make false confessions.”

Kallin listed reasons ranging from a suspect’s mental and emotional state, to their age, to being stressed, traumatized, depressed or coerced.

“What about to help someone else?”

“Absolutely,” Kallin said. “Some people intentionally make a false confession to protect others. And given the context you’ve provided in the case of Donnie Ray Hyde, with his impending execution at the time, it’s not inconceivable for him to have made a false confession to benefit his mother.”

Denise tightened her grip on her pen as she jotted down Kallin’s words, asking a few more questions before ending her interview and thanking him. Then, looking for her editor, she saw Lynn at the aquarium, checking her cherished blue bettas, guppies and tetras.

Denise went to her.

“Hey,” Lynn said, “I have a fun story for you.”

“Can we talk in your office first?”

“So serious. All right.”

Inside, Denise closed the door, and Lynn sat down and picked up a slip of paper.

“Before you start,” Lynn said, “the story is twin sisters who turn ninety-nine next week. We need an upbeat feature on them, with a bit of history of Clear River through their eyes.”

“Sure, but I got something new on the murders.”

“Right.” Lynn removed her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “You’ve been chipping away at it. What do you have?”

Denise went through it point by point: Carrie had been a suspect; Vern visited Hyde on death row, resulting in his confession; and Hyde’s mother had received financial relief through a friend of Vern’s. “It can’t be a coincidence,” Denise said. She continued, telling Lynn about Professor Kallin’s take on Hyde’s confession. She then brought up Opal Wells and the Ben Franklin quote, showing Lynn photos of it on her phone.

“Remember, no weapon or casings were found. No strong physical evidence,” Denise said.

Lynn nodded.

“And there’s the shoes,” Denise said.

“The shoes?”

Denise related how crime scene reports in the files indicated a partial shoe impression attributed to the killer, which would be Hyde, as being size eleven.

“But Hyde was a size nine. I called the TDCJ—they confirmed size nine from his inmate records. I called his mother, then the funeral director who handled his remains. Again, size nine. Also, Hyde’s fellow death row inmate, Darnell George Sharp, claimed to have received Hyde’s size nine shoes.”

Lynn nodded slowly. “Good work. Outstanding. It’s almost there.”

“Almost there? What do you mean?”

Steepling her fingers, Lynn touched them to her lips.

“You raise good questions. Questions that challenge the validity of Hyde’s confession. You cast doubt on the official story of what happened in the woods and who killed Abby and Erin.”

“But?”

“What you have proves nothing .”

“You want me to drop it?”

“No. Not at all. I didn’t say that.” She held up a finger. “We need one more thing.”

“What?”

Lynn checked the time. It was midafternoon.

“Go to Will Young.”

“The DA?”

“Yes, present the facts of the Chronicle ’s investigation to the district attorney. Put all your cards on the table. Like you did for me. Get his reaction on the record.”

“Then?”

“Then, no matter what he says, we go with your story.”