Big Lies in a Small Town: A Novel

While Oliver grapples with the text to accompany the presentation of Anna’s mural, Lisa enters the gallery and informs them that Nelle died during the night. With her death, Morgan fears that her connection to the past has been lost.

As speculation over Martin’s disappearance runs wild, Anna finds herself in denial and wonders if she’s losing her grip on reality. While she struggles with her mental health and loses motivation to continue her work, Jesse paints the mural’s background for her. One morning, she arrives at the warehouse to find Jesse staring at the mural. He is shocked that she has painted the front end of a motorcycle protruding from the Tea Party ladies’ skirts and offers to paint over it, but Anna insists that the motorcycle remain in the mural.

After Nelle’s death, Morgan returns to her library research and stumbles upon a news article reporting Martin’s disappearance. She finds a second article, this one about Anna closing the warehouse to the public while she finishes the mural. She copies the articles and shows them to Oliver. He is intrigued but believes that the mystery of Anna and her mural will never be solved.