The Shadows: A Novel

Paul drives from the hotel to his mother’s house to test his theory. In his old bedroom, he finds Charlie Crabtree’s dream diary tucked inside one of his own notebooks, hidden because they used the same notebook. Reading the entries, he realizes how Charlie pretended to have shared a dream with James: The diary contains multiple, pre-written entries about a figure called Red Hands, which, along with Charlie’s careful seeding of images and stories, meant that eventually, he and James would appear to dream about the same thing.

Wondering how his mother got the diary, Paul suspects she knew more about Charlie’s disappearance. He wonders why she never exposed what she knew. He looks out the window and sees a figure he recognizes outside. After a brief wave, Paul leaves the diary on a bed, locks the house, and follows the figure.

At the Gritten Police Department, Amanda researches the Dawson family. She learns that James Dawson lived a troubled life after the original murder, and she finds records of domestic disturbances at his parents’ home. They also find out that a neighbor reported seeing a man leaving Carl and Eileen Dawson’s house shortly before the two bodies were discovered.