Unraveling Secrets: Benjamin Hale on the Mysterious Disappearance That Haunts the Ozarks
But, a logical problem that had been a mystery for forty-five years: the Newton County Sheriff had already found the body himself a few hours after the arrests the previous day (i.e., making the immunity deal unnecessary and pointless). At some point I said to Ray, “Wait—did you or the Sheriff tell the cops in Benton County that you’d found the body?” Awkward silence. Boom — there’s the answer to the mystery. The thought clearly hadn’t occurred to him in forty-five years.
Anyway — my research process was basically just talking to people; which is a lot of fun, especially after years toiling in isolation in the fiction mines: putting on my journalist-hat, driving out to Jasper, Arkansas, finding people like Ray (who is nearly ninety, and works at the hardware store in Jasper), and having long, fascinating conversations with them. I love that kind of research—getting out into the wide and real world.
