Marcus’s book becomes a number-one bestseller, and he still has no word from Harry.

October 23, 2008: Perry calls with astonishing news. Louisa Kellergan, Nola’s mother, died in 1969 in a house fire in Alabama: The book and investigation are both wrong. People in Somerset knew Marcus had made a mistake or lied, and nobody wanted to say anything.

Marcus goes back to Concord and, checking his notes and recorded conversations, realizes he conjectured Louise was alive—nobody told him so. Additionally, he learns Harry has not been staying at the Sea Side motel in the past months. An old man came to see him there, and the clerk called the police. They find out that was David Kellergan. They attempt to see him, but he is too angry. At the motel desk, Harry has left Marcus the key to the gym locker in Montburry. Inside the locker, Marcus finds a bound manuscript and a letter that says the book offers the truth. The book’s title is The Seagulls of Somerset, written by Harry L. Quebert. The manuscript is a story about Harry and Nola, which Marcus guesses Harry wrote after The Origin of Evil.