An End to Etcetera

A boy. A shadow. A murder.

Or not?

Pathological liar? Sociopathic killer? Or just a troubled kid seeking attention? These are the questions that haunt an obsessive-compulsive therapist as she undertakes the most challenging case of her career.

Sitting on a couch two feet across from her is an ordinary-looking teenager who confessed in a text, inadvertently broadcast to his entire school, to murdering an autistic child left in his care. With no evidence to support Leal Porter's testimony, authorities have referred him to Selena Harris for counseling.

Challenging her professional distance is the emotional bond she develops with this lonely, isolated boy, whom classmates describe as "that scrawny kid who talks to himself at his locker." Although Selena believes the alleged victim is the product of her client's fevered imagination, she harbors one major doubt:

What if she's wrong?

Selena can relate to Leal's feeling of isolation, especially as she has returned to her small hometown on the heels of a divorce to take care of her father, who has suffered a debilitating stroke. In Leal's case, however, he's a school outcast due to his predisposition to tell tall tales to worm his way out of trouble.

Stepping outside the confines of her office in a quest for clues, Selena is willing to violate her ethical oath in her dogged determination to separate fact from fiction. But nothing in her experience prepares her for the harrowing revelation of the inner demon that lurks beneath the surface of Leal's confession.