The Last Letter from Stillwater.

Stillwater, Montana, wasn't a drive-through. You came up there, or you left and didn't return. And for 23-year-old Cassie Dalton, returning after eight years gone felt like walking into a memory.

Gravel crunched under her feet as she ascended the path to her deceased grandfather's cabin. Wood smoke and pine scent lingered over all. The cabin was just the same in there as she recalled: still, tidy, and full of teeny bits of him — the American flag folded up neatly into a triangular tip on the fireplace mantel, the battered Vietnam war vet cap tossed over the door, and the dented Royal typewriter on the desk.

Cassie had left Stillwater to become a New York City journalist. But when her grandfather passed away, he left her a three-word clue: "Find the truth."

She had no clue what that was — until she found the letter.

It was tucked away in the typewriter, rolled up inside a letter "To The People of Stillwater." The handwriting was unmistakably her grandfather's.

The letter wrote of an old town secret — of a land sale, a lost war hero, and corruption all the way to the mayor's office in 1975. Cassie knew immediately: this was her story.

And then there was an uproar. She started to investigate, to ask questions, to rattle the skeletons out of Stillwater closets. They told her to stop. Her tires were slashed. A boulder broke her window one night. But she never quit.

Cassie posted the story on the Internet, backed by scanned letters, photographs, and taped interviews. It was a sensation — not just in Stillwater, but nationwide. It led to a new investigation. The mayor resigned. The missing vet's family finally received closure.

Cassie hadn't meant to remain. But in the way the town realigned — the way everyone looked at her again with their eyes — she couldn't depart.

She created a small-town newspaper, "The Stillwater Voice." Not for publicity, but the truth is important, even in small-town America.

And on the office wall, above where she worked at her desk, her grandfather's letter was posted.