Dwight Ball needed to talk to the authorities.

It was Oct. 8, 2015, five days after the shotgun slaying of a Good Samaritan who had intervened in a botched armed robbery at the Captain’s Quarters hotel in downtown St. John’s.

The police had released a picture of the masked suspect to the media.

Ball saw it.

He thought he might know who it was.

That hunch would ultimately draw a future premier into a murder investigation that, two years later, would play out dramatically at Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court.

His secret role in the proceedings — known only to a select few in the justice system — was revealed this week.

Ball had gone to court and won an injunction preventing CBC News from reporting on evidence contained in documents called ITOs, or information to obtain a search warrant. They are provided by police to a judge before permission is granted to do a search.

On Tuesday, a judge partially lifted that injunction.

Finally, the story could be told.

Finally, Ball would speak publicly about the events of 2015, and the months and weeks before he ascended to the pinnacle of politics in the province.

Finally, the complex tale of private turmoil affecting a public figure would spool out.

Here is that story.