Kyle Whitmire | AL.com

There are two ways the Robert Bentley saga goes from here.

One is a hard conclusion. Let's call it the Stephen King ending — the closest the master of horror ever gets to happily ever after.

And all the people of Derry, Maine, silently agreed never to talk about that Horrible Thing That Happened ever again.

In the Stephen King ending, from time to time, someone might mention the Horrible Thing, only for other people in the coffee klatch to roll their eyes, mutter to themselves or shuffle their chairs with disapproval. Somebody else, probably a smart aleck newspaper columnist, might draw comparisons between Some New Bad Thing and the Horrible Thing. But for the most part, the story of the Horrible Thing stops here.

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John Hammontree

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That might be a relief, given the embarrassment this has caused Alabama already. Why not put this Horrible Thing behind us? Can’t we pretend Kay Ivey holds her office because we, the voters, put her there? Isn’t that for the best?

Alabama is good at the Stephen King ending, maybe even better than Castle Rock or Derry, Maine. We consign the sins of segregation to civil rights museums. We whistle past our Civil War graveyards. And when someone points out that all that Confederate bunting is made from threads of oppression, we slather a messy coat of heritage over all that hate.

However, there’s a toll to pay for the Stephen King ending. The culpable, the complicit and the guilty go unpunished, free to wreck some new hell in a later novel. Loose plot lines dangle. Mysteries go unsolved.

But there’s another tack this story can take: that we resolve this thing, in such a way that that Horrible Thing never comes back. That we follow all those threads to their ends. That we solve the Bentley saga’s unsolved mysteries.

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What was the deal with Luther Strange?

When Bentley appointed Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange to replace Jeff Sessions in the United State Senate, the deal stunk. Strange ducked questions of a Bentley investigation with coy answers, and he even said that speculation about an investigation was unfair to the governor.

We now know Strange’s office was running an active grand jury investigation into the governor. We know that Strange, knowing this investigation was running, solicited the appointment from Bentley. What we don’t know is what sort of deal was struck.

Now lawmakers say they confronted the governor about it and that Bentley told them he had to promote Strange to get him out of the state. A bar complaint has been filed against Strange, but those proceedings take place in secret.

It’s clear Strange sold out Alabama for a Senate seat, but Alabama needs to know what were the terms of the deal.

(READ: Robert Bentley's Strange bargain sets new benchmark for Alabama corruption)

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What's the deal with Jon Mason?

When the governor's affair became public last year, Jon Mason published a statement calling it a family problem that had been mended long ago. Mason stood by as his wife went on trips alone with the governor — knowing they had engaged in some kind of funny business.

Suppose you’re a married person who's had problems in your marriage. Maybe you’ve patched things up. But would you stand by while your spouse went on trip with the other man or woman?

Can we all agree this is more than a little weird?

What’s more, Mason was set up by the governor with a patronage job for which he had little experience and thin qualifications.

We need to know, was Mason being paid for his silence, or worse, for license to run around with his wife?

(READ MORE: Jon Mason loses state job)

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How deep was UA in the muck?

So many cords in the the Bentley affair run back to Tuscaloosa, Alabama needs to know what was the deal at Bama. We know the University paid the Masons’ company, ostensibly for billboards. Those payments were made through, of all things, Paypal, and were part of a no-bid contract.

Meanwhile, the university participated in potentially lucrative consulting work with the Gulf State Park hotel reconstruction — a conspicuous project, the ins and outs of which have not been sufficiently explored or explained.

Whatever the deal was there, it was enough for the university to withdraw once the deal became a public spectacle, and curiously the university’s lawyer, Cooper Shattuck, resigned in the aftermath.

(READ MORE: Jon Mason refuses to explain $245,600 from UA, couple's complex financial web)

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What was Cooper Shattuck's role?

In addition to his role in the Gulf State Park project, Shattuck worked in the shadows of the Bentley administration. He set up the governor’s dark money non-profit, ACEGOV, and when the time came for Bentley to resign, Shattuck helped broker a deal.

The unanswered question here is whether, by pushing Bentley to make a deal, he was really acting to protect himself.

(READ MORE: Cooper Shattuck resigns as top lawyer for University of Alabama system)

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Who contributed to ACEGOV?

The governor’s nonprofit served as a political slush fund used to pay Mason, but what’s still unknown is who paid money into it. ACEGOV has fought to keep its donor list secret, but we won’t know who was currying the governor’s favor until those records are public.

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Was it Franklin Haney?

What we do know is that a Chattanooga billionaire and real estate developer Franklin Haney gave at least $300,000 through political action committees to the governor’s campaign. We know that Haney also met with Bentley to seek his support for privatizing an unfinished TVA nuclear power plant in northeast Alabama. We know that Bentley gave Haney political support for that deal. And we know the deal went to Haney, just as he wanted.

What we don’t know, but suspect, is that Haney was a contributor to ACEGOV. When asked, Haney has said he couldn’t remember if he put money into Bentley’s non-profit.

Could Alabama soon have a nuclear power plant of questionable safety running in north Alabama because the governor needed money to pay his girlfriend? Alabamians deserve to know.

(READ: After hefty campaign donations, Bentley benefactor gets governor's support to go nuclear)

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Where are Bentley's emails and text messages?

In his farewell address, Bentley said he received emails and text messages from supporters every day. That’s funny, because for the last two years, the governor’s office has insisted that Bentley didn’t use those things.

When we requested those documents, Bentley’s then-spokeswoman, Jennifer Ardis, said they didn’t exist. That was a lie and a blatant violation of the state’s open records law.

We now know for a fact that the governor and Mason used email and texts for state business, as well as for their affair, but we still haven’t seen all those documents.

(READ MORE: Gov. Bentley isn't stupid, but he thinks you are)

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Justin King

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Why were flight logs altered?

The Alabama House’s impeachment investigators discovered that at least some flight logs had been edited, but the Bentley administration would not provide the unedited logs. If the logs had been altered to cover up the affair, that’s serious and possibly a violation of state law.

(READ: Flight logs detail turbulence in Robert Bentley's personal life)

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Who came and went at the Governor's Mansion?

Further, the administration refused to provide visitor logs to the governor’s mansion and the Blount mansion, a second Montgomery estate used by the governor’s office. Those records are public records, destroying them is a crime, and Alabama deserves to know what’s being concealed there.

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Why didn't Butch Ellis recuse earlier?

Alabama Ethics Commissioner Butch Ellis is related by marriage to Bentley, so when the commission voted whether to refer charges against the governor for prosecution, Ellis abstained.

However, it’s understood that Ellis didn’t completely recuse himself from the proceedings when Bentley’s case was being considered behind closed doors.

Why not?

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What was ALEA's role in the cover-up?

It’s clear that the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency helped cover up the Bentley affair. Bentley used the agency to intimidate witnesses and beat down rumors of his infidelity. When the affair eventually did become known after former ALEA Secretary Spencer Collier told all, Bentley’s office had the agency investigate Collier for dirt it could use to smear him.

The full extent of ALEA’s role in the coverup must be exposed before the state can trust its law enforcement again.

(READ: Why Alabama's top cop, Stan Stabler, should be the next to go)

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Hubbard case interference

The turning point in the Bentley scandal was when the governor insisted that ALEA Sec. Spencer Collier not cooperate with the Attorney General’s office in the Mike Hubbard prosecution. When Collier violated those orders, Bentley put Collier on medical leave and looked for reasons to fire him.

Collier also says that Bentley wanted him to submit a false affidavit in the case.

Bentley and Hubbard were never allies, making the governor’s interference that much more suspicious.

(READ: Robert Bentley's scandal isn't about sex; it's about Mike Hubbard)

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What was in Bentley's safe deposit box?

Everyone forgets about the safe deposit box. In the days after the Bentley-Mason affair became public knowledge, the political blog Yellowhammer reported that Bentley had opened a safe deposit box with Mason at a Montgomery bank. The governor confirmed to the New York Times that he alone had bought the safe deposit box but that Mason had access to it.

Perhaps more than any other object, the Luv Guv’s mystery box typifies all that remains hidden or unknown, still waiting to be opened.

This saga won’t be over until we find out what’s inside.