Again, there was silence in the room, but contemplative this time. Raising his hand halfway, as in school, Lester asked, “I hate to say this, but while we have video of Don Kalfus being knocked out and stuffed into the trunk, we don’t really have proof that he died there. It could be the mystery passenger is more than just someone along for the ride.”

Willy laughed. “Jesus, Les. Nice. That’s outside the box. Can I add that Seamus murdering Lucy is totally circumstantial? Even with what turned out to be his dying confession, some lawyer could argue he was actually taking one for the team.”

“A team that put a bomb on him,” Lester protested.

“Hey,” Willy pushed back. “Old hat for Seamus. Didn’t they also kidnap and abuse him as a kid? How did he react then? He became one of them. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Drill sergeants have known that for centuries.”

“Hang on,” Joe cut in. “I know I’m supposed to say, ‘Enough, back to the case,’ but we’re onto something here. We’re talking about what may be crucial missing pieces. What if they go to the essence of what we already got in hand?”

“The psychology behind the hard evidence?” Sam asked generally.

“Kind of,” Joe replied. “People do what they do for a reason. Could be logical, could be impulsive, and, to your point, Willy, could also be the result of brainwashing. We got this far chasing stolen property, helium rental forms, watching videos, connecting tax records to suspects, and a bunch of other good police work. It’s great and we have people in jail, but what about the driving engines behind it all?”

“The why instead of the how?” Lester asked.

“Right. We’re told not to worry much about motive. Stick to the facts, build on the evidence, let the prosecutors earn their bucks. But we always wonder about the why. It’s human nature to ask, ‘What the hell were you thinking?’”

He rose and stood looking at them. “I’ll tell you what’s been bugging me from the very start of this investigation. It’s the same thing Willy said a few minutes ago: Why was Don Kalfus killed? It might’ve been Scooter Nelson’s phone, but Don was like a vacuum cleaner. He stole everything. He wouldn’t have cared. Why not just buy it back? Or steal it back? Less muss and fuss. Less heat from the likes of us. It doesn’t make sense unless we can find the reason behind it.”

“Don was a fall guy,” Willy suggested.

“That’s what I’m wondering,” Joe agreed. “He ended up in the middle of something way outside his ballpark.”

“Which got him killed,” Sam said, almost to herself.

“And leaves us where?” Lester asked.

“In an unusual place,” Joe suggested. “With the prosecution happy and high fives all around, we need to quietly review everything that led us here and figure out if we got it right. That includes rechecking the evidence and extracting fingerprints and DNA across the board, regardless of the suspect’s current importance. For example, Shaw’s Mercedes—we had prints there we never ran because our theory held water. Let’s run everything now, especially around that passenger seat.”