There were three plates on the tray. On each there was an elaborate, delicately arranged display of sushi. The colors were beautiful, the shapes intricate. None of the ingredients were familiar to Gurney—nor, apparently, to Kim, who was studying the display with alarm.

“Another Toshiro masterpiece,” said Getz.

“Who’s Toshiro?” asked Kim.

Getz’s eyes glinted. “He’s the prize I stole from a hot sushi restaurant in the city.” He took one of the bright little chunks from the plate nearest him and popped it into his mouth.

Gurney followed suit. It was unidentifiable but surprisingly delicious.

Kim, who appeared to be calling on her reserves of courage, tried a piece and visibly relaxed after a few seconds of chewing. “Lovely,” she said. “So now he’s your personal chef?”

“One of the rewards.”

“You must be very good at what you do,” said Gurney.

“I’m very good at recognizing what people will connect with.” Getz paused, then added as though the idea had just dawned on him, “My talent is the ability to recognize talent.”

Gurney nodded blandly, intrigued by the man’s shameless self-regard.

Kim seemed eager to move the conversation back to Orphans. “I was wondering … did you learn anything from your Run It or Dump It polling that I should take into account with my remaining interviews?”

He gave her a shrewd look. “Just keep doing what you’re doing. You’ve got that natural innocent thing going for you. Don’t overthink it. That’s for now. Long-term I smell an extension opportunity and a spin-off opportunity. The Orphans concept has strong emotional appeal. It’s got legs that take it way beyond the six Good Shepherd victim families. It extends easily to families of other murder victims. It’s a natural franchise, so maybe we can run with it. But it also leads to a second concept—the unsolved angle. Right now we’ve got both those things wrapped up together. You got the pain of the families, right? But you also have an escaped murderer, the lack-of-closure thing. So I’m thinking if Orphans runs out of juice, we could switch the emphasis. I’m thinking of a spin-off deal—In the Absence of Justice—new show, we just shift the slant to the injustice of unsolved crimes. The lingering injustice.”

Getz sat back, watching her absorb this.

She looked uncertain. “That … could work … I guess.”

Getz leaned forward. “Look, I understand where you’re coming from—the emotional angle, the pain, the suffering, the loss. Just a matter of adjusting the balance. Series one, we have more pain-and-loss emphasis. Series two, we have more unsolved-crime emphasis. And now I just got a whole other idea. Came to me out of the blue, just looking at this guy here.” He pointed at Gurney, with the glint of discovery in his hooded eyes.