“Yeah, but.” Shaw couldn’t put it into words, not yet. The reason was there, in the dark cloud of his mind, but he couldn’t reach it, couldn’t hold it, couldn’t put it into words. “He’s just not a blackmailer. I mean, even the timelines are weird. Regina’s been blackmailed for years, but Brueckmann’s blackmailer just contacted him a few weeks ago.”

“That makes perfect sense to me. Think about it: Mark somehow gets a hold of the blackmail material on Regina. He’s getting five hundred dollars a month, which is a lot for an aging drag queen, and it’s a nice little supplement to what Mark’s making. Everything’s going smoothly until Mark tries his experiment with Brueckmann. When that goes wrong, Mark is really out of luck. He’s got no house, no car, and no job because he got fired while he was playing puppy. But—Jesus Christ!” Then North’s voice grew distant again. “Ok, ok, ok, I’m sorry.” To Shaw, he said, “Remember not to take the Lord’s name in vain when a busload of nuns cuts you off.”

“Noted.”

“While Mark’s messing around with Brueckmann, he comes across that video, the one Brueckmann said is being used against him. Now Mark has the great idea to do his whole blackmail scheme, but to do it big. He’s got something serious on Brueckmann, and he’s got nothing to lose, so he’s goes full force.”

“Except Brueckmann wouldn’t have kept that video lying around; he didn’t even know about the video. Hell, he can’t even remember the guy he was with. And couldn’t it have worked the other way? Couldn’t Brueckmann have learned about the blackmail when he took over Mark’s life? And then Brueckmann put Mark up to it again—he wanted another sub, maybe, so he forces Mark to find somebody like Matty, somebody he can manipulate and control with blackmail?”

“How does that fit with what Reck told you? If somebody has been blackmailing important people in the area long enough for the cops to get wind of it, it’s not like it all started up recently. Brueckmann didn’t just steal Mark’s idea.”

“And Mark didn’t just blackmail one drag queen until he lost his job.”

“Damn.” The rush of air moving over the mic told Shaw that North was moving again. “Somebody’s lying to us. They’re probably all lying to us. This case has been messed up since the beginning.”

“What were you going to say about Matty?”

“What?”

“Earlier. What were you going to say?”

“Just that the case has been weird. That’s all.”

Somewhere outside, a trash can clattered, and then the same cat Shaw had seen earlier sprinted across the road and vanished into an overgrown row of hydrangeas.

“You know what we need to do?” North said.

“See Mark Sevcik’s apartment.”

“And let’s hope your boyfriend the detective doesn’t decide to check in on the place. Meet me there as soon as you can.”

Before Shaw could respond, North cut the call.