“In fact,” Gurney went on, “he didn’t seem interested in denying anything. Seemed comfortable admitting that he profited enormously from Carl’s death. No problem admitting that he hated the man. Happy to reel off all the reasons everyone should have hated him.”

Esti nodded. “Called him ‘monster,’ ‘sociopath,’ ‘megalomaniac’…”

“Also called him ‘positively satanic,’ ” added Hardwick. “As opposed to himself, who he’d like us to see as positively angelic.”

Esti continued. “He admitted he’d do anything for that Cathedral thing of his. Anything. Actually sounded like he was bragging.” She paused. “It’s strange. He admitted to all these motives for murder like it didn’t matter. Like he felt we couldn’t touch him.”

“Like a man with powerful connections,” added Hardwick.

“Except at the end,” said Gurney.

Esti frowned. “You mean the thing about his mother?”

“Unless he’s the world’s greatest actor, I believe he was truly disturbed at that point. But I’m not sure whether he was disturbed by the fact that she might have been murdered, or by the fact that we knew about it. I also find it peculiar that he was eager to know what evidence we had but never asked the more basic question: ‘Why would someone kill my mother?’ ”

Hardwick showed his teeth in a humorless grin. “Kinda gives you the impression that the warm and wonderful Jonah in reality might not give a fuck about anyone. Including his mother.”

Esti looked confused. “So where do we go from here?”

Hardwick’s chilly grin widened. He pointed at Gurney’s list of unresolved issues lying on the table next to the open laptop. “That’s easy. We follow the ace detective’s road map of clues and clever questions.”

They each took one of the copies Gurney had printed out. They read through the eight points silently.

The further down the list Esti read, the more worried her expression became. “This list is … depressing.”

Gurney asked what gave her that feeling.

“It makes it painfully clear that we don’t know much at this point. Don’t you agree?”

“Yes and no,” said Gurney. “It enumerates a lot of unanswered questions, but I’m convinced that discovering the answer to any one of them could make all the others fall into place.”