THOMPSON HAD BEEN reading from a report that had been provided to him by the officer who interviewed Logan. He now picked up the folder with Danny’s name on it. “I know that some of you are aware that Danny spent time in jail for a particularly brutal crime that he committed with his brother.” Except for Tom Schroeder, all the people at the table had grown up in Cuyahoga County and were aware of this, and so they just kept silent in reaction to the comment. Without knowing it, they had come to a tacit agreement not to mention this incident. But Tom was shocked.

“What do you mean, Dave? Are you saying that Danny and Tony went to jail for killing someone?”

“No, the individual was not murdered, but Danny beat him with a tire iron, and had it not been for his brother stopping him, it is almost certain he would have killed the man.”

Tom was befuddled. Danny in jail? He knew about Tony, but always presumed he was busted as a kid for selling pot or something benign like that. Tony would say he’d made some mistakes as a teenager, but he was upfront about it, and said that’s what had convinced him he had to change. Tony alluded to that time as a life lesson that had contributed to his success. Tom didn’t know what to make of the fact that it actually had been a serious and violent crime.

“That’s really hard to believe, Dave, because Danny just doesn’t, I mean, didn’t have a temper. When did—”

Mitch jumped in. “It’s true, Tom. Danny and Tony broke into some guy’s house one night to crack into his safe and steal money. They didn’t think anyone would be home, so it wasn’t like a home invasion or anything, where they intended to harm someone. But it turned out the son of the owner was asleep in the house, and then Danny beat the crap out of him, and the guy wound up in the hospital, seriously injured. There was some other guy involved, but he was killed in a car accident trying to escape.”

Tom just sat back, stunned, and let out a long, slow breath. At that point, Anna and Maryann returned, and asked what they were talking about. Tom told Anna he would explain things later.

“And the testimony,” Thompson added, “was very explicit about the fact that Danny completely lost control of himself and was vicious in his attack. So, while that in itself isn’t proof that he committed this crime, it does make what I’m about to tell you much more plausible.