Helen: But you can never tell. No one knows what they’d do. There aren’t many people who’ll ever be in a situation where your friend, your neighbor, invites you into a house where you’ve been a hundred times, you’re drinking and hanging out, and all of a sudden you walk into a crime scene and your friend says, “Hey, hold this ax.” So I know it’s exciting for people online to spin these conspiracy theories and speculate that the guy who reported the crime was involved, but I think there are some extenuating circumstances. I mean, first, he’s in shock.

Julia: Well, you’d have to be.

Helen: For all the reasons we just said. This isn’t a situation he ever imagined he’d be in. And second, he was in danger. Real, immediate, personal danger. Brady’s bulky, strong; it’s clear from the setup he’s done this before; he’s literally holding a weapon. I know it’s not action-movie material, but the truth is that if Michael had tried fight or flight, either way, he’d be dead.

Julia: Victim number eleven, Marcus Fontenot, was ex-military, a really big guy.

Helen: Exactly. And there’s another reason we didn’t talk about yet. Those cameras and monitors. You and I know the police found cameras in the house next door and footage from lots of houses in the neighborhood. Michael claimed that earlier they’d found some of them in his home, but they looked old and the batteries were dead and they swept to try to detect any others, and they just figured it was something to do with the former owner. But Brady was there where they looked for the cameras. He’s the one who did the electronic sweep.

Julia: He pretended to do an electronic sweep.

Helen: We know that now. And I bet—I mean, Michael’s an engineer, he’s no fool. When he saw the video setup in that room, he had to think about his own home. Where his wife and baby were. So he’s in shock, he’s afraid for his life, and he’s afraid for his family. So he goes along with Brady, buying time so that he can get out of there. Which he does. He goes back, gets his wife and baby, they drive to the police station, and that’s how Brady’s caught.

Julia: And the internet speculation—he must have known, he must have been involved, why was he there so long? He was there for over five hours.

Helen: But not five full hours of murder. Not that fifteen minutes or whatever makes it better.

Julia: Like how long is too long?