Motive: A Problem Like Maria

POVZETEK

The victim: Maria Snow. The killer: Neville Montgomery. Two eyewitnesses saw Maria's body crashing atop a car parked on the street, she apparently falling from the seventh floor of the adjacent heritage building, recently purchased by Neville. Everything is consistent with the fall being the cause of death. The homicide detectives are certain that Neville is behind Maria's death, despite they working leads pursuing Robert as the murderer. They see it tied into Neville's harassment of Angie through his goon breaking into her home, and her beloved car being blown up in front of her eyes. That belief is only solidified by Deputy Chief Halford placing Mark in charge of the investigation. With Mark in charge, the question concerning him is if he will do anything to cross Halford, which in turn could jeopardize what looks to be his upward trajectory in the force. To tie the murder back to Neville, the detectives are going to have to find out exactly what Maria's game plan was, namely why she sold out Robert to accept the Vice-President job under Neville if she earlier wanted Angie to help her prove that Neville was involved in Derek Caster's murder. This case proves more difficult for Oscar, Angie, and Betty due to their thoughts being on Oscar's health and his imminent surgery, the prognosis from which is uncertain.