Eric Wu murders private investigator Rocky Conwell

Rocky Conwell’s murder turns the effort to follow Jack Lawson into a dangerous lead in its own right. Indira Khariwalla had hired Conwell to track Jack; after Conwell was killed, she told Scott Duncan about the murder and that Captain Stuart Perlmutter had questioned her. Perlmutter later named Eric Wu as the suspected killer, while the account leaves the circumstances and motive unresolved.

Background and Discovery

Conwell’s role in the case was to follow Jack Lawson, not to investigate Eric Wu. Indira revealed to Scott that she had hired Conwell for that purpose. His death therefore established that the search for Jack had drawn a private investigator into a lethal chain of events, although the evidence does not explain how Wu learned of Conwell’s work or whether that work prompted the killing.

Indira also told Scott that Captain Stuart Perlmutter had visited her the previous day and asked about Conwell. Scott asked whether she had invoked attorney–client privilege; Indira said she had. Perlmutter wanted to obtain a judge’s order compelling her to answer, placing the confidential circumstances of Conwell’s employment at the center of the investigation.

Investigative Assessment

Captain Stuart Perlmutter’s assessment connected Conwell’s murder to a wider series of crimes attributed to Eric Wu. He told Scott that Wu had broken into a house and assaulted its owner, leaving him temporarily paralyzed, and had shot another man. Perlmutter added that he believed Wu had also killed Conwell, the man who had been following Jack Lawson. The account presents this as Perlmutter’s informed suspicion, not as a description of the killing or a disclosed forensic finding.

Indira’s report that Conwell had been murdered and Perlmutter’s later suspicion converge on the same event from different points in the investigation. Her disclosure identifies Conwell’s assignment; Perlmutter’s account supplies the proposed link to Wu. Neither passage states when or where Conwell was killed, what weapon was used, or what evidence led Perlmutter to his conclusion.

Consequences and Significance

Conwell’s death raises the stakes of finding Jack Lawson: someone following Jack has been killed, and the police suspect a man already associated with other serious violence. At the same time, Indira’s invocation of attorney–client privilege limits what she is willing to disclose, while Perlmutter’s attempt to compel her testimony signals that the circumstances of the hiring may matter to the investigation.

The event’s narrative force comes from this gap between a confirmed death and an incompletely established explanation. Conwell’s connection to Jack is clear, and Perlmutter names Eric Wu as his suspected killer, but the available account does not prove the precise motive or show the murder itself.