Nico and Molto Begin Investigating Rusty

Nico and Molto Begin Investigating Rusty marks the moment when an administrative handover becomes a personal criminal investigation. In a meeting with Raymond Horgan, Nico Delia Guardia and Tommy Molto disclose that they distrust Rusty Sabich's handling of Carolyn Polhemus's murder and present evidence connecting Rusty to her apartment. The confrontation turns professional succession into open accusation, while Rusty's first-person account registers how quickly the inquiry changes the meaning of the room and of his past contact with Carolyn.

From Handover to Investigation

Rusty arrives after being told that Raymond wants to see him. Nico is already occupying the chair Raymond has offered him, with Tommy Molto seated nearby. Raymond remains standing; Mac keeps apart from the gathering. The arrangement makes the transfer of authority visible before anyone explains it: Nico has the chair, Raymond is preparing to leave, and Rusty has entered a meeting whose purpose has shifted beyond ordinary office business.

Raymond first says that decisions have been made and that the transition is happening sooner than he expected. Rusty takes this to mean he, too, will be leaving, and offers Nico the prospect of a fresh start. Nico interrupts that assumption. He says that Raymond's staff will face a criminal investigation, citing information that had come to them during the campaign but that they had not wanted to use as campaign mudslinging. At this point the stated scope is broad, and Rusty wonders whether the inquiry concerns the B file or Tommy's connection to that matter.

Raymond then identifies the immediate focus: Nico and Tommy have raised questions about the Polhemus investigation and are not confident in Rusty's handling of it. Raymond says he has agreed to step aside so they can examine the matter as they judge professionally appropriate. The disclosure clarifies that the transition is not simply a change of leadership. Rusty's work on the murder case is itself to be scrutinized by the new officeholders, and Raymond has agreed to their review.

Evidence Put to Rusty

The accusation becomes specific when Tommy says Rusty was in Carolyn's apartment on the night she was killed. Rusty is confused by the charge and says that on the Tuesday in question Barbara was at the university while he was babysitting. He had expected criticism for having had an affair with Carolyn, not an allegation that he was connected to her killing. His answer distinguishes the known personal relationship from the much more serious claim now being made, but it does not end the confrontation.

Tommy says the fingerprint results are in: Rusty's prints were found on a glass on the bar, five feet from where Carolyn's body was found. He adds that county employees are fingerprinted, and addresses Rusty by the name associated with the print, Rozat K. Sabich. The detail gives the allegation a physical anchor inside the apartment. The glass is not presented as proof of murder by itself; it is evidence that places Rusty in a location whose significance has changed because Carolyn was killed there.

Tommy next raises the telephone records Rusty had told Dan Lipranzer not to obtain. He says the telephone company pulled the records that morning and that they are being brought to the meeting. According to Tommy, Rusty had called Carolyn throughout the month, and there was a call from Rusty's home to hers on the night she died. The argument thus moves from presence in the apartment to a pattern of contact and a call on the crucial night. The records are announced as arriving evidence, not examined in detail in Rusty's presence.

The Accusation and Its Immediate Effect

Rusty tries to leave the meeting. In the anteroom, Tommy follows and insists that Rusty understands the basis of the obstruction inquiry. He then states his belief that Rusty killed Carolyn. The sequence strips away the earlier professional language of questions, review, and judgment: Tommy's suspicion is no longer implicit in the evidence he has recited but spoken as a direct accusation.

Rusty's account emphasizes his response as anger and a return of a familiar hostility. He approaches Tommy, gives a brief sardonic acknowledgment, and walks away. The gesture does not establish guilt or amount to a confession; it leaves the accusation unanswered on its merits. Nor does the scene resolve whether the glass and telephone records support the charge. It ends with Rusty withdrawing from the meeting and Tommy's accusation standing between them.

Significance

The event converts Rusty's former role as an investigator into the position of a suspect. The evidence presented is circumstantial: a fingerprint on a glass in Carolyn's apartment and a series of calls, including one on the night of the murder. Together, those details give Nico and Tommy grounds to challenge Rusty's account of his work and his relationship to the case, but the meeting itself does not establish that he committed the crime.

The political transition sharpens the personal conflict. Nico's arrival in the chair and Raymond's decision to step aside coincide with the inquiry into the outgoing office's handling of Carolyn's murder. For Rusty, the change is immediate: the people now exercising prosecutorial authority are not simply reviewing his investigation but directing suspicion at him. The scene's final movement—from an announced review, to evidence, to Tommy's accusation—makes the shift from colleague to target unmistakable.