Having lost faith in the Metropolitan Police, Matthew began his own investigation into Zac’s death. He met with Pino D’Amore, the owner of a café at the Riverwalk apartment building, who recalled that the police presence on the morning Zac’s body was found had been surprisingly brief. Matthew learned from a former doorman, Tibor, that on that same morning, Verinder had placed two calls to the building’s front desk asking if someone had jumped from a balcony. The first call was received by doorman Bogdan, the second by head concierge Ana Nunes. Tibor also revealed a critical detail that contradicted Akbar’s story: Another doorman named Panos had recognized Zac’s body on the riverbank and confided this to Tibor but did not inform police, instead making a “zipped lips” gesture to signal silence. Crucially, on the day after Zac’s body was found but before it was identified, Verinder called reception and asked Nunes to remove Zac’s name from the approved visitors list, giving no reason.

Matthew’s inquiries led him to two other figures. The first was Nick Gold, a notorious gambler with a shady reputation who was friends with the deceased Scot Young and was rumored to have provided Verinder with the Riverwalk apartment to settle a debt. The second was Oliver Harris, a businessman whose name appeared in tense text exchanges with Verinder just before Zac’s death. When Matthew met Harris, he was evasive but shared a chilling fact: Verinder had a reputation for intimidating people by “holding them over the edge of a balcony” (226).

Matthew also met with a man known as “Uncle Alex,” a former money launderer for the Russian mob, who theorized that Akbar was not fooled by Zac’s oligarch persona but was instead a willing partner in a con targeting Verinder. Alex declared Verinder’s subsequent death was likely a professional hit and suggested Matthew should kidnap Akbar to get answers, an offer Matthew nervously declined. The Brettlers’ own investigation highlighted numerous unpursued leads, and when they met again with Detective Wilkinson, he confirmed the police had failed to interview key witnesses, effectively abandoning the case.

Matthew and Rachelle attended the official inquest into Zac’s death, a formal proceeding to determine the cause and circumstances. Presided over by coroner Mary Hassell, the inquest began with Rachelle’s emotional testimony, in which she insisted her son was not suicidal but was an impressionable boy who had become entangled with dangerous men while “chancing” a new identity.

Verinder’s daughter, Dominique Sharma Clarke, testified via video link. She portrayed her father as a mentor to Zac and claimed that on his final night, Zac confessed to being a heroin addict and expressed a desire to die. She stated her father was calm and had taken a sleeping pill before she and Akbar left the apartment. However, the Brettlers’ lawyer, Alexandra Tampakopoulos, challenged her testimony with phone records showing a call from Verinder’s phone to Dominique’s at 2:26 am, two minutes after Zac fell. The call lasted three minutes and 28 seconds. Dominique dismissed it as a “pocket dial” and could not explain why she called her father back 30 minutes later. Tampakopoulos also pressed her on a threatening text Verinder sent at 6:41 am, before Zac’s body was spotted, saying he would “take no prisoners to protect [his] family,” (245) which Dominique claimed not to remember.

The perceived failures of the inquest led Matthew to consider a more complex theory for the police’s inaction: that Verinder had secretly been a police informant. This would explain his long history of evading serious prison sentences and the official reticence surrounding his own death. Matthew’s suspicion deepened when his search of public records revealed no death certificate, obituary, or any official trace of Verinder’s demise, prompting the question of whether he was truly dead at all.

The inquest revealed a curious detail: Zac and Verinder had planned to share a bed on the night of Zac’s death. This prompted an examination of whether a sexual dynamic was involved. Police interrogations had uncovered flirtatious texts between Akbar and Peter Land, in which Akbar made cryptic references to predators and a “foray into LGTCDRQ.” Akbar dismissed the texts as playful banter and denied any sexual relationship with Zac.

A more concrete piece of evidence came from the autopsy, which found a single sperm in Zac’s rectum. However, there was not enough genetic material for DNA testing. Police ultimately concluded it was a red herring, as the sperm could have been a contaminant or Zac’s own, and no other communications suggested a sexual relationship between Zac and the older men.

Detective Wilkinson reluctantly shared Zac’s iPad search history with the Brettlers. The records showed a young man exploring his identity, with searches for various escorts and one for a “gay sugar daddy,” alongside more mundane searches for jobs in sports and how to become a pro dart player. Most painfully for his parents, the history confirmed Zac was engaged in low-level drug dealing and had researched feigning injuries, but he had only searched for information on heroin on his final day. Matthew found a parallel in the youthful fabrications of musician Bob Dylan, reflecting that while many people create fantasy lives, Zac’s had ended in tragedy.

Akbar, now the “chief vision officer” of a North Dakota crypto-mining company, testified at the inquest via video. He portrayed himself as a mere bystander, insisting Zac was suicidal over a heroin addiction and claiming his own memory of the night was “foggy.” He could not recall the nine-minute phone call he had with Verinder just three minutes before Zac fell.

The Brettlers’ lawyer confronted Akbar with text messages showing a financial dispute and threats between him and Verinder. However, the coroner repeatedly shut down this line of questioning, primarily on the grounds that Akbar claimed he could not remember or interpret the messages. This infuriated Matthew, who protested that the financial motive was the only way to understand the “climate of fear” in the apartment that night. Akbar offered a farcical explanation for a text about “heating up knives and clearing up blood,” claiming “blood” was street slang for “bro,” meaning he had been “clearing up, blood” (263).

Though the coroner obstructed a full inquiry, the inquest revealed that part of the balcony’s glass partition had been wiped clean and that untested spatters resembling blood were found in Verinder’s apartment. In a bizarre moment, Akbar accidentally turned on his camera while testifying, revealing himself naked in the shower, a moment that underscored his detachment from the proceedings.

Hassell delivered an “open verdict,” stating she could not conclude whether Zac’s death was suicide or murder. She found Akbar’s testimony not credible but felt there was not enough evidence to determine what happened. The Brettlers left feeling the system had failed them, having been denied a full accounting of the suspicious circumstances surrounding their son’s death.