Inconsideration

Attending a social mixer Lightman flirts with Cynthia, the curator who is the ex-wife of Lightman’s client. Cleverly he entices her into telling him that she was never unfaithful during her marriage. But did Lightman need to dump her in such a thoughtless way, waiting for him to return from feeding a parking meter? He could have told her he had to go to a prearranged meeting. His inconsideration for how she will feel when he doesn’t reappear doesn’t fit with Lightman’s caring attitudes towards his own ex-wife, his daughter, and Foster.

Innocent Runners

The FBI agent Ben says innocent people don’t run. That is not always so; innocent people run when they are convinced they will be wrongly judged, as is in the case here.

False Inference Dodge

What Foster calls a ‘false inference dodge’ is giving a tangential rather than direct answer to a question. Foster: “Did you kill Connie?” McHenry: “I am not even going to dignify that with an answer.”

Seemingly

The FBI agent Ben says, “This guy’s the killer.” Torres replies, “He seemed believable when he said he was innocent.” Ben replies, “It seems… that’s not good enough.” In real life when you have to evaluate truthfulness from demeanor it is never more certain than “it seems.” And police officers, like Ben, always want more.

Expression of Anger

After Torres remarks that Matthieson’s wife has to clean up after his messes, Lightman says “that will do Torres,” and he shows a beautiful anger expression: brows lowered, glaring eyes, and most importantly the upper lip narrowed and lower lip tightened.