In the 100 Bullets storyline "The Counterfifth Detective," the solution of the mystery is never spelled out clearly - it's not explicitly explained who was angling for what, and who it was who arranged Milo's car accident - and for what purpose.
Here's what I've been able to piece together on my own:
- Megan Dietrich hires Karl to obtain the painting.
- Karl hires Tannenbaum to steal the painting.
- Lono gets wise to the arrangement, and gets the painting off of Tannenbaum.
- Lono sells Megan the painting; he also threatens and blackmails her.
- Since Tannenbaum no longer has the painting, he hides from Karl.
- Karl hires Milo to track down Tannenbaum.
- ?
- Lono steals the painting back from Megan.
It's that question mark towards the end that's bugging me - and that's where a lot of the story is. Milo figures that somebody was "cutting his fingers off" to keep him from following the painting - the finale reveals that this must have been Echo and Lono. But I'm not sure what the purpose of all this is.
What do Lono and Echo want to keep hidden? Is there any reason to go back down the chain, killing Karl and Tannenbaum? (I know Lono doesn't really need much of a reason to kill people, but "for the heck of it" is a pretty unsatisfying motive for amurder mystery... and that's not the sense I'm getting from the story's tone). Graves tells Milo his accident was meant as a "message" - to who? And how does the "Croatoa" trigger fit in with any of this - can that possibly just be a huge coincidence?
Can anybody explain the full story?
(I haven't read past this volume yet, so if spoilers are necessary, please mark them as such. Thanks!)
