Introduced as a jolly traveling salesman, who crosses the country selling his red saplings, Kayson initially seems completely uninvolved in the Greenvale Murders. He is at one point found by the protagonist, FBI Agent Francis York Morgan, in the house that a murder had taken place in minutes before. However, he is found locked up under the floor and is able to wave off suspicion by saying he and the victim were meeting to have a clandestine affair when someone came and interrupted them, causing her to hide him.