Zach Lindsey was an Olympic-standard swimmer from New York. The heart and soul of his university swimming team, he was a realistic prospect for an Olympic spot until he was murdered. Zach, it turned out, had been living a life of lies and layers, the unraveling of which taxed Beckett's deductive and Castle's productive genii. Zach, a local boy made good from Bensonhurst, was moonlighting as a car thief to pay for his tuition and accommodation. This had involved him hooking back up with his friend from the old neighborhood, Tommy Marcone, who was a small-time criminal.