Lucas Ottoman is a writer for the New York Times. He writes a lot about Grendel. He is also having a secret affair with the police detective in charge of their Grendel investigation, Elizabeth Sparks. By day they exchange professional banter in front of the other police, as he asks for news tips. A night they talk frankly about their difficulties in learning anything about the city's masked criminal.
Ottoman talks to a lot of everyday people near to the case, like the maids and concierge in the hotel where Grendel killed some mobsters, but he's not getting any real information. Finally he hears that there will be a big illegal deal on the docks, so he goes over to check it out. He is stunned, and terrified, to find Grendel in a battle with Argent. Argent ends up killing a bunch of street thugs in a bloody massacre, and Lucas freaks out. He loses some of his respect for the police, since they condone his violent activities. He and Liz start to have some tension over this issue.
Lucas does some more investigating, and suddenly realizes, based on the clues he's found, that Grendel could be Hunter Rose! He is the only person, other than Larry Stohler, to figure this out. Now he's scared. What does he do with this knowledge? How can he prove his hunch?
He does more research. He doesn't want to tell Liz because he's not sure, but she's starting to distrust him, because she can tell his hiding something. Finally she confronts him in his apartment, where he has a bunch of surveillance equipment sitting out. He still evades her questions. Later, they reconcile.
Lucas finally finds someone who saw Grendel turn a walking stick into his forked weapon. Knowing that Hunter Rose uses a walking stick, Lucas decides he has enough evidence and decides to go to the police. First he goes home to get his evidence. Unfortunately Hunter is waiting for him. He knew Lucas had been talking to his various associates, and figured out that Lucas knew his identity. Hunter kills him and burns down his building. Liz Sparks comes in the apartment just as Grendel was leaving and was burned badly in the fire as well.
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