Rohan Jain
BBC’s ‘Inside Man‘ is a mini-series about a convict named Grieff, who is on death row in the US for murdering his wife. As an ex-professor of criminology, the man solves cases that match a specific criterion. Directed by Paul McGuigan, the crime-drama show portrays how Grieff uses his keen observation, research skills, and a few logical assumptions to solve people’s problems.
Over the course of the four episodes, we see him work on three major cases, of which the first is particularly interesting. In the first episode, we see Senator Kreiner approach the inmate with a peculiar issue. He says that every time he has sex with his wife, an amount of $253.55 is deposited into his account. So, what’s the mystery behind the money? If you’ve been wondering about it, look no further, as we have a definite answer.
The Mystery Behind $253.55
When Senator Kreiner talks about the problem, Grieff interjects and asks him about the rape allegations against him 30 years ago. He even points out that one of the alleged victims, Selina Cadiz, works in his office. Kreiner denies all claims and dismisses the question because the allegations have nothing to do with the predicament he is currently facing. He even defends himself by saying that if he were a rapist, then a victim wouldn’t be working with him.
After this small detour, the ex-professor returns to the case at hand, and Kreiner reveals that there is a gap of 3 to 4 days between his sexual act and the payment. Grieff takes not more than a few moments to figure out this riddle and chuckles. However, he doesn’t give the answer to the senator or his partner, Dillon, who is unable to make sense of any of this.
As the episode progresses, we see the two inmates discuss this, and Grieff drops a couple of clues for his friend. The first clue is in the form of a question – “What if Kreiner’s wife discovered that he had raped Selina?” The second clue is merely the word “therapy.” As Dillon ponders this, he is unable to figure it out. So he finally gives up, and at the end of the episode, Grieff reveals it to him.
According to him, since Selina works in close proximity to the senator, there’s a chance that she would have had conversations with his wife. In one of the conversations, the latter would have discovered that Kreiner had indeed raped the former. This would have repulsed his wife, and she would have felt disgusted every time she had sex with him. To deal with this, she started attending therapy sessions but couldn’t pay for it from her account because her husband might come to know of it.
So, she would have instructed Selina Cadiz to pay for her sessions from perhaps a secret account. However, due to the victim’s old age, she would be unable to see clearly, and the text on her phone would be larger than the standard size. Thus, every time she sent her a text saying, “Pay therapist $253.55,” she read it as “Pay the rapist $253.55” because the single-line text would split into two lines. Selina read this and would have paid the amount to the senator, “the rapist.” However, since the therapist hadn’t received the money, Cadiz would get another reminder, and this time she would pay the person she should have.
With this, the secret unravels, and both Grieff and Dillon have a light-hearted laugh. The reason behind the criminal not relaying the same explanation to the senator is more interesting than the answer to this riddle. He simply tells him that since he doesn’t match his criteria, he cannot help him. Later, it is revealed that the man who murdered his wife takes up cases of moral worth. He simply wants to do good and helping the senator would have been counter-intuitive to his aim.
Read More: Why Did Grieff Kill His Wife?
