When the shocked man was able to talk more, he told Nolan that he, his wife who was thirty one and their two sons, seven and nine, had lived in Seattle for about four years, and that he had been employed by the same company as an electronics technician for five years.

She was a good mother, he said, but Betty was at home with the boys all day and Stokesberry worked a lot of overtime. His wife missed the camaraderie of pubs that were neighborhood meeting spots in Scotland where everyone knew one another and drank a few pints with their friends or played darts.

“I was tired after...