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| “ | He loved me, not you! I saw him last. He loved me! | „ |
| ~ Keele lashing out at Charlie Hugo, and unintentionally revealing himself as Hugo's murderer. |
Brendan Keele is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Maltese Cross". He is a closeted civil servant who murders two of his lovers after they break up with him.
He was portrayed by Geoffrey Nauffts, who also portrayed Frank Martin in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Early life[]
In college, Keele had a secret relationship with his roommate, but stabbed him with a letter opener when he broke up with him. He claimed self-defense and was acquitted in court, but his fingerprints remained on file.
Years later, he started working with the New York City Health Department, and had an affair with his coworker John T. Hoffman, who was also in the closet. Hoffman's pregnant wife found out he was cheating on her - although she assumed it was with a woman - and told him to end his affair if he wanted to stay married. Hoffman broke up with Keele, who flew into a jealous rage and brutally stabbed him to death.
Shortly before the events of the episode, Keele began a secret relationship with closeted firefighter Ian Duffy, and worked with him to lobby city government for better benefits for firefighters. Duffy's wife, Claudia, sensed that he was cheating on her, and told him that she was pregnant and that he needed to end his affair - although she, just like Hoffman's wife, assumed he was sleeping with another woman. When Duffy ended the relationship, Keele was once again consumed with rage and stabbed him 20 times, killing him.
In "Maltese Cross"[]
While investigating Duffy's murder, Detectives Mike Logan and Megan Wheeler of the NYPD's Major Case Squad find out about his secret life after discovering that he was a regular at a gay bar. They also find a recording of a city budget meeting that Duffy interrupted to publicize his cause, and notice that Keele is secretly giving him a thumbs up, and that they are both wearing the same tie as a sign of solidarity. They talk with Keele, who dances around their questions, arousing their suspicion.
Logan and Wheeler look more closely at Keeley's records and note that his fingerprints are still on file in the case of his roommate's murder, even though a terminally ill prison inmate had confessed to the crime two years earlier, right before he died. They interview the retired detective who had worked on that case, who was well-known for incompetence during his time with the NYPD, and figure out that the prisoner had told him what he wanted to hear in return for more comfortable conditions in which to spend his final days. They also interview Hoffman's widow, who tells them that she found out that her husband was cheating on her shortly before he was murdered; Logan and Wheeler then realize that Keele had been Hoffman's lover, and that he had killed both Hoffman and Duffy.
In order to draw Keele out, Logan and Wheeler have Duffy's fellow firefighter Charlie Hugo pretend to have been Duffy's lover, and tell Keele that he confessed to the murder. Wheeler and Captain Danny Ross let Keele watch as Logan "interrogates" Hugo, who says that he and Duffy were in love. As intended, this provokes Keele's jealousy, and he attacks Hugo, claiming that Duffy loved him and blurting out that he had been the last to see Duffy, thus proving that he killed him. He is then presumably arrested for murder and imprisoned for life.
Trivia[]
- Keele is inspired by the "Doodler", an unidentified serial killer of closeted gay man at bars.
External links[]
- Brendan Keele on the Law & Order Wiki
