I don’t buy the hospital visit at 4 AM story. Pure speculation, she wanted to score, and this guy agreed to take her to the drop house. Doesn’t excuse the thug, but nothing else adds up.
You are correct.
I think he got her to drop her defenses a little at a time.
“Man, I got a non-smoking room too.” (He’s so law-abiding he won’t smoke where the sign says not to.)
“You visiting family here?”
“Yeah? My uncle’s in the hospital too.”
“I want to be there when he wakes up. Nurses come by five o’clock, taking blood pressure and stuff.”
Backing up her story is that she did have someone in the hospital, and the wrecked car was found at the hospital.
Clean-cut he may be, but he sure has mean eyes in that picture.