Information at Any Cost

A man wanted to find his former lover. He believed an acquaintance knew where she was. He paid two friends to get the information at any cost. One night the group went to the acquaintance's home armed, meaning to beat the information out of him, but he stayed inside. The next day one friend lured him outside on a pretext, and someone in a nearby car shot him dead. The accused was not there. He was charged with murder as an accomplice: the killing, prosecutors say, was a natural and probable result of his plan.