Woodshed ruined the whole movie for me

Completely agree. That bothered me as well.

The media circus not standing right outside the woodshed is one thing, but Nick and co going back and forth moving three dozen boxes of electronics from the woodshed to wherever you're suggesting? They were lucky no paparazzi peaked through the bushes and caught them with the doors open alone.

As for staying ahead of the story, I haven't passed the bar so I couldn't begin to say how they could have spun that.

Arya vs T-1000: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFaSNe691h0

Messing with any of it would have been certain suicide. Taking the one gift box alone was very risky. He would have been in the clear if he had just called Det. Boney and reported it immediately. There were electronic records for all the purchases, and he needed only one solid alibi to clear him of the whole lot. Margo was detained for accessory of the "crime", as they suspected she was at least minimally implicit (rightfully, as it was her woodshed, on her property). She and her property wasn't suspect before that. IF Nick had included Boney with every clue, at the time they were found, Boney would have seen that Amy, in her own writing, was responsible for all of it, and the "suspicious activity at the woodshed call" would have been dismissed as nothing more than a nosy neighbor. Amy made the call because she hadn't seen it on the news, and she knew (strongly suspected) Nick knew about it by then.

Getting caught moving any items would imply consciousness of guilt, and complicate everything for Nick and Margo.

How Amy makes the "woodshed call" doesn't change anything. She was leaving where she was staying under an assumed identity. A "burner" phone would be better only if she bought a black market phone on the street, but the call would still give up her general location. Any retail purchase has a trail to be followed. At any rate, cell phone calls can be traced after the fact, same as landlines. The reason for an immediate trace is, well, immediate, but they didn't set up for that (the FBI will do that later, but later didn't come). She didn't offer the time for that. The call would eventually be traced, regardless of the method. She needed only for that time to be outside her planned frame. Calling too soon would give investigators opportunity to trace it, once the items are located in the shed and the call found to be authentic. She knew the call must lead them away from where she is, if it came to that.

Boney was beginning to figure it out. She hesitates several times, especially while she was reading (and re-reading) the diary. The entire chain of evidence was too convenient, and she was beginning to suspect. Nick "Staying ahead of the story" would have kept her suspicions on that track. Instead, she, and others, are uncovering pieces he has withheld. The only thing Nick really had to hide was his teeny-bopper mistress. Once that was out, and not by his telling, he was branded a liar and a cheater. Of the two, lying is the toughest to forgive, especially from a violent crimes investigator.





Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid.

Would have made more sense to call on the road heading out of town on a burner phone. And WHY on a landline phone? The phone call may not have been long enough to get a pinpoint location, but long enough to know that the state or region it was made from was NOT from one of the houses on that street.