I think books like Lethal Marriage, Invisible Darkness & Deadly Innocence shed a bit of light on the fact that sometimes the only thing that "breaks the spell" is knowing that the perp is going to be out of commission for the rest of his life and the realization of the partner that there's an opening in the storm clouds. KH seemed to have woken up pretty fast, quickly tossing PB under the bus and I don't think looked back for long. IMHO, DM by all accounts was a good catch for many a young woman. I can understand how a young woman's family & friends may embrace such a wonderful find; independently wealthy, charming etc etc. IMO, parents may even promote such a relationship and overlook some less desirable characteristics severely delaying the "wake up" call. MOO
DM must have seemed to be an incredibly powerful person to CN - he had the money to make anything happen, right now. Perhaps CN believed that DM was even above the law, because he had "so much money".
By his own accounts, DM was feeling incredibly confident...until CN was arrested and he got really, really skinny.
I think DM's supporters give him more credit for his accomplishments than is due. His job title didn't match his actual level of participation, knowledge, skill, experience, aptitude. DM would have never been hired as an executive at any other MRO. It was a hollow accomplishment constructed for him by his dad from his dad's money. It was also DM's cover story: DM could introduce himself then as an aviation exec rather than a playboy, a layabout with deep pockets.
DM attended a lot of schools but never followed through with his programs. He scraped by and was even thrown out of a course for cheating. Yet we were introduced to him as a prep school kid, prepping for a university education that never happened. I think the people around DM are so used to creating a cover story for his non-ambition that it's become habit and they have come to believe in it.
DM hung out with really ordinary people because he himself was ordinary. Maybe this awakened an anger in him, because he felt that his money or pedigree should give him an extraordinary life? For some reason he harboured such rage or indifference to other humans that he killed three times.
I imagine MS connected with the circle of ordinary achievers because he was a regular kinda guy with quick access to drugs. Anyone with some money can buy drugs, but all the money in the world won't get you drugs NOW unless you have a good connection that knows more than a couple places to go. MS's been in the loop since high school. I think this is where MS fits in, just making a steady commission on drug sales to DM and hanging on in the fringes of DM's hangar circle. That circle and the rap circle are two different social networks on Facebook, and I think it was drugs and cars that made DM and MS make a connection and start a retail relationship.
If that was the kind of shallow relationship between DM and MS, you could see how if the truck hijacking did not go as planned, they would cut bait and each go their own ways. MS would have to do nothing but hide himself, but DM was left with a truck and a body and covering all of the tracks, and I think this was so troublesome to deal with that he asked CN to pitch in. That's why CN got involved, IMO: because there was stuff to do and MS had bailed on DM.
Now that would be a special event, that trust that DM laid in CN: it's always bros before h**s, women stay out of a lot of male criminal culture. To be invited in as a woman to participate in some male hijinks...wow, that's intense. Perhaps the secret of what DM had done was intoxicating to CN. She shared a little slice of the thrills of power and fear involved in criminal activity. She was hooked in her support for DM.
Perhaps with 20 years of wisdom under her belt and a deep secret that she could not share and discuss openly, CN believed that DM's money would prove all-powerful as it had in the past, and DM would get off, and they would get married, and she too would become a millionaire in reward fro her loyalty.
I think something changed her mind. Maybe it was her brief stay in jail as she awaited bail, or her arrest itself?