It’s often a law enforcement technique to tell someone they’ve been “cleared” so they’ll let their guard down.
It sounds like the boyfriend and his brother, who worked together, are each other’s alibi.
But that hardly matters. The brothers’ job was just an hour away. Anyone at work can say they have to run an errand, be gone for an hour, and no one would think anything untoward about it.
A boyfriend and a brother “colluding” together on this makes no sense. We shall see.
Dubuque is two hours one-way from Brooklyn.