WARNING: Spoilers for The Little Things.
In The Little Things, how does Jared Leto's Albert Sparma know the approximate location of an unsolved crime scene? During a mid-movie moment, the murder suspect pulls off the road while being followed by Deke Deacon (Denzel Washington), who comes to a dark realization. If Sparma knew privileged information about a crime scene, then he presumably must be involved somehow. As it turns out, however, Leto's character appears to be toying with the LAPD all along.
Set in 1990 Los Angeles, The Little Things was written and directed by John Lee Hancock. The storyline focuses on a series of related killings, and the investigation led by Deacon (a Kern County sheriff) and detective Jim Baxter (Rami Malek). By the 57-minute mark, Sparma becomes the #1 suspect and realizes that he's being tracked by Washington's character. After a brief apartment encounter, Deacon follows his suspect on the freeway and spots the man parked on the side of the road. Sparma then appears on the opposite side of the freeway, and later passive-aggressively confronts Deacon by stating, "How's the trunk space?" - a line that at once links to their first apartment meeting while serving as a subtle threat to the detective's life. Moments later, Deacon calls Baxter and discovers that Sparma had parked his vehicle near the location of a "ditch pitch," which suggests - in accordance with genre tropes - the suspect wanted to send a message to investigators. But why?
The Little Things suggests that Sparma used a police radio to acquire information about the "ditch pitch." After the freeway encounter, Deacon illegally searches the home of Leto's character and finds newspaper clippings about various murders hidden underneath the floorboards. In a brief moment, it's also revealed that Deacon had a police radio, which seems to explain why he knew a body had been found a couple hundred feet off the 126, near a 147-mile marking. Interestingly, The Little Things never reveals the true identity of the serial killer but heavily implies that Sparma is indeed innocent. He's framed as a true crime buff who wanted to be associated with a serial killer case, and seems to enjoy the cat-and-mouse aspect of it all, perhaps because he knows there's no evidence to convict him of any crimes. So, when Sparma taunts Deacon by saying "How's the trunk space?," he's essentially begging to be called in for questioning.
In The Little Things, Sparma's interrogation takes place before the police radio reveal. So, he can troll detectives even more. "I'm kind of a crime buff," Sparma tells Baxter before describing the moment as "awesome." The entire interrogation sequence implies that Leto's character is indeed innocent, however The Little Things complicates everything when Sparma gets an erection while looking at crime scene photos. This is the exact moment when Deacon knows that he must search the man's home at all costs, which results in the police radio reveal. Sparma also makes an "Officer Down" call upon realizing that Deacon had infiltrated his home, which further underlines the fact that he's one step ahead of the sheriff.
The police radio reveal in The Little Things sets up the climactic twist. Sparma leads Baxter to the desert outside Los Angeles, where he presumably buried the body of Ronda Rathburn (Maya Kazan). After repeatedly taunting Baxter, Sparma is killed with a shovel. Deacon - who accidentally killed someone five years before and doesn't want his colleague to live a life full of guilt - returns to Sparma's home and makes it look like he left town. He also purchases a red barrette, one that matches what Ronda Rathburn had been wearing on the evening of her disappearance, and sends it to Baxter. If Sparma had been messing with the detectives all along in The Little Things, then Deacon gets the last laugh. In a final twist, Baxter is led to believe that the barrette was actually found at Sparma's home, when in fact it was purchased by Deacon.
The Little Things released in January 2021 on HBO Max.