BOISE - A jury Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Boise began its deliberations in the murder-for-hire trial of North Idaho attorney Edgar J. Steele.

The jury's review of the case lasted until 7 p.m. before jurors called it a day. They resume this morning.

In closing arguments, defense attorney Robert McAllister re-directed the allegations and the jury's attention from his client to Steele's handyman, and the alleged hitman in the case, 50-year-old Sagle resident Larry Fairfax.

McAllister said Fairfax made a massive pipe bomb that he fastened under Cyndi Steele's vehicle, and then lied to the FBI.

"Every piece of evidence in this case comes back to Larry Fairfax," McAllister said. "The evidence in this case is that (Edgar Steele) loves Cyndi Steele," his wife of 26 years.

He said Fairfax's story makes no sense.

He asked, "Why would Edgar Steele do this?"

He argued there's no proof it's Edgar Steele's voice captured on the June 9 and 10, 2010, recordings of Steele, 65, and Fairfax discussing the alleged hit on Cyndi Steele. The FBI obtained them when Fairfax became an informant.

Besides, he said, the recordings are "nothing but talk," and are subject to "human interpretation."

"The recordings are like fantasy, like fiction, like writing a book like Mr. Fairfax" has been doing, he said.

McAllister pointed out that neither Cyndi Steele nor daughter Kelsey Steele believe the FBI's secret recordings are authentic.

"As far as we know Larry Fairfax never told anybody what he was doing" until the pipe bomb was found June 15 during an oil change. It was then that Fairfax confessed.

"Larry wanted to set up Ed, and be the hero," McAllister said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Haws, during the government's closing arguments, played a crucial section of one of the recordings, during which Steele specifically mentions a "car bomb" to Fairfax.

Haws advised the jurors to replay and listen carefully to the recordings during deliberations.

"Listen to the natural flow of the conversations," he said. "They talk and reply in context."

"Get this job done, Larry," Steele is heard saying.

Driving her off the road was discussed as an option, along with "guns blazing."

"I'm pissed, but I don't want her to suffer," Steele's heard saying. It would be better to "happen so fast she's not even aware what's going on."

Haws said Steele offered Fairfax $10,000 to kill Cyndi Steele, another $10,000 to kill her mother, and $5,000 to make the hits in Oregon, paid in silver coins.

Prosecutors during the trial showed receipts for thousands of dollars in silver Fairfax cashed in at coin shops in Spokane and Coeur d'Alene. The Steeles held tens of thousands of dollars in silver.

If some uninsured motorist coverage kicked in after an auto accident that killed her, Fairfax was told he could get more, Haws said.

"Otherwise, you only get our basic agreement," Steele said on the tapes. "I wanted to give you a powerful incentive."

To pay for expenses on one of two trips to the Portland area, where Cyndi Steele was staying with her mother, Steele provided Fairfax with some money.

"I'm going to give you a four hundred buck advance," Steele is heard saying on one of the recordings. Fairfax returned from that meet with $400, according to testimony from the trial.

"If that black thing leaves, I guarantee you she's driving it," Steele said, apparently talking about Cyndi Steele's black SUV.

Haws argued that Steele created an alibi for himself on a day when Cyndi Steele was to be killed in Oregon. He made plans to travel to Spokane on June 11 to buy lumber with a friend, stop for lunch, and run other errands, and make himself memorable at stops.

Haws told the jury the government doesn't have to prove why Steele did what he's accused of doing. Still, he mentioned "this little Russian girl," referring to 25-year-old Tatiyana Loganova, of Lugansk, Ukraine.

Loganova testified via video-recorded deposition, saying Steele had told her he's divorced, living alone and planning to come visit her. She said they met on an Internet dating site.

The defense has argued that Steele was interacting with Ukrainian women online not to find a romantic connection but as part of research for a case and eventually a book. Haws told the jury no case has ever been filed, and no book is being written - it was just a lie to his wife and family to cover up his pursuit of Loganova.

McAllister said if Steele really wanted to leave his wife for Loganova - who "didn't speak a word of English" - he could have just walked away.

"It's not a motive to commit murder," he said.

Haws said Steele learned that a divorce was going to be too expensive and could limit contact with his children, when Cyndi Steele petitioned for a divorce in 2000. He argued Edgar Steele didn't want to go that route.

The jury is considering the charges of use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire; aiding and abetting the use of explosive material to commit a felony; aiding and abetting the possession of a destructive device in relation to a crime of violence; and tampering with a victim. The fourth count stems from Steele's alleged efforts to instruct Cyndi Steele what to say to federal authorities.

More details on Wednesday surfaced about the book Fairfax is writing.

Fairfax testified, again, that he's initially calling the book "Act of Defiance."

He said the title describes his "going against Edgar Steele and turning him in" to the FBI. Cover art will be of Fairfax's logging truck driving over a member of the Aryan Nations.

Fairfax was a former logger, and Steele represented Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler.

The former jailmate who drew the cover for Fairfax testified that it also has an "FBI guy stabbing Larry in the back."

Fairfax said he hopes it will become the basis for an action movie.