The twin story seems to me to be a little
too convenient a tale for Bob, explaining why he's hunting for RJ
suspects, and why Jane should trust him, as a brother in arms against
RJ.

We know that it is not just the false RJ suspects he's killing, and that he's not really trying to find RJ. He's also killing people off that know RJs appearance.
My theory: because he got a facechange operation.
I propose that it's due to RJ shaking Janes hand, way back when he
had killed his wife and daughter, and Jane was beside himself with shock
and grief.
RJ just couldn't resist the temptation of
keeping Jane alive for more play. Much more. But, while Jane appears to
have forgotten the encounter, RJ has concerns that he'll one day
remember. A modicum of facial numbness/immobility should also make his face harder to read. Hence the decisive move of a facechange, and hence the questions, and the satifaction at hearing that people can't recognize him.
As that means Jane likely won't remember him either.
When was it made? Likely shortly after
the murder of Janes wife and daughter, and shortly before RJs stay with
the blind woman Rosalind, while his facewounds were healing up. Once healed, he
could let her touch his face, no problem. Once healed we could see him
with Corrigans face in Red Dawn (ep 100), when Jane had just been hired by the
CBI.

His ultimate wish is to get
mentally close to Jane, and to befriend him, possibly with no intention
of revealing himself as RJ, but just to play cat and mouse role reversal with Jane, sometimes appearing to hunt with him, for RJ, sometimes killing new victims, as RJ.



Hunting for the false RJ suspects, and the touching story of his brother are both just tools of deception used by him to get under Janes RJ-radar. (Fun
fact: When Bob intimidates Jane, he uses a a kind of garden variety
scissors as finger clipper, which Lorelei was about to use on Janes
finger, by RJs order, right before the FBI charged in on the scene at
the car, in The Crimson Hat (5/24).)

Apparently, the deception works according to plan, too.
Jane writes him off as a suspect before we
see him get shot.  and Kirkland expressed absolutely no surprise,
panic or regret when Hightower and Lisbon 'interrupted' him. This was
not the response of a man getting foiled.


Supposing that Robert really doesn't have a twin, we must assume he
then really got shot. Except none of the bullets appeared to go through
him, but tore up the back of his prison coat pretty well... My proposal: Bulletproof
vest.
Was Smith really working for him? I don't know, but I obviously
assume, in this twin-less theory, that Robert getting gunned down was
all a show in honor of... who? the guard in front of the van? Or
possibly in honor of Smith and the TT club, to mislead them. (Then the
guard in front is probably RJs man)


I'm guessing it is the Tyger tyger boys that are getting played.

Why the private investigators attempted plant of a bug at Chos desk?

Because Robert can no longer afford to be seen at the CBI, possibly not even
to contact his former TT stooges. (I assume he initiated the secret movement, but has no problems sacrificing any and all of them to suit his goals.) He's supposed to be dead. When the bug plant
fails, he doesn't just remove his PI as a wittness. He frames the TT guys for
it.
I think he plans to resurface as "the heroic Robert Kirkland", leader of the resistance against Read Johns TygerTyger conspiracy, fighting side by side with his favorite playmate:
Patrick Jane.
_____________________________
A point of added support for Kirkland being RJ:
He only showed up at the CBI when Lorelie is gone, and can't ID him
[except if she gets caught again, or talks] and he then gets personally
involved in the manhunt.

In spite of the fact that he's known to be very interested in the RJ
case progression. A highly convenient absence from the CBI, it would seem.