Unless you can take advantage of group nodes in some way that I'm not thinking of right now (sorry, it's been a long day), then the typical way to implement this is to put the same conditions on Node 2. For example:
[1] NPC: "Do you have any leads, detective?"
[2] Player: "Yes."
Conditions: Variable["metAdam"] or Variable["metBob"] or Variable["metCarl"]
(Link priority: AboveNormal)
[3] Player: "I suspect Adam."
Conditions: Variable["metAdam"]
[4] Player: "I suspect Bob."
Conditions: Variable["metBob"]
[5] Player: "I suspect Carl."
Conditions: Variable["metCarl"]
[6] Player: "No leads yet."
By setting Node 2's link priority to AboveNormal, the Dialogue System will check it before checking Node 6. If the Conditions are true, it will stop and use Node 2.
I think I had just been staring at things too long, adding all of the conditions for all of the nodes after the initial conditional node is not a problem and a simple solution. Works as expected.