To the editor:

I love good old-fashioned murder mystery. In a good police procedural, the detective always gets the killer in the end, but real life isn’t so tidy. There isn’t always a smoking gun. Sometimes, all you’ve got is a stack of circumstantial evidence — and that’s often enough.

Maybe there’s no footage of the killer pulling the trigger, but the suspect — trying to be clever — releases a video proving he wasn’t near the body at the time of death. Then we learn the video was tampered with, and there’s a missing chunk of metadata. Remember: One missing chunk of tape was enough to make Nixon resign.

Or maybe the victim didn’t leave a note saying, “If I’m killed, it was this guy,” but the suspect claims a note exists — only it names someone else. When asked to produce it, he says, “What note?” Then, sensing nobody buys that, he blames the court for not letting him release it. His lawyer plays along, pretending to argue for its release while secretly asking the court to keep it sealed. Suspicions are stacking up.

Let’s say the victim was a shady character, too — maybe a dealer of some sort — and law enforcement has financial records showing who paid him. The suspect is on the list. He was told about this in May. When questioned again in July, he suddenly forgets? That’s not denial — that’s damage control.

Or consider the suspect once gave the victim a birthday note. In it, he wrote something cryptic about a shared secret and even doodled a symbol. That doodle matches ones he’s known for — ones he’s posted publicly, even bragged about drawing in a published diary. But now he says, “I don’t doodle.” Seriously? That’s your signature, dude!

Then there are witnesses. Not just one or two, but several people who say they survived this man trying to kill them. Add that to old footage of him laughing about how fame lets him get away with anything — even murder — and openly fantasizing about violence, including toward his own daughter.

In a mystery novel, this is where the detective rolls his eyes and says, “Just arrest the guy already.”

But what if it wasn’t a murder mystery? If this were a political drama, and the crime was something like child sex trafficking, not murder, we’d be confused why anyone still supported this character. No one would believe the story. They’d call it implausible — even lazy writing.

But here we are. Real life doesn’t need a twist ending. Sometimes, the villain is exactly who you thought it was back in chapter two. And sometimes, for whatever reason, he still gets away with it.

J. David Core

Toronto