The Murder of Nora Winters

On Christmas morning, Nora Winters is found shot to death in her bedroom. The previous evening, she had been talking about how she might take her own life, and since she was shot at very close range, her family initially assumes that she committed suicide. However, the police quickly discover that the gun that killed her is fifteen feet away from where her body was found. With most suicide victims, the gun is found either in their hand or very close to their body, and certainly, if the victim places the gun to the right side of their head, the gun should not end up fifteen feet to the left of their body.

The police are completely baffled by the case because it has all the elements of a classic locked-room murder mystery. The only door to the room has a deadbolt and two sliding steel bolts that are fully engaged; the two windows are securely locked from the inside of the room; and after an extensive and thorough investigation, no hidden panels in the floor, walls, or ceiling can be found. Sure, Nora Winters might have let her killer into her bedroom, but how did he leave? And the gun…the very puzzling position of the gun. Why had it been left behind two books at the far end of the room? What was the point? Since even a cursory examination of Nora Winters' body showed that she had been shot at close range, why hadn't the murderer left the gun near her body? If this person had taken the time to think about it, he could have placed the gun in a position where the medical examiner would have ruled her death a suicide. Or maybe the official ruling would have been that it was either a suicide or a murder, but given the fact that the room could not have been left without unbolting the door or unlocking one of the windows, everyone would have signed off on the death as a suicide.

Why would a murderer go to the trouble of mysteriously exiting a room and yet leave a very telltale sign that he had been there? The two things—the placement of the gun and the locked room—don't go together. If one is going to perform a Houdini-like stunt, then one might as well take advantage of what that stunt offers and leave the gun close to the victim's body. Why bring attention to oneself when it isn't necessary? Why even leave the gun behind unless you were going to place it next to the victim's body?

Detective Nick Slater is an experienced investigator who will leave no stone unturned in his search for the killer. He has five suspects—the four children of Nora Winters and Chad Winters, her husband. Gradually, Nick begins to zero in on Chad since he had a strong motive to kill his wife, and of all the suspects, he has the weakest alibi.

Eventually, after the discovery of a key piece of evidence by Nick, Chad is arrested and brought to trial. But what happens after that will prove far more shocking than anything that has gone before...