The Suspect

Who pulled the trigger? Is that the question?

No, the question was: Who did it?

Isn’t that the same thing? We are dealing with a murder victim who has been shot, and all we want to know is of course who did it, in other words: Who pulled the trigger?

No, it’s not the same thing. The murderer may not have been the one who pulled the trigger.

What nonsense. How can it not be?

Well, anyone who has read or seen a murder mystery knows that the detective is not always just looking for the immediate cause of the killing. If the killer was a hitman, was tricked into shooting, didn’t know the gun was loaded or was the victim of a number of other circumstances, he was not really the murderer. Or if you still insist on calling him by that name, we must agree that he is not the person we really want to catch. The real suspect is the one who was behind it all and ultimately caused it.

You mean the one who gave him the gun and told him to kill? Even if there is such a person, would that take the blame away from the immediate killer. I say he is still our suspect.

He may not be blameless, but he was not the ultimate cause. The person who set the process in motion that led to the killing, is our man.

Who might that be? When is the start of a process? We might as well look for the mother who gave birth to the person who sold the gun to the one who gave it to the one who pulled the trigger. Who knows, maybe you should suspect yourself for having been present at a certain point in this endless train of events. Did you do it?

https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2020/07/06/your-daily-word-prompt-suspect-ydwordprompt-July-6-2020/