This one's been bugging me... My preferred genre is almost always realistic fiction and I try to make the storyline as close to reality as possible. As a writer I'm finding myself stuck with one hell of a challenge.
For the story I have written, one of the pivotal plot points involves a murder. Here's the catch... the guy I'm "murdering" isn't supposed to actually die; the character comes back towards the end of the story and it's revealed that the whole thing was staged.
WAIT! That's not all... there's more. What makes this particular part difficult is that the "death" of the character has to be convincing enough to convict my lead of murder... without a body.
I already did research and I understand that's difficult as it is without Corpus Delicti, but that's why I'm trying hard to come up with something that works.
Now there CAN be traces from the victim: blood, hair, etc. to help indict the lead character, and there probably should be. BUT for the storyline, the victim character can not be killed.
So really, the question becomes; How do you kill someone and make the body untraceable, but still have enough evidence to call it murder?
For the story I have written, one of the pivotal plot points involves a murder. Here's the catch... the guy I'm "murdering" isn't supposed to actually die; the character comes back towards the end of the story and it's revealed that the whole thing was staged.
WAIT! That's not all... there's more. What makes this particular part difficult is that the "death" of the character has to be convincing enough to convict my lead of murder... without a body.
I already did research and I understand that's difficult as it is without Corpus Delicti, but that's why I'm trying hard to come up with something that works.
Now there CAN be traces from the victim: blood, hair, etc. to help indict the lead character, and there probably should be. BUT for the storyline, the victim character can not be killed.
So really, the question becomes; How do you kill someone and make the body untraceable, but still have enough evidence to call it murder?