You know what would be useful when you’re trying to pass off jealousy as a motive for murder? Maybe establishing that the murder victim was in any kind of relationship that would inspire jealousy. Or that Valerie was going to steal Butter away and he’d leave Zanzibar behind, but then I really don’t think “jealousy” is the word to use in that case. Like, I don’t think there was even a hint that Valerie and Butter had ever even talked to each other, let alone that they were in a relationship. Also, the house was full of people, so why would Zanzibar kill Valerie instead of anyone else? Unless Zanzibar was in Butter’s bedroom, waiting for him, or saw Valerie enter the room, and then became jealous because only he was supposed to pay nighttime visits to Butter’s room? I mean, this might possibly be the first time in a mystery story where the jealous lover murderer is a different species than his love interest. I seriously hope it is, at least.
Maybe all those loving glances Cliff was giving Zanzibar were totally intentional.
Also, Butter was acquitted, and just had to go back and live as a millionaire for the rest of his life? After covering up for a murder? When he was totally responsible for that murder? And he was okay letting the murder victim’s family think he murdered her? So what interested Cindy enough to film a documentary was “an old actor got acquitted of murder and never acted again, but was still a millionaire” and not “a famous up and coming actress was brutally murdered, and nobody ever paid for it, and the crime was never solved”?
And we’re supposed to be sympathizing with Butter? I mean, I don’t want to read too much into this here, but the point of this story really seems to be “What if a rich and famous guy was accused of doing something incredibly terrible to a young woman, but he got acquitted and she was dead? That’d be real bad for the guy, right?”.
