Chronicle Mysteries: The Deep End

As a favor to her best friend, lawyer Katie Wyer, Harrington Chronicle Managing Editor Alex McPherson has chosen as the subject of the next season of her podcast "Recovered" the murder of Elliot Burke, Stephanie Burke, Elliot's estranged wife, the two in the process of getting divorced, charged with his murder, with Katie her lawyer. Elliot, a non-swimmer, was found dead in the deep end of the pond on the Burke property one morning after purportedly being hit over the head with his own golf club, he often using the expansive property as his own driving range. What is not contested but which forms part of the prosecution's case is that Stephanie stopped by the Burke estate early the previous evening to pick up their two children, of which she has sole custody with Elliot having visitation rights, when the two parents argued. Although not requested by Katie, Alex feels she has to start from scratch in learning all about Elliot and Stephanie to do the story justice, she having as her colleagues on the story the newspaper's Editor-in-Chief Drew Goddard, columnist Eileen Bruce, and intern Kendall Godfrey, who happens to be Drew's daughter. What they discover is that Elliot was a man of anomalies: he had a slew of friends who, along with his mother, defend him to no end, two of those friends, Jeremy Powers and Max Corey, who did not seem to match Elliot's socioeconomic status, and to some extent seemed to be living off of him, especially Jeremy; and that his outward wealth did not seem to match his problems with cash flow. They also learn that he had problems with their neighbor, Leonard Newcombe, who seems very protective of his property and his property line. This information is beyond what Katie had hope Alex would help through the podcast, namely finding the identity of a someone named Claire, the person the source of Stephanie and Elliot's fight that evening, Stephanie only knowing second hand from her kids that Elliot was preoccupied with continual telephone calls from said Claire that day, no such person listed among Elliot's contacts. Discovering who Claire is could break the case open, but Alex and the others have to work fast to fit the time-line of the trial underway.—Huggo