The ricin-extraction manual proved death came from a castor bean plant, though no trace of poison was found in her system.

 

Solution.

Contrary to what was claimed in an earlier Twistery, not all psychopaths are patient. This one wasn’t.

He planned to poison his wife with ricin, extracted from a castor bean plant that he had bought from the local garden centre. (He didn’t even have the patience to grow it.)

He just about had the patience to download the ricin-extraction manual from an anarchist website. Unfortunately, he could make neither head nor tail of it.

What he did understand was that he would have to buy a whole lot of expensive and difficult-to-procure equipment. Which would take days, if not weeks, to arrive. And once it had arrived, it would be a bugger of a job to set it all up and get it working.

By the looks of it, he needed a degree in chemistry. Which he didn’t have. He sent off for some university prospectuses but was dismayed by the length of the courses.

He didn’t have time for all that.

So he hit her over the head with the plant pot.