We do have some leads to follow. The most promising — the fact that the story is attributed to an actual human being, former AAFS President Don Harper Mills — I'll save till last. Before tracking Dr. Mills down, let's analyze some elements of the story itself, which, for all its seeming gem-like perfection, does suffer a few inconsistencies.
I noted earlier that the narrative depends on irony for its impact. From a dramatic standpoint, the irony, in turn, depends on the order in which significant bits of information are revealed.
Remember how we were told near the beginning that Ronald Opus had left a suicide note? That's a critical detail, because 1) it provides evidence of intent, and 2) it specifies the only plausible source for the information we're later given concerning Opus' motivation for attempting to kill himself (i.e., he was despondent over his failure to cause his mother to be murdered). But notice that while we're told at the outset that the note exists, we're never let in on what it says. Why? From a storytelling perspective, the reason is obvious: it would give away the ending. Here's the logical problem that creates: although we didn't have access to that information from the beginning, the medical examiner did — which means that the long, detailed investigation leading up to the climactic revelation of Ronald Opus's identity is nothing but a red herring.
