An empty building that's never been used.... nope. I defy you to find one. Unless he built it himself (with cash? how?) and left it there for her to find. Which seems even less likely.
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Canadian law procedures
- Thread starter authorMAF
- Start date
quick question #2:
When someone is murdered, and there's a police investigation of the homicide but no suspects yet, could the wife still hold a 'service' since she can't hold a funereal without the body (they still need the body for investigation)? Gather friends and family, announce his death?
Again, thank you all for your help!!!
When someone is murdered, and there's a police investigation of the homicide but no suspects yet, could the wife still hold a 'service' since she can't hold a funereal without the body (they still need the body for investigation)? Gather friends and family, announce his death?
Again, thank you all for your help!!!
He doesn't own the building or anything, just had that address in his papers as his company workplace (but he had always planned for her to find it) - and I actually know of a few places in the downtown area of Ottawa (which is where this takes place) where some buildings are often empty because they keep going up for lease, or renovations have to be done, etc.
So once I've explained the details more clearly, is it possible?
For the funeral -- I'm assuming the police have the body? If so, an autopsy takes a few hours to do. Police try to return the body to the family as soon as possible. Internal organs can and often are held onto.
So to make it likely that they're holding onto the body, you're going to have to have a good reason. Of course, if he's a demon, his physiology might not match humans, which would be a good reason to not let his body go.
Assuming you've got the body held, then you need to deal with religious preferences. Several religions will allow a funeral to be held without a body, even if the location of the body is known, but the body is not available for the funeral. I'm not sure of any religion that would forbid a funeral in that circumstance. Memorial services can be held regardless of the status of the body.
Buildings can be left abandoned, but there's usually a back story connected to the fact. If you're willing to develop a good back story that your readers are going to buy, then go for it.
Best of luck,
Jim Clark-Dawe
So to make it likely that they're holding onto the body, you're going to have to have a good reason. Of course, if he's a demon, his physiology might not match humans, which would be a good reason to not let his body go.
Assuming you've got the body held, then you need to deal with religious preferences. Several religions will allow a funeral to be held without a body, even if the location of the body is known, but the body is not available for the funeral. I'm not sure of any religion that would forbid a funeral in that circumstance. Memorial services can be held regardless of the status of the body.
Buildings can be left abandoned, but there's usually a back story connected to the fact. If you're willing to develop a good back story that your readers are going to buy, then go for it.
Best of luck,
Jim Clark-Dawe
The problem is that money appears, and someone would wonder about that. One way around that would be for the demon to work his magic on the account balance numbers for his account. All the numbers would adjust when he added another million to his account. He would get statements, and the bank would have magically produced checks and transfers to account for everything. After his death the money would stop appearing in his account, and that would be all, or would it?
Ok, thank you!
Back story is just that when she goes to check the building out, she finds papers dated a little over a year ago ordering renovations on the place so it can be leased again after a Staples moved.
- Again, I can't thank you enough for all your help!!!
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when someone inherits money though, isn't it deposited in an account as long as the person is proven to have existed and has died, and the will is clear in leaving a sum of money?
Distribution from an estate varies, but usually you receive a check.
I assume the demon comes back to life and that's why he's missing?
From the legal angle, a missing body is a crime in and of itself, combined with probably tampering with evidence. Both are viewed very seriously and a criminal investigation would commence.
If she positively IDed the body at the scene, that would be normally it for identification, but now you've got so many complications it isn't funny. For instance, she might have faked an ID and then removed the body before finger prints could be taken. She'd be called down to the police station the next day, but for lots and lots of questions.
If it's a big morgue, if the demon has any sense, he takes a bunch of bodies with him. That way the police are investigating a bunch of missing bodies, which especially if you tie it to some Satanic activity, reduces the reaction to one body missing.
Best of luck,
Jim Clark-Dawe
I assume the demon comes back to life and that's why he's missing?
From the legal angle, a missing body is a crime in and of itself, combined with probably tampering with evidence. Both are viewed very seriously and a criminal investigation would commence.
If she positively IDed the body at the scene, that would be normally it for identification, but now you've got so many complications it isn't funny. For instance, she might have faked an ID and then removed the body before finger prints could be taken. She'd be called down to the police station the next day, but for lots and lots of questions.
If it's a big morgue, if the demon has any sense, he takes a bunch of bodies with him. That way the police are investigating a bunch of missing bodies, which especially if you tie it to some Satanic activity, reduces the reaction to one body missing.
Best of luck,
Jim Clark-Dawe
There's a way to do it so it doesn't -- when I turned 18 and my younger brother was still a minor, my mother set up an account in both her name and mine so that, if something happened to her, I would still have access to funds to take care of both my brother and I until her will could be processed.
(The account's still open some [redacted] years later; she drops birthday money in there every year instead of survival funds.)
ETA: Is he the only one of his kind kicking around? I used to watch a vampire show back int he early 90s (Forever Knight!), where there were vampires in the group whose jobs were to act as agents and facilitators for exactly this sort of money management and identity falsification. The hero went to one when the foundation in which he kept all his old and definitely not legally gotten money was embezzled, and to another when he thought he had to move towns and needed a new backstory and cover identity set up. If there are demons who have been arranging things for generations, then they could have plenty of shell companies and such set up already for just this sort of occasion.
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Yeah, I changed that part and just made it that he gets cremated and has a regular service since it was just making everything way too complicated when it didn't need to be
Did the back story I posted in post #31 make sense though?
You usually don't remodel a building until you have a tenant. Tenants often have specific needs and desires.
A US chain going belly-up in Canada is nothing to be surprised at. I can see a building in such a circumstance being empty for a while. I'm not sure I see it as a likely source for his office. Big box stores like Staples don't tend to locate in areas where business offices are located.
If you wan a classic situation, use an empty lot. These can retain that status for decades. Gives her a chance to look it up on Google Earth and find it abandoned but not believe it.
Best of luck,
Jim Clark-Dawe
A US chain going belly-up in Canada is nothing to be surprised at. I can see a building in such a circumstance being empty for a while. I'm not sure I see it as a likely source for his office. Big box stores like Staples don't tend to locate in areas where business offices are located.
If you wan a classic situation, use an empty lot. These can retain that status for decades. Gives her a chance to look it up on Google Earth and find it abandoned but not believe it.
Best of luck,
Jim Clark-Dawe
When someone inherits money, the money remains in the estate until it is distributed to the appropriate person in check form.
If he doesn't own the building and has no control over it, why would he use its address for his front? What if there was actually a tenant in there when he died? The empty lot makes a bit more sense, but even that could end up developed if left long enough.
And why would he plan for her to find it?? If he wants her to know the truth after he's dead, he can just leave a letter with the lawyer who did up the will. Or, did he want to play some kind of game of truth-or-not-truth with the woman he loves while she's grieving for him? I assume he was just using her for sex or something and she's supposed to end up hating him? How would you feel if you loved someone and they spend their life building some kind of trail of breadcrumbs for you to find after they die so that when you get to the end of the trail there's a great big Gotcha! that proves everything you knew about the person was a lie?
I decided to do the empty lot, yes. There are actually a lot of those in Ottawa, and some have been empty for 15+ years, so it definitely works.
There's a reason he's leaving breadcrumbs instead of just telling her - it makes sense in the story (that much was agreed on by the seven beta readers and the three professional editors - just not the parts I've asked about here, and that's why I was asking here)
There's a different way you could handle the matter, and Canada would be a fair place for it. The demon could produce gold from sand or something along those lines. The demon would sell the product to a smelter, where they would refine and cast bars. The demon wouldn't get the top price, but 80% of the retail price for gold from crap would be a good deal. The indicated production location could be a hole in the ground in Northern Quebec or somewhere. All of the mysteries would remain along with a hole in the ground.
The demon could pay taxes from a mining operation, and all the paperwork could fit.
The demon could pay taxes from a mining operation, and all the paperwork could fit.