THE COLD CASE LIE (Part 3) See 1 & 2

Edgar Allan Poe' classic short story seems to sum up this entire su:bject: Brief summary of the Tell Tale Heart follows:  From WIKIPEDEA)

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a first-person narrative of an

unnamed narrator^[1] who insists he is sane but suffering from

 a disease (nervousness) which causes "over-acuteness of

the senses". The old man with whom he lives has a clouded,

 pale, blue "vulture-like" eye which so distresses the narrator

that he plots to murder the old man, though the narrator

states that he loves the old man, and hates only the eye. The

 narrator insists that his careful precision in committing the

murder shows that he cannot possibly be insane. For seven

 nights, the narrator opens the door of the old man's room, in

order to shine a sliver of light onto the "evil eye". However, the old man's vulture eye is always closed, making it

impossible to "do the work".

 

 

On the eighth night, the old man awakens, interrupting the

narrator's nightly ritual. But the narrator does not draw back

 and, after some time, decides to open his lantern. A

single,thin ray of light shines out and lands precisely on the

 "evil eye", revealing that it is wide open. Hearing the old

man's heart beating loudly and dangerously fast from terror,

the narrator decides to strike, jumping out with a loud yell

and smothering the old man with his own bed. The narrator

then dismembers the body and conceals the pieces under

the floorboards, making certain to hide all signs of the crime.

Even so, the old man's scream during the night causes a

neighbor to report to the police. The narrator invites the three

 arriving officers in to look around. He claims that the

screams heard were his own in a nightmare and that the man

 is absent in the country. Confident that they will not find any

evidence of the murder, the narrator brings chairs for them

and they sit in the old man's room, on the very spot where

the body is concealed, yet they suspect nothing, as the

narrator has a pleasant and easy manner about him. The

narrator, however, begins to feel uncomfortable and notices a

 ringing in his ears. As the ringing grows louder, the narrator

comes to the conclusion that it is the heartbeat of the old

man coming from under the floorboards. The sound

increases steadily, though the officers seem to pay no

attention to it. Terrified by the violent beating of the heart,

 and convinced that the officers are aware of not only the

heartbeat, but his guilt as well, the narrator breaks down and

confesses. He tells them to tear up the floorboards to reveal

the body.