Crime in Cabot Cove: 'Murder, She Wrote,' reconsidered

My brother and I recently had a discussion about Larry Niven's Known Space books that somehow meandered its way into the teevee show "Murder, She Wrote."  

Don't ask me how we managed that transition. I can't see any connection between the Ringworld and Jessica Fletcher, though I must admit that the thought of a few kzinti running around Cabot Cove is one that brings a warm smile to my heart. 

Anyway, we fell to discussing the curious coincidence that so many people die around mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher.  Our ideas ranged from her simply living in a neck of the woods with an unusually high rate of murders, to the possibility that she was under a curse inherited from her grandfather, who defiled an ancient mummy's tomb, along with some more chilling possibilities.  My brother developed the thought substantially after our discussion, and I now share the result with you:

For years now, the people of Cabot Cove have been dropping dead, left and right.  All except for a certain Jessica Fletcher and her friends. (Some of whom are members of the local constabulary!)

The phenomenon isn't limited to Cabot Cove though.  Everywhere Ms. Fletcher goes, there always seems to be a suspicious death of some sort.  In fact, on a few occasions, it's even seemed likely that Ms. Fletcher herself was responsible for the deaths and suspicion has only been diverted from her at the last moment.

Quite an interesting string of coincidences, huh?  Most interesting of all, nobody has ever conducted an investigation into this string of happenstance -- remember up above, where I mentioned that some of Ms. Fletcher's friends were members of the local police force?

Recently, a young FBI agent noticed the string of murders following Ms. Fletcher around the world.  He came into Cabbot Cove a few days ago, investigating the possibility that Jessica Fletcher was in fact a major East Coast crime boss.

His theory was that Ms. Fletcher created elaborate scenarios for her murder mystery books and then, in order to test how believable the stories were, would hire two-bit out-of-town hoods to do the actual dirty work.  If she were ever implicated, one of Ms. Fletcher's lieutenants would step in and allow him- or herself to be "caught" in some incriminating circumstance. Ms. Fletcher would then hire a team of hotshot lawyers and said lieutenant would be back on the streets within six months.

This morning, the FBI agent, Mulder by name, was found floating dead in the harbor.