Elster (Tom Helmore)’s Timeline and Summary

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• Calls Scottie to say that he wants to meet up.
• Asks for a favor even though he hasn't seen Scottie since college.
• Explains that his wife Madeleine has been acting strange, and proposes that spirit-possession may be to blame.
• Gets Scottie to agree to follow Madeleine around despite the detective's initial reluctance.
• At a follow-up meeting, gives Scotty more details, including part of the story about Carlotta Valdes.
• Later, during a phone call with Scottie, provides one more crucial detail: Carlotta Valdes died when she was Madeleine's same age.
• Consoles Scottie at the trial, telling him there was nothing he could have done to save Madeleine and saying that the jury couldn't have understood about Carlotta.
• In the flashback—and so before all of the above—is shown concocting a plan to kill his wife: He hires Judy to play Madeleine, then throws the real Madeleine off the Mission's bell-tower, knowing Scottie can't make it to the top because of his fear of heights.