The purpose of playing the waiting game with the actual murder scene was to tell how a killing was known throughout the small town but could not be prevented. Most of the townspeople knew about the Vicario twins’ plot to kill Santiago but it seems like no matter what obstacle was put in its way, it was just meant to be. Although some felt Santiago deserved to die because he allegedly made Angela impure, others tried to warn him. The narrator’s mother tried to caution Santiago’s mother, who was ironically a dream interpreter, about her her son’s impending death but it was too late. It also links the title of the novel back to the story being told; if the events before the murder were not played out in the novel it would not have been a Chronicle
