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Pretty straight wp for 18ac. Includes a 2 letter abbreviation for South.

Hi Darla,

18a - 4 letter "fly" (I'd never heard of it - there's a shock!) + 2 letter "south" reversed/'returning' + 2 letter "in due course"

Thanks, Brendan. Never heard of the fly either, but I was fixated on south being one letter. Aargh.

I’m stuck on a few final entries in SE corner. A nudge for 45a would be greatly appreciated.

Kindred2 - the location and the person that knew answers to other questions are pretty much hiding in plain sight. If you have the poser then the location and the answerer will be divinable - which should lead to the source material and a very well known unsuitable/inappropriate entanglement.

(I found the closed loop thanks to the other half of the entanglement).

Numbskull, re 45a. Def. is 'treatment for eye' . 'Coloured' is an anagram indicator.

I have (just about) finished this, but feeling a bit dissatisfied with the very final part of the end game that involves erasing three letters. This is returning to questions previously raised by Foinaven. There are an obvious 3 letters to erase, but given the killer's fate I too would have expected what's erased to be plural. This is not helped by the fact that the same 3 letters also occur in a line elsewhere in the grid (albeit in a different direction), so the erasing could in theory be done twice.

Also, while I recognise that the more obvious 3 letters to erase still leave a real 3-letter word at the end, I'm uneasy about the words that cross the erased letters, specifically the middle one, where I'm not sure I would call what's left at the beginning of the crossing word (before the deletion) a "real word or name."

Finally, is there any significance/symbolism in the shape of what's portrayed by the highlighting/erasing? If there were, this might help provide some reassurance that I'm looking at the right 3 letters to erase.

Thank you mattrom.

Thanks very much Jordan.

Twit @ 67, the shape that is made if you highlight the full path and the victim, and the fact that the shape is “empty” may go some way to bringing you comfort (if that is the mot juste given the theme!).