"In hindsight I like MethodEng's question better, and I'll be surprised if that isn't the solution."

"Did his wife take so long at the meal because she knew a surprise party was being organised at home. Which the man found to his cost when he dragged her body inside?"

""What goes wrong with his plan?" You mean besides the stupid idea of wanting to kill his wife to begin with? My official question is: "Did he forget his house key and got caught before getting the body indoors?""

"Did he fail to kill his wife at 8:46?"

"Yes."

"Did he succeed in killing his wife ?"

"No."

"Did they cross time zones when they went out for dinner? "

"No (other than it being his time of birth)."

"No."

"Does 8:46 carry any significance to the problem beyond being a time he arbitrarily selected?"

"Was there a motion-detecting light on the porch? "

"He planned to start a new life by murdering his wife, and resolved to do it at 8:46 that evening, the exact moment he turned 40.  But then she came to the office, to take him for a birthday dinner downtown before going home.  She dawdled…"

"Ah, sorry about that. I have been misremembering that name. My brain is saying he changed his name at some point, but I can find no evidence of that online."

"Ah.  I searched online for "Red Velvet supervillain", and found the Justice League Action character I mentioned before, and also the Seattle "real life supervillain".  However, the references I found give his name as…"

"Good enough! He has placed four statues/action figures in corners and his black cat in another. The cat is free to leave when it wants. It almost certainly will. Red Velvet was a clue that turned out to be not very helpful. Obviously, anyone could…"