As we near 16 October, our minds turn to the bomb which killed journalist and political blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia.

But there is another anniversary, and that is now, not just 16 of October.

A year ago, a plan was being hatched.

A year ago, someone who may have been “wounded” by Daphne’s pen decided that enough was enough. We still do not know who this someone is.

A year ago, that depraved person contacted people who could make a bomb, people who could spy on journalist’s house, on her every move.

A year ago, that someone got another someone to plant a bomb under Daphne’s car and to trigger it when she left her home.

But we have to go further afield than that.

A year ago, that someone must have calculated the chances of getting away with the murder of Malta’s most well-known and controversial journalist. Otherwise — and we must tread carefully here — that someone must have banked on getting some outside help after the fact, when all Malta (bar the usual few) and the whole world were baying for the murderer’s blood.

A year on, we are still not sure whether this was the act of a solitary person or a wider conspiracy.

It certainly looks strange that so many things have worked in favour of the murderers; this strange succession of seemingly fortuitous elements beggars belief... unless the force behind the assassination is so big and so strong that it overweighs the elements of chance.

The more we think about what we now know, the more we begin to suspect that the die had long been cast, and that somehow the Daphne’s condemnation to death was cast in stone and had to be carried out regardless.

If this attempt had failed, there would have been others… and others.

From the elements we now have, it certainly does not look like the work of one person, however strong and powerful. If this were another country, we would be speaking of a hit carried out by an entire crime family, not a single rogue element.

There are wide implications to be drawn from this admittedly speculative reflection.

A year after the murder, we are still far, far away from unravelling what may have led to the murder.