Free COZY MYSTERY: Trail Mix Murder: A Cozy Mystery in the Mountains (Book 2) by Liz Turner Page A

to comment on whether LeeLee had any surviving sons or daughters! I told them no, of course not! You know what that reporter did? She showed me a paper saying that LeeLee had once had a daughter that she gave up for adoption.”
    Steve Boonsbury looked at Adam, and Victoria could read the thought that passed through both their minds. A daughter?
    “LeeLee had a daughter?” Victoria asked Declan.
    “I don’t know,” Declan said. “I don’t care either. She lived a long and complicated life. She broke her own heart several times and she broke other hearts all the time. But she was mature now, and she gave me the kind of love I needed. She and I had a huge age gap, I know, but love can connect two people no matter the age. I didn’t care about her age. But that’s all the reporters care about. I’m nearly thirty, but they make it sound like I’m some impressionable teenager and she seduced me half against my will. Those are the ones that are sympathetic to me. The rest make it sound like I’m unrepentant...”
    “Declan, you need to stop listening to them,” Victoria said. “You have enough grief in your heart. Focus on that for now. Don’t allow the harsh words of others to poison your grief.”
    “I tell myself that,” Declan said, with tears in his eyes. “I tell myself that, but I just don’t know. It hurts me. It stings me that the world despises me.”
    Corporal Jager entered the café, and the attention of the crowd shifted immediately to him. He looked around the room, and then caught Victoria’s eye. He gave her a small nod as hello, then walked over and sat down next to Declan.
    “Declan.” He said. “George and I were going through some documents and we’d like to invite you down to the station again. I’m sorry if this is a bad time. You can call your lawyers down if you like.”
    Declan’s shoulders slumped even more. “What’s the point?” He asked. “Just throw me in jail and be done with it. I don’t want to live without her.”
    “I understand that you feel lost and upset.” Randolf put a hand on his shoulder. “But this is just a simple questioning. It’s routine. There’s no interrogation and we don’t plan to arrest you. Please don’t worry.”
    “I’ll come along quietly,” Declan said, draining his cup of coffee. “If only because it’s as good a place as another. I think I might sleep better in a jail cell than in that haunted mansion I used to call home.” Dragging his feet, Declan left after Corporal Jager, leaving behind a few dollars to pay for his coffee and pie.
    There were murmurs as Declan left, and Victoria noted that there were a lot of pitying looks thrown in his direction. If the mood in the morning had been to condemn Declan, the mood had certainly changed now. Almost everyone in the café seemed to feel personally responsible for his grief. Victoria guessed that some of the people who had called him names were now feeling especially guilty for doing so.
    “Interesting.” Steve Boonbury said, sliding into the counter seat. “I’d like another coffee, I think.”
    “Me too.” Adam Denner sat beside him. “Well, what did you think of that, Victoria?”
    “I felt bad for him.” She said. “Poor man. He’s got quite a lot to deal with, and he seemed very genuinely emotional.”
    “Of course, he did,” Steve said. “You know, I was working on a mosaic for LeeLee’s party, right?”
    “Yes. A very good one too.”
    “Thanks,” Steve said. “Well, the mosaic required a lot of planning, so I got quite comfortable wandering in and out of their house. Declan and I became somewhat friendly too.”
    “I didn’t know that.”
    “Well, we did. He told me a lot about his own past, you know. That he’d spent his early twenties in Hollywood, for example, doing a day job as a waiter and studying drama and theater at night.”
    “He was an actor?” Victoria said, surprised. “Well, I suppose he does have the good looks of one.”
    “He had