Murder at Collins Airfield (Margaret and Mona Ghostly Cozies Book 3) by Diana Xarissa

Author:Diana Xarissa [Xarissa, Diana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-11-08T00:00:00+00:00

9

Donna took a sip of her drink. When the waiter returned with their puddings, she took a bite before she sighed and put her fork down.

“I read a lot of murder mysteries,” she told them. “I used to read romance novels, but after Joel’s murder, I found myself gravitating towards true crime. After a while, I began to find those too depressing. People can do unbelievably horrible things to other people. That’s when I started reading murder mysteries. Horrible things happen, but everything gets wrapped up in a couple of hundred pages. The killer always gets caught. The good guys always win. I often wish life could be more like that.”

Ted nodded. “It would be nice if we could catch every murderer, ideally within days. Unfortunately, murder investigations in real life are rarely as simple or straightforward as the ones in fiction.”

Donna nodded. “I thought it would be interesting to try to look at Joel’s murder as if it were in one of my books instead of in the real world. This was years ago now, maybe fifteen or more, after I’d been reading detective novels and mysteries for a while. I’d started to think that Joel’s murder couldn’t possibly be all that complicated, so I made a list of suspects and I tried to assign motives, means, and opportunity to each of them.”

“And how did you do?” Ted asked.

Donna laughed. “Terribly. It turns out that real life murders are a good deal more complicated than fictional ones. I found that I was missing important clues or maybe just one vital clue. Whatever, after working on the puzzle for a week or so, I gave up and went back to my books. This afternoon, though, after we spoke, I dug out my old notes on the case.”

“And did you have better luck this time?” Margaret asked.

Donna ate a bite of pastry before she replied. “No, but I’ve only just started, really. I feel as if I might get closer to the solution this time. I’ve read a lot more books since my first attempt.”

Margaret used her knife to slice a profiterole in half. As she did so, Ted cleared his throat.

“Murders in real life are nearly always more complex than fictional ones,” he said. “A team of trained investigators has been looking into Joel’s murder for the past thirty-five years without finding the killer.”

“Are you suggesting that reading a lot of fictional murder mysteries isn’t as useful as actually training as a police inspector?” Donna asked. Before Ted could reply, she laughed. “I’m well aware of the limitations of my abilities. But I have the distinct advantage of being personally acquainted with nearly all of the suspects. You did ask me in my interview today who I thought killed Joel. At that point, I was feeling less chatty than I am now, so I simply shrugged.”

“I’d love to hear your thoughts on any or all of the suspects,” Ted said.

Donna smiled. “You should invite your girlfriend to join your interviews. I’m enjoying talking to her.

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