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who told me the drinks felt a little watered down.” He gave her a suspecting look, and Victoria resisted the flare of temper she felt.
    “Oh if it’s Senator Dashwood, everything tastes watery to him because he’s used to gulping down Vodka by the bottle,” LeeLee said. “Victoria’s a very honest woman.”
    “Of course, she is,” Declan said, looking grumpy still.
    “In fact, I wanted to ask you if you’d consider catering at our wedding, Victoria dear,” LeeLee said. “Declan and I are planning a wedding three months from now.”
    “Oh.” Victoria cringed. So were Steve and Amanda. “When would that be?”
    “The dates aren’t fixed yet,” LeeLee said. “But we’re thinking of doing it right here in the charming historical town chapel. I love Larch Hot Springs, you know. It’s one of the most beautiful towns I’ve ever been to. I never had a home, what with growing up in an orphanage. But I used to watch movies and wish that I could be part of a small town one day. Of course, I also wanted to be part of expeditions, of big city parties, and of political powerhouses. I was a very imaginative young child.”
    “You’re still very imaginative,” Victoria smiled. “Most people lose that when they grow up.”
    “Oh, but there is no success in a creative field if you can’t keep the child inside you curious and hungry,” LeeLee said.
    “I’ve often thought that myself,” Victoria said.
    “Tell me, dear, is it true that you once wrote true crime novels?” LeeLee asked.
    “My husband did most of the work, but I was a co-author,” Victoria said.
    “I think I read one of yours about a serial killer who was obsessed with gardening his venus fly traps.”
    “Ah yes. The Greenhouse Garrotter.” Victoria said. “He was a nasty man.”
    “Do you think…” LeeLee said. “If a person around you were plotting a murder or had committed one, do you believe you would recognize it? In their eyes I mean?”
    Victoria shook her head. “Unlikely.” She said.
    “Why not?”
    “Humans aren’t just one thing, that’s why not,” Victoria said. “I’ve known men who were out and out cruel to everyone they could meet. They were products of truly terrible environments. I interviewed a spree killer once who had killed his mother, his brother, his sister-in-law, and his seven nieces and nephews. By all accounts, the man was just a humble salesman, so meek he could barely ask for a raise. Yet something spurred him to take a gun and shoot down his entire family. No, sometimes a demon comes into a man and makes him commit the most atrocious of crimes. Sometimes, there’s just a vein of cruelty hidden deep within. The only thing we can do, really, is to solve a crime after it’s happened.”
    “Yes,” LeeLee said. She had her fingers steepled under her chin. “Yes. You are right. But did it ever give you a feeling of power? When you figured out who had committed a crime?”
    “I wasn’t a detective,” Victoria said. “Though Michael and I did find evidence that one man was innocent.”
    “Michael?”
    “My husband.” Victoria reminded her.
    “Oh yes. Of course.” LeeLee looked at her. “You loved him very much, did you not?”
    “I did,” Victoria said. “I’ll never forget him, no matter what.”
    “No, you never will.” LeeLee nodded. “But it won’t harm you to move on, to find a new person to love, either.”
    “I have my family.”
    “Family will fill some part of your heart but there’s a void that only a new love can fill,” LeeLee said. “You’ll find out. You’re young still so take advantage of it. That Corporal Jager for instance...”
    Victoria blushed. “We are only friends, Mrs. Brunt.”
    LeeLee laughed. “Oh please. I must be as experienced with romance as you are with crime and I tell you that I can see sparks between people even when they themselves can’t. That man is quite fond of you.”
    Changing the topic, Victoria said, “Why did you wonder if I can