Read Daisy McDare And The Deadly Secret Affair (Daisy McDare Cozy Creek Mystery Book 7) for Free Online Page B

asked. 
    “Excuse me.  I’ll ask the questions here.  Where were you last night between the hours of eleven and midnight?” Detective Stern said. 
    “I was at my cousin’s apartment.  Call her up right now, she’ll confirm it,” Daisy insisted. 
    Detective Stern turned to Chloe. 
    “And you?” Stern asked. 
    Daisy jumped in.  “She didn’t do anything.”
    Detective Stern stared Daisy down.  “I didn’t ask you.”
    Daisy didn’t back down.  “If you’re serious about finding the real killer, you’re wasting your time lobbing questions at Chloe.”
    Detective Stern looked surprised that Daisy wasn’t immediately backing down.  He obviously didn’t get many people standing their ground around him. 
    After all the cases she’d cracked, Daisy had gotten over her initial fear of being questioned by police officers.  Part of it was because she was all too familiar with the tactic the detective was using.  Daisy in fact used it herself to get information. 
    Unwavering confidence paired with intimidation were powerful things.  It was surprising how effective it was when combined with the rapid-fire peppering of pointed questions.  Badgering suspects may get a bad rap, but it delivered results. 
    The second lesson that Daisy learned over the last year was that innocent people had nothing to fear.  The fact was, there were no secrets to bring to light.  Daisy knew her best friend well enough to say with a hundred percent certainty that Chloe could never kill someone. 
    Daisy just had to convince the detective of that. 
    Detective Stern meanwhile tried to assert his authority.  “Oh really?  And how would you know that?”
    “Chloe is one of my best friends.  Trust me, she’s not capable of committing murder.”
    Detective Stern scoffed.  “Trust you?  Why would I do that?  I just met you.  Besides, if anything, the fact that you’re friends with Ms. Wilson completely invalidates your opinion.”
    Daisy put her hands on her hips.  “And why is that?”
    “People have a natural bias when it comes to their friends.  They don’t want to believe their friends are capable of horrible things.”
    “Because she isn’t,” Daisy insisted. 
    “Let me tell you something.  Given the right circumstances, everyone is capable of murder.”
    That was a horrible way to look at the world.  Not to mention completely untrue.  Daisy knew a number of people that wouldn’t even hurt a fly, no less take someone’s life.  Chloe was on that list.  No jaded city detective was going to convince her otherwise. 
    “Let me tell you a little something about my friend here.  She has such a great moral compass that she wouldn’t take a single grape from a grocery store without paying for it,” Daisy reasoned. 
    Detective Stern’s patience was wearing thin.  “With all due respect Ms. McDare, grapes and murder are far different things.”
    Chloe had stayed quiet until that point.  After all, Daisy was doing a good job defending her.  Not to mention Chloe was quite aware of Daisy’s penchant for proving the innocence of her friends when they were falsely accused of crimes. 
    Even so, Chloe reached a point where she wanted her own voice to be heard.  She didn’t like the idea of her name being mentioned in the same breath as a murder victim.  Chloe wanted there to be no doubt of her innocence, and she wanted the detective to hear it straight from her mouth.   
    Chloe stepped forward and opened her mouth.  “Why don’t you let me speak for myself?”
    Detective Stern and Daisy stopped their back and forth and gave Chloe the floor. 
    “Fine.  What do you have to say for yourself?” Detective Stern asked. 
    “I didn’t do it,” Chloe declared. 
    Both Detective Stern and Daisy kept waiting for more words to come out of Chloe’s mouth, but none did.  For a writer, Chloe was sure frugal with words that morning.  Then again, when it came to her book, Chloe had plenty of time