"A Murder In Milburn", Book 1: Death At A Diner by Nancy McGovern Page A

She told me that she was going to go to meet someone and then later go to the diner to finish up some work.”
    “She told you she was going to meet someone?” Sean perked up. “Who did she want to meet?”
    “She didn’t tell me,” Nora said. “But if you’ve got her smart phone, she’d have her messages or-”
    “Nora, we never recovered her phone. Her purse – her wallet, keys, and phone – they were all stolen, remember?”
    Nora flinched but nodded. “Of course.”
    Sean paused, scribbling down notes, and asked, “Nora, this is a tough question for you to answer, and I’ve asked it before, but do you truly have no idea who would want to harm Raquel? It may seem like it was a minor incident to you, but people hold on to grudges. So if you remember something, anything at all…”
    Nora shook her head. “As I said, if there were people from her business as an accountant who hated her, I wouldn’t know about it. In her personal life, everyone loved her. Even the boys whose heart she broke had no hard feelings. But… there’s Raquel’s father, of course. Have you interviewed him?”
    “We haven’t interviewed her parents yet,” Sean said. “We’ve done a brief round of initial questioning with them, but not a proper sit down.”
    “Her father,” Nora said. “Raquel didn’t consider Jolene her mother.”
    “Say what now?” Sean paused, then almost smacked himself on the head. “Of course! Jolene’s been married to Davis Madden so long, I’d forgotten. She’s Raquel’s step mother, isn’t she?”
    “She is,” Nora said. “Raquel never removed that step from step mother.”
    “So there was bad blood between them?”
    “Not enough for Jolene to…” Nora shook her head, suddenly feeling guilty. “No. Jolene can’t have done it.”
    Sean sighed, and put his pen down. He rubbed his hands together for a while, then smoothed back his hair. “Nora, you can’t do this.”
    “Do what?”
    “You’ve got to put aside your personal feelings for a minute, and tell me facts,” Sean said. “If you start feeling guilty just because you’re telling me facts, I’ll never be able to get to the truth. Now, it doesn’t matter whether Jolene was or was not capable of hurting Raquel. What we need to focus on is this – did Raquel like her? And if not, why not?”
    When Nora still hesitated, Sean appealed to her once more. “If I’m to find out who did this, what I need are observations . So many people nowadays watch police shows on TV and think that fingerprints and DNA is the kind of evidence that solves cases. The truth is, more often than not, we recover no concrete data from a crime scene. Even today, we policemen work hard to understand the psychology of the crime and the criminal. That’s what helps us crack cases. Right now, my department needs someone like you, someone who is quiet and reserved herself, but who sees other people around her clearly and without prejudice.”
    Nora looked up at him, feeling suddenly glad that Sean was in charge. She remembered his face as he came striding toward them when she’d been standing under a tree with Harvey, the crashed Ferrari nearby. Men like this, men who took control of bad situations, and made you feel like justice would prevail, were a boon to the world.
    Without hesitation, she began. “Raquel’s mother died when she was only seven. When she was 15, her father Davis Madden married Jolene. Raquel never liked Jolene. She never liked her father either, after he married that woman. Jolene is a good woman, but very… strict. I was her best friend, so I know. Strangely enough, Jolene liked me a lot and kept telling Raquel to be like me, because I was studious and bookish. She thought Raquel’s fun and outgoing nature was a sign that she was a sinner.”
    “Ah,” Sean said. He scribbled something more in his notes. “Jolene and Raquel’s father, Davis, they’re members of… the Cult of Supreme Truth.”
    “It’s called the church