The Custom House Murders (Captain Lacey Mysteries #15) - Ashley Gardner Page 0,90

out a new game. “You must win two. Draws do you no good.”

“I understand.”

Again, he let me open, but I believe he was beginning to regret this generosity. Creasey was a seasoned player, and I’d only been relearning the game in the last weeks, but as I faced him now, the words of my old teacher brushed the back of my mind.

Pawns are the soul of chess.

I played my pawns as he’d taught me, setting them up to block while at the same time, letting my own pieces through. I was particularly fond of rooks, because while they could not move as powerfully as the queen, I had two of them. When I paired them or set them one behind the other to break through Creasey’s wall, I felt a tingle of satisfaction in my fingers. The rooks reminded me of Brewster, all bulk that could smash through anywhere they wanted to go.

I had to relinquish my queen because I needed to stop one of his pawns that had made a slow march to my end of the board. Once a pawn reached the opponent’s king row, it could turn into any piece its player wanted. Creasey would invariably choose a queen, and with two of those in play, he’d crumble my defenses to dust. I knocked down the pawn, and Creasey seethed even as he snatched up my queen in retaliation.

Focus on controlling a pivotal square.

I put all my effort on the space before Creasey’s king, ensuring he had nowhere to run. He of course piled his pieces on to defend that square, but I maneuvered the diagonals.

His queen began her assault on my king, but I moved another bishop, and then a pawn, cornering his king. Creasey smiled as he took one of my knights. I countered by taking his, and then his queen was in jeopardy.

Creasey tapped his lips as he studied the board, his face tightening. He moved his queen one square down, a move that did nothing but purchase him time. I slammed a rook in front of it.

Certain I’d made a blunder, Creasey snatched up my rook. But I’d lured the queen from guarding the square that was my goal, and I moved my second rook to take the pawn protecting his king.

“Check,” I said quietly.

His king could not capture my rook without coming under fire from both my bishops, so he leapt the king one square away. I backed the rook off.

“Mate in two,” I announced.

Creasey worked it out. If he moved his queen to block my assault, I would simply take it with my bishop, leaving the king completely unguarded. If the king moved from the corner of the board, my rook would return with a rush and end him.

Creasey slammed his king to its side. “Best of three, I said. Your luck has run out, Lacey.”

I said nothing as I set up the pieces. The trouble with men like Creasey was that they could not believe anyone might possibly be as clever as they were. A country-bred army captain, who’d spent his years directing real battles in the heat and mud of the Peninsula, could never truly understand a sophisticated game like chess. It never occurred to him that I could read, study, practice, and pursue lessons when the game caught my interest during my year in Paris. The game had been a lifeline to distract me after Carlotta had gone.

Creasey also thought he could prevail against Denis, who’d been holding him on a loose rein for years. Denis had let Creasey alone for the simple reason that he hadn’t wanted Creasey’s business. Now Creasey believed that his superior forces would prevail.

He ought to know that James Denis would never, ever come unarmed and unaided into an enemy camp, no matter what that move would gain him. Denis had a plan—probably more than one—working behind that expressionless face of his, though I could not imagine what.

Nor did I care at the moment. I was one game away from taking Peter home. Creasey had promised the two of us could go even if I lost, but I did not trust him to keep his word. Once this game was done, Peter and I would run.

Peter had already worked himself free of his bonds. The men around Creasey were so focused on the game, they hadn’t noticed. They weren’t paying much attention to Denis either, which was fatally foolish.

Creasey proved he’d been holding back during the previous games by charging forth with an