mothers’ group, much less one that I’d gotten kicked out of.

I studied her face. “So what happened? Why’d they boot you?”

Evelyn stopped walking and laughed. “You don’t know?”

I paused beside her and shook my head.

“I would have thought they’d blabbed it to you right away,” she said.

A small boat on the horizon caught my eye. Sadness zinged through me and the enormity of my task weighed on me. A woman had lost her life and here I was trying to piece together the puzzle in search of justice speaking to someone who was only interested in herself.

“I don’t know anything it about it, really.”

“A few weeks ago I was at a playdate with the group. It was at Sara’s house. And my son bit her baby.”

Evelyn began walking again. I followed suit.

“It wasn’t that big of a deal. But they got all upset. So I left. Then when I got home, I received this very polite e-mail from Margaret. She’s got class. Even though she and Helene were conjoined. But anyway Margaret asked me to . . . well, let’s say she ‘suggested’ I voluntarily leave the club.”

As Evelyn was recounting the story, she was getting angrier and angrier, causing her pace to accelerate. I was barely keeping up.

“So,” Evelyn continued. “I responded in a very civil way, asking her to please show me the bylaws of the club where it stated that biting is forbidden and in fact cause for termination of membership. Ha! Bylaws! She doesn’t have any bylaws.”

She shook her head furiously, her ponytail starting to loosen and strands of shorter hair escaping the confines of the hair tie. The loose hair whipped around her face as she spoke. “So then Helene jumps in. Of course, Margaret had cc’d her on the e-mail. Apparently, Sara is overprotective of her baby and was all upset that Kyle bit her.”

Overprotective?

Was she crazy?

Wouldn’t everyone freak out if their baby got bitten by a two-year-old monster? I certainly would.

Wait.

Was Kyle a monster?

Does every two-year-old bite?

My heart stopped. Oh God! What if Laurie was going to be a monster and bite little babies?

Evelyn stopped to repin her hair, sticking her flip-flops into her back pocket. I was glad for the break. Ahead of us, The Cliff House, a San Francisco landmark, sat perched on its rocky bluffs. Seal Rock majestically projected out of the water.

A gust of wind buffeted us and I longed to climb up the hill and sit inside the lounge bar sipping something hot by the fireplace. I glanced at Evelyn’s bare feet, now covered in sticky sand.

How could she not be cold?

“I told Helene that I was handling Kyle the way they teach us at our co-op preschool, Little Bears.” Evelyn turned to me. “Do you know it?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Oh!” Evelyn frowned again at me. “It’s the best preschool in the city. Fred has a friend who is on the board of Stanford University and he told me to do whatever I could to get Kyle into Little Bears. You should get your daughter on the wait list now.”

Was she serious? Laurie wasn’t even two months old, for crying out loud.

I supposed my stunned expression said it all because she continued, “I know it can be overwhelming, but really, take my word for it. The city is highly competitive when it comes to preschools. Well, that and swim classes. You are enrolled in swim classes, aren’t you?”

I shook my head.

Evelyn gasped. “You’re not enrolled at La Petite Grenouille?”

I felt my eyebrows furrow and tried to disguise the fact that I hadn’t even heard about La Petite Grenouille by turning my face into the wind and smoothing my hair into place.

“You have to sign up for their water acclimation class. It’s the best. You can start as soon as your daughter is two months old—but the wait list is at least six months. So you really should have signed up while you were still pregnant.”

I fought to keep my facial expression neutral.

Sign up for swim classes for a baby who’s not even born yet!

Evelyn glanced at me. I smiled. She smiled back. “Well, it’s never too late. You better sign up right away. You never know, someone might have canceled.”

I nodded.

“Honestly, Kyle is practically swimming on his own now. It’s amazing.”

I felt despair creeping over me.

Late again!

I tried to steer the conversation back to avoid the loser mom feeling overtaking me. “So, you were telling me about Helene.”

“Right.” Evelyn started walking again. I almost regretted bringing her on