plexus. “What!”

“I believed her at first, but now it makes no sense. Alan didn’t poison Celia yesterday.”

Bruce turned red and raised his voice. “We don’t even know if she was poisoned yet.”

Paula sat up at attention.

Bruce covered his face with his hands. “I can’t take much more of this. I need those toxicology results to come out, so I can prove that I had nothing to do with any of this.”

“How would you prove that?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Hopefully, Gary can think of a way. Will you talk to him?”

I sat back in my chair, a bit stunned. “About what?”

“Tell him what you know. I think he can help us.”

“Us?”

“Well, okay, me. Gary can help me, but I think you need to help Gary.”

I saw Paula craning to get my attention. Once she had it, she nodded firmly.

“All right, I’ll meet with Gary. Give him my number, and he and I can set up a meeting.”

Bruce nodded distractedly as he picked up his BlackBerry and pressed several buttons. His fingers flashed across the phone. When he’d finished, he looked up at me. “Okay. Done. I asked him to share my file with you.”

Share his file?

I couldn’t believe my luck! I was going to get my unlicensed hands on some real information!

We said good-bye and I watched him leave. As soon as he was out of sight, Paula slipped into his empty chair.

“Girl, your life has gotten so exciting without me!”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Rolling Over

To Do:

1. Meet with Gary Barramendi.

2. ?

3. Find maid/nanny—how can we afford?

4. ?

5. Shop for shoes.

6. Thanksgiving!!! Prep, prep, prep!

Jim had woken up early and gone for a run. I felt slightly guilty for not working out, but figured the soup diet I’d been on the last two days might count for a purge and be good enough.

I put Laurie on her playmat for tummy time. I tucked her arms under her so that she was propped up by them. “All right, missy, this is Sergeant Mommy, hold that head up ninety degrees.”

Laurie cooed and kicked her legs up and back as though she wanted to shuttle across the floor. Her head bobbed around a bit, but she was safe enough for me to duck into the kitchen and get coffee.

I grabbed the phone and threw some bread into the toaster, trying to make breakfast and catch up on phone calls at the same time. I listened to the phone ring as I buttered my toast. Margaret didn’t pick up. I left her a condensed status message and asked her to phone me back.

Then I called Galigani. “Mom said you were willing to sponsor me. Can we meet for lunch?”

“I’d love to meet you, darling. Where and when?”

“Can we meet today? I have a meeting with Gary Barramendi tomorrow and I need—”

“You’re meeting with Gary the Grizzly! He eats cup-cakes like you for breakfast.”

“Thanks.”

Galigani guffawed. “There’s a great Thai place near my house, want to try it?”

“See you around noon?”

I picked up my toast and coffee and made my way to the living room, where Laurie was on her playmat. She was on her back with a stunned expression on her face. I rushed to her, dropping my breakfast off on the coffee table.

“Laurie! Did you roll over?”

She stared up and grinned.

I tickled her tummy and she kicked her feet up at me.

“I can’t believe you rolled over for the first time while I was in the other room.”

How could I have missed this milestone!

I put her back onto her tummy. “Do it again!”

Laurie cried. She put her head down between her arms and flapped her legs and wailed.

I picked her up. “Don’t cry, Petunia. I know it’s hard.” I rubbed her back. “That tummy time is awful, just awful.”

Laurie curled up against me gratefully.

“Next time will you wait until I’m in the room to have a turning point?”

I stood outside Galigani’s house and rang the bell. When he opened the door, he smiled. “Ready to go? Or do you want to come in?”

“I’m ready. Let’s go,” I said.

Galigani grabbed a jacket from a clothes tree and slid it on. He smoothed down his mustache as though putting on the jacket had caused it to go astray. “It’s walking distance.”

The few short blocks to the Thai restaurant winded us both. Galigani, who’d had heart surgery a few weeks back, and I, with my postpartum legs and butt, made a sorry team. We studied each other at the entrance of the restaurant.

“Good thing nobody was chasing us,”