woo the lady officer?”

Mom, who was hovering near me rocking Laurie back and forth, scowled at the mention of another lady and I had to laugh at her double standard.

“Jones,” Galigani said. “He was taking a couple days off, spending a little time with his kid. I dropped in on him and we had a couple beers. Don’t mention any of this to anybody or we’ll have no one left to play in the sand-box with. Capisce?”

“I capisce all right,” I said.

Did Bruce know about the affair?

That would fit. He’d found out about the affair and killed Helene, then he must have feared Celia knew something and took a whack at her.

“So you think Bruce did it?” I asked Galigani.

“No. Killing the wife maybe, but the midwife at his place makes no sense. I think it might have been Margaret.”

“Margaret?” I asked.

Mom nodded her agreement.

Margaret? If she was guilty, then I was a ruse designed to throw suspicion off her. Why else would someone guilty hire a PI?

Had I been used as a pawn?

No! Couldn’t be.

“As far as I know, Margaret wasn’t with Celia that day of the poisoning. Only Bruce, Evelyn, and I saw her that day. And why would Margaret poison Celia anyway? She had been her midwife.”

“What about at Bruce’s house?” Mom asked.

“What?” Galigani and I asked at the same time. I put Galigani on speaker phone and Mom got close to the microphone.

“Maybe Margaret was over at Bruce’s before Celia got there. Maybe she mixed a little cocktail intended for Bruce.”

“Why, though?” I asked.

Mom shrugged. “I can only do so much work for free.”

Galigani snorted through the phone line. “I’m working on getting the tox results right now. Maybe they’ll shed a little light on some of this stuff, but let’s not hold our breath.”

After Mom left, I tried phoning Margaret and ended up leaving another voice mail. She had effectively disappeared. I wondered if “going to her mother’s” was a euphemism for “skipping town.”

Both Mom and Galigani had suggested Margaret was the murderer, but if my client was guilty—what did it make me?

Was I just being prideful?

Had Margaret played me? Perhaps she had found out about Helene’s betrayal. Or had she legitimately believed she was in danger from Alan?

And what about Evelyn? She’d been on the cruise and had seen Celia the day of the poisoning. But what possible motive could she have for killing Helene, or Celia for that matter?

Was getting kicked out of a mommy group motive enough to kill someone?

Hardly.

No matter how peeved it had made her, I couldn’t see it being cause for murder. Unless there was something else to the story?

Why had she been on the cruise anyway? She must have known that the night would be fraught with friction. It seemed silly to insist on going when she knew she would be seated with a bunch of women who didn’t like her.

And then there was the fact that her husband was leaving the country for a work assignment. Wouldn’t she rather have had a private date night?

Still, as strange as it seemed to me, it didn’t gel as a motive for murder. Perhaps she thought getting kicked out of the group was a slight on her kid? Could she be that overprotective as to kill in retaliation for the snub?

And then what would be her motive to hurt Celia?

No. It didn’t make sense.

No matter how many times I wrapped my head around it, I came up with Bruce. He had motive because of the affair, and opportunity—he was on the boat and at his house.

I dialed Gary and reported to him about Helene and Alan’s affair.

“It’s not looking good for Bruce,” I said.

There was silence on the phone. Finally Gary said, “Well, we just have to look harder. I think there’s something suspicious about Margaret. Check into that.”

Another one who wanted to peg it on Margaret!

“I can, of course,” I said.

If she’ll call me back!

“It’s just that the truth may be that Bruce is responsible,” I said.

“The truth is overrated,” Gary replied as he hung up on me.

For the umpteenth time I reviewed the transcript Gary had given me. Neither Inspector Jones nor Inspector McNearny had questioned Bruce on Helene’s affair, yet surely they would have known about it from the preliminary interviews. Why hadn’t they asked him?

I reread the report. It was clear that Gary had silenced them before they’d gotten to any substantive questions. They needed evidence. Pure and simple.

And so did I.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Risk

To Do:

1. Find proof