Motherhood Is Murder Part 25

Might as well start with something I knew.

I recounted for him my first meeting with Helene and Margaret and then began on the dinner cruise.

'You were on the cruise?' Gary asked.

I nodded. 'Yeah. It was my first night meeting most of the mommy group.'

Gary looked confused.

I waved away his concern. 'Long story. Anyway, what I do know is that there were reports of Helene and Sara fighting just before Helene's demise.'

Gary didn't try to hide his surprise. His eyebrows rose, although due to the asymmetry of his face, his right eyebrow shot up quite high while his left one moved only slightly. I had to smile in spite of myself.

'Where did you get this information?' he asked.

'Another former member of the Roo & You group. She was asked to leave the group because her kid bit a baby.'

Gary rose, crossed to his desk, and picked up a legal pad. 'Really? I used to be a biter.'

I laughed. 'Is that where you got your nickname?' Gary looked taken aback.

Oops. Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned that.

'You know about my nickname?'

I swallowed. Well, my foot was in it now. May as well proceed.

'Sure. Gary the Grizzly.'

He laughed and looked pleased with himself. 'My reputation precedes me, huh?'

I smiled.

He scribbled something on the legal pad. 'Okay, what else do you know?'

I explained that, according to several sources, Dr. Alan Lipe was having an affair. That he and his wife, Margaret, had fought that evening and Margaret suspected he may have poisoned Helene by mistake.

Gary took notes. When I finished, he looked up. 'What else you got?'

'What else do you you got?' I countered. got?' I countered.

Gary smiled. 'Ah. Tough cookie, huh? You want a little quid pro quo?'

I nodded.

'I'm giving you a copy of my client's interrogation.'

'He asked you to,' I answered.

Gary chewed on the cap of his pen and squinted at me. 'Are we on the same team here?'

'What do you mean?'

'Has Bruce hired you, or what?'

I glanced around the room. 'Not exactly.'

'Who are you working for?' Gary asked.

Time to come clean.

'I was hired by Margaret Lipe.'

Gary nodded. 'You think Bruce is guilty.'

'I don't know what to think,' I said. 'It was just Bruce, Celia, and I at his place, and I know I didn't poison Celia.'

'What does Margaret Lipe think?' Gary asked.

I hesitated. Frankly I didn't know what Margaret thought about the attempt on Celia's life, because she hadn't called me back.

How much should I disclose to Gary?

Did I have any obligation of confidentiality to Margaret?

'Well, Margaret suspected Alan, and I understand that for Helene's murder-but what about Celia? If it was just the three of us at Bruce's house, how can it be anyone other than Bruce?' I asked.

'Maybe Celia was with the doctor right before she showed up at Bruce's. Maybe she's the other woman and the doc told her he was going to get rid of his wife and then botched it. But now Celia knows about the accident and he's scared she'll say something to the police, so he slips her something on her way to Bruce's.'

'If that's the case, wouldn't Celia tell the police that her lover killed Helene and then maybe tried to poison her?'

Gary shrugged. 'Maybe she hasn't put it all together. Or maybe she's protecting him. You'd be surprised about the things people don't tell the police. Well, probably you wouldn't, if you've been doing PI work long.'

I tried to look as experienced as I could by composing my features into a serious reflective look and nodded.

He must have bought into my acting because he said, 'Let's start there, with the midwife. She knows something. Stake her out, see where she goes. Maybe we'll get lucky.' He chomped on the pen cap thoughtfully. 'You think we can come to an arrangement?' he asked.

I studied his eyes. 'What kind of an arrangement?'

'I have a PI I use to look into things. Because you know my time . . .'

'Right. Your time is pretty valuable.'

Gary smiled.

'Your reputation precedes you.' I laughed.

'Now, see! Sweet-talk like that will get you everywhere. I mean nowhere,' he corrected, shaking a finger at me, but with his disarming grin lighting up his face. 'What I'm thinking is I can hire a PI, but they'd have to run around and do the same work you just did. So, I'd be behind the curve-'

'Isn't what you're proposing a conflict of interest?' I asked.

'Whose interest?'

'My client's. Sort of breach of confidentiality.'

Gary frowned. 'You're not bound to confidentiality. Unless, of course, you bound yourself in your own contract. Which I hope you didn't. Because it wouldn't stand up in a court of law and you'd just be misleading your client. You should let me review that for you. Anyway, as you know under the Business and Professions Code, Article 6, Disciplinary Proceedings, Sections 7561-7567, you are free to report illegal activity as you see fit or risk suspension of your license, fees, jail time, you name it-whatever the Review Board decides.'

All right, so I didn't have to worry about confidentiality, but how could I tell him I had no worries about a license suspension either?

'Why don't you tell me exactly what you're proposing?' I asked.

'Simple, you work for me. I'll double your hourly rate. Or are you working on a project basis?'

'Hourly.'

'Great. Hourly. I'll double your rate. You can continue to work independently, so keep your contract with Margaret, I don't care about that. But let me know everything you find out. I mean everything. I'd like a daily report. Doable?'

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO.

Unstable

To Do:

1. Stake out Celia.

2. Build up milk supply.

3. Buy Laurie swing contraption thing (like baby Amanda) for two-month milestone.

4. Research safety re: computers in nursery.

5. Look up Business and Professions Code, Article 6.

'He wants you to work for him?' Paula asked.

'I don't know if I can do that, though, ethically, you know?' I was seated at her dining room table nursing Laurie.

Paula had swaddled Laurie in a special swaddling blanket with Velcro closures on the sides and around her belly. When I complained and told her Laurie had outgrown the swaddle, she'd pooh-poohed me and told me that babies slept much better swaddled. I could hardly argue as apparently Laurie had been sacked out since I'd left.

I rubbed Laurie's cheek and secretly thought the swaddle looked like a straitjacket. 'I'll break you out of it as soon as we leave, Sugarplum,' I whispered in her ear. 'I'm an expert in breaking out of Velcro.'

Paula was working furiously on a sc.r.a.pbook of Danny's first year, and Danny was running back and forth between the dining room and his bedroom bringing us Lego pieces, one at a time.

Each time Danny returned from his room, he'd hand me a piece saying, ' 'Go piece.'

I'd say, 'Yes! Lego piece,' then oohed and aahed as he attached the piece to the tower he was building.

Paula gave me a dismissive wave. 'Come on, Kate. You know I'm the last person you should be discussing ethics with. Take the money! Of course you should work for him.'

'But that would be double billing or something like that.'

Paula laughed. 'Well, duh. That's the beauty of it.'

I sighed and helped Danny connect a piece to the tower. He yelped with happiness and then charged back to his room.

Paula scrunched her face. 'I promised myself I would finish this darn book before the baby came. I can't have Danny's first year looming over me when I have the other one's first year to capture. But I swear I hate this sc.r.a.pbooking.'

'You do? But you're so good at it.'

'Why would you think I'm good at it? I never do it.'

I looked around the table. She had neatly arranged the photos in one stack, stickers in another stack, and colored paper in a third stack. 'Well, look at all the organization and care you've put into it.'

'It's all a facade,' Paula said.

I laughed. Danny zoomed back into the room and handed me a Lego piece. 'Danny's good at building-why don't you let him put it all together?'

Paula sighed. 'The end result would probably be the same.'

At home, I fussed with dinner. On the drive from Paula's I thought I'd had a wonderful time-saving idea. Crock pot cooking! Just throw all the ingredients into a pot and voil-dinner!

When I got home, I realized that would mean I actually had to have the ingredients on hand, not to mention the six- or seven-hour lead time for cooking.

While inventorying the fridge, I grabbed a piece of cheese and popped it into my mouth. Then, I looked in the cupboard for some crackers.

Hmmm, did we have any wine?

I found a bottle and opened it, pouring myself a gla.s.s.

I had recently read an article online that allowed breastfeeding moms one to two gla.s.ses of alcohol a day. What a hoot! I thought I wasn't supposed to have any alcohol. Well, everything in moderation. Certainly the occasional gla.s.s of wine wasn't going to hurt Laurie. And definitely the last few days had been trying. I needed something to take the edge off.

I continued my search for crackers.

Maybe I could make a little appetizer plate for Jim and me-cheese, crackers, nuts, and fruit . . .