I'd read that this is an infant's way of communicating. They're trying to imitate the way a mouth moves during speech. They even take turns, watching you first, as though they are having a conversation with you.

Mom laughed and proceeded to stick her tongue out at Laurie. Laurie rolled her tongue and gurgled. Mom did the same. Pretty soon I had a couple of drooling fools on my hands.

'Did you find anything out from Alan?' I asked.

'Maybe,' Mom said with a smug look on her face. 'Listen to the tape. It's in my purse. Oh, and bring me my Cheaters. I want to cut some of Laurie's hair for me, too.'

I grabbed the recorder and handed Mom her gla.s.ses. She immediately went into action and clipped the only remaining long hair Laurie had.

Laurie was beginning to lose the hair on the back of her head and I feared she'd go completely bald before I could save some baby hair. But now after the radical hair-cut Mom had given her, I wondered if it had been a wise decision.

I pressed the Play b.u.t.ton on the device.

Mom: Good morning. I have an appointment with Dr. Lipe. Is that you, Joan?

Joan: Vera! How are you? I didn't make the connection that it was you!

I pressed Stop on the recorder and raised my hands to Mom. 'You know her?'

Mom laughed. 'Isn't that a coincidence? I met her a few weeks ago at a dinner party. I told you about her. She's the lady who wanted to take home some leftover crackers, remember?'

'I can't believe you know her.' I pressed Play again on the recorder.

Joan: Let me take you right in.

Sounds of a door opening and shuffling.

'This next part is my visit with the doctor. He gave me a good solution for my bunions.'

I pressed Stop on the recording. 'Let me guess. You need an orthotic.'

'Yes!' Mom said excitedly.

'Okay, you can spare me the details of the visit,' I said, fast-forwarding the device a bit. 'Did you get any more information?'

'Oh yes. Let me see.' Mom took the recorder and pressed a few b.u.t.tons back and forth. 'Here we go.'

Mom: Okay, Joan. Looks like I need to come back. Do you have anything for next week?

Joan: Let me check.

Sounds of pages turning.

Joan: Next week the doctor is out due to the holiday. How about the first week in December?

Mom: Yes, that will work. The doctor is so handsome, isn't he?

Joan (giggling): Oh! You think so?

Mom: I'm sure a lot of woman do. Is he married?

Joan: Well, yes. Currently, but you know there's such a high rate of divorce these days.

Mom: Oh. That's too bad. You think he's heading for a divorce?

Silence.

Joan (whispering): He was seeing the wife's best friend.

Mom: Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Joan (whispering): But she (long pause) died!

Mom (sharp intake of breathe): Oh!

Joan: It was in the papers. So tragic. A bay dinner cruise.

Mom: Oh dear!

Joan: He hasn't been the same since.

Mom stopped the tape and thumped me on the back. 'What do you think about your ol' mom now?' She laughed and whooped. 'You don't mind the gossip so much when it yields you a juicy bit, do you?'

I held my head, feeling like if I didn't, my brain would explode and then there would be one more thing to clean up around here.

The phone rang.

'Want me to get that?' Mom asked. 'You look a little pale.'

It was Helene? Alan had been sleeping with Helene?

No wonder. Margaret said he'd been getting home on time after the night on the boat. Of course, because his mistress was dead.

My answering machine kicked on. Galigani's voice filled the air.

'Kid! I got something for you. The doc was sleeping with the vic. Call me.'

Mom grabbed the phone before Galigani could hang up. 'h.e.l.lo, Albert. Just one second, Kate's right here . . . Oh tonight? . . . Sure, I'd love to have dinner with you.'

My chest felt tight and my head throbbed. Lives were going on all around, Mom had a date, Celia had her business, Paula would have her baby soon, but Helene was dead and gone.

Why? Why would Alan have killed his mistress? Had she threatened to tell Margaret? Could he have done it? Maybe he'd killed her by accident as Margaret had feared.

Mom pa.s.sed me the phone. I semigrunted.

Galigani laughed. 'What's the matter, kid? We're making progress.'

'How did you find out it was Helene?' I asked.

'This is confidential. Okay? You cannot cannot disclose to Barramendi, understand?' disclose to Barramendi, understand?'

There was a lump forming in my throat the size of a walnut.

I was so in over my head.

I swallowed past the lump. 'Yeah,' my voice cracked.

'I'm holding the police report from the night on the cruise. Officer Lee questioned you. Do you remember?'

'Yes. I remember.'

'Well, there were a few officers there and Officer Rebecca Burke took a statement from one witness who'd overheard a discussion between Helene and Alan.'

I recalled the woman officer on board. I had seen her talking to a silver-haired woman who had been gesticulating madly.

'According to the statement,' Galigani said, 'the witness overheard a discussion between the deceased and Alan. He was planning to leave his wife. There was some talk of moving to North Carolina together. Then they were interrupted by another woman. The doc left the scene and the two women had an argument. The deceased was canceling a home extension or construction project. The other woman got very agitated. That's when our witness decided to clear out of there and in the process ended up spilling her drink on the woman.'

Sara.

So if Alan and Helene were planning on running away together, it made sense that Helene would cancel the home remodeling plans. And it would also make sense that Bruce didn't know she'd done it. But what about the adoption? Hadn't Helene wanted kids? Had she really been planning to leave Bruce and stop the adoption proceedings?

Maybe she only seemed to be agreeing with Alan about moving to North Carolina. Maybe she was scared of him.

'What do you think?' I asked Galigani. 'You think the doc did it?'

'It's not the doc.'

'Why do you say that?'

'There is another very important thing in the prelim report,' Galigani said.

I rubbed my temples. 'What's that?'

'The doc's the one who pushed the ME to run a tox screen. There's no way he'd do that if he killed her. I told you McNearny knew something we didn't.'

'How did you get him to share this report with you?'

'I didn't. Mac doesn't share. He's by the book and he's tough.'

'Who then? Did you 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 Capisce?'

'I capisce capisce all right,' I said. 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 p.a.w.n?

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 c.o.c.ktail 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?