Went to watch the game at Jack's. Tried your cell phone, but it rang in the other room. Please carry with you and ANSWER it when I call.

Love you!

P.S. Paula called and your mom, too.

McNearny hovered in my doorway.

'Have a seat,' I said, motioning to the living room. 'Want anything to drink?'

He stayed in place and pulled out a notebook. 'What can you tell me about the dinner cruise the other night?'

'I already told Officer Lee all I know. I told him that night. Is it official now? Was Helene killed?' I asked.

'I ask the questions, Mrs. Connolly,' he said straight-faced.

'Where's Jones?' I asked, ignoring his att.i.tude.

He glanced at the baby carrier I was still wearing. 'His kid's sick.'

'Sorry to hear that,' I said, unsnapping the carrier and pulling a sleeping Laurie out.

McNearny shrugged. He looked like he could care less about Jones's kid.

Probably annoyed about Jones missing work.

'I saw you at the funeral.' McNearny glanced at his notes.

'I thought you told Lee that you barely knew the woman.'

'Does that mean I'm not allowed to attend her service?'

'Most people wouldn't. Let's cut to the chase-are you working on anything currently?'

'I'm crocheting Laurie a little cap.' I tried to hide my smile and look as serious as he did.

He turned red around the gills. 'Mrs. Connolly, if you want to be difficult, I'll just drag you downtown. Makes no difference to me.'

I glanced around for a spot to place Laurie and settled on her tummy time playmat. 'All right. I'll level with you. I just came from a meeting with Margaret Lipe. She thinks her husband poisoned Helene.'

McNearny looked stunned. He reviewed his notebook. 'Is this the doctor we're talking about?'

'The podiatrist, yeah,' I said.

'And did she happen to mention why he might want to do that?'

'It was an accident.'

McNearny squinted. 'What?'

'She thinks he was trying to poison her.'

McNearny shook his head. 'Did she tell you what she thought his motive might be?'

'He's having an affair. At least she suspects that's the case. She confronted him that evening. Supposedly he got very angry.'

McNearny chewed on the inside of his cheek. 'Had she hired you to follow him prior to the cruise?'

'No. Won't you sit down?'

'No.'

'You're making me nervous standing there like that.'

'That's the whole point, Mrs. Connolly.'

I leaned against my dining room table and exhaled. 'Have it your way.'

'Okay, out with it. She hired you before the cruise. To follow him, right?'

'No,' I repeated firmly. 'Why do you keep asking?'

He ignored my question. 'Why were you on that cruise?'

'I told Officer Lee that-I was checking out Roo & You.'

'The mommy club?'

I nodded.

McNearny frowned. 'What's a mommy club doing on a dinner cruise? I mean, isn't the whole point of those things to get the kids to play together or whatever?'

I ignored the way he practically spat the words 'those things.' 'That's one of the purposes, yes.'

'What about the spouses?'

'What do you mean?'

McNearny waved his hand around. 'You know, aren't these mommy clubs just for women?'

'Are you asking why our spouses were with us on the cruise?'

McNearny nodded.

'It was my first meeting with the club. I don't know all the ins and outs of it. The dinner cruise was supposedly a deviation from their normal meeting. This time they were going to include the boys.' It sounded fun to me.'

McNearny's expression looked sour. Probably to him, the idea of spending time with a bunch of moms sounded like anything but fun.

'It was an opportunity to meet some new couples that were also parents. Get to know the ladies from the club a little better before joining,' I continued. 'I also wanted the adult time with my husband. I didn't plan on a murder as part of the date, if you know what I mean.'

'That's what I'm getting at.'

'I thought you said you weren't here to accuse me of anything.'

McNearny looked angry. 'I'm not accusing you. Here's what I think-you were hired by Mrs. Lipe to follow her husband and figure out who he was sleeping with and maybe things got out of hand on the cruise.'

'Look, I'm telling you that she didn't hire me before today. Why would I lie about that?'

McNearny smiled. A huge grin, one that was intended to ridicule me. 'You don't know. Do you?'

'What? What am I suppose to know?'

'Not so smart after all.'

What was I missing? What did he know that I didn't know?

'Why are you so hostile to me? I'm the one who helped you solve-'

His face turned beet red. 'You think you helped solve that? We had that case blown open.'

McNearny and I stared each other down.

He was dead wrong but challenging him wasn't going to get me closer to solving this case.

I swallowed my pride. 'Sorry if I stepped on your toes.'

He stood straighter. 'Glad we understand each other.'

I understood all right.

He pointed at me. 'You don't have a license and I don't want you poking around in this case. If she hired you to follow her husband, to find out who he's sleeping with, that's one thing, but absolutely no nosing around in this case. You understand?'

I nodded.

He grunted.

Any doubts I'd had about taking the case had just been wiped from my head. I didn't know how I would do it, but I was committed to solving this case before McNearny. He didn't care about the victims, only his reputation with the department.

'So you're okay if I follow the husband, right?' I tested.

McNearny shrugged. 'Sure, let me know what you find out.'

I do the footwork, he takes the glory.

No problem. I didn't have my ego riding on it. I only wanted the facts.

CHAPTER NINE.

Playing Catch-Up

To Do:

1. Baby development? Check out L's milestones.

2. Drop off dry cleaning.

3. Shop for shoes.

4. Thanksgiving?

5. What does McNearny know?

6. Call/e-mail Paula.

The first thing I did when McNearny left was jump online. I browsed the library collection and found The Complete Idiot's Guide to Private Investigating The Complete Idiot's Guide to Private Investigating.

Perfect.

I put it on reserve.

Hoping to find out more about Alan, I googled him. I didn't find much, just that his office was on Sacramento Street. There certainly wasn't a headline on Google results about any affair. I wanted to speak with him, but how could I do that without tipping him off about Margaret's suspicions or my investigation?

Maybe The Complete Idiot's Guideto Private Investigating The Complete Idiot's Guideto Private Investigating could clue me in. could clue me in.

I called Alan's practice and asked for an appointment. The receptionist scheduled me a month out and told me his latest appointment hour was 4:30 P.M.

Bingo.

While online, I sent my best friend Paula an e-mail. I knew she was coming home soon but didn't exactly know when. I would have loved to talk to her, but by my calculations it was already past midnight in Paris.

Then I dialed both Sara and Evelyn and left messages, hoping that they might have some answers about Alan. As soon as I hung up, Laurie began to cry. I picked her up off the playmat and found her soaked through.

Poor little monkey! What was going on with the leaky diapers?