Motherhood Is Murder Part 27

I fished my cell phone out of my purse. 'Yes.'

'Kate! How's the stakeout?'

It was Kenny.

'Boring. How do you play this thing? It's really heavy.'

'Are you messing with my stuff?' Kenny laughed. 'Why is it boring?'

'I ate all my food and nothing is happening.'

'What'd you bring with you?'

'A bagel.'

'That is boring.'

I laughed. 'So, what's up? Do you need your van back?'

'You've only been gone thirty minutes.'

'Is that it?'

'Do you want some company?' Kenny asked.

'Not yours.'

Kenny laughed. 'I can bring you some chips or something.'

Hmmm.

Catering la seventeen-year-old.

'Chips sound good,' I said.

'I can't bring beer or anything. I'm not drinking age,' Kenny said.

'I'm on a stakeout! This is serious business. I'm not here to drink beer.'

'You have to have something to drink with chips.'

'I'm drinking coffee,' I said.

'Coffee doesn't go with chips.'

'Okay, bring some soda then. Something with caffeine,' I said.

'Okay,' Kenny said cheerfully.

'All right, see you soon.'

'Uh, Kate?'

'What.'

'Uh, are you going to come pick me up or what? Because you have my van.'

Christ.

'I can't leave the site, Kenny.'

'b.u.mmer.'

Three hours had pa.s.sed since I'd first parked the van and now I had a more serious problem than hunger and boredom. I needed a hospitality break.

Should I risk going down the street to the shop and use the restroom?

I thought about Laurie. Surely she'd be hungry by now and my b.r.e.a.s.t.s were starting to burn. Before leaving home, I'd examined my breast pump. It had a car attachment for power that plugged into a standard car charger. But who wanted to pump in the car?

After all, it wasn't like there was any kind of privacy in a car. What did other moms do? Use a nursing wrap?

I recalled a news item about one mom getting pulled over because she was breastfeeding while driving. Now that that was taking mult.i.tasking to a whole new level. was taking mult.i.tasking to a whole new level.

I'd tried distracting myself from my bodily needs by killing the time on the phone. I called Jim to check on Laurie; he reported that Laurie was watching him from across the room and making coo-coo eyes at him.

I dialed Paula and caught up with a few friends I hadn't spoken to in a while. I called my brother long-distance; he had moved cross-country for work and this would be the first Thanksgiving we wouldn't be together. I chatted with Kiku. my future sister-in-law. She filled me in on some planning details for her wedding with Jim's brother, George. Considering George was on probation due to his antics during my first case, things were going relatively well for them and their new baby. I even called Kenny back a few times.

As soon as I decided that I simply had to go down the street to that shop, the door to the midwife center swung open.

Oh yes!

Action.

I grabbed the binoculars and put them to my eyes, only I was so excited that I did it backward and the effect was that Celia looked miles away. I quickly switched them around and Celia zoomed right up to me, giving me the impression that she could reach out and touch me. I pulled away from the binoculars to verify Celia's distance.

She was half a block away and hadn't bothered to notice the van at all.

She was dressed in a track suit with running shoes. I watched as she reached her car, a yellow VW bug, and got in.

I jumped into the driver's seat of the van and started the engine.

Please, Celia, bring me a clue.

It could blow the case wide open if she drove straight to Alan's clinic and engaged him in a juicy kiss.

Either that or maybe she'd be going to see a client. Then I could at least get a trail on her activities, find out more about her from someone outside Roo & You.

I followed her car to a local gym. She parked and went inside.

There was no way I could wait here for her to finish a workout. Nothing for me to do, but go home to Laurie and Jim empty handed, or empty headed-whatever the case may be.

As I started home, I found myself driving right back to the midwife center.

Why was I here?

I parked in front and walked up to the entrance. With Celia gone, perhaps I could get a look inside. I peeked through the gla.s.s window.

The floor was a blue-green marble, and on the reception console matching tile had been laid in a wave pattern across the front. On top of the reception console was a stack of pamphlets and a vase of red roses.

Who had given her the roses?

The center looked freshly remodeled. Where did Celia get the money to have her own center? How much did midwives charge anyway? Was she billing back to the insurance companies? I couldn't imagine she was bringing in enough money to own the building, but if she rented the center, the lease payment had to be considerable.

If she was having an affair with Alan, maybe he was helping her with the payments. Doctors made pretty good dough. He had a private practice and he lived in a nice neighborhood, big house.

By far the nicest home I'd been in lately was Bruce's, though, with the rooftop access and incredible view. Suddenly a thought hit me. Everything that was true for Alan could be true for Bruce.

Bruce had great income as an investment banker. And there were those odd moments I'd witnessed between Bruce and Celia, at the service and then again at his house.

Maybe Bruce had killed Helene to get her out of the way so he could be with Celia, but then somehow things went wrong with Celia.

Could I run a search on his credit card? Find out where he was spending time and money? Had he bought those roses on the counter?

I made a mental note to ask Galigani about background and credit checks. Now that I was officially under his wing, he could give me database access to some specialized data providers for licensed private investigators.

From down the street, I heard a car engine. Out of reflex, I turned to look and nearly pa.s.sed out. It was a yellow VW bug, Celia's car.

Shoot!

What was she doing back so fast?

She parked in front of the center and hopped out of the car.

Had she forgotten something? Did she know I had been outside watching her? Had she returned to catch me red-handed?

As she walked up to the building, she said, 'h.e.l.lo, Kate.'

What do I say? What do I say? What do I say?

I smiled. 'Hi!'

She nodded at me expectantly.

'Uh . . . hi!' I said again, adding a wave this time and smiling bigger.

'Have you been here long?' she asked.

How could I be here long, you just left!

'Uh . . . no.'

She reached into her gym bag and pulled out keys. 'What are you doing here?'

'I was in the neighborhood. I was curious about your birthing center.'

Celia scratched her chin. 'Really, next time do you think you'll go natural?'

I laughed. 'Margaret practically has me convinced,' I lied.

She unlocked the door and pushed it open. 'Why don't you come in and check it out?'

I followed her inside.

'I thought maybe you were here because you had some news . . . ?'

'News?'

She shrugged. 'I guess I was hoping you were going to tell me that the results from the hospital were ready.'

'The hospital wouldn't release your results to me.'

She eyed me. 'Really, I thought because you're an investigator, you might get the results from the medical examiner.' She sat down on a waiting room chair and looked crushed. 'I was hoping that the results would be in and they would show conclusively that Bruce poisoned me with the same thing he used to poison Helene. I keep waiting for someone to tell me he's in jail.'

Her shoulders slumped and she looked ready to cry.

What was I thinking? This woman had been poisoned. Surely if she was dating Bruce and suspected him, she would have made the affair known.

It had to be Alan.

I crouched down next to her. 'Celia, about that day, what can you tell about the morning? Did you see anybody else, maybe earlier in the day? Before going to Bruce's house?'

She sniffled and snapped to attention. 'Just my normal client list.' She stood and crossed to the reception area. She looked at the appointment book on the counter, running her finger down a daily column. 'The fifteenth? Hmmm, pretty dead really. Just Evelyn came in for her appointment. She's getting close now and coming in weekly.'

Right. Evelyn had told me about the appointment.

'Did you go anywhere before Bruce's?' I asked.

'Let's see.' She paced around and looked thoughtful as though she was trying to re-create events in her mind. 'I had the appointment with Evelyn in the morning at ten A.M. then left here and went to Bruce's. He'd called me the night before and asked me to meet with him. He said he wanted to talk about the adoption.'

I leaned against the arm of the waiting chair. 'Did you stop anywhere along the way? To get coffee? Or pick up dry cleaning?'

Or see your boyfriend, Alan?

She shook her head. 'No. I don't typically buy coffee-it's so expensive! Four-fifty for a cup? No way.' She glanced down at her track suit. 'And dry cleaning? I don't know if anything in my closet is dry clean only.'