Motherhood Is Murder

Ooh! They had chocolate-dipped ones today.

I ordered two and put one in a bag to take home to Jim.

I took a seat across from Kenny. ?I don?t have time for games, Kenny. I?m working on serious business.?

?Cool,? he said, ignoring me and setting up the board.

?Shouldn?t you be rehearsing or something??

He looked confused. ?I was.?

I laughed. ?You were listening to your iPod drinking a cappuccino. How does that count for rehearsal??

He looked offended. ?No, no. Not just listening. I was visualizing playing!? He continued to set up the chessboard as the barista brought my coffee.

?Yeah? You can visualize yourself playing chess, too, because I just told you I have serious work I need to do.? I dipped my biscotti into the latte and ate it.

Kenny nodded thoughtfully as he completed setting up the board. ?Okay. On your investigation stuff??

I nodded.

He pushed the chessboard to me. ?Tell me about it.?

?Okay.? I picked up the white queen, rook, bishop, knight, and a pawn, then selected the counterpieces in black. I grabbed the pair of pawns. ?So, Jim and I go on this cruise??

?Wait. Are you guys the pawns??

?Yeah.? I sipped my latte.

Kenny shook his head. ?No, no. Here.? He replaced the pawns with the king and queen. ?There. You and Jim.?

I laughed. ?No seriously. I was a pawn.?

?Never!?

?Right, I?m not going to argue with you, let?s make them all pawns. Except for the victim. We?ll give her the respect of being queen.?

I laid Queen Helene down.

Kenny made a sad face by sticking his lower lip out and turning it down. ?You killed off the best piece right away. I told you, you should be queen.?

?This is serious, Kenny.?

He sat up. ?Right.?

I took the matching king representing Bruce and placed him next to Queen Helene. ?Husband,? I said.

Kenny nodded and frowned, trying to give the respect I was requiring of him.

Then I lined up the four sets of pawns. ?These are the couples on the cruise.? Then I took the other queen and placed her precariously on the edge of the board. ?She?ll be Celia, the midwife. She wasn?t on the cruise but had an attempt made on her life.?

?The price of royalty,? Kenny said.

I glared at him. He ducked his head and drank his cappuccino. I sipped from my latte.

Yum.

But it needed a little extra something. I pulled out the second biscotti that I?d been saving for Jim, dipped it in the latte, and ate it.

Much more yummy.

I took one pawn representing Alan and placed him next to Queen Helene. ?Affair.?

Kenny nodded. ?Affair equals motive, right?? He raised his eyebrows and wiggled them up and down to demonstrate how clever he was.

?Not in this case. Long story?just take my word for it.?

I replayed the drama as best I could with the chess pieces. Kenny seemed to be following along nicely and it was helping me to review all the facts I knew. I ended by lining up the pieces that had seen Celia on the day she was poisoned. Me, Margaret, Evelyn, and Bruce.

Kenny studied the layout then took the pawn representing Howard and placed it in my lineup.

?What are you doing?? I asked.

?You said Margaret saw them together at the sandwich place.?

I froze.

Suddenly the drama before me changed. If Celia was having an affair with Howard, we had a motive for him . . .

No. Not Howard.

Why would he kill his mistress, or Helene for that matter?

Sara.