The Secret Desires of a Soccer Mom (28 page)

“Really? You would?” He looked like I’d just bought him
another Audi. “I am so thankful. Our friendship means so much to me.
You
mean so much to me.”

This was really weirding me out. We had only met, briefly a
few times. He didn’t even know how old I was, the names of my children, or the
true size of my breasts. He had lied to my face about his relationship with
Karen, but now, suddenly, I meant so much to him? Whether he was a killer or
not, the guy had serious problems. “Okay,” I said, like he was a small child or
mentally challenged. “I’ll drop by the coffee shop again one day.”

“Soon, I hope.” He brought my hand to his lips. “Thank you.”

No, thank
you
, I thought as I hopped into the
driver’s seat, for the nice little DNA sample.

I was dying to take the straw in to detective Portman for
analysis, but first, I had to endure coffee with my friends and Margot Bauman.
Admittedly, I was not starting out with a very positive attitude, but I still
felt it was a little early to be filling Karen’s seat at the table.

Before their ten A.M. arrival, I scurried around the house,
frantically tidying. I seemed to have so many other things occupying my mind
lately that housework had fallen to the bottom of the list… or, right off the
list by the looks of my family room. I wouldn’t have been so concerned if it
was only Carly, Trudy and Jane coming over, but I didn’t want to give Margot a
bad first impression. Not that I was particularly keen to make a new friend,
but neither did I want her to judge me for my slovenliness.

By the time my guests arrived, I had knocked the dust off
most of the furniture, and thrown several armloads of toys, books and games
onto my children’s bedroom floors. At least now the kitchen and family room
were presentable. I welcomed first Trudy, then Carly, then Jane accompanied by
Becca and little Amelia who quickly vanished into the playroom to enjoy some
fun, yet educational activities. Margot had yet to arrive as I poured coffees
for my friends. Maybe she had decided that it was too soon to infiltrate our
clique?

No sooner had I finished that thought than the doorbell
rang. “That must be Margot,” Jane said. “I’ll let her in.”

“Thanks,” I called, joining Trudy and Carly at the kitchen
table. Soon, Jane returned followed by a tall brunette with warm brown eyes and
a friendly smile. She looked familiar; I had definitely seen her around
Rosedale.

“Girls, this is Margot.” Margot smiled and gave us a little
wave. “Margot, this is Trudy, Carly… and Paige, our hostess today.” Trudy and
Carly welcomed her and even I greeted her warmly. It wasn’t really Margot’s
fault that Jane had invited her to join us prematurely. It would be rude to be
inhospitable.

“So, Margot…” Trudy said, as I fetched our new addition a
cup of coffee. “How many children do you have?”

“Two.” She replied. “My daughter goes to preschool with
Ainsley, and I have an eight year old son in the third grade at Rosedale.”

“That’s how we met,” Jane explained. “Ainsley and Sophia
have so much fun together, that we’ve been having play dates every week.”

“And where is little Sophia today?” Trudy asked.

“She’s at her pottery class. I’ve got to pick her up in an
hour.”

“Oh, my Emily loved pottery class,” Trudy said. “Actually,
Cameron liked it, too. They both took classes a couple of years ago, but now
they’re involved in a number of other activities.”

“And how old are they?” Margot asked.

“Emily’s nine and Cameron’s six—almost the same age as
Paige’s kids.”

“Yep,” I said, sliding the cream and sugar toward Margot.
“My daughter’s ten and my son is six.”

“And what about you?” Margot turned to Carly. “How old are
your little ones?”

I always felt pangs of sympathy for Carly whenever our
conversations turned too
mommy
. It must have been hard for her to listen
to us gush on about preschool and pottery classes and how fast they all were
growing. I knew she was desperate to have a family of her own one day, but as
far as I could see, she wasn’t anywhere close… unless, of course, a man could
impregnate you buy handing you a free Diet Coke. When Karen was with us, we had
had a nice balance in our group: three were mommies, two were not. It had
ensured that our topics of conversation were wide and varied, not focusing too
much attention on our various offspring. But with Margot in our circle, there
was a perceptible shift, and Carly was definitely the odd one out.

But to my surprise, she smiled easily at the newcomer before
answering. “I don’t have any children,
yet
. But, hopefully one day…” She
held up her crossed fingers.

God, she had become so Zen. Maybe she felt that
de-cluttering her garage would make room in her womb for a couple of kids?

“I went through a difficult divorce a few years ago,” Carly
explained. “My husband ran off with another woman who had two young sons. I was
angry and hurt for a long time, but given recent events, I’ve really been able
to put things in perspective.”

Jane leaned in to Margot. “I don’t know if you heard about
Karen Sutherland. She was a very close friend of ours.”

“I did hear,” Margot said, sympathetically. “It’s such a
terrible tragedy. She was so young.”

We all nodded, silently. At the mere mention of her name, my
eyes threatened to well up with tears. It just seemed so strange and sad to be
sitting here, drinking coffee without our treasured friend.

“It’s been hard on all of us,” Jane said.

Trudy added, “And her husband is devastated. They had been
hoping to start a family.”

“Although…” Jane said, and by her tone I could sense what
was coming. “Paige thinks Doug might be moving on a little too quickly.”

“What’s this?” Carly asked.

Shut up Jane, I silently willed her. Why do I tell you
anything? You are such a blabber mouth.

“Paige saw Jackie Baldwin over at Doug’s the other night.
They were drinking wine and…” Jane paused for dramatic effect.

“What?” Trudy asked.

“
She was rubbing his shoulders
!” Her tone was
exaggerated, as if I had witnessed something really incriminating, like
she
was licking his testicles!

“Well…” Trudy said, nervously. “She’s probably trying to
sell him a condo. He mentioned that he was thinking of downsizing.”

“He did?” This came as a surprise to me, but then, I hadn’t
done more than wave to Doug since the funeral.

“It’s normal to want to leave a house where such a terrible
accident occurred,” she continued. “He probably feels haunted by Karen’s memory
there.”

“Yeah,” Carly agreed. “But obviously, moving is a huge
emotional step. He was probably tense and Jackie was trying to get him to
relax.”

“True,” Margot nodded. What did she know? She’d just joined
us and she was already making suppositions about Doug and Jackie’s
relationship.

“Although…” Jane was saying. “Jackie does have a reputation
for going to any lengths to make a sale.” Her tone became suggestive. “She’s
rather famous for going
above and beyond
the call of duty to close a
deal.”

“Oh my gosh!” Carly said, looking at her watch. “I
completely forgot I’ve got a conference call at ten forty-five.” She hopped up.
“I’ve go to go. Sorry girls.”

“Oh no…” we all murmured in dismay. “Could you come back
afterward?”

“This will take a while,” Carly said, pulling on her
sweater. “Thanks for the coffee, Paige. Margot, so nice to meet you.”

I couldn’t help but wish that I had a conference call at ten
forty-five, or some other reason to call an end to this gathering. Maybe I was
overreacting, but their lighthearted banter about Doug having wine and massages
with our sexually aggressive neighbor bothered me. It just wasn’t right. It was
too soon. And as warm and friendly as Margot was, maybe it was too soon for her
to be sitting in on these conversations? It didn’t feel right to have this virtual
stranger listening to us discuss the length of Doug’s grieving period.

With our only childless member gone, the conversation turned
to our kids, their schools and various extracurricular activities. I tried to
keep my mind from wandering to the small green straw sealed in a sandwich
baggie nestled in my purse, but I was dying to get the evidence to Detective
Portman. Once we knew for certain that Javier was the father of Karen’s baby
then the police could begin their investigation of him in earnest—because if he
could lie so convincingly about the nature of his relationship with my friend,
then he could lie about his involvement in her death, too.

Finally, Margot excused herself to go pick up her daughter
from pottery class. I made rumblings about having a number of errands to run
and my other guests got the hint. When I had seen my friends out, I hurried to
the phone to call Portman.

“I need to see you,” I said, almost gleefully. “It’s
important.”

“Sure… uh…” There was a pause, and when he spoke again, his
voice was hushed. “Let’s meet somewhere different this time. There’s a
Starbucks on the corner of sixteenth and Lawrence.”

“Okay. That’s a bit of a walk for you, isn’t it?”

“I could use the fresh air.”

“See you soon!”

Portman was not there when I arrived. I decided to take the
liberty of ordering us a couple of lattes. It was sure to be a treat for him
after drinking Vera’s weak and tepid diner coffee. I was still waiting at the
counter when he walked in. He took off his sunglasses and scanned the room. When
his eyes fell upon me, he smiled briefly and came over.

“I’ve ordered you a latte,” I said.

“Great. Thanks. I’ll go get us a table. There’s one at the
back over there.” He pointed to a secluded corner near the washrooms.

I watched him take his seat. In this setting, there was
something unmistakably authoritative about him, something that just seemed to
scream:
COP!!!
As usual, I couldn’t ignore Detective Portman’s almost
macho attractiveness. But today, there was something different in his manner.
Maybe it was the unfamiliar environment, but Troy seemed fidgety, uneasy, even…
nervous. It was also odd that he had chosen us an isolated table uncomfortably
close to the men’s toilet.

With a painfully warm paper cup in each hand, I hurried to
join him. “Did you want sugar or anything?” I offered.

“This is fine, thanks. I can reimburse you the cost of the
coffees if you give me a receipt.”

“Don’t be silly,” I waved away the offer. “It’s my treat. I
just appreciate you picking a meeting place where the coffee doesn’t taste like
dishwater.”

“Ha-ha…” It was a forced laugh.

“Seriously… it’s really nice of you. I know it’s out of your
way.”

“Well…” he cleared his throat loudly. “I guess we should get
down to business. What did you want to see me about?”

I felt a little flush of embarrassment at being cut off so
abruptly. Apparently, Portman wasn’t in the mood for niceties. “Okay…” I said,
fishing in my purse for the sandwich baggie full of Javier’s DNA. “I’ve got
some… uh,
evidence
,” I whispered the word, sliding the plastic pouch
across the table.

Portman looked it. “What’s this?”

“It’s a straw with Javier Rueda’s DNA on it.”

“Paige…,” He trailed off with an exasperated sigh.

“Now you can test the paternity of Karen’s baby!” I was
feeling quite proud of myself.

He took a long sip of coffee before answering; his eyes were
fixed on the washroom’s sign above my head. “There’s no way I can get it into
the lab.”

“Why not?”

“I explained the other day about legally admissible
evidence. This would never fly.”

“Okay…” I suddenly felt flustered. “So maybe this wouldn’t
be admissible in court, but you can still use it to test the baby’s paternity
can’t you? Like, just for your personal knowledge? And once you know the
answer, you’ll be able to investigate Javier further.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Why not?” God, he was so ‘by the book’. Hadn’t he ever
watched
The Shield
?

“Look,” he said, his voice tinged with frustration. You
don’t understand police work, okay? Besides, my partner wants to close the
case.”

“Close it?” I shrieked. I lowered my voice before
continuing. “How can you close it? We don’t know what happened to Karen yet!”

“Well… we do know what happened,” he said calmly. “She fell
and hit her head. Conroy doesn’t think there’s anything more to it than that.”

“Did you tell him about the affair? That the baby wasn’t
Doug’s?”

“A lot of people have affairs.” He shrugged. “And both the
husband and the boyfriend have alibis.”

“People fake alibis all the time!” I cried. “Once you prove
Karen’s baby was Javier’s he’ll be your prime suspect. Did you know that the
leading cause of death in pregnant women is murder by the baby’s father?”

“Yeah, I know…”

“Well, does Conroy know?”

“Of course he does, but…” He fidgeted nervously in his seat.
His face had suddenly gone alarmingly red. “He thinks that I might have a…
conflict
of interest
, in this case.”

“What do you mean?”

Another heavy sigh. “He thinks that I may not be acting in
an entirely professional manner with regard to the investigation.”

“I don’t get it? You’ve been very professional.”

His face was getting redder and redder. “He thinks I may
have personal feelings for you that are interfering with my objectivity.”

“Oh my God…” To think that just a few months ago, I had felt
completely invisible to the opposite sex. And now, it appeared, they couldn’t
get enough of me.

“It would be completely unethical for me to get involved
with you,” Troy was saying. “And I know you’re married. I’m in a relationship,
too… a good relationship that I don’t want to ruin.”