Page 124 of Concrete Evidence
She studied Marc’s frown. The violent crimes had worn on him, and each passing moment increased the chances of one more death. Did he suspect Craig too?
69
RAIN BATTEREDagainst the game room windows, reminding Marc of Hurricane Braxton’s stalling over the area. Craig’s prescriptions had put him to sleep without dinner, and Leanne’s hospital vigil sent her home to bed. But none of the rest of the household was ready to call it a night.
Marc groaned as Tessa slid her last tile into the winning square, taking the lead on their ongoing game of Ur. “One more time, you beat me. But barely.”
“Ready to play again?” Tessa said.
“Not yet. I need to develop my strategy.” Marc glanced at Avery, who bit back a grin. Tessa had beat her too. The senator and Shipley were engrossed in a conversation. At least they weren’t arguing. “Lieutenant Shipley, have you ever played the Royal Game of Ur?”
He shook his head. “Is that what you’re doing over there? Sounds like stone scraping across stone.”
“Close. Tessa introduced me to the ancient game from Mesopotamia, which is over four thousand years old. Want to give it a try?”
“Whoa. An ancient game I can play on my iPad? Why not. My kids might like it too. What are the preliminaries? I catch on fast.”
“I’ll give the game a whirl afterward,” Roden said.
Marc showed them the board. “Touch the throw button and move ahead that many squares. A rosette means another throw, but if you stay there, you can get kicked off and sent back to the starting point.” He pointed out the safe areas. “The object is to move all your tile pieces off the playing board before your opponent.” He moved aside for Shipley to take his seat.
The first game, Tessa beat him. “A practice game,” she said. “I hate to take advantage of the Army.”
Shipley didn’t laugh. Competitive?
The second game, Tessa sent his pieces back off the board twice resulting in a win.
“Had enough?” Marc studied him.
Shipley’s eyes darkened. “Don’t think so.”
The third game, he lost and clenched his fists. “Do you have this rigged?” he said to Tessa.
“No, sir. It’s a mix of chance and skill.”
“I never like losing.” His voice was deadly calm. “I’d think a young woman of your age would respect a man of my caliber.”
“You’re out of line,” Marc said. “I don’t appreciate your talking to my sister like she’s done something wrong. This is a game. If you don’t like it, quit.”
“I’ll quit when I’m ready.” When the lieutenant lost the fourth time, he wordlessly stomped from the room. Marc caught the senator’s eye. An unspoken realization passed between them.
“What did I do?” Tessa said.
“Nothing,” the senator said. “We just saw a side of Shipley wehaven’t seen before. A little unexpected.” He rose to his feet. “He’s my guest, and he needs to apologize.”
Tessa held up both palms. “No. It’s not necessary. I—”
“Young lady, if you’d insulted him, I’d have demanded an apology from you.”
Marc expected an experienced Army officer to accept defeats, no matter how insignificant.
The reaction to Tessa winning shoved Marc into probing mode. Shipley’s record with the Army Corps was squeaky-clean. “Senator, can you talk to me and Roden privately before meeting with Shipley?”
The senator said without hesitation, “The library all right?”
“Perfect.” Marc nodded. “We may be a while.”
They entered the library, and the senator locked the door behind them. Marc and Roden chose the leather sofa, and the senator faced them in a matching chair.
