“Are you sure you want to do that?”

Jeremiah Fischer looked at the chess board and saw immediately that his queen was in danger. “Ah, I see. Well, I concede the next move to you.”

Lalita took the opposing queen with her bishop. “Since I’ve never played with you before, Dr. Fischer, I don’t know whether to chalk that up to a lack of skill or a lack of mental focus.”

Fischer smiled. “Ah, I think the acceptable excuse in the presence of a lady would usually be distraction, but since I am happily married, I will have to concede to the lack of skill.”

She laughed. “You are slick. I think you left out one possibility. Distraction by vocation. I think you are trying to puzzle me out, and that leaves precious little brain power for chess.”

He couldn’t help but smile as he pondered his next move both on the chess board and in getting her to open up to him. He knew she was hiding something, but at the same time, it seemed obvious that she wasn’t used to hiding.

Her voice across the table brought his mind back to the game. “If you don’t hurry up, I’m going to fall asleep over here. Dr. Cavanaugh got me up rather early this morning.”

He moved a pawn forward. “Oh? Did you have plans other than jail today?”