Paige winked at Casey and without a word she raised her chin and followed the young woman out of the room, down a long hallway, and out into an elaborate circular rose garden. At the garden's center, a marble fountain cascaded like spring rain. Four arched trellises, thick with roses, marked the beginning of four separate paths extending from the center toward each point on the compass. The stout old Mrs. Cavanaugh wore a sun hat and heavy canvas gloves. She sat sideways on a small marble bench next to the eastern trellis while she snipped away at the buds surrounding a single yellow rose. When she saw them, she stood and opened her arms.

"Why, Paige, you darling girl," she said in a syrupy drawl. "It's so good to see you. I'm sorry Shelly kept you waiting like this, you never have to wait with me, darling. Next time you just tell her to make sure I know it's you."

Shelly kept her lips tight, but gave a final little bow and receded beyond the trellis they'd come through before snapping open her cell phone and going back to work.

"She tries so hard," the old woman said, shaking her head. "You don't mind if I keep working, do you, darling? I am so busy, you'd think I didn't have single servant, let alone two dozen."

Paige smiled sweetly. "You just do what you have to, Mrs. Cavanaugh. I wouldn't even bother you, but you were so kind once to offer me a favor if I ever needed one, and I do."

"Helping people is one of my great pleasures," the old woman said, intent on her work, twisting a stalk in her fingers and snipping a tiny bud. "It's nothing to do with your husband, I hope. Marriage is the work of God, you know."

"No, not that," Paige said. "This is my friend, Casey Jordan."

Mrs. Cavanaugh looked up at Casey as though she had appeared from thin air.

"Oh, hello, dear. Excuse me for not getting up. An old woman's prerogative."

"Not at all," Casey said.

"I don't know if you've heard about some of Casey's problems," Paige said. "Things in the news."

"Certainly not my business," Mrs. Cavanaugh said, returning her attention to the plant.

"I only say it because I want to ask you to arrange a meeting between Casey and the senator's wife," Paige said. "She needs to see her right away. This afternoon. I don't think anyone but you could do that."

The old woman shook her head, softly clucking her tongue. "I have very little influence over others."

"You're so highly respected, Mrs. Cavanaugh."

"Well," she said with a palsied nod that jiggled the wattle under her chin. "I'd be happy if I could do a favor for a friend. Let me see what I can do. If I am able to, would the meeting take place here?"

Paige looked at Casey and Casey shrugged, but held up two fingers, nodding before she changed to three fingers, shaking her head no.

"That would be fine," Paige said. "As long as the two of them could talk privately."

"I'm sure I won't want to be there," Mrs. Cavanaugh said, drawing herself up straight and touching her breastbone.

The old woman raised a finger so slightly and so quickly that Casey wasn't sure she'd done it at all until Shelly appeared.

"Get me Mandy Chase, dear," Mrs. Cavanaugh said, "and show our guests back to the Renoir room. I don't want them to have to stand in this heat."

CHAPTER 54

MANDY CHASE ARRIVED IN A CREAMY YELLOW SUMMER DRESS, carrying a white purse that matched her shoes. Casey watched her approach from one of two decorative wrought-iron chairs beside the rose garden fountain, to which Shelly had escorted Casey fifteen minutes earlier. When Mandy passed through the trellis, Casey rose and extended a hand, surprised to feel her firm grip returned.

"I don't know how much Jose told you about me," Casey said. "Will you sit down?"

Mandy sat at an angle with her knees and ankles pressed tight and her hands folded together on top of the purse in her lap. She offered Casey a wan smile and said, "Only about your lawsuit against my husband and your plans to cross-examine me. I didn't expect it to happen in Mrs. Cavanaugh's rose garden."

"This isn't a cross-examination," Casey said. She reached over to touch Mandy's arm. When the senator's wife went stiff, she retracted her hand. "Not even a deposition. Nothing official. I don't know if you saw the things they're saying about me."

"I watch TV," Mandy said.

"Hopefully enough to know that it's sometimes far from accurate," Casey said. "From what Jose said, I thought I might be able to count on your help."

Mandy narrowed her eyes. "I'm not interested in lawsuits or rebuilding your TV image."

"Do you care about Elijandro's family?" Casey asked.

Mandy considered her for a moment, then said, "I do. Them, and the other people being loaded into trucks in the middle of the night."

"And you know that's what I care about, too? Don't you?" Casey asked.

Mandy forced a sigh and said, "Ms. Jordan, I don't know anything these days."

"Would you talk to me about what you do know?" Casey asked.

"That's why you wanted to meet with me?"

"Jose said he thought you'd help."

"Jose, the dirty cop? Or was that all made up by the media, too?" she said. "If it is true, then maybe this is really more about some drug war, people coming and going. Mules."

"Women and kids?" Casey said. "I doubt that, and I bet you do, too."

"Come on, you know most mules are just that."

"Jose said you and Elijandro saw a truck being loaded at a stone quarry. Can you tell me about that? How you got in? A service road?"

"Why should I believe you?" Mandy asked. "Why should I trust you?"

"Use your instincts," Casey said. "Do you really believe the news reports? Your husband's press conference? Do I look crazy? Do you get the sense that I'm chasing your husband's money, or conning people? Stealing from my own charity? Do your instincts tell you that?"

Mandy studied her. "No, they don't."

"Good," Casey said. "Because I care about Isodora and her baby and the husband she lost. If I can show why your husband and Gage wanted him dead, then I can prove that he didn't shoot Elijandro by accident."

"I don't completely know why," Mandy said, shaking her head. "Only that it has to be because of those people in the trucks on their way to Mexico, but that's not enough."

"Help me find out more," Casey said. "Do you remember anything about the trucks? Any signage?"

"Do you have a piece of paper?" Mandy asked.

Casey took a legal pad from her briefcase and handed it over along with a pen. Mandy explained as she drew a map of the service entrance, the abandoned work trailer, and the place where they'd seen the truck full of people.

"You can go yourself and see. There could be a truck full of people there right now, for all I know," Mandy said, handing the map to her.

"How often do you think they do it?" Casey asked, studying it. "How many people in all do you think we're talking about?"

"No idea," Mandy said.

"Like some vigilante deportation?" Casey asked. "Is that what this is?"

Mandy started to say something, then closed her mouth before she said, "No. I honestly don't know what. Ellie heard something, but he wouldn't say until he was sure." Mandy shifted uncomfortably. "Who would think that being married can be lonelier than having no one?"

"Me," Casey said.

"That Jose," Mandy said, "did you know all that stuff about him?"

"No."

"And now you're doing this alone?"

"For the moment, it seems," Casey said. "I don't know where Jose is exactly. Evidently some of the things your husband said on TV are true and Jose needs to deal with it, but this case can't wait.

"This helps," Casey continued, holding up the map. "A lot."

"Good," Mandy said, standing up. "It didn't come from me, though. Don't prove my instincts wrong."