Above The Law

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."

"I understand. Thank you. One other thing."

Mandy inclined her head.

"If your husband can whisk people out of the country," Casey said, "why didn't he just do that with Isodora and her baby? Why bother with ICE?"

"My husband didn't call ICE," Mandy said. "Once he found out Isodora was in custody, he made sure they got deported, but he didn't make the initial call."

"Gage?" Casey said, wrinkling her brow.

"Me," Mandy said. "As soon as I heard about Ellie, I used a favor to get ICE to go out there right away. Unfortunately, the person who helped made it into a bigger thing than I'd have liked-social services, taking the baby-but that's protocol and I wasn't in the position to be choosy. I figured if I didn't, they'd end up on one of those trucks."

Casey nodded with understanding.

Mandy started to go, then turned to Casey. "When the kids were little, we had an Irish setter. She had a litter with the Jack Russell from the barn and my husband had a fit because it was my job and the kids' to keep her locked up when she was in heat. He wanted to breed her for some bird dogs."

Casey furrowed her brow and tilted her head.

"My husband took the kids out back and put those puppies in a burlap sack and he whipped that sack against the big oak tree out there until the puppies went quiet."

Mandy's eyes welled with tears and her mouth assumed a cruel twist. She sniffed and said, "Don't let him catch you."