Free A taint in the blood by Dana Stabenow Page B

been retained by Victoria Muravieff's daughter to look into her case."
     
    The woman looked more puzzled. "What case?"
     
    Kate sighed. "Listen, I'm fresh off a plane and I'm hot, and I'm hungry and I'm thirsty. Have you—what was your name?"
     
    "Caroline Landry," the woman said, and then looked as if she wished she hadn't.
     
    "So, Caroline, have you had lunch?"
     
    Caroline Landry hesitated, clearly trying to decide if Kate was dangerous or not. "No."
     
    "Great. You like Mexican food?"
     
    They found a table at Garcia's in Eagle River. "I'll buy," Kate said, absorbed in the menu.
     
    "I'll buy my own, thanks," Caroline Landry said.
     
    "It's an expense," Kate said.
     
    "For what job?"
     
    "Charlotte Muravieff has retained me to look into her mother's murder conviction," Kate said.
     
    Landry was still staring at Kate with her mouth slightly open when the waiter arrived. Kate ordered tostaditos to start and fajitas for the main course. Landry's mouth relaxed into a smile. "You are hungry," she said.
     
    "Don't get a lot of Mexican food in Niniltna," Kate said. "I'm making up for lost time."
     
    "Tostada salad," Landry told the waiter, "and something tells me I'm going to need a margarita."
     
    The waiter, a slim young man with a hopeful smile, looked at Kate. She shook her head. "Water's fine. If you could bring me a couple of wedges of lime, that would be good."
     
    The margarita came and, surprise, so did the lime, and in her head Kate ratcheted up the tip. Landry took a long swallow of her drink. "Oh yeah," she said, putting it down, "that hits the spot. Okay, what do you want to know?"
     
    "Anything you can tell me, Ms. Landry."
     
    "Caroline."
     
    "Kate. You know Victoria Muravieff. She thought I'd come in your place today."
     
    "Yes," Caroline said. "I work with her."
     
    "Work with her?"
     
    Caroline raised an eyebrow. "Yes, work with her. Victoria runs the education department at Hiland."
     
    "A prisoner runs the education department?"
     
    "Pretty much. The governor cut the budget a couple of years back, so the Department of Corrections had to cut fripperies like education. At this point, it's pretty much up to the prisoners to drum up interest and funding from local groups and agencies if they want anything in the way of programming out there."
     
    "How's that working?" Kate said.
     
    "Pretty good, actually," Caroline said. "A local computer supply store funded a course in Microsoft certification. A local cellist started a chamber orchestra with chairs underwritten by the Trial Lawyers Association."
     
    Kate laughed. "A natural."
     
    Caroline smiled. "It seems so. At any rate, there's a waiting list to get in."
     
    "Do they perform?"
     
    "Yes, in-house. They're agitating to perform outside the facility, but the director hasn't been beaten into submission quite yet. Another woman comes out every three weeks to teach classes in bead art, with supplies donated by the Bead Society, which puts on a show every year of inmate art. They call it Con Art."
     
    "You're kidding me."
     
    "Nope. They got a write-up in the paper and a story on television, and now they've got so many submissions that they think they're going to have to start jurying it."
     
    "Are they selling?"
     
    Caroline nodded. "Oh yeah, check out the gift shop the next time you're there. And then there's the greenhouse. They make a lot of hanging baskets and start a lot of vegetables, and sell them, too. Victoria's working on some of the master gardeners in town to start a master gardener's program at the prison."
     
    "And you were bringing GED workbooks in."
     
    "Yeah. We've got so many inmates wanting to make up for time lost in their real lives that we've pretty much got a class going nonstop. It's hard for some of them to finish because they're not in for long enough." She realized the humor of that last observation at the same time Kate did, and this time they both laughed. Lunch arrived, and Kate inhaled the aroma of