Cade took the wicker couch facing the house and set his glass on a low marble table as I sat opposite. Kris Ann’s plants hung from the canopy behind him, and beyond that our front grounds sloped gently to the street.

“Dalton Mooring called me.” Cade’s voice was soft with anger.

“Did he now?”

Cade leaned slowly forward. The skin near his eyes seemed tight with the effort of self-control. “Mooring threatened to sue us for slander. What you’ve done is the single most stupid and irresponsible act ever committed by a member of this firm.”

“Mooring won’t sue, Roland, and you know it.”

A vein pulsed in Cade’s forehead. “You can guarantee that.”

“I can. First, because I haven’t slandered anyone. Second, because a slander suit only spreads the slander. Third, because to the extent I suggested that he was Lydia’s lover it’s probably not slander at all.”

“Jesus Christ.” Cade slammed his fist on the table and the drink slopped over. “Just how do you figure that?”

“It’s easy enough. The police found semen on Lydia, Henry was out of town, and Jason’s her son, for God’s sake. There’s no sign of a break-in, which probably means a lover. The Cantwells’ yardman saw a car like Mooring’s several times in the past month, and Jason found Mooring there alone with Lydia. Mooring’s known her for twenty-five years, he’s got a wife that drinks and was jealous of her, and, if you believe Jason, Lydia and Henry weren’t sleeping together. Yesterday I heard that two weeks before she died Lydia was quizzing a friend on how to get a divorce. Plus, the one civic thing Mooring seems to do gave him an excuse to see her. Which he used.”

“You call that evidence?”

“I call that funny. And when I tried it out on Mooring he did everything but act normal.”

A slight breeze blew the cocktail napkin from Cade’s lap. He snatched it back. “Your theory’s a disaster.”

“How so?”

“Because it leads the police right back to Henry, as Mooring was kind enough to point out. You’ve taken a client with no alibi and found him a motive to go with it: a potential lover.”

“It also gives us at least one more potential killer. We could use one. The police and media have ganged up on Henry, and Jason has an alibi.”

Cade glanced at my hand. “Yes,” he said coolly. “You’d better tell me what happened with Jason. And don’t leave anything out.”

I described our talk. Cade listened, intent and nearly motionless. When I got to the fight, Cade cut in. “And that’s all he said?”

“That’s right.”