“You start at the top, combing through the roster of big corporations with public relations problems: ugly law suits, cans of tainted food, a diet pill that made eight people lose their hearing. Oil spills are obviously the best—all those birds—but I don’t think there’s been anything too grim in that department in the last couple of years. Then you start working your way down through thousands of little foundations with a couple of dollars they want to get rid of. It all adds up, that’s the important thing to remember.”

“You’ve done your homework.”

She had done her homework, at least in a manner of speaking. She’d given Chloe a memo requesting some information; thirty-six hours later Chloe had come into her office and dumped a bulging file of grant applications on her desk, explaining that she’d have given them to her sooner but she’d had to fix some major computer glitch, which she tried in vain to describe to Jane. If delegating responsibility was Jane’s forte, well, there were worse things than that. This whole project had made her feel professionally renewed in ways she hadn’t anticipated. Working on it was so much more gratifying than moping around cocktail lounges and coffee bars with Dale Barsamian, and besides, it gave her something to talk about with Dale Barsamian when she did mope around with him.

Once they were speeding along Storrow Drive, the river basin on one side, the glinting windows of Back Bay town houses on the other, Desmond pulled the tape out of his pocket and slid it into her tape player. “This could take a little getting used to,” he said. “Don’t expect perfection. It’s from one of her live recordings late in her career. The second half of the recording doesn’t have much to recommend it, but the first half is quite strong. It has a few signature numbers and some great raw emotion. Judging from the tape, she didn’t really start hitting the bottle until intermission.”

There was a smattering of applause and then a gruff, sandpapery voice thanked the crowd. “This next number is one I learned from Dorothy herself, Miss Judy Garland. I love ya, Judy. Give the kids a kiss g’night from me.”