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and carried it away.
    Six
    As Shelley and
Jane headed
out from the com munity center to have lunch at their favorite Mexican restaurant, they gushed about the extraordinary pink marigold.
    “Just think how much work went into creating such a thing," Shelley said. "I would never have the patience to do all that. Didn't someone have a long-running contest for a pure white marigold?"
    “I remember that, too. I don't think they ever got anything whiter than a light cream color."
    “Nor would I even have thought of trying to get a pink one if I were in that business."
    “You know, that's the thing about this morning that surprised me most," Jane said. "That it is a business. A very serious one. I always thought that new plants were much easier to come up with than it appears. There must be big money involved or nobody'd wait years."
    “I wouldn't be surprised. When the pink marigold hits the nurseries, it'll sell in millions. I wonder how we could ask about the money part.”
    Jane looked down her cast, which was already getting grubby around the toes. "Did you notice that Geneva Jackson didn't come up to look at the plants?"
    “I didn't. But she has more important things on her mind."
    “But she was smiling as we gawked."
    “Was she really?" Shelley said, taking a corner so fast that it made the wheels of her van squeal.
    “Didn't you have the feeling that Dr. Eastman knew her pretty well?" Jane asked in a shaky voice. The worst thing about the broken foot was having to be Shelley's passenger.
    “Which one of them?"
    “Both Julie and Geneva, it sounded like."
    “Come to think of it, it did seem that way," Shelley said, beating out another van for the last parking place in front of the restaurant and waving cheerily at the other driver.
    “You can't park here," Jane said. "It's a handicapped parking spot and I forgot to bring along the sticker they gave me to hang on the rearview mirror."
    “You're obviously handicapped, if only for a little while."
    “I think Geneva might be one of his 'secret' growers. If so, it would explain why she didn't come look at the plants. She's probably seen hundreds of them.”
    Jane struggled out of the van, coming down a little too hard on her injured foot. But it was worth it to be free of Shelley's driving.
    They got their favorite booth near the front window and made much of studying the menu, even though both of them had it pretty well memorized from their many previous visits.
    The waitress saw Jane's crutches and exclaimed, "What in the world did you do to yourself?" "I tripped on a curb.”
    The waitress looked blank for a minute and finally said, "Oh.”
    Jane got the taco salad with the chili mixed in, and Shelley let herself go with a chicken chimichanga. When the waitress had gone, Shelley asked, "Do you think the attack on Julie Jackson had anything to do with her job?"
    “I've been wondering the same thing," Jane said. "I'm not clear on exactly how she fits into this business, though. Geneva said they had a professional relationship as well as being sisters. Is Julie, like Dr. Eastman, a plant breeder?”
    Shelley shrugged. "Eastman suggested that she was some sort of patent cop. Checking out suspicious claims. Only he said 'questionable,' I think. She didn't appear to have anything especially interesting growing in her yard."
    “But we didn't see the backyard."
    “True. Do you think Mel knows exactly what it is that she does?"
    “You heard all he said," Jane replied. "She had a sort of laboratory/office in her basement with lots of filing cabinets and some plants under lights. I think that's what he said. I was too obsessed with my foot to pay much attention."
    “We need to find out exactly where Julie comes into the process. I might have misunderstood what Dr. Eastman was saying about her job. Maybe this attack on her comes back to money, like we were discussing before."
    “In what way?" Jane asked.
    “I don't know, because we have no idea what sort of money is