Blood Orchid

55

Grant looked at her. “Ed Shine is Ed Shine,” he said. “He has no criminal record; he has a history in New York as a property developer; he’s even inWho’s Who, for God’s sake. The Bureau checked him out thoroughly; he is who he says he is. What is it that worries you about Shine?”

“Everything I’ve just told you,” Holly replied. “If my theory is correct, he has to be a part of it. And it bothers me that our airplane was shot at by someone on the Blood Orchid property.”

“How do you know that? The fire might have come from the river, or the beach, or a road somewhere around Blood Orchid.”

“The angles were right,” Holly said.

“Angles of fire can be deceiving,” Grant said, “especially when you’re the one being shot at. Anyway, you’ve been staying at Blood Orchid for two days, haven’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Well, if Shine wanted you dead, why didn’t he just drop by and pump a few bullets into you?”

“Good point,” Holly admitted. “He certainly had ample opportunity. But that guy from the airplane that unloaded the boxes was staring at me, and he made a call. Shortly after that, we were fired on.”

“I stare at you all the time,” Grant said. “Any red-blooded male would. And people make cellphone calls all the time, too. You’re making a connection where there isn’t one.”

Holly sighed. “Maybe you’re right.”

“From what you’ve told me about Ed Shine, he’s been nothing but nice to you. There are things that don’t add up in this case, but Shine isn’t one of them.”

“All right, but let’s go back to my theory about the exchange of money between criminal elements.”

“Run your theory by me again.”

“The Pellegrinos collect drug profits from various criminals in the States, then reimburse them with profits from their off-shore gambling operation.”

“Oh, that theory.”

“My question is, what do the Pellegrinos do with the money they collect inside the United States? It doesn’t make any sense to just warehouse it in a vault at Blood Orchid; they have to do something with it.”

“Like what?”

“Like buy up large chunks of real estate in Florida and, maybe, in other places. I mean, where did Ed Shine get the sixty million bucks to buy the place from the GSA?”

“He’s a rich guy.”

“Did the Bureau run financial checks as well as background checks on Ed?”

“I don’t know.”

“Grant, when you checked out Ed, how did you go about it?”

“I called the Bureau, and they did the legwork.”

“Who did you call?”

“Harry Crisp.”

“Why?”

“He’s my boss; I’m assigned to the Miami field office, and he’s the agent in charge. Harry also runs me, personally.”

“Do you have any other way of running a check on somebody, without going through Harry?”

“Sure, I could call somebody I know in D.C. and get a check done, but why would I want to do that?”

“Did you ever ask Harry to run a check on the Pellegrinos?”

“Yes, I did.”

“And what answer did you get?”

“The first time, no criminal record.”

“And the second time you found out who they really were?”

“Yes.”

“And what period of time passed between your first request and when you found out who they really were?”

Grant thought about it. “Two, three weeks, I guess.”

“Did it ever occur to you that Harry might have known who they were all along?”

“Why are you asking me this?”

“Because quite a lot of time passed between whenI asked Harry to check out the Pellegrinos and when I learned who they were. And I didn’t learn it from Harry, I learned it from you. Harry hasnever told me that the Pellegrinos were the Falcones.”

“Yeah, but you’re not Bureau; I am.”

“But what did Harry have to gain by keeping me in the dark about the Pellegrinos?”

“Nothing, probably. I’ve told you that the Bureau likes to keep information to itself.”

“In that case, why did Harry keepyou in the dark about the Pellegrinos? After all, you’re Bureau; why should he hide anything from you?”

“Are you suggesting that Harry is somehow involved with the Pellegrinos?”

“Well, I was going to suggest that Harry Crisp is a self-aggrandizing son of a bitch who likes to take credit for other people’s work, even his own agents’, but I’m willing to entertain the thought that he might be dirty.”

Grant shook his head. “Harry hasn’t got it in him,” he said.

“That’s my take on Harry, too, but we could both be wrong. Look, Grant, I know that an agent doesn’t get ahead in the Bureau by questioning his boss’s honesty, but I think that, for our current purposes, you at least have to consider the possibility.”

“All right, so Harry sometimes withholds information he shouldn’t. Tell me something else that might suggest that he’s dirty.”

“Well, how about the murder of the guy at the General Services Administration?”

“What about it?”

“Why was he murdered?”

“I don’t know.”

“If you remember, it was that guy who first tipped Harry to the connection between Blood Orchid and the murders of the two Miami developers and the attempt on Ed Shine.”

“It was?”

“Harry didn’t tell you that?”

“Not that I recall.”

“He probably told you that he turned up that information, but he actually got a call from the guy at the GSA, Howard Singleton, who alerted him to the connection.”

“Okay, let’s say that’s true. What of it?”

“Wouldn’t it make sense that Singleton was murdered by the Pellegrinos for that very reason? Because he noticed something funny and tipped off the FBI? And because they don’t want it to happen again?”

“Maybe, but how does popping Singleton solve their problem? Harry told me he was already working with Singleton’s successor, a guy named Willard Smith. He called Smith and asked if there were any other sales pending by the GSA that might be like the Blood Orchid sale, and Smith said no, nothing.”

“So, what if Smith is the Pellegrinos’ inside guy at the GSA? What if he was all along? He knows the GSA has another deal brewing, and he tips off the Pellegrinos that Singleton is about to queer it by going to the FBI.”

Grant nodded. “That makes sense. And when Harry calls Smith about any other pending sales, Smith tells him there’s nothing, just waves him off.”

“You’re starting to look interested in my theory, Grant.”

“I have to admit that it makes a kind of sense, but it still doesn’t mean that Shine tried to kill you.”

They had reached Grant’s house and pulled into the driveway.

“Turn around,” Holly said.

“And go where?”

“Back to Blood Orchid.”

“Are you nuts? You think somebody there is trying to kill you, and you want to go back?”

“I have an opportunity to be on the inside at Blood Orchid, and I think I can do more good there than on the outside. I’ve got you on the outside.”

Grant turned around. “Well, if you go back, then maybe Shine won’t think you suspect him.”

“Let’s hope not, but in the meantime, you’ve got to call your friend at Bureau headquarters and run a check on Ed that doesn’t get filtered through Harry Crisp. And you’ve got to do more than just an ordinary background check.”

“What else do you want?”

“Everything possible-credit history, education, every piece of information that might connect him to any other person or organization.”

“That’s going to take manpower, and they’d want Harry’s approval for that.”

“You’ve already been through Harry; can’t you get it done without his knowing?”

Grant sighed. “I’ll have to call in every marker.”

“Isn’t it worth it?”

“I hope so.”

They reached the Blood Orchid gate and were passed through. As they drove in, Holly looked back at the gate and saw the guard making a phone call. They drove to the airfield, picked up Holly’s car, and returned to the guest house.

When they arrived at the house, Holly and Daisy jumped out. “Come on in for a minute,” she said. “I just thought of something.”

He took her arm and stopped her. “Has it occurred to you that the house might be bugged?”

“No,” she said.

“Behave as if it is.”

In the house, she went to the wet bar and opened the shutters that concealed it. The two glasses she and Ed had used for their drinks on her first day there sat on the marble counter, still unwashed. She sniffed the glasses. “That one was the scotch.” She got a Ziploc plastic bag from the kitchen, dropped the glass into it, and handed it to Grant. He held it up to the light, looked at it, and nodded.

Outside, she said, “Don’t you want to look for bugs?”

“Why bother?” he replied. “If we found one, we wouldn’t want to disable it; that would tip them off. Just don’t say anything in the house or on the phone that you wouldn’t want the bad guys to hear.”

“Okay. Run the prints against every available database.”

“Will do,” he said. He put an arm around her. “I don’t like leaving you here.”

“I’ve got my cellphone,” she said, patting her pocket. “I can use it outside the house to call you if I need you. If you call me, it may take a few rings for me to get outside, so don’t hang up.”

Grant gave Daisy a pat. “You take care of her, girl.”