Blood Orchid

57

Holly slept for an hour, then was wakened again by the doorbell. Hurd Wallace came in and tossed her a plastic bag with a shell casing inside. “I found that,” he said, “behind some bushes at the north end of the runway.”

“Thirty-caliber,” Holly said, looking at the casing. “Military weapon, I guess.”

“There’s a lot of surplus stuff on the weapons market,” Hurd said. “It could have come from anywhere. If somebody was firing on auto out there, he cleaned up after himself; I found just the one casing. What’s going on, Holly?”

She tapped her ear with a finger and moved her hand in a circle.

Hurd frowned, but he seemed to get her point.

“It’s this guy Rodriguez,” she said. “There’s a statewide APB out for him.”

“We got a fax from the state police,” Hurd said. “Nobody like that has been seen around Blood Orchid. There are so few people about that any visitor would be noticed.”

“I guess so,” Holly said, handing him back the cartridge case. She took his arm and walked him outside.

“You think the house is bugged?” Hurd asked.

“I don’t know, maybe.”

“Who do you think would be listening?”

“I don’t know, but somebody here tried to kill me, and that’s been happening way too often. I think I’m entitled to be a little paranoid.”

“You suspect Ed Shine of being involved in something?”

Holly didn’t hesitate. “No, Ed is the sweetest guy in the world, and he’s been great to me.” She wanted to trust Hurd, but she didn’t know how deeply Ed had his hooks into his security chief.

“Me too,” Hurd said.

“It may be that Rodriguez has just tracked me down. Will you keep an eye out for any strangers?”

“Sure I will, and I’ll alert my whole force to do the same, all two of them.”

Holly laughed.

“Do you have a weapon?”

“I’ve got my Beretta,” she replied.

“Take an extra magazine,” he said, handing her one.

“Thanks, Hurd.”

“I’ll talk to you later, if I find out anything.”

“Use my cellphone number,” she said. “You still have it?”

“I know it by heart.”

“Hurd, you remember that building over on the north side of the property that has the vaults?”

“Yeah, I got a look at it once, after the Feds busted everybody.”

“Do you know if there’s been any activity around that building?”

Hurd blinked. “It’s back in the trees, and the driveway has a sawhorse across it and a No Trespassing sign.”

“If you get a chance to do it discreetly, could you have a look at the place, see if there’s any sign that people have been in and out of it recently?”

“Sure.”

“Don’t let anybody see you.”

“Okay, I’ll be careful. You want me to mention this to Ed?”

“No, keep it to yourself.”

“All right.” He got into his Range Rover and drove away.

Her cellphone vibrated in her pocket, and she answered it.

“Hi, it’s Grant. You okay?”

“Yep.”

“I pulled some prints off your glass-”

“You mean you have a Junior-G-Man fingerprint kit with you at all times?”

“Sort of. Now listen.”

“I’m listening.”

“They’re already working on it. We should have some answers tomorrow.”

“Have you talked to Harry today?”

“Yes, and there’s nothing new down there.”

“Well, there’s something new here,” Holly said. “Ed came by this morning and introduced me to a man who’s thinking of buying a retirement home here. His name is Willard Smith.”

“The guy from the GSA?”

“How many Willard Smiths can there be?”

“I’d better get back to Harry with that.”

“Are you sure you should, Grant? I mean, in light of our conversation last night?”

“It’s something Harry ought to know,” Grant said.

“It’s something Harry may already know,” Holly replied. “If he’s dirty.”

“I’m going to have to think about that. The guy you met may not be the GSA Willard Smith, you know.”

“Call the GSA and ask for Smith,” Holly said. “I’m betting that he’s not at work today.”

“All right, I’ll do that.”

“Get back to me?”

“Sure.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.” Holly punched off and went back into the house. Daisy was waiting, her leash in her mouth.

“Okay, baby,” Holly said. “Let’s take a walk.”

They started out from the house, and Holly had an idea. The golf course outside her door was empty, so she cut across it, letting Daisy off her leash. The happy dog ran in big circles, enjoying the open space, just as she did on the beach. Holly looked around and still saw nobody, except a man in the distance mowing a green.

She reached the other side of the golf course and clipped the leash onto Daisy’s collar again, as they walked along the road, heading north. Her recollection was that the driveway to the vault building was around a curve ahead of her, about a quarter of a mile along. Then she heard an airplane overhead.

She looked up to see a twin-engine turboprop circling to land at the Blood Orchid airfield. It wasn’t Ed Shine’s King Air; it looked more like a Piper Cheyenne. Holly crossed the road and walked into the woods far enough that she couldn’t readily be seen from the road. Then she sat down with her back against a tree and waited, with Daisy lying beside her.

Nearly half an hour passed, and Holly saw a Blood Orchid van drive past. She and Daisy ran back to the road and just far enough to see around the big curve in the road.

The van had stopped, and a man got out of the passenger seat and moved aside the sawhorse blocking the drive. The van drove in, the sawhorse was replaced, and the van disappeared down the driveway.

Holly went back into the woods. “Come on, Daisy,” she said, “we’re going to do a little spying.”