Orchid Blues

17

Holly checked the peephole first, but all she could see was the rear end of a black car parked outside. She couldn't see anybody at the door. She hooked the beefy chain on and cracked the door.

"Expecting enemies?" a man's voice asked.

"Harry?"

"One and the same."

Holly opened the door and flung her arms around the man. "Come on in the house. Ham's here."

She led Harry into the living room. "Ham, it's Harry Crisp, remember?"

Ham stood up. "Sure, you're the Fed who worked with Holly on that Palmetto Gardens thing."

"One and the same," Harry replied, shaking Ham's hand.

"Harry has risen in the world since then," Holly said. "He's now the agent in charge of the Miami FBI office."

"Mostly thanks to you and Holly, Ham," Harry said, dragging up a chair.

"Can I get you something to drink?"

"How about a pitcher of martinis? Just kidding. A Diet Coke will do, if you've got it."

Holly turned to Daisy. "Daisy, bring Harry a Diet Coke."

Daisy trotted to the refrigerator and, taking in her teeth a towel that had been tied to the handle, opened the door and gingerly fished out a Diet Coke, swung a hip against the door to close it, then trotted back to the living room and handed the Coke to an astonished Harry.

"You're a very handy dog, Daisy," Harry said, scratching her ears.

"She gets handier," Ham said. "She'll bring a beer, if you ask her politely."

Harry popped the can top and took a swig.

"What brings you up here?" Holly asked.

"I came up to make sure my people were doing a good job on your bank robbery."

"That's awfully nice of you, Harry. You didn't have to come yourself."

"I felt I should, owing you, and all."

"That's very kind."

"I also liked Jackson a lot."

"Me, too. Anything to report?"

"My people have done a first-rate job, just what I expect of them, except for one thing."

"What's that?"

"We don't have a thing to go on. I've never seen a cleaner crime- not a print, not a fiber, not a smidgen of DNA."

"Which crime are we talking about, the robbery or the murder?"

"Both. I don't think I've ever seen a case so completely free of anything to go on."

"I may have something," Holly said.

Harry looked at her blankly. "And you didn't tell my people?"

"I only got it this morning, Ham and I."

"Tell me."

"The robbers got unlucky just once, maybe."

"How?"

"There was an ex-cop from New York named Stone Barrington in the bank at the time of the robbery, standing next to Jackson, talking to him."

Harry screwed up his face. "Barrington? That's a familiar name, somehow. I can't remember, but it'll come to me."

"Anyway, when Jackson was shot, Stone tried to help him, and, later, when he came to the station to be questioned about the robbery, he mentioned something."

"He recognize one of the robbers, I hope?"

"Nothing as good as that. He remembered something from his time on the New York force, a bank robbery in some little town up the Hudson somewhere."

"Wait a minute, I've got it. Barrington was a homicide detective in the Nineteenth Precinct-this was, I don't know, seven or eight years ago. You remember the Sasha Nijinsky case?"

"The TV anchorlady who took a dive off a tall building?"

"That's the one. Stone Barrington and his partner-some Italian name, I can't remember it-"

"Dino Bacchetti."

"Yeah, that's it. They were the lead detectives on the case, and there was some question for a while whether Nijinsky had survived the fall and had been kidnapped, which is what Barrington thought. In the end, he got bounced off the force because he wouldn't go along with the official position on the case. I'm sorry, I'm getting you off track. Tell me about this robbery."

"A small bank was hit in much the same way as this one-very clean and professional-but nobody got killed. They suspected a woman who worked in the bank, but after she was questioned, she disappeared, along with everybody in a little religious community of some sort that was based on a farm near the town."

"How many people we talking about?"

"I don't know, a dozen or two, maybe."

"And they left town?"

"Not just left town, vanished into thin air. Nobody ever heard of them again."

"I don't know about this one, but I can check it out," Harry said. "The Bureau would have been involved; I'll put somebody on it."

"I'd appreciate that."

"Is that it?"

"No, there's more."

"Tell me."

"As a result of what Stone told me, and because it looked as though it might be an inside job-"

"That's our view, too."

"Did you question a woman named Harston?"

"Pregnant lady?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, but my man thought she was clean."

"She's one of only two employees hired in the last year; the other was transferred from another branch and seemed clean to me."

"That would be the loan officer?"

"Yes."

"We thought he was clean, too. What makes you think the Harston woman might not be?"

"She lives in a strange little town called Lake Winachobee, half an hour west of here. It doesn't appear on any map. This morning, Ham and I went out there, on the pretense of looking for some fishing in the lake of the same name, and we stumbled into a huge gun show."

"Gun show?"

"A really big one, set up in a circus tent."

"Well, there are lots of those all over the country."

"Yes, but apparently, this one is by invitation only."

"Invitation by whom?"

"I don't know, but Ham and I were spotted immediately as not being on the party list, and three men came over and checked us out."

"Give you a hard time?"

"In a polite way. When they heard that we, especially Ham, were ex-military, they relaxed a little. Ham dropped a few names- Vietnam, Desert Storm-and they seemed to like that."

"You get their names?"

"One was named Peck Rawlings."

Harry took out a notebook and wrote down the name.

"The other two we talked to were named Jim Cross and James Farrow."

Harry wrote them down. "I'll run them through the system and see if the computer likes them."

"I'd appreciate that. They had one hell of a firepower demonstration, too." Holly told him about the pit and the old cars.

"I've heard of that sort of thing. It's how they get their jollies, I guess."

"I guess."

"And they had this weapon called a Barrett's rifle."

"That, I know about," Harry said. "It was one of the reasons for the raid on that Branch Davidian place, out in Waco."

"How so?"

"Our people got a report that they had one or more Barrett's rifles; that's why all that armor was brought in. There were rumors that a round from that thing would penetrate a Bradley fighting vehicle. Nobody knew for sure, and that made everybody very nervous."

"I can see how it might," Ham said. He told Harry about his experience with the Barrett's rifle in Iraq.

"Very scary weapon," Harry said, nodding.

"I find this little town scary," Holly said. "It has really given me the willies. Can you check it out?"

Harry looked serious. "Well, if this is a tight little group, like the Branch Davidians, it takes a lot of time to penetrate one of those. I don't think it would be good for me to just send a carload of agents out there and start questioning people. Better they don't know we're looking at them."

"I think Ham might hear from them again," Holly said. "They seemed real interested in him."

Harry turned to Ham. "You think they might contact you?"

Ham shrugged. "Who knows?"

"If they do, will you play along a little?"

Ham shrugged again. "Let's see how it goes. I don't have much time for people like that."

"Don't mention that to them," Harry said.