Orchid Blues

50

Holly left work, went home, walked Daisy, then went to Harry's place. Everybody was looking glum.

"What's going on?" she asked. "Have you heard from Ham?"

"No," Harry said, "not by phone or bug. There's been a lot of activity in Peck's study, but nothing was said that would give us any more information about what's going on out there."

"I wonder why Ham hasn't retrieved the phone yet?"

"There's something else," Harry said.

"What?"

"While my van was out there working to set up the portable cell, a car drove past twice, with three men in it. My people got a photograph through a window in the van." He shoved a color print across the table.

Holly picked it up. "That's Ham in the back seat," she said, "and John in the front passenger seat. I can't see the driver's face."

"You're right," Harry said. "But why are they cruising up and down the highway while my van is out there?"

Holly looked at the photograph more closely. "John is holding something in his hand, and Ham seems to be looking at it."

Harry looked at the photograph again. "Could be a cell phone," he said.

"Oh, shit," Eddie chipped in. "They were reading signal strength."

"Now, why the hell would they do that?" Harry asked.

Everybody was quiet for a moment.

"Maybe their weak signal strength out there suddenly got too good," Holly said. "Maybe they were suspicious of that."

"It's John," Harry said. "That son of a bitch is smart"

"Is there equipment out there where you can see it?" Holly asked.

"Just a whip antenna on a power pole. The van is parked a couple of miles away."

"But John saw the van there."

"Yeah."

"Eddie," Harry said, "if you were John and you thought it was strange that your cell phone signal strength had improved, what would you do about it?"

Eddie frowned.

"From a technical point of view, I mean."

"I guess I'd try to find out if somebody was using a cell phone in the compound. I'd run a scanner and see if it picked up anything."

"John could actually overhear calls, if a cell phone were being used out there?"

"He could if he has a scanner. You can buy them at Radio Shack and modify them to pick up cell phone frequencies."

"But it wouldn't pick up Ham's scrambled phone."

"No, and if it did, it would only get static."

"So if Ham got the phone out of the lake, he could use it without being caught."

"Without being caught electronically," Eddie corrected.

"If you're right about John catching on," Holly said, "then Ham would know about it, because he was in the car. Maybe that's why he's not using the phone."

"But he was here when I explained how the scrambled phone walked," Eddie said. "He heard me say that it would be undetectable."

"That's right," Harry said. "If Ham remembers."

"He'll remember," Holly said. "He's got a memory like a bear trap, better than mine."

"I hope it's better than mine," Harry said.

"Hey, listen up," Eddie said, pointing at the radio. "Ham's on the air."

Holly heard a jumble of voices, then a door close.

"Ham, I hear you're working wonders with the Barrett's rifle," a voice said.

"Damn right he is," another man chipped in.

"It seems to be going well," Ham said.

"Could you be ready to shoot by, say, Monday?" the first voice asked.

"John, I'm ready now," Ham replied.

Harry spoke up. "Eddie, is the tape recorder on?"

"Yes," Eddie replied.

"Monday will be soon enough," John said.

"You ready to tell me what I'll be shooting at?" Ham asked.

"Two, maybe three men in the back seat of a limo," John replied. "And that's all you need to know for now."

"I think we ought to start watching the weather," Ham said. "You get the Weather Channel out here?"

"Yes, on satellite," the third man said.

"Peck, that's not going to get you a local forecast."

"Why are you worried about the weather?" John asked.

"I'm worried about the wind," Ham said. "If there's more than a slight breeze, windage could be a real problem, depending on the distance. Is this limo likely to be moving through a crowd?"

"Maybe," John said.

"I don't think we want to shoot near a crowd, if there's any wind. You don't want to kill a lot of citizens, do you?"

"Not unless it's absolutely necessary," John replied.

"Well, if you have an option-I mean, if there's a route for this limo, and you could choose where to shoot, you might want to look for a spot with trees on either side of the road, and the taller, the better."

"That would help you with the wind?"

"It would, if the wind wasn't too strong."

"I can get an aviation forecast that would give me winds at the local airport twenty-four hours ahead of time."

"That would be a big help," Ham said. "The winds ought to be the same on the street."

"Well, let's go to dinner," John said, and the three men left the room.

"Well, whatever it is, it's Monday," Holly said.

"Eddie," Harry said, "I want you to get on the Internet and visit every Florida site you can find. Look for a list of events on Monday. Doug, I want you to call the FAA and tell them I want to know-in fact, I want tapes-of anybody who calls from Saturday onward asking for a forecast of local winds, not a whole briefing for a flight and not a winds-aloft forecast, just a forecast of local winds at any airport in the state."

"Will do," Doug said.

"Ham can't tell us where this is happening," Harry said, "because he doesn't know, but we do know he's supposed to shoot at two or three men in a limo, and on Monday. It's a start."