Orchid Blues

8

Very early. Holly got up, fed Daisy and let her out. She fixed herself some cereal and ate it slowly, watching the sun rise out of the Atlantic. She felt more in control now, but she knew she'd have to be careful with herself, otherwise little things would set her off.

She dressed in her uniform, then went and listened to the messages on the machine. They were all from friends or coworkers and uniformly kind and concerned. She wrote down their names, so that she could return the calls later, then she called the name at the top of the list, her father. "Hello."

"Morning, Ham."

"How you doing, kiddo?"

"I'm okay, weirdly enough."

"You sound a little dull, not yourself, but I guess that's to be expected."

"Yeah. I'm sorry I didn't get back to you last night, but I just had to sit by myself and let my brain catch up with what's happened."

"Smart move."

"Ham, will you do something for me?"

"Sure."

"Call a funeral home and get Jackson 's body collected from the hospital morgue. I want it cremated as quickly and cheaply as possible. Jackson hated funerals and the whole business of being disposed of. He told me he wanted to disappear without fanfare when his time came."

"Okay, I'll get that done. What do you want me to do with the ashes?"

"Just drop them off over here, and I'll take care of them."

"What else can I do?"

"Have dinner with me tonight?"

"You bet. Why don't you come over here, and I'll fix you something."

"I'd like that."

"Whenever you like."

"Great. I'll call you when I get some idea."

"See you."

She hung up, and immediately, the phone rang. She sighed and picked it up; the day had begun. "Hello?"

"Holly, it's Stone Barrington."

"Good morning."

"I got hold of my old partner last night, and he called his friend upstate. What he found out was that the robbery was never solved, and they really only ever had one lead."

"What was the lead?"

"A teller at the bank, a woman, was the only employee who'd been there for less than two years; she'd been there three months."

"And they couldn't get anything out of her?"

"A couple of weeks after the robbery, she vanished, along with a bunch of other people, apparently."

"What do you mean, 'vanished'?"

"She was a member of some religious sect in the Hudson River Valley, twenty-five or thirty people. They simply pulled up stakes and left the state. Apparently, they had spent the weeks before disposing of their property and even their vehicles. A lot of people thought they'd committed mass suicide, and they may very well have, because every effort to track them down failed."

"Very strange."

"Very strange indeed."

"The guy on the New York State Police is doing a follow-up with the FBI office in New York, and he'll get back to me when he knows more."

"Thanks, Stone, I really appreciate this."

"Glad to help. You doing okay?"

"I'm managing."

"Let me know if you'd like to see my new airplane; I'm taking delivery today."

"Okay, I will."

"You can reach me at the Disney hotel in Vero, or on my cell phone; the number's on my card."

"Let me see how things go."

"Take care."

"Bye."

When Holly and Daisy got to the office, the atmosphere had returned to something more normal, since the witnesses had all been interviewed and sent home. She went into Hurd's office. "What's happening?"

"We've got the employee records, and we're going through them now."

"I want to know about the more recent employees." She told him about her conversation with Stone.

"That's real interesting," Hurd said. "I'll rush it." He handed her a sheet of paper. "Here's the tally on what the robbers got."

She took the paper and looked at it. "Holy cow! They had over four million dollars in cash in that one bank?"

"A confluence of four payrolls, not the three we originally thought. They would normally have no more than half a million cash on hand."

She handed the paper back. "I don't suppose there's any indication of the employees' religious affiliation in their records?"

Hurd picked up a file and looked it over. "Nope. That would probably be against some privacy law."

"Hurd, when you interview these people-and I do want them all interviewed again-I want you to tell our people to find out, subtly, if possible, what church these folks go to. If any of them is anything smaller or stranger than Baptist, Methodist, Catholic or some other well-established denomination, I want to know about it."

"Okay, I'll pass the word along." Hurd put down the folder. "Holly, when is the service going to be?"

"Service?"

"The funeral."

"Oh, sorry. There won't be one; Jackson's own wish. He hated everything to do with funerals, and he didn't want to put his friends through that."

"I understand. I'll let our people know."

"Thanks, Hurd." She went back to her office. There was a note on her desk to call Fred Ames, Jackson's partner. His had been one of the messages on her machine. She called him back.

"Hello, Holly. First of all, I want to tell you how sorry I am."

"I know, Fred. It's a big loss to you, too."

"Yes, but still-"

"Don't worry about me; I'm all right."

"Good. Holly, I don't want to rush you on this, but you and I should get together and go over Jackson's estate."

"I guess you're right. Is it important that we do it soon?"

"I think so. There are some unusual aspects, and the sooner we can go over them, the better."

"You don't want to do it on the phone?"

"I'd rather do it face-to-face."

"Late this afternoon be okay?"

"Five is good for me."

"Five it is; I'll see you at your office."

"Bye, Holly."

"Bye." Holly hung up and went back to Hurd's office. "Let me have the personnel files you're finished with, and I'll go over them again. That way, we're less likely to miss something."

Hurd handed her a stack. "I didn't notice anything unusual about any of these, but you're welcome to check them out."

"Are you checking out bank officers, too?"

"Yes, but they're in a separate bunch. You want them?"

"Yes, please."

Hurd got up and went to a table across his office and picked up a stack of a dozen folders. "Here you go."

Holly went back to her office, sat down and opened the first folder.