Blood Orchid

9

Holly went back to her office, wondering what the hell was going on; then she had a thought. She walked around to Hurd Wallace’s office and beckoned him out into the hall.

“Did you talk to Phil Sweat?” he asked.

“Yes, he’s out there working on a new security system for me right now, and he’s discovered a bug on my telephones.”

Hurd’s eyebrows went up. “No kidding?”

“No kidding. Tell me about how the phones went bad yesterday.”

Hurd thought for a moment. “Everything went dead,” he said, “and before we could even call the phone company, one of their guys walked in and said they were having some problems in the area and it would be fixed shortly. It was.”

“Call the phone company-on your cellphone, and not near one of our phones-and find out if they have any record of anybody working around here yesterday and fixing our problem.”

“You think somebody was tapping our phones?”

“I want to find out.”

Hurd nodded, took his cellphone off his belt, and walked out the back door. Holly returned to her office and tried to work on her personnel files, but she was having trouble keeping her mind on them.

Hurd came into her office. “The phone company says they did have problems around here yesterday, and they were fixed by a unit already in the neighborhood.”

“That’s a relief,” Holly said, “but I’m still going to get Phil Sweat to come over here when he’s done at my place and check out our system. You think he could handle that?”

“Sure. Phil used to work for the state police doing this stuff; he knows his business.”

Late in the afternoon, Phil Sweat arrived and spent two hours inspecting their office phone system. Finally, he came back to where Holly and Hurd were waiting for him.

“I think you’re okay,” he said, “especially since the phone company confirms you had a problem. Think about it: It’s one thing to bug your house and have a recorder hooked up that could be checked now and then. It’s something else to bug a police station with forty or fifty phones installed and keep track of what’s being said on them. I mean, it would be a good-sized job for the National Security Agency, and it’s not the sort of thing that some private investigator is going to be able to handle. That’s usually who’s responsible for bugs like the one on your house-somebody’s wife thinks her husband is screwing his secretary, or something like that. Sometimes it might be one business trying to find out about a competitor. The bug at your house was over-the-counter stuff, made of parts you could buy at any electronics supplier. Bugging a police station would require a whole new level of expertise.”

“Thank’s Phil,” Holly said. She wrote him a check for the work at her house. “Send the department a bill for your time here.”

“It’s on the house,” Phil said, pocketing Holly’s check. “Now, let’s go back to your place so I can show you what I’ve done and how to run it.”

Holly followed him back to her house.

Sweat walked her through the house, reviewed arming and disarming the system with a keypad at each door and one at her bedside. He showed her something that looked like a ceiling light fixture over her stairs. “That’s your video camera. I’ve run it to the TV set in your living room.” He picked up a remote control and switched on the TV. “Now, you press the TV/video button until you come to video three, just the way you would if you were going to watch something on the VCR.” He handed her another, smaller remote control. “Then you use this to run the VCR in the attic that shows you anything the system has taped while you were out. Remember, it only works if the alarm system is activated. You can rewind and fast forward, as with any VCR, and you press this button to rearm the system. If there’s something on a tape you want to keep, you just pull down the stairs to your attic, go up there, and you’ll see the unit on a shelf I installed. Take the tape out, replace it with a blank one, and rearm the system. That’s all there is to it.”

“Thanks, Phil, I feel a lot better now.”

“Now that we’ve been through everything, you want me to get the bug working again?”

“Yes, but intermittently, and then I want it to go out completely.”

“Then they’ll just come back to see what’s wrong.”

“That’s what I want them to do. You go hook it up, I’ll make a couple of calls, and right in the middle of one, you can pull the plug.”

“Whatever you say.”

“I’ll talk outside, on the cordless from the living room, so I can signal you.”

“Okay. I’ll get back on the ladder.”

Holly waited for him to get into position, then she called Ham.

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me.”

“How you doing, baby?”

“I’m okay, I guess. What have you been up to?”

“Did a little fishing today.”

“Fishing’s a lot of fun, Ham, but doesn’t it get old after a while?”

“Not yet.”

Holly walked out the door with the cordless phone and looked up at Phil. He gave her a thumbs-up.

“Ham, I’m worried about you out there with nothing but fishing poles.”

“Well, don’t you worry, kiddo, because fishing poles ain’t all I got out here. In fact, right at this moment, there’s a lady waiting for me to grill her a steak.”

Holly looked up at Phil and nodded. “Ham, you be nice to that lady, you hear? Remember, she’s not in the army, and you’re not…” Phil drew a finger across his throat. “… and you’re not still a sergeant. Bye-bye.”

“See you, kid.” Ham hung up, and so did Holly.

Phil climbed down from the ladder. “Got you in mid-sentence,” he said. “What I did was loosen one wire so it would look like an accident when the guy comes back to check on it.”

“Good work, Phil.”

“I gotta go. Call me if you have any problems.”

“Will do.” She watched him get into his van and drive away, then she called the station and got Hurd.

“Hurd Wallace.”

“I’m glad you’re still there,” she said. “I want you to pull an officer off the night shift and send him out here with another officer in an unmarked car, then I want the car to leave.”

“What’s’ up?”

“I’m going to see if I can’t catch me a phone bugger.”

“Okay. I’ll send Teddy Wright; he’s a good kid.”

“Fine.”

Teddy Wright was the youngest officer on the force and, in many ways, the least experienced, but Holly found him to be bright and willing. “Here’s the story,” she said, and explained what Phil Sweat had found. “I think they’ll send somebody out here to fix it, maybe tonight, and when they do, I want you to apprehend whoever comes.” She showed him where the phone box was, and they found a spot where he could watch it while remaining unobserved.

Holly made him a sandwich, gave him a canvas chair to sit in, and handed him a thermos of coffee. “Don’t fall asleep, and if the guy shows up, don’t shoot him, understand? I want to talk to him.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Teddy said.

“Just cuff him, and then call me.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Holly got him situated and went to have her own dinner. It was getting dark now.