Blood Orchid

56

Holly got a little sleep, and was awakened by the doorbell. She opened the door to find Ed Shine standing there.

“Hi,” Ed said. “I tried to call you for dinner last night and didn’t get an answer. You been off the reservation?”

“Come in, Ed,” Holly said, kissing him on the cheek. “I have a lot to tell you. I’ve got some coffee on; would you like some?”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Ed said, settling on the living room sofa.

Holly poured the coffee and brought milk and sugar.

“The gate guard said somebody brought you back here.”

“Yes, that was Grant Early, my neighbor. I’ve been seeing him.”

“Is it okay for him to know where you are? I’ve been worried.”

“It’s okay.”

“So, what’s up?”

Holly told him about her experience of the day before, and she watched his reaction closely. He appeared to be shocked.

“That’s the most awful thing I’ve ever heard,” Ed said. “You think it was this Rodriguez fellow?”

“Him or a friend of his.”

“But how could he know that you were here? Have you told anybody?”

“No, no one, until yesterday. I spent the night at Ham’s place. Grant picked me up and brought me back here. I still think this is the safest place I could be.”

Ed picked up the phone and dialed a number. “Hurd? This is Ed. I’m over at guest house number two. Can you come over here right now? I need to talk to you. Good.” He hung up. “I want to get Hurd on this right away.”

“That’s a good idea,” Holly said. “I haven’t told any of my people, but Hurd is like family.”

“What happened to the airplane?” Ed asked.

“They’ll remove the wings, load it onto a truck, and take it back to the Orchid Beach airport, where it will be repaired.”

“God, you were lucky to get down in one piece.” He scratched Daisy behind the ears, and she reacted with pleasure.

“I know we were lucky. Ginny’s a fine pilot, and she got us down safely; it could have turned out differently.”

There was a knock on the door and Hurd Wallace entered. “Morning,” he said.

“Hurd, sit down,” Ed said. “Holly’s got something to tell you.”

Hurd listened calmly as Holly related the events of the day before. “I was on the practice tee, hitting some balls,” he said, “and I heard something that sounded like a string of firecrackers going off.”

“It wasn’t firecrackers,” Holly said.

Hurd stood up. “I want to go and take a look at the area around the airfield right now,” he said. “I’ll report back to you as soon as I can, Ed.”

Ed nodded, and Hurd left the house.

“What do you think all this means, Holly?”

“Well, Trini Rodriguez has got to be behind it,” she replied. “And he knows that I’m the one who put the law on him.”

“But how could he find you here?”

“I don’t know. Have there been any people on the property the last couple of days that you don’t know?”

“Just the construction crews,” Ed replied. He looked at his watch. “I have to be going in a minute; someone’s picking me up; I’m showing a house this morning.”

“Ed, when I was waiting for Ginny to land, a business jet came in and dropped off some packages that were taken away by one of your vans. What would that have been?”

“Let’s see,” Ed said, scratching his head. “Plumbing supplies, I expect; special-order stuff. We needed them in a hurry, and a friend sent them down from Atlanta in his airplane.”

“And who were the pilot and copilot?”

“They work for my friend; they’re his regular crew. Why? Do you think they had something to do with this?”

“I don’t know. One of them made a cellphone call just before it happened, and he had been looking at me.”

“Oh, Holly, I don’t think he would have been involved. He was probably reporting to his base about having arrived here.”

“I guess you’re right, Ed. Maybe I’m getting paranoid.”

There was a knock on the door, and a man stepped inside-fiftyish, tall, slender, dressed in an expensive-looking suit. “Hi, Ed, you ready?”

Ed Shine put down his coffee cup. “Yep. Holly, I’ll tell Hurd to come tell you if he found anything out there.”

“Thanks, Ed.”

“You want to come look at a house with us?”

“Thanks, but I’m a little tired; think I’ll try to get in a nap.”

“We’ll be going, then. Oh, Holly, this is Willard Smith. He’s thinking of retiring to Blood Orchid.”

Smith held out his hand and gave her a little smile. “Everybody calls me Smitty,” he said.