Hothouse Orchid

19

Teddy Fay awoke as the sun’s rays struck his face. His right arm was numb. Adele Mason’s head lay across it, and her leg was thrown over his. Gently, he extricated his arm and lifted her knee so that he could recover his leg. He slithered silently out of bed, walked to the window and looked out, opening and closing his hand, trying to get his circulation going. The sun had just broken the horizon. He closed the venetian blinds, walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

He shaved, got into a shower, soaped up and then rinsed in cold water. He tiptoed into the bedroom, found some shorts in a drawer and put them on, then he went into the kitchen. He had managed a trip to a grocery the day before, and he put on some coffee and fried bacon in the microwave while he toasted a couple of English muffins and scrambled some eggs.

“Smells good in there,” Adele called from the bathroom.

“Breakfast in five minutes,” he called back, then he heard the shower running.

She came into the kitchen wearing only a towel and kissed him on a shoulder. “Jack, do you mind if I ask how old you are?”

“Sixty,” he lied. “How about you?”

“Forty-nine,” she replied.

“You look wonderful,” he said, emptying the eggs onto two plates.

“You are wonderful,” she said, “at least in bed.”

“Thank you ma’am.” He laughed.

“Oh, I forgot something,” she said, hurrying from the room. She came back with the local newspaper. “I called the paper yesterday and got you a subscription; I always do that with a new client.”

“Thank you,” Teddy said and set the paper on the little table.

They washed down their breakfast with fresh orange juice and finished it with coffee.

Teddy sat back in his chair and picked up the paper. “My goodness,” he said, “according to this you’ve got a serial rapist/murderer in this town.”

“I’m afraid so,” Adele said, “and I hope it’s not going to be bad for business.”

“Why? Doesn’t everyone want to live in a town with murderous thugs?”

“Stop it. I’m serious.”

“I know you are. I’m glad I arrived when I did, or I’d be a suspect, being the new guy in town.”

“What sort of work do you do, Jack?” she asked.

“I’m retired.”

“From what?”

“I’ve invented things all my life, the sort of gadgets you see in those infomercials on TV.” This was not a lie; those little inventions had made him a comfortably wealthy man, and the continuing royalties went, eventually, into his Cayman bank account.

“Can you make a living doing that?”

“You can if you have a few great sellers and if you’ve negotiated a good royalty agreement.”

“Why did you retire?”

“Oh, I just got tired of it, I guess. A few months from now, though, I’ll get an idea for something, and I’ll be back at work. I’ve retired before.”

“Were you ever married?”

“Yes, but she died four years ago of ovarian cancer.”

“I’m sorry.”

“So am I, but I’ve had time to get over it.”

“What brought you to Vero Beach?”

“I thought I’d like to live in a place with a warm winter, and I read something about Vero in a magazine or a newspaper, I forget which.” He smiled at her. “So far, I like it just fine.”

Adele looked at the kitchen clock. “Oh, I’ve got to run; I’m showing a house at eight thirty.” She went back into the bedroom and came back ten minutes later, clothed and made up.

Teddy walked her to the door and gave her a kiss. “Later in the week?”

She got out her calendar. “When’s good for you?”

“Tomorrow night, here? I’ll cook you dinner.”

“You’re on.” She ran for her car.

Teddy went back to the table and finished reading the article about the crimes. It made him angry to think there was some animal hurting women out there. He’d like to get a shot at the guy, he thought.

He read slowly through the paper, getting a sense of the locality, when he saw a familiar face in an ad. It was one of the women he’d seen at the airport: “Ginny Barker, Certified Flight Instructor, Private and Commercial certificates,” and a phone number. She must be related to Holly Barker, he thought.

He went to his computer and Googled Holly, finding news stories about cases she had solved when she had been chief of police in Orchid Beach, a neighbor of Vero. He learned that she had retired from the army after a career as an MP and that her father lived here, too. Ginny Barker was his wife. He wondered how Holly had made the transition to the Agency.

It was interesting to know more about a woman he had once taken to the Metropolitan Opera, in New York, when he had been disguised as an elderly Jewish gentleman, retired from the garment industry. He wondered if she’d ever figured out who he was. Probably so, for she had turned up on the island of St. Marks, where he had also fooled her for a while. Then she had taken that shot at him.

He went into the Agency mainframe, to personnel, and read her file. She was getting good reviews from her superiors, particularly Lance Cabot, and had recently been promoted to assistant deputy director. He was impressed.

He made a mental note to himself not to let his disguise slip while he was in Vero Beach. He might run into her at any time. It occurred to him that his ease in fooling her before might be making him cocky, and he didn’t want to start underestimating her now. He would like to know what she was doing back in this area. She couldn’t be looking for him, because he had picked out this town only a day or two before.

Now he knew that she was a pilot, or studying to be one, taking lessons from her stepmother, who was no older than she. Amazing what you could pick up in the local paper, and it didn’t hurt to have access to the Agency mainframe.

Teddy stacked the dishes in the dishwasher and cleaned up after himself. Then he took his briefcase into the little spare room and began to make it his study. He went online and bought a safe from a local company that promised to deliver it the following day. In the meantime, he found some removal boards behind the sleeper couch and stashed his cash, weapons and other supplies there.

After a couple of hours of work around the place, he had made it livable and had also turned it into a base for himself, with provisions for a quick getaway if necessary. Some people, he reflected, might have been troubled by the stress of constantly watching their backs and planning escapes, but Teddy enjoyed it. He could change towns and his life anytime he chose, and he could invent and produce the IDs and backgrounds necessary to preserve himself. That was fun.

He put on some clothes and went for a drive. It was time he knew more about his new hometown.