Orchid Beach

CHAPTER

36

They were shown to a table overlooking the ocean and ordered drinks. Holly contained her news for the moment. When the drinks came, Jackson and Ham raised their glasses.

“To the new chief of police of the Orchid Beach Police Department,” Jackson said.

“Hear, hear,” Ham echoed, grinning.

“Thank you, gentlemen. I suppose this calls for a speech.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Ham said. He squeezed her hand. “I’m sure proud of you, though.”

“Me, too,” Jackson said. “Tell us how the interview went.”

“It was pretty straightforward until the subject came around to you,” Holly said.

“Me?”

“Irma Taggert evidently has a pretty good network of spies around town. She’d nailed you and me as living together, which I denied, and she knew about our landing on the beach on Sunday.”

Jackson whistled. “I’ve underestimated our Irma,” he said. “I’ll try not to do that again.”

“Who’s Irma Taggert?” Ham asked.

“A prune who sits on the city council,” Jackson replied. “How did you handle her, Holly?”

“I pretty much told her it was none of her business, then Charlie Peterson weighed in and shut her up. She put John Westover up to asking about the airplane and bringing up a city ordinance about not landing on beaches. I told him we were outside the city limits and why we landed. He actually apologized for raising the question and gave Irma a look that fried her makeup.”

“Wish I’d been there to see that,” Jackson said.

“Charlie came down and told me I had the job by a three-to-two vote, and that they were making Hurd Wallace deputy chief. That’s okay. I can live with that.”

“So you’re home free, then?”

“I’m not going to be home free while Irma Taggert and John Westover are on the council. Why don’t you run against one of them next election?”

“Now there’s a thought,” Jackson said. “I couldn’t beat John, but I bet I could beat Irma.”

“You’re prettier, too,” Holly said.

“I’m afraid I can’t disagree with you.”

“Listen, I have more news. Cracker Mosely has been spotted in Orchid. Guess where?”

“Under a rock?”

“More or less. He’s a security guard at Palmetto Gardens.”

“I don’t know that I’m all that surprised,” Jackson said. “After all, he worked for Craig and Noble in Miami. He must have come north with Barney.”

“There’s more,” she said, taking the papers from her purse. “Just on a whim, I asked Jane Grey to get me a list of all the state-licensed security guards in Orchid. There are thirty-seven, and nearly half of them work at Palmetto Gardens. I also asked her to get me a list of everybody licensed to carry a weapon in Orchid. There are nearly three hundred people, and one hundred and two of them work at Palmetto Gardens.” She handed him the lists.

“Jesus,” Jackson said, “they’ve practically got a private army there, haven’t they?” He was looking at the lists. “Uh-oh,” he said.

“What?”

“This list of the security guards at Palmetto Gardens—sixteen of them, counting Barney.”

“What about them?”

He tapped his finger down the list. “I know four of them besides Cracker and Barney. They were all kicked off the Miami police force because of felony convictions, three of them in the same racial beating. All four of them did time.”

“That means their police records have been doctored, like Cracker’s, or they wouldn’t have been licensed by the state.”

“And those are just the ones I know,” Barney said, checking off their names. “God knows how many of them I don’t know. Wait a minute, I recognize another name: Eduardo Flores. He was on the Tampa force and was convicted of assaulting a series of motorists he’d stopped for traffic violations. It was a famous case six or seven years ago.”

“So that’s half Barney’s security force who are convicted felons.”

“And all of them convicted of violent crimes.”

“I’d be willing to bet the rest have records, too, records that have been scrubbed.”

“I wouldn’t take that bet,” Jackson said. He handed Holly back the lists. “You should take this to the state attorney general’s office tomorrow. Blow it wide open.”

Holly shook her head. “Not yet. There’s a reason that people like this are carrying guns around that place, and I’m going to find out what it is. I’ll bet it’s bigger than falsifying state records; otherwise, why wouldn’t Barney just hire guys who were clean? Why go to all the trouble and risk of altering records?”

“Let’s look at the menus,” Jackson said. “Here comes our waitress.”

They sat drinking coffee over the remains of their dessert.

“All right, let’s go through what we know so far about Palmetto Gardens,” Holly said. “One, the place is sealed off. They don’t want the locals taking Sunday drives through the place. Two, at least half the security force are convicted felons, and there must be a reason. Three, the club members are solicited privately, not by the usual advertising that sells lots and houses in ritzy developments. What are the membership requirements, besides great wealth? And four, if they don’t want anybody visiting the place, what are they hiding? Is there something there that, if seen by outsiders, would tip them to something unusual going on?”

“Well, on our brief overflight, we did see that building with all the antennas. They must have some extraordinary communications equipment. I mean, they’re not just trying to get good TV reception with that really big dish.”

“You know, I’d really like to fly over there again,” Holly said.

“I’ve got a better idea,” Jackson said. “I know a guy who does aerial mapping. He’s got a big, slow airplane with a camera in the belly that takes overlapping landscape photographs. You must have seen that one at the municipal building of the whole island?”

“I thought that was taken by satellite,” Holly said.

“No, he took that series, and since he flies low, he can get as much detail as a spy satellite can. Two or three passes over the place, and we’d have some really nice snapshots.”

“Jackson, if you’ll spring for that, I’ll get you reimbursed from departmental funds, if we find something. How much will it cost?”

“I’m not sure, but certainly not more than a couple of grand. I’ll tell him I’ve got a client who’s interested in building a similar development. He’ll buy that.”

“Listen,” Ham said, “I’ll spring for the money. I’m flush.”

“You’re on, Ham,” Holly said.

“I know a guy at the FBI office in Miami,” Jackson said. “He’s in charge of the organized-crime division in the city. You want to get him involved?”

“Let’s wait until we know more. I don’t want him to think I’m crazy.”

“Okay, let me know when.”

“What we really need is somebody on the inside at Palmetto Gardens,” Holly said. “Somebody who’s in and out of there all the time, who could look around without calling attention to himself.”

Jackson thought about that. “I don’t know anybody,” he said.

“There must be at least some locals who deal with those people. They can’t completely cut themselves off from the outside.”

“You wouldn’t think so, would you?”

Ham spoke up. “I got an idea,” he said. “Why don’t I call Barney and tell him I’m looking for a job, that I’m bored with retirement.”

“Yeah, sure,” Holly said. “He’s going to hire the father of the chief of police? If there’s something illegal going on there, you’d be the last person he’d hire.”

“Well, maybe that would tell us something—if he wouldn’t hire me, I mean.”

“Ham, I appreciate the thought, but let’s just assume that he wouldn’t hire you, all right? If you called him, he’d just think I’d put you up to it. It’s important that Barney doesn’t think we’re too interested in the place.”

“I see your point,” Ham said. “I wish there was something I could do to help.”

“If I can think of anything, I’ll let you know,” Holly said. “Really, I will.” Like hell I will, she thought.

“Like hell you will,” Ham said.