Stuart Woods: Hothouse Orchid

“Is there any inconsistency in my story?” she asked.

“No,” Hurd said, then he switched off the tape recorder. “This is off the record, everybody. Lauren, there are two things I don’t understand.”

“What?”

“One, the flash of white light.”

“I think it must have been the muzzle flash in the darkness,” she said.

“All right. I buy that,” Hurd replied. “But there’s one other thing: the driver’s side window was smashed, but I understand that one of your shots must have gone through him and hit the window. What I don’t understand is that the passenger’s side window was smashed, too.”

“Maybe one round went through the passenger window,” Lauren said, “or richocheted.”

“From what I could see, the window was broken from the outside; nearly all of the glass was in the car. It was all over you when we got there.”

“Okay, Hurd, you’ve got me there; I have no explanation for that. All I’ve got is what I’ve told you. I think I was unconscious for a moment after Jimmy hit me, and I was semiconscious for another moment. Maybe something happened then that I don’t understand.”

“It’s just a loose end,” Hurd said, “and I don’t like loose ends.”

“Well, Hurd,” Lauren said with some heat, “I was pretty busy in that car, and I’m sorry I didn’t have time to tie up your loose end.”

Hurd held up a hand. “It’s all right, Lauren, I’m not going to make an issue of it. Anybody here have any problem with neglecting to notice the passenger window?”

Everybody shook his head.

Holly thought she knew how the window was broken, but she kept her mouth shut.

An hour later, Holly drove Lauren back to her car at the police station parking lot. She was remembering how she had mentioned the operation to Jack Smithson at the pack-and-ship store.

Lauren,” she said, “did you tell Jack what you were going to be doing tonight?”

“God, no!” Lauren said. “He would have gone nuts! He wouldn’t have let me do it.”

“That’s what I thought,” Holly said. She dropped Lauren at her car but took another close look at her. “Are you sure you’re all right to drive?”

“Holly, I’m just fine. Really I am. When you think about it, this operation turned out better than we could have hoped for. There’ll be no trial for Jimmy, so the families won’t be put through that, and so the whole thing is just over. I’m feeling really good about that.”

“Okay, Lauren, just drive carefully on your way home.”

“Don’t worry about me.”

But Holly followed Lauren at a distance, until she saw her turn into Jack’s driveway.

Back home, Josh was waiting.

“When are we taking off north?” he asked.

“I’m going to stay one more day, just to be available to Hurd if he has any more questions for me. I also want to have dinner tomorrow night with Ham and Ginny; you can join us. I’ll fly home the day after. I’ve been checking the weather every day, and Wednesday should be a perfect flying day.”

“And when do you go back to work?” he asked.

“Monday morning, bright and early.”

“I’ll be at your house Thursday night, I think,” Josh said.

“I’ll just take a cab home from Manassas airport,” Holly said. “I’ve already arranged for hangar space there.”

“You want me to take Daisy with me in the car?” he asked.

“No, she’s flown before with Ginny and me, and she’s fine with it.”

They fell asleep in each other’s arms.

The following morning Holly called Hurd Wallace. “Thanks for your help last night,” he said. “I think it was a good idea having a woman with Lauren.”

“She was perfectly fine after she calmed down,” Holly said. “How is she this morning?”

“She didn’t come in,” Hurd said. “She left a letter in my in-box, and I found it this morning. She’s resigned.”

“I’m surprised,” Holly said. “Did you see that coming?”

“No, but I think it had more to do with her new boyfriend than it did with anything that happened last night,” he said.

“Do you know what her plans are?” Holly asked.

“No, but she said she’d be in touch. We don’t really need her to wrap up the case.”

“Well, I’m off to Virginia tomorrow morning,” Holly said. “It was good seeing you and even better working with you again, Hurd.”

“Thank you, Holly. Same here. You keep in touch, hear?”

“Will do.” Holly hung up. She was surprised at Lauren’s resignation; it didn’t seem like a spur-of-the-moment thing. She wanted to say goodbye, and she wanted one more conversation with Jack Smithson, too, so she got into her car with Daisy and drove over to his beach house.

When she pulled into the driveway, there were no cars parked at the house. She got out and went to the door. No one came when she knocked, but there was an unsealed envelope stuck in the door, addressed to a real estate company. Holly was too nosy not to look inside.

There were some keys, a check and a note from Jack saying that he was vacating the premises and paying the remainder of the short-term lease.

Holly used one of the keys to unlock the front door. She walked inside and looked around, but it had been cleaned out. The big safe was still in the closet, its door open and a note left on top of it, again addressed to the real estate company. She read it. “The safe is yours,” it said. “The combination is TEDDY.”

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