Stuart Woods: Blood Orchid

Somebody fired a shotgun in her direction, only a yard wide. Holly stopped running and aimed at the runway under the airplane’s wing. She fired two more rounds, sparks flew, and the fuel caught fire. The airplane had been spilling fuel as it slid, and the blaze raced up the runway toward Holly; she sidestepped it and kept running, Daisy alongside her.

Then the flames under the airplane spread upward and both wings exploded, a fraction of a second apart. A man with a shotgun threw it aside and ran in circles, covered in flames. Other figures could be seen running away from the airplane, one with snowy white hair.

“Daisy,” Holly said, pointing at him. “Get Ed! Get Ed! Guard!” Daisy took off after him, while Holly skirted the burning airplane, looking for other people with weapons.

Two cars, a white Range Rover and an Orchid Beach PD patrol car sped down the runway toward the airplane, lights flashing and sirens on. Both cars screeched to a halt beside Holly. “Holly?” Hurd’s voice said from the Range Rover.

“Right,” Holly replied. “Half a dozen people left that airplane before it caught fire, and they’ve scattered out there somewhere,” she said, swinging her arm across the area beside the runway. “Hurd, you stick with me. You go round up those people and cuff them,” Holly yelled at the other car. “Some of them may be armed, so be careful.” The car sped off. “You follow me, Hurd. Stay behind me, I need your headlights.”

Then Holly heard a man yelling from out in the darkness. “Get off me, get off me!”

“Ed, is that you?” Holly asked, running toward the voice, the Range Rover following.

“Get the dog off me!” he yelled back.

Holly saw him now, lying on his back, with Daisy standing beside him in the guard position, fangs bared, growling. “Daisy, sit; stay,” she said.

Ed Shine sat up, then struggled to his feet.

“You! How did…”

“Vault doors have safety releases on the inside, Ed,” she said. “Sorry about your airplane.”

“Why don’t you just shoot me?” Shine said disconsolately.

“No, Ed,” Holly said. “I couldn’t stand it; that would be too much fun.” Hurd cuffed him and put him into the back of the car.

“I don’t know what’s going on here, Holly,” Hurd said, “but it looks like I’m out of a job.”

“Hurd,” Holly said, “as far as I’m concerned, you never left the department; the job is still yours.”

Then a black van with a flashing red light on top drove up, and Harry Crisp got out, wearing full FBI battle regalia-body armor, helmet, the works. “Okay, Holly, I’ll take it from here,” he said.

“The hell you will, Harry,” Holly said. “This is my collar. You can have whatever stragglers you can pick up.”

“This is a federal matter, Holly,” Harry said.

“Tell it to a judge,” Holly replied. “You’re onmy turf, Harry.”

Grant walked up. “Harry, where the hell have you been? Didn’t you get my call?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t know exactly what it meant,” Harry replied.

“You didn’t know what NOW, do it NOW! meant?”

“I think you fellows need to have a little chat,” Holly said, getting into the Range Rover. “Have a nice evening.” She drove away.

Holly and Grant lay on a double chaise beside the swimming pool at The Marquesa, a small but luxurious Key West inn, sipping rum and tonics. Daisy slept in a puddle of shade under a nearby tree.

“This isn’t bad, is it?” Grant asked.

“I’ve been in worse places,” Holly agreed. “You know, this is the first vacation I’ve had since I took the job in Orchid Beach. I was supposed to have a honeymoon, but…”

“Yeah, I know. I’m glad you could take the time now. Harry’s still pissed off at you, you know.”

“Why? I told him he could have Ed Shine as soon as he’s done his time. If Harry had been straight with me about a few things, he’d be a lot happier now.”

“I haven’t mentioned that to him, but you’re right,” Grant said. “You’ve committed the cardinal sin with Harry, you know; you prevented him from taking all the credit.”

“Yeah, and I’m really crushed about that.”

“There are rumors that he may get transferred to a less desirable post.”

“Oh?” Holly asked. “What will I do for entertainment?”

“In the meantime, he’s got another assignment for me. Undercover again.”

Holly sat up on one elbow. “Where?”

“I can’t tell you; it’s a secret.”

Holly poured her icy drink on his chest. “Just for that, I’m not going to tell you where the five million seven hundred and sixty thousand dollars is.”

“What?” Grant asked, flicking ice off his chest and mopping with a towel.

“I took five million seven hundred and sixty thousand dollars from Ed’s stash at Blood Orchid,” Holly said.

“How the hell did you do that?”

“I was watching them unload a van at the admin building, and I filched it when they weren’t looking. I wanted to know what was inside. Then I hid it.”

Grant sat up and looked at her. “The tree,” he said. “The one where you carved theH. You buried it near there.”

“I’m not talking,” Holly said smugly.

“You can’t keep it, you know.”

“I was thinking of giving it to you,” she said playfully. “But not if you’re going to disappear on me.”

“It belongs to the government.”

“Why should it? I stole it, fair and square.”

“No, you stole it from the government.”

“At the time, the government had not even expressed an interest in it, let alone possessed it.”

Grant lay back on the chaise. “This is an interesting situation,” he said. “You stole it from Ed Shine, which means drug dealers. He probably doesn’t even know it.”

“I shouldn’t think so.”

“You’re not a federal employee.”

“No, I’m not.”

“But it’s still grand theft.”

“Who is the complainant?”

“There isn’t one, I suppose,” he admitted.

“It was my intention to give the money to the FBI and have them use it as a basis for a search warrant, but, of course, I was overtaken by events.”

“I should probably arrest you,” Grant said.

“For what?”

“For stealing that money.”

“What money?”

“The money buried under the tree.”

“What tree?”

“The one with your initial on it.”

“I think if you could actually find the spot where we were that night-not that we were ever there-you wouldn’t find my initial on any tree in the woods.”

“You moved the money?”

“What money?”

“I give up,” Grant said, lying down.

“Smart move.”

“Probably not.”

“So, when are you leaving for your new assignment?”

“First of the week.”

“And when will I see you again?”

“I don’t know how long this will take.”

“I’d rather you didn’t go,” she said.

“Holly, it’s what I do.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Yes, it is.”

“I’m telling you, it’s not what you do. Not anymore.”

Grant sat up again. “Do you know something I don’t?”

“I know a lot of things you don’t,” she replied smugly.

“What? Come on, tell me.”

“I know a lot of stuff.”

“I’m going to go get my gun.”

Holly raised her hands in surrender. “Well, let’s see: The rumor about Harry’s reassignment is true, but as I understand it, they haven’t yet found a place awful enough to transfer him to.”

“Who have you been talking to?”

“A gentleman named William Barron, who, I believe, is a deputy director of the FBI.”

“Barron? How the hell do you know him?”