James Smith - The Flock

"Oh, that's her, for sure. One of a kind, I assume." Ron walked away from his truck without another word and walked toward her. Just behind her was the Seminole she had pointed out to Ron the first time he'd been there. Billy, his name was. Riggs didn't know the man's last name, and again he felt the twinge of guilt he often got for knowing so little about that side of his heritage.

Before he had halved the thirty feet between them, Kate spoke. "You go straight to the cops?" There was a hard look in her eyes. Again, Ron was a bit disturbed at his inability to read her, but that was also part of the fascination he had for her.

"Well…no." He could see surprise flash for a second upon her face. "But that's what we're doing here unannounced." Ron indicated Mary, who was coming up behind him. "This is Mary Niccols. She's the trapper we refer for business."

"I've seen her work in the papers," Kate said, her voice flat and unemotional. "Thanks for grabbing Vance's pack for me."

"S'okay," Mary said.

By then, Ron was next to Kate, could smell her: a scent of soap and a mild perfume, and a bit of sweat. Her pleasant odor excited him. "I need a favor," he said.

"What kind of favor?" She stood her ground, unmoving, watching Mary until she had joined them there at the gate. Behind her, Billy observed them soundlessly, no indication that the two Seminoles knew one another.

"I need to use some computer equipment, and I don't need anyone poking their noses into what I have to do. I figured this was the best place to come." He held his hands out, palms up.

"What kind of hardware?" she asked.

Reaching into his shirt pocket, Ron produced the envelope and quickly tore it open. He showed her the small disk. "I think this is from one of those digital cameras," he said. "Can you download the contents and show me what's on it?"

"Where'd it come from?"

He didn't answer her for a few moments. They were all quiet while he thought about what he was going to say. Finally, he just blurted it out. He never was any good at oblique strategies. "Tim Dodd gave it to me. Yesterday morning. I don't know what's on it, but I would guess it probably has something to do with his death."

"You sure?"

He could tell Kate wanted to take the disk from him. Her shoulders flexed for a brief second, as if she were going to reach for it. "I'm pretty sure. Two classic goons showed up some time after you called and tried to disconnect my head from my shoulders." He jutted a thumb at Mary. "If she hadn't shown up, I would have given the disk to them and no telling what might have happened to me. They might not have believed that I didn't know what was on it. Obviously, they beat it out of Dodd that I had it, or they would never have known to show up at my house."

"Obviously," Kate said. Once again she eyed Mary, giving her a good look. Ron wondered if Mary was jealous. He'd not considered the emotional tension of the two being together. Kate looked hard, unreadable again, and then she softened. "Come on in. Let's see what's on there."

"Thanks, Kate." As soon as she turned and headed for the near building, Ron and Mary fell in behind her. At their rear, Billy remained to close and lock the gate. As the three went through the door and inside, the Indian was still outside, securing the garage from which the ATVs had come. Ron turned and gave him a final look, and saw that Billy was looking directly at Mary, even as busy as his hands were with work. For a second or two their eyes locked. They must know one another, Ron mused. And then he was inside, leaving Billy out there.

"Holcomb coming back soon?" Ron asked. They were heading down the long, wide hallway toward the millionaire's great office. Cool air surrounded them; soft fluorescence lighted the way.

"No. He and the others are going to be out in the bush today."

"Research?"

"Of course," she said. "Wish I could have gone with them. But I had to stay behind." She was walking fast, and Ron could tell she was as anxious as he was to see the contents of that disk. "Lucky for you I was here."

"Lucky for me," Ron said, wanting to touch her hand.

They came to a locked door and Kate pulled a keyring out of her front pocket and soon had the door open. This was not the room Ron had noticed during his first visit, but it was home to an even more impressive array of computer hardware than the other one had been.

"We've got our mainframe in here," she told them. "But we won't need that for your little disk there. If it is digitized photographs, as you say, then all we'll need is this handy-dandy Mac over here. It's my favorite machine for graphics."

"Doesn't mean a thing to me," Mary admitted. "I've pretty much resisted the computer age, myself. My cousin does all of that stuff for me. Does the books, types the bills, handles the correspondence. He even built a website for the business."

"I didn't know you had a website," Ron said.

"Sure. Landed a couple dozen jobs from it last month."

Kate was soon seated before a computer and monitor at one of a dozen similarly equipped desks. The machine was already booted and warm as she tucked her long, shapely legs under it and made herself comfortable. "Give me the disk," she said, her hand waiting for the delivery.

Even though he was in a position of having to trust her, and even though he had no reason to distrust her, Ron felt a tug of reluctance as he transferred the item from his hand to hers. She took it so quickly from him that their flesh never even made contact. In a few seconds she had the disk inserted in a zip drive and was downloading the information it held.

"How long will this take?" Ron asked.

"Depends on what's on here," she said. "But even if it's some complicated graphics it'll only take a minute or so." While the machine whirred and purred, Kate turned in her swivel chair and looked up at Ron. There was an expression of concern on her face. She reached up and gently brushed his chin with the tips of her fingers. "Are you okay?"

Ron rubbed his lips and drew his hand away. "Oh, sure. One of the guys slapped me a couple of times. Once to get my attention after one of them suckered me with the proverbial blunt instrument." He reached back and touched the swollen flesh on the back of his neck. Kate winced as he did so. "And again when I didn't react to his question fast enough."

"But don't let that fool you," Mary said. "He was getting ready to sing."

"The Barber of Seville, if he'd asked me to," Ron admitted.

Kate smiled and chuckled lightly. "You guys are a couple of jokers. Been pals a long time, have you?"

"Entirely too long," Mary said. Which made Kate laugh aloud, and Ron wince.

"Just pals?" Kate added the question; it exploded like a landmine underfoot.

Before Mary could react, Ron said, "Just pals." Mary said nothing, but Ron could see the muscles of her jaws tensing.

"Well," Kate said. The computer had ceased to purr and hum, and had beeped at them briefly, getting their attention even over their shared unease. "Looks like the files are all downloaded." Her hands played over the keyboard, and soon she was pointing the mouse hither, thither, and yon.

"What is it?" Mary asked.

"Well, it's just as Ron thought. Photographs. These are the contents of a digital camera. Good one. Fast, with lots of memory."

"Much there?"

"Sixteen files, Ron." She was poking the little arrow and clicking.

"Can we see them? I want to see what got Dodd killed," Ron said.

"So do I. So," she pointed and clicked again. "Let's see what we shall see."

The screen then began to slowly fill with an image, line by line. The photo grew smoothly, in grainy colors, as the file uploaded to the video terminal. Soon, they were seeing the green in the center of Salutations, what appeared to be a turtle crossing the sidewalk and moving toward the classically constructed bandstand. "What the hell," Mary uttered. "A tortoise?"