Orchid Beach (37 page)

Harry got back into his car. “Let’s go see the com center,” he said. “Have we heard anything from the gun emplacements?”

“We got a report while you were out of the car,” an agent said. “Everything is secure.”

Harry turned to Jackson. “I guess you can get out of that armor,” he said. “You look pretty silly in it.”

Holly rang the doorbell again. No one came. She turned to the nearest agent, flattened against the side of the house. “I guess we’re going to have to go in,” she said.

“Not until you get back into that gear,” the man said, pointing at the jumpsuit and heap of armor. Holly got back into it and stood away from the door. Two men with a ram tore the jamb off with a single thrust, and the group flooded into the house, flashlights and guns out in front of them.

“Daisy, stay with me,” Holly said, then headed upstairs, followed by two men. She stopped at every corner, gun at the ready, safety off. A moment later she was in the master bedroom. Suddenly the bedside lamp came on.

“Power’s back,” somebody called from downstairs.

The bed had been slept in, but the room was empty. “Search the house,” Holly said.

Two minutes later, an agent entered the bedroom, pushing a beautiful young woman ahead of him. She was wearing a lacy negligee.

“Where’s Barney Noble?” Holly demanded.

“I don’t know,” she said. “He left when the lights went out the second time. He told me to stay here. When I heard you break down the door, I hid in the guest room.”

“He may have gotten out of the house, but he won’t get out of Palmetto Gardens,” an agent pointed out.

Holly picked up her radio. “Marina,” she said. “This is Holly.”

“Marina,” a voice replied.

“Is your location secured?”

“Roger. We were a couple of minutes late, but it’s secured.”

Holly picked up her map and looked. “Jesus, we’re less than a hundred yards from the marina. Barney’s gone.”

“What now?” an agent asked.

“You guys can join the house searches,” she said, “but first, drop me off at the com center. I want to see that.”

On the way, Holly took out her cell phone and called her station.

“Orchid Beach Police Department,” a woman’s voice said.

“It’s Chief Barker. I want a statewide APB on one Barney Noble, white male, late fifties, six-one, two hundred pounds, short, gray hair, armed and dangerous. The charge is murder of a police officer.”

“Got it, Chief.”

“And call the coast guard and ask them to stop anything moving on the river. Check every boat for Noble.”

“I’m on it.”

Holly broke the connection. She had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Barney Noble was gone, and the chances of catching him were growing slimmer by the minute.

Harry Crisp toured the entire com center building, once the lights had come back on, and he finished up at the huge steel door. “Anybody got an opinion on how to deal with that?”

Bill stood next to him and examined the door. “We could blow it, but God knows what it would do to the computer equipment in the building. I think what we need here is a first-rate criminal.”

“Everything here is electronic,” Harry said. “The keypad and the palm reader. Get a couple of our electronics people in here and see if they can jump-start that thing.”

Holly got out of the van at the com center, and it drove away. Teams of agents were conducting a house-to-house search, armed with warrants, and the agents in her group went off to join them. She met Harry Crisp on his way out the door.

“How did it go?” she asked.

“Perfectly. But there’s a steel door in there that we’ve got to deal with before we can find out what’s downstairs. I’ve got two men on it, and I’ll have a report soon.”

“Where’s Ham?”

“He’s around here somewhere. He and his group did brilliantly. I don’t know what we’d have done without him.”

Jackson stepped up. “Did you arrest Barney Noble?”

Holly shook her head. “He got out, probably by way of the marina.”

“Shit,” Jackson said.

A man came out of the com center. “Harry,” he said, “the steel door is open. It was a piece of cake.”

Harry rushed back inside, followed closely by Holly and Jackson. The door was, indeed, open. A stairway led down from it.

“Let me clear the area, first, Harry,” a man called out. Two men with automatic weapons went down the well-lighted stairs. “Okay,” one of them called out, “all clear.”

Harry and his entourage walked down the stairs and emerged into a large room containing only a desk and a huge steel door.

Holly’s mouth dropped open. “Holy shit,” she said under her breath.

“What the hell is that?” Harry asked.

Jackson spoke up. “Looks like a bank vault, Harry.”

“I know that, but what the hell is it doing down here?”

“Looks like these people don’t want you to know what’s behind it,” Jackson said. “Looks like there’s a time lock, too,” he said, pointing, “set for nine
A.M.
Even with the combination, you wouldn’t get it open until then.”

“It’s a Friedrich,” an agent said. “German. I think they’ve got an office in New York. Maybe Miami, too.”

“Call them first thing in the morning and get an expert down here to open it,” Harry said. “Jesus, I hate waiting.”

Ham joined them and slipped an arm around Holly. “Wasn’t this fun?” he said.

CHAPTER
60

H
olly sat in the dining room of the Palmetto Gardens Country Club at seven
A.M.
and finished a large breakfast. Harry had ordered the staff to work as usual, except the dining room was full of federal agents instead of members. The staff had cleaned up the mess from the ruined ceiling. Harry Crisp sat down beside her with a cup of coffee.

“So, who have we got here, Harry?”

Harry grinned. “It’s sort of an international Appalachin,” he said. “They’ve all got good passports, but in fake names, and nobody will say anything, but it looks like we’ve got the number two man in the Cali Cartel and the number one man in the Mexican organization. And that’s just for starters. We’re running prints now, and a courier is bringing mug books from Miami. I’d be willing to bet a year’s pay that we’ve got the biggest bust ever.”

“Except for Barney Noble,” she said.

“I’m sorry my guys were late to the party at the marina,” he said, “but Barney will turn up. He can run, but he can’t hide—not for long.”

“I hope you’re right,” Holly said. “I want him bad.”

Harry waved an arm at the view of the golf course out the window. “How do you like my country club?” he asked. “This is all
mine
, now, this and whatever’s in the vault at the com center. We’ll confiscate it all, nice and legal-like.”

“It looks good on you, Harry.”

“It’s a relief, I tell you,” Harry said. “My career was on the line here.”

“Mine, too,” Holly said. “I’ve just busted into the property of the biggest taxpayers in town. If it came to nothing, my plan was to blame the FBI.”

Harry laughed. “I was going to blame you.”

Holly looked at her watch. “Well, there’s nothing else for me to do here, so I think I’ll go home and grab a shower and a change of clothes and go to work. Keep me posted, will you? I’ll be anxious for news. Is this going to make morning television?”

Harry shook his head. “We’re keeping it locked down until we’ve got some more information. We should be able to delay any kind of statement until the end of the day.”

Holly got up and went to find a ride out of Palmetto Gardens. She found a car and driver and asked to be taken to the station; she wanted to know what was going on there.

She was dropped off in the parking lot and went inside. All was quiet. “Anything going on?” she asked the dispatcher.

“Not a thing,” the young man replied. “We haven’t had a call of any kind all night, except for your APB on Barney Noble.”

“Anything at all on that?”

“Not a peep.”

“Is Jane in yet?”

“No, she’s not due for another hour.”

Holly went back to her office to check her messages and found nothing of consequence. She looked into Jane Grey’s empty office, and that reminded her that she had something unpleasant to do, and she might as well get it over with.

She put Daisy in the chief’s car and, following a map, drove out to Jane’s house. It was an attractive, if modest place, in a good neighborhood. A lawn sprinkler system was at work, and the grass was green. Holly pulled into the driveway behind Jane’s station wagon, which was sitting there with its tailgate open, half filled with boxes and luggage. It looked as though Jane was planning to go somewhere. Holly got out of the car, went to the front door and rang the bell.

Jane came to the door, dressed, but looking frazzled. “Holly,” she said. “What are you doing here at this hour? Is anything wrong?”

“We have to talk, Jane. Can I come in?”

“Why, uh, yes, of course. Come in and sit down.” She showed Holly to a chair. “There’s some coffee on. Can I get you some?”

“No, thanks. Sit down, Jane.”

Jane perched on the edge of a chair facing Holly.

“Are you going somewhere?” Holly asked. “I see you’re loading your car.”

“Oh, ah, just a brief trip. My mother is ill. She lives in Miami. I was going to call you as soon as you got to the station.”

“Your mother is dead, Jane,” Holly said. “I read that in your personnel record, along with some other very interesting information about you.”

Jane looked at her oddly. “What information do you mean?”

“Your original employment application gave your name as Jane Grey Noble, divorced. You were married to Barney Noble, weren’t you?”

Jane flushed. “Yes, I was, for a little more than fifteen years.”

“So when you were divorced, you left Miami and came up here?”

“Yes, I read about the job in a police journal. I had had a clerical job with the Miami department.”

“And that’s when you met Barney?”

“In Miami, yes. He had a security firm.”

“And then Barney turned up here, in Orchid Beach, didn’t he?”

“So I heard.” Jane was increasingly nervous.

“And you began seeing him again.”

“Not really.”

“And when did you start giving him information about the Orchid Beach Police Department?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Jane said, flustered.

“Sure you do, Jane. You kept tabs on Chet Marley for Barney, didn’t you?”

Jane said nothing but looked at her feet.

“It was you who told Barney about Chet’s conversations with the accountant from Palmetto Gardens.”

Jane still said nothing.

“Chet confided in you, didn’t he? He told you everything, and you reported everything to Barney.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Jane said.

“You got Chet Marley killed, that’s all,” Holly said. “You’re an accessory to his murder.”

“I had nothing to do with his murder,” Jane said.

“Sure you did, Jane. What you told Barney convinced him that Chet had to be killed. And after I arrived and went to work, you reported all my actions to Barney, didn’t you? At least, those you knew about.”

Jane shrugged. “All right, Barney and I are…close,” she said.

“Oh, really? Funny, I was at Barney’s house last night. There was a very beautiful young girl there, Jane.”

Jane looked horrified, but her gaze was not at Holly, but over her shoulder. Holly heard a door squeak. Daisy stood up and looked at the door.

“Good morning,” a male voice said.

Holly turned to find Barney Noble standing in the kitchen doorway, a gun in his hand. “Morning, Barney,” she replied.

“Looks like you’ve discovered our little love nest,” he said. “What have you two been talking about?”

“I was just telling Jane about the young woman I found in your house last night.”

“And exactly what were you doing at my house last night, Holly?” Barney asked.

“I was in the company of three hundred federal agents who went into Palmetto Gardens in the middle of the night and shut it down.”

Barney didn’t look very surprised. “I figured something was up when the lights went out and the backup generator failed, too.”

“So you went out through the marina and called Jane.”

“Something like that.”

“And that’s why you and Jane are packing, isn’t it?”

“Could be.”

“The feds are out there right now combing the computer files at the com center. The vault will be open soon, too.”

“Funny, I don’t even know what’s in the vault, or on the computers, either,” Barney said. “I just ran a security force, that’s all. The feds have got nothing on me.”

“It doesn’t really matter,” Holly said. “The feds aren’t all that interested in you, Barney. You’re mine now.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Barney asked.

“Well, let’s start with the state charges,” Holly replied. “There’s falsification of state records, perjured weapons applications, that sort of thing. But most of all there are two counts of murder in the first degree. Bob Hurst spilled everything, Barney, and I’ve got it all on tape.”

“Stand up,” Barney said, raising his gun.

Holly got slowly to her feet. “I hope you don’t think you’re going anywhere, Barney. There’s a local and statewide APB out on you already. You won’t get far.”

“I’ll use your police car,” Noble said, “and I’ll get as far as the Orchid Beach Airport. There’s a plane coming for me. I’ll be out of the country in two hours.”

“Barney, you didn’t say anything about a plane,” Jane said.

“I was just making the arrangements on the kitchen phone, honey,” Barney replied. Noble reached over and pulled Holly’s Beretta from her holster.

“Well, hadn’t we better get going, then?” Jane asked.

“Sure, honey, in just a minute.”

“You don’t get it, do you, Jane?” Holly said. “You’re
not going anywhere; you never were. Barney was leaving here alone.”

“You shut up, damn you!” Jane spat.

Barney flipped off the safety on Holly’s pistol.

Holly knew that before another half a minute had passed, both she and Jane would be dead, and Barney would be on his way. “Think about it, Barney,” she said, and her heart was in her mouth.