“No, I guess it can’t hurt. I’m really embarrassed about this.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Vito says we didn’t close the deal; we never shook on it.”
“Shook on it? What is this, high school?”
“Apparently. Anyway, the hundred grand seems to overrule any argument I could make.”
Stone glanced at Holly and Vito, though he couldn’t hear them. They were talking earnestly, but Holly wasn’t waving her arms or shouting. “Look at that,” he said.
Dino looked toward the two. “She seems awfully calm,” he said. “I was afraid she’d shoot him.”
“Now she’s smiling.”
“Vito is smiling, too.”
Then, to the mutual astonishment of Stone and Dino, Holly and Vito shook hands.
Holly walked back to where they stood. “Let’s get out of here,” she said.
They walked back to the car, and Stone waited until they were inside before he began talking. “What the hell was that all about?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Dino echoed, “what did you two have to say to each other?”
Holly looked smug. “I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.”
Stone and Dino, who were in the front seat, looked at each other.
“What the fuck?” Dino said.
“Dino, would you do me a great big favor?” Holly asked, digging her cell phone out of her purse and dialing a number.
“Sure, anything.”
“Would you take me by Stone’s house, wait while I throw my stuff into a bag, then drive me to LaGuardia?”
“Why not?” Dino said.
Holly began talking to an airline reservations clerk.
Stone looked at Dino. “Do you have any idea what’s going on?”
Dino shrugged. “I think the lady is sick of you, and she’s going home.”
“Holly,” Stone said, “what’s going on?”
She waved him quiet. “I’m on the phone,” she hissed.
59
THE FOLLOWING EVENING, back in Orchid Beach, Holly left her office at dusk and drove north on A1A, with Daisy in the passenger seat, her nose out the window, sniffing the damp Florida air.
Holly turned left down a side road and, after half a mile, came to the rear gate of the real estate development that had once been called Palmetto Gardens, and later, Blood Orchid, and which was now in federal hands. She stopped and, leaving the motor running and the lights on, got out and went to where the gate was chained and locked. She knew the combination to the lock because she had locked it herself. A moment later, she took off the chain, then drove her car inside. She locked the gate behind her and bore to her left, along a road that ran alongside the golf course.
The course looked good, since the Feds had kept on the grounds crew until they could sell the place. The auction was scheduled for a week hence, and they had been working hard to make the grounds look good.
Holly pulled into a dirt road and drove fifty yards, then stopped the car, switched off the engine, and got out, followed by Daisy. Using her SureFire tactical flashlight, she walked purposely through the woods, switching on the light a second at a time to find her way. Daisy ran ahead, scaring up rabbits and sniffing at everything.