Driving home, Ham said, “I saw at least three more armed men around that place, and I don’t buy Barney’s explanation. What’s the point?”
“I don’t know,” Holly said, “but when I get time I’m going to look into it.”
“Something I didn’t tell you about Barney Noble,” Ham said.
“What’s that?”
“Lieutenants didn’t live long in Barney’s platoon. He lost three while I was in the company, and there were rumors that they’d been fragged. Barney never denied it.”
Holly knew that fragged meant killed by their own men.
“Barney didn’t like taking orders from shavetails just out of OCS,” Ham said. “None of them was a West Pointer; something would have been done about that.”
“Nothing was ever done, then?”
“Barney w
as transferred to headquarters and given a desk job halfway through his tour. When he was up for promotion to master sergeant, he was passed over.”
“Weren’t there any witnesses to all this?”
“If there were, they kept their mouths shut. None of them was going to cross Barney.”
“I can see why.”
“Did you notice, when we said good-bye, he didn’t ask us to play again?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Why do you think he asked us in the first place? He could have made an excuse when you called him.”
“I think he wanted us to see what a nice, quiet, unthreatening place Palmetto Gardens is.”
“He didn’t like it much when you brought up the people who were packing.”
“No, he didn’t, did he?” Holly grinned.
“You be careful with him, honey,” Ham said.
“I will.”
CHAPTER
31
O n Sunday afternoon Holly, Jackson and Ham took Chet Marley’s whaler out into the river. Ham unscrewed the top on the urn that contained Chet’s remains and, as Holly drove slowly south from the dock, scattered the ashes on the river. Nobody said anything for a while, and Ham sat with his face in his hands for a couple of minutes. Finally he looked up.
“Well, that’s done,” Ham said, taking the wheel from Holly. “Let’s do some sightseeing.” He put the throttle forward and they sped down the river, making almost no wake, past sailboats and motor yachts—every kind of pleasure craft.
Holly looked up and was alarmed to see a business jet descending at a sharp angle, flying unbelievably low. It disappeared behind a stand of tall pines, and she tensed, waiting for the explosion and fireball. She had seen a jet fighter crash once, and she didn’t want to repeat the experience. To her surprise, nothing happened.
“That was pretty scary,” Ham said, reducing speed.
“It’s the Palmetto Gardens airfield,” Holly said. “I had forgotten about it. I was waiting for the crash.”
“Me, too,” Ham said. “That was a pretty good-sized jet.”
“They can apparently take anything short of a 747.”