Orchid Beach (Holly Barker 1)

“All right.”

“Do you know where the community college gymnasium is?”

“Yes.”

“Meet me there at sundown, but don’t try to enter the gym or even the parking lot; just wait for me on the road. I’ll fill you in then.”

“Are you all right, Holly?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, I’ll get out to Jungle Trail right now.”

“And, for God’s sake, don’t let anybody, and I mean anybody, know where you’re going. And when you get out here, watch out for Mosely’s people. There may be more of them around.”

“I’m on my way.”

Holly drove toward Riverside Park and her trailer. She had to get cleaned up. She didn’t want anybody to know what had happened to her. She thought about Rita Morales and realized how lucky she had been.

“Daisy,” she said, rubbing the dog’s head, “you are a wonderful human being.”

CHAPTER

56

H olly got changed and fed Daisy. She still had a couple of hours before dark. She drove north on A1A and turned into Jungle Trail. Maybe Hurd was still there. She drove rapidly along, then came around a corner and saw a police car and an ambulance. The body was being loaded, and Hurd had a garbage bag in his hand. Holly parked off the road to allow the ambulance to pass, then got out of the car and approached Hurd.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Hurd asked.

“I’m fine, thanks.”

“What happened here, Holly? I found your underwear. Were you raped?”

“Almost,” she said, then she gave him a terse account of what had happened while, at her insistence, he took notes.

She went to the car, got Mosely’s gun and handed it to Hurd. “This is what I shot him with.”

Hurd took the gun, released the clip and looked at the ammunition. “Hollowpoints,” he said. “That accounts for the condition of the body.”

“Did anybody show up here from Palmetto Gardens?” she asked.

“I was here for about fifteen minutes alone before the ambulance came,” he replied. “A Range Rover drove up to the gate from the inside, sat there for a minute, then left. Nobody got out.”

“Did they see your car?”

“I don’t think so,” Hurd said. “It was parked where it is now, out of the way.” He pointed. “And the brush would have made Mosely’s body hard to see.”

“I wonder what Mosely was doing out here,” Holly said. “He certainly wasn’t looking for me, because nobody knew I would be here. I didn’t know myself until I arrived.”

“He was wearing sweatclothes and sneakers,” Hurd replied. “Maybe he was jogging along the outside o

f the fence.”

Holly realized that she had not even thought about what kind of clothes he was wearing. “Maybe so. But who would wear a gun while jogging?”

“Somebody who hoped to shoot something,” Hurd said. “There are deer and other wildife out here. Maybe Mosely just liked to kill things.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that,” she said. “Tell me, did you let anyone know you were coming out here?”