Orchid Beach (Holly Barker 1)

Hurst now looked worried.

“Bob, this is the one and only chance you’re going to have to help yourself,” Holly said.

Hurst watched as Hurd set a tape recorder on the table.

“Before we turn on the machine, I need to tell you three things. First, the FBI has had a bug in Barney Noble’s car for some time now; second, we know you stole the Smith and Wesson thirty-two from Linda’s house; and third, Cracker Mosely has confessed.” Mosely had confessed only to raping Rita Morales, but Hurst didn’t know that.

“Confessed to what?” Hurst said.

“It’s over, Bob. We’ve got you on tape taking money from Barney Noble to rat out the department.”

Hurst didn’t deny it. “What did Cracker tell you?” he asked.

“You have to tell us everything right now, or face…well, you know what you’ll have to face.”

Hurst began to sweat. “Jesus, I just got married,” he said.

Holly said nothing.

“I talk, I walk,” Hurst said.

Holly still didn’t speak.

“Look, I didn’t kill anybody! I can give you who did, but I have to walk!”

“We may be able to help you,” Holly said.

“I want a guarantee. I was there. I didn’t have a choice. But I didn’t kill anybody.”

“If that’s the truth, and you testify against them, tell us everything, and I mean everything, then I’ll recommend to the prosecutor that you walk.” She turned to Hurd and nodded.

Hurd turned on the recorder.

“I am Chief of Police Holly Barker,” she said into the microphone. “Deputy Chief Hurd Wallace is present.” She gave the date and time. “Detective Robert Hurst is present for interrogation. Detective Hurst, have you been apprised of your Miranda rights?”

“Yes,” Hurst said.

“Do you wish to have an attorney present during this interrogation?”

“No,” Hurst replied.

“Start at the beginning. Tell us everything,” Holly said.

Hurst took a couple of deep breaths. “I first met Barney Noble at Hank Doherty’s house at a poker game last May. Hank, Barney, Chet Marley, Cracker Mosely, and I were present. It was the first time I had met Mosely, too. My car was in the shop, and Chet had given me a ride. When we were through playing, Barney offered me a ride home, and I accepted. We stopped at a hotel bar for a nightcap.

“Talk got around to money. I had lost a couple of hundred bucks, mostly to Barney, and I couldn’t really afford it. Barney gave me back my money and said he might be able to send some off-duty work my way. I had gotten soaked in a divorce and was pretty hard up, what with the alimony, and I said sure, I’d like that. Barney explained to me about Palmetto Gardens and how private the members wanted to keep it, and he said that it was important for him to know if my department ever had any interest in the place. All he wanted, he said, was a little advance warning. He offered me two hundred a week for that, and I agreed, and he drove me home. He gave me two hundred that night.

“A few weeks passed. I met with Barney once a week and told him I hadn’t heard anything, and he’d give me the two hundred. Then, all of a sudden, he tells me he wants me to follow Chet Marley when he’s off duty. I didn’t want to do that, but Barney pressed me and reminded me that I had been signing receipts for the money he’d given me. So I started to follow Chet. Turns out, he was meeting with a guy, some kind of accountant, who was working at Palmetto Gardens. I saw them talking in a bar twice, on successive nights. When my meeting day with Barney came around, he got pretty excited when I told him about it. Next thing I knew, the guy was gone. Barney said he’d been transferred to his security company in Miami. I figured the guy was dead.

“Chet went to see Barney about it, but Barney gave him a line, and, I guess, Chet couldn’t prove anything. I’m still following Chet at nights, and he’s driving around Palmetto Gardens, sizing the place up, and at the next poker game, he starts pumping Barney about the place. Barney didn’t like it. Next day, Barney calls me and says Chet’s meeting with somebody else from Palmetto Gardens. I followed Chet, as usual, but he lost me. This happened two, three nights in a row. I don’t know how he did it, but I just couldn’t stay with him. I reported this back to Barney, and he told me to keep trying, and he’d work it from his end.

“Pretty soon, it becomes clear to me that Barney knows more about the department and the way it’s run than I’m telling him. I ask him how he knows this stuff, but he won’t tell me. I go on for a few months, meeting with Barney every week, telling him stuff I’m finding out, but he already seems to know what I’m telling him. It’s like he’s using me just to check out his other information.

“Then one night I’m meeting with Barney and Mosely at a gas station on A1A, and

Chet Marley drives by. We hop into Barney’s car and follow him. Barney figures if I can’t stay with Chet, then he can. We’re in Barney’s personal car, a Lincoln, instead of the usual Range Rover. So we’re following Chet south on A1A. Then Chet pulls over and when we pass, he flags us down.

“Oh, I forgot to say that Barney had asked me to get him a clean gun. I didn’t know why he wanted it, and I didn’t want to know, but he asked me for a gun. I gave him the thirty-two I had taken from Linda’s place. Barney turns his car around, and we pull over, nose to nose, with Chet’s car. Barney and Mosely get out. I’m ducking down in the backseat, because I don’t want Chet to see me. I hear some arguing, and then there’s a single shot. I stick my head up and I can see Barney and Mosely, but I can’t see Chet. Then I see Barney wipe off the gun with a handkerchief and throw it over the fence into the woods beside the road.