Orchid Blues (Holly Barker 2)

"Finished this morning; I'm just picking up a cashier's check, so we can close on the airplane."

The line moved forward, and the man became engaged with the teller.

Something made Jackson look toward the door. Four men were standing there, wearing blue jumpsuits, yellow hard hats, masks and goggles. Each of them was holding a shotgun at port arms. One of the men racked his shotgun, and everybody turned and looked at him.

"Everybody be real calm," the man said from behind his mask, "and we'll be out of your way in just a minute." He turned to the men beside him. "Get started," he said. The three men walked rapidly toward an area of desks, where the bank's officers worked. Immediately behind the desk was a large vault, open.

Jackson noticed the blond man standing beside him. "Looks like we're witnesses to a bank robbery," Jackson said softly, without moving his lips.

"Just do as they say," the man said.

"You bet," Jackson said. He looked to his left to see the men in jumpsuits returning from the vault. Two of them stood guard as the third pushed a hand truck laden with canvas bags. They were going to pass within three feet of him. Jackson concentrated on trying to remember what the men looked like. He could hardly tell Holly he had witnessed a bank robbery and not noticed what they looked like. They ranged from about five-seven to six-feet-four and were identically dressed. What with the masks and the goggles, he could tell nothing about them but their height and weight. The tallest one had some gray hair visible at the nape of his neck. Holly was going to be pissed when he told her about this, and that wouldn't be until they were on the airplane. He wasn't going to have his wedding day ruined by a bank robbery.

As the men approached, one of them backed into Jackson, then whirled around to point the shotgun at him. "Watch it, you stupid sonofabitch!" the man said.

"You watch it," Jackson said, fairly pleasantly. "You bumped into me."

The man made a sort of snarling noise and swung the butt of the shotgun at Jackson 's head.

Jackson saw it coming and leaned backward. The shotgun butt brushed against his chin as it passed, and the man, having missed his mark, lost his balance and fell against Jackson.

Jackson pushed him away, hard. "Get off me!" he said.

The man recovered his balance and brought the shotgun to bear on Jackson.

Jackson heard two things, nearly simultaneously. The blond man to his right yelled, "No!" and the shotgun must have gone off, because his head filled with the noise and something huge and heavy seemed to strike him in the chest.

As he flew backward he saw only a stretch of ceiling. He didn't feel it when he hit the floor.

5

Holly parked her car at the courthouse, checked herself in the mirror one last time and walked across the parking lot. Daisy trotted by her side, carrying the bouquet.

Helen, her secretary, and Hurd Wallace, her deputy chief, were waiting by the side entrance for her.

"Everybody's here," Helen said. "Except the groom, of course."

"Oh, he'll be along, eventually," Holly said. "He had a closing this morning, and he had to go to the travel agent's and the bank." They walked through the courthouse doors and started down the hallway. "He still won't tell me where we're going on our honeymoon."

"Gosh," Helen said, "everybody else knows."

"Even Hurd?"

"Yep," Hurd replied, with a straight face. Hurd spoke only when necessary, and with an economy of words. Holly had never seen him laugh, or even smile.

"It's outrageous," Holly said. "Everybody knows but me. If I have the wrong clothes, I'm going to murder Jackson as soon as we get there."

"I'd hate to have to extradite you," Hurd said.

"Aha! It's out of the country!"

"That's why you needed a passport," Helen said. "It's not as though we're giving anything away."

They reached the courtroom and walked through the big double doors. Virtually the whole of the Orchid Beach Police Department was present, most in uniform.

"My God," Holly said, "I hope the criminals are taking the day off, too."

Everybody laughed, a little too heartily.