Holly turned to face the doctor. "Nothing you could do?"
"It was a shotgun blast to the chest; massive damage."
Holly sucked in a big breath and put a hand on the door for balance. "I want to see him," she said.
"All right," the doctor replied. He opened the door.
Holly stepped into the room. An examination table was before her, and the body, draped with a sheet.
The doctor walked to the head of the table and took hold of a corner of the sheet, waiting for Holly.
Holly stepped forward, and her toe caught on something. She looked down to see a yellow knit shirt, covered in blood, at her feet. What? she thought. Jackson wasn't wearing a yellow shirt; it's the wrong man! She rushed to the head of the table.
The doctor pulled back the sheet, revealing only the head.
Holly felt as if someone had struck her in the chest. The tanned face was without color, the mouth slightly open, the eyes closed. It was not the wrong man. She reached out to pull the sheet back farther.
The doctor put his hand on hers. "You don't want to do that," he said kindly.
Holly placed her hand on Jackson 's cool cheek and began to sob.
6
Holly got into Hurd's car and slammed the door. Ham got into the back seat. "Take me to the station," she said.
Hurd turned and looked at her, his usually placid visage showing astonishment. "Holly, you ought to go home and rest."
Ham, who was sitting in the rear seat with Daisy, spoke up. "God, you're not thinking of going to work, are you?"
"What else am I supposed to do, Ham? Go home and bounce off the walls? Make keening noises and curse God? Right now, work is all I've got, and there's work to be done."
Hurd recovered himself, started the car and drove off toward the station.
Holly sat mute, collecting her thoughts. She couldn't think about Jackson on a slab in the hospital morgue; plenty of time for that later. She had an investigation to organize, witnesses to question, bank robbers-no, murderers-to catch.
First things first. She fished her cell phone out of her purse and dialed a number she knew by heart.
"FBI," a man's voice said.
"Harry Crisp," she replied.
"Mr. Crisp's office," a secretary said.
"This is Chief Holly Barker of the Orchid Beach Police Department," Holly said. "I need him."
"One moment, Chief."
"Holly, how are you?" Harry said cheerfully.
The year before, she had worked a huge case with him on her home turf, and they had become friends.
"What's up?"
"First of all, I have to report to you that the Southern Trust Bank in Orchid Beach was robbed less than an hour ago. Bank robbery is a federal crime, so consider yourself duly notified."
"All right," Harry said. "I'll get people on it right now. Is there something else, Holly? You sound funny."
"A bystander was killed," she said.