Orchid Blues (Holly Barker 2)

"I'm so sorry," she said.

"Thank you."

"Ham, can we get you a drink?" Rawlings asked.

He noticed that the other men had drinks, but not the women. "Sure, Peck. Bourbon on the rocks, if you've got it. Anything else, if you haven't."

Rawlings nodded to his wife; she went to the kitchen and returned with the drink. When she opened the door, the smell of good cooking filled the room.

Ham accepted the drink. "Better times than these," he said, raising his glass.

"Hear, hear," Rawlings said.

"Are you right on the lake?" Ham asked. "I couldn't see from the front of the house."

"Yep, it's right out back."

"Pretty spot," Ham said. "Pretty little town, too. Looks like you've got just about everything you need out here."

"We go to town to the supermarket and the drugstore, but that's about it for outside shopping, except once in a while we go over to the outlet mall in Vero Beach and load up on stuff."

"I do some shopping out there myself," Ham said. "Everything's cheap."

Rawlings nodded, then there was an awkward silence, which Ham decided not to fill.

He sat back and waited for someone to say something.

"I hear you're ex-army," Harston said, finally.

"That's right," Ham said. "I retired a couple of years ago."

"How'd you happen to choose Orchid Beach?"

"I had an old service buddy who had already retired there, and he talked me into it."

"That the same one who died and left you the house?" Peck asked.

"That's right."

"Lucky break," Harston said.

"If you don't mind losing a friend," Ham said. "I'd rather have had the friend."

"Death comes to us all," Jim said.

There was a murmur of agreement.

"And taxes," Ham echoed.

Nobody said anything.

"What church do you go to over at Orchid?" James asked.

"I don't go," Ham said. "My wife was a Baptist, and I used to go sometimes with her. Me and my Maker seem to get along all right without any meetings on Sunday mornings."

Everyone got quiet again. Ham waited them out.

"You do much shooting?"