Orchid Blues (Holly Barker 2)

"What?"

"It was when the brandy was poured, kind of a toast."

"What was the toast?"

"They all said, 'On the day.'"

28

Holly was on the way to work when her cell phone rang. "Holly Barker," she said into the instrument.

"It's Hurd," he said. "Franklin Morris's car has been found."

"Where?"

"At the Pirate's Cove Marina, in Sebastian."

Sebastian was the next town north of Orchid Beach, on the Indian River. "He didn't go far, did he?"

"Nope."

"Grab the tech and meet me there."

"You know the place?"

"I know it. It's near that seafood restaurant, Captain Hiram's, isn't it?"

"That's the place."

"I'll be there in twenty minutes," she said, then punched off.

The Pirate's Cove Marina had fallen on hard times and had been closed for the better part of a year, not having found a buyer who would rescue it from bankruptcy. Holly remembered it from when she had first arrived in town, and, she thought, it had gone downhill fast. There was a chain at the entrance, with a sign saying, Strictly No Admittance. Trespassers Will Be Shot. The chain was lying in the dirt road.

Holly parked and got out of the car. A small group of people were standing down at the water, next to a boat ramp. A Sebastian police car was there, too, and a wrecker. Holly walked down to the ramp.

"Good morning, Sergeant," she said to the Sebastian cop. "I'm Chief Holly Barker from Orchid Beach."

"How you doin'?" he asked, looking her up and down.

Holly was used to that and ignored it. "I hear you found a car we've been looking for."

"There it comes," the cop said, nodding toward the water. The wrecker's cable stretched down the ramp and into the water, and the machinery was making terrible groaning sounds. A foot at a time, the Chrysler convertible backed up the ramp, leaking water. "That's too nice a car for somebody to do it that way," the cop said.

A man wearing a wet suit walked over, a set of fins in his hand. "That ain't all that's down there, Sergeant," he said. "There's a van and a trailer, too." He pointed. "Right about yonder."

"Well, that's the damndest thing I ever heard of," the cop said.

"We've been looking for all three," Holly said. She looked down at the rear end of the convertible. "Sergeant, would you do me a favor?"

"If I can," the sergeant replied.

"Will you run the plate on that convertible for me?"

"Sure," the cop said and went to his patrol car.

Holly watched the car continue its progress up the ramp. Finally, it was high and dry enough for the wrecker to tow it to one side. The man in the wet suit unhooked the cable from the convertible's rear bumper and began pulling the hook toward the ramp. "One down, two to go," he said, half to himself. A moment later, he pulled down his mask, put on his flippers and walked down the ramp until he disappeared underwater.

Hurd pulled up in his unmarked car, with the tech beside him in the front seat. He got out and walked over to where Holly stood, glancing at the convertible. "It got wet, huh?"