Orchid Blues (Holly Barker 2)

"Yep," Holly said, "and the van and the trailer are still out there." She turned to the tech. "See what you can find in the convertible," she said. "Sergeant, you mind if my tech goes over the car?"

"Well, if you'll share information, that'll be all right. Save our man a trip down here."

The horse trailer was backing up the ramp now, spilling water from between its slats. "Fully loaded with furniture," Holly said. "Now, I wonder where Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Morris could be?"

"Afoot, I reckon," Hurd said.

The sergeant came back from his patrol car. "The plate on the convertible belongs to a Buick in Fort Lauderdale," he said. "Reported stolen eight months ago-the plate, not the car."

"Thanks, Sergeant." She turned to Hurd. "Morris took a pretty big chance driving around with that plate on his car. If he'd been stopped for speeding or a broken taillight, he'd have been in trouble. Tell our man to get the VIN off the convertible, and let's run that. I'm sure the convertible must have been stolen, too."

The diver was going back into the water with the hook again.

"I don't get it," Hurd said. "If they were going to ditch the vehicles, why didn't they just walk away from the house and leave everything there. Why go to the trouble to pack everything up, then dump it all in the river?"

"Doesn't make any sense, does it," Holly said, half to herself. She was starting to get a bad feeling about this.

The van started up the ramp now, water pouring from an open driver's-side door.

"Come on, Hurd," she said, then started down the ramp. She approached the vehicle, taking care not to touch it. "Raymond!" she yelled, "get over here."

The tech trotted toward them, carrying his bag.

Holly stuck her head inside the van. The front seat was empty, but a woman's foot, wearing a sock, but shoeless, rested on the back of the passenger-side seat. Holly looked into the rear seat. "Mr. and Mrs. Morris, I presume."

An hour later the tech had finished. "They each took two in the head," he said, "small caliber, probably a twenty-two, maybe a twenty-five caliber. No exit wounds, so the ME will recover the lead. A lot of trauma about the head and shoulders, too-both of them."

"How long have they been in the water?" Holly asked.

"The ME will give us a final answer, but my best guess is, since the night they disappeared. They're pretty soggy but well preserved. The water is cool, down by the bottom, I reckon."

"I guess that tells us that Franklin Morris wasn't working independently," Holly said. "Whoever he was working with must have thought he was too much of a liability after the robbery."

"And who do

you think that would be?" Hurd asked. "The folks out at Lake Winachobee?"

"This doesn't add up at all," Holly said.

29

Holly, in a phone conversation with the Sebastian chief of police, arranged for her department to take possession of the two bodies and three vehicles, then she had the bodies removed to the Orchid Beach medical examiner's offices and the vehicles taken to the police garage, with orders that no one was to touch them until she arrived. Then she went to her own office and called Harry Crisp.

"We've found Franklin Morris and his wife," she said.

"Locally?"

"Next town up. Both cars and the trailer had been rolled down a boat-launching ramp at a defunct marina. Both bodies were in the car."

"Cause of death?"

"My tech says two each in the head, but the ME hasn't done his report yet. You want to send somebody up here?"

Crisp thought for a moment. "How long have the bodies and the vehicles been in the water?"

"My tech says since the couple disappeared."

"Have you been over the vehicles yet?"