Orchid Blues (Holly Barker 2)

"Will do," Doug said.

"Ham can't tell us where this is happening," Harry said, "because he doesn't know, but we do know he's supposed to shoot at two or three men in a limo, and on Monday. It's a start."

51

Ham excused himself right after dinner, claiming to be tired, and walked back to the bunkhouse. The place was empty when he arrived, so he walked out to the lakeshore. It was a cloudy night, so there was no moon, and the water looked very dark. He needed to be able to see, if he was going to find that phone. He would have to wait until morning and take a chance on looking for it in broad daylight.

The others arrived at the bunkhouse an hour later, and Ham was already in bed. He pretended that they woke him up, then he grabbed a blanket and a pillow. "I'm sleeping outside," Ham said. "You guys are going to be snoring away in a few minutes." He walked out of the house, this time dragging a bunk mattress, and stretched out beside the lake.

Half an hour later, it was quiet in the bunkhouse, and Ham was tempted to go after the phone, but he only wanted to do this once. He knew his warning to Jimmy about cottonmouths and gators might be more real than imaginary. He settled in for the night.

Holly went to bed early, with a movie on the TV at the end of the bed, but it bored her, and she was soon sleepy. She switched off the TV and lay in bed, thinking of Jackson and waiting for sleep to come.

Ham woke in the green-gray light of the predawn, and soon he could see that the sky had cleared during the night. The others would be waking soon, so if he was going to do it, now was the time.

First, he walked quietly back to the bunkhouse and looked in through a window. The four men were all still fast asleep. Then he walked to the corner of the barracks, looked for the stone he had left at the lakeside as a marker, and walked toward it. When he got to the stone, he stripped off his shorts and waded gingerly into the lake. The bottom was soft, and he stirred up a lot of mud.

"Shit," he said softly to himself, "that's going to make it harder." Then the bottom fell away in front of him, and he was shoulder deep in the water. He looked back at his reference line, then took a deep breath and went under, hoping that the lake didn't get much deeper.

The water was reasonably clear, and he swam along the gently sloping bottom for a few yards, sweeping his hands along the bottom, feeling for Holly's package. He began to run out of air, so he surfaced and looked back at the barracks. He was off his line a bit and farther from shore than he intended to be. He reckoned that the package was ten yards from shore, and he had swum fifteen or twenty.

He got back on his reference line and swam a little closer to shore, then he dove again, feeling his way along the bottom. There was not as much light as he had hoped, since the sun wasn't really up yet.

The water became shallow again, and he popped up, looking back at the barracks to be sure no one was watching him. He was, maybe, five yards offshore.

He checked his reference line again, adjusted his position, dove and started back toward deeper water. He had only swum three or fou

r strokes when his hand brushed against something soft. He stopped and looked, but he had stirred up the bottom, and he could see nothing. He returned to the surface, got another breath and dove again, keeping as much as possible in the same spot.

He still couldn't see well, but this time he came into contact with a plastic bag. He came back to the surface again, and as he did, he saw Jimmy standing on shore, looking out at him.

With his free hand, he waved. "Come on in," he said. "It's a little chilly, but not bad."

"What about all those snakes and alligators you told me about?" Jimmy called back.

"I figure I can see them in daylight," Ham replied. He was clutching the plastic bag, dying to look at it, but having to keep it underwater. He turned on his back and floated a little, hoping Jimmy would go away.

"You okay out there?" Jimmy called.

"Just fine," Ham called back, not looking at him. A moment later, he heard the screen door slam.

He swam around for a while longer, then started back toward shore. He couldn't leave the water carrying the bag, so as he found the bottom, he began looking for a place to leave the plastic bag. He saw a clump of tall grass and headed for that, surreptitiously stuffing the bag into the grass as he passed it, then he got out and walked up to the barracks and stuck his head inside the door. "Somebody toss me a towel?" he called.

Somebody did, and he dried himself, then went back for his bedding. By the time he was back inside the bunkhouse, the four were already dressing.

"Better hurry, Ham," somebody said. "Breakfast will be ready in a minute."

"You guys go ahead," Ham said. "I'm going to grab a quick shower and get some of this lake mud off me." He went into the heads, shaved slowly, then took a shower. When he got out, they were gone. He dressed quickly, then went outside and made sure he wasn't being observed. Then he trotted over to the clump of grass and retrieved the plastic bag. He walked back to the bunkhouse, skimming a couple of rocks over the lake to appear innocent, then he went back inside.

He sat down on his bunk and unzipped the bag. The contents-a tiny phone in a belt clip, an earphone on a thin cord, three batteries and a note-were dry. He stuffed the plastic bag into a pocket and read the note.

Ham,

The phone works like any other cell phone, except when you want to scramble, you press the function key, then one, two, three, send. When you want to unscramble, you do the same thing again. The phone is set on scramble now. It's also set to vibrate, instead of ring, so if you want to leave it on, you can. Just keep it next to your body, so you can feel it vibrate. Call us whenever you can. Here are the numbers.

Love, Holly

P.S. Now eat this note.