Blood Orchid (Holly Barker 3)

“They dropped dead from bullets,” the man replied. “And on the same day. Less than a week before the bidding closed.”

“And what does that tell you?”

“Well, it’s suspicious, I’ll grant you that, but we’re not going to get those bids now. We’ve advertised this thing, received sealed bids from three parties, and one of them is higher than the reserve, so what can we do but accept it? We’re on a deadline here.”

Singleton stacked the papers and returned them to his subordinate. “All right, issue the acceptance to this BOP outfit.” Singleton watched Willard Smith leave, closing the door behind him, then he called the FBI.

Harry Crisp, the agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami office, answered a buzz from his secretary.

“Yes?”

“A Howard Singleton from the GSA is on the phone.”

“Is this about my request for additional office space?”

“He didn’t say.”

Crisp punched the flashing button. “Mr. Singleton, this is Harry Crisp.”

“Good morning.”

“I hope this is about getting us more office space.”

“That request is being processed, Mr. Crisp, but this is about something else.”

“What’s up?”

“You remember a couple of years back you folks confiscated a piece of property up in Orchid Beach?”

“Yeah, sure; Palmetto Gardens. There was a huge drug-based money-laundering operation being run from there.”

“Right. Well, we got authority a few weeks ago to sell the development.”

“Yeah, that figures. Did you sell it yet?”

“Yes, but there’s something fishy about the bidding.”

“Tell me about it.”

“We got only three bids, all of them low, only one of them acceptable.”

“Listen, Howard, I’m not in the real estate business.”

“That’s not what I’m calling about. We anticipated bids from two large Miami property developers, and they were both murdered less than a week before bidding closed.”

“Murder happens.”

“Sure, but why these two guys?”

“Who were they?”

“Manuel Jimenez and Steven Steinberg. According to the papers, they had no connection, except that my office had talked with both of them several times about a bid on Palmetto Gardens. Then they get killed right before it’s time to submit sealed bids, way too late for anybody else to get involved who hadn’t already prepared a bid. What does that suggest to you?”

“You said you accepted a bid?”

“Yes, from a company called Blood Orchid Properties.”

Crisp made a note of that.