Blood Orchid (Holly Barker 3)

“Right now, the alarm system calls a security company.”

“Yeah, I know them. They don’t have any cars, they’d just call the police.”

“Reset it to call the police station, with a message that the chief’s house has been entered.”

“Good idea; cut out the middleman. You can stop paying the monthly fee, too; I’ll come and check it out periodically.”

“Good.”

Sweat dug into his trousers pocket and came up with a bunch of keys. “Here are your keys; the locks are already in. All the locks are keyed together, and I’ve changed the lock on the security box to one of these, too. I’d keep a key in your pocket, one at the office, and I’d hide one somewhere around the house that isn’t obvious, because if you’re locked out and you can’t get ahold of me, you’re not going to be able to get in without breaking a window and setting off the alarm.”

“Okay.”

“By the way, do you want a silent alarm, or one connected to a horn, the way it is now?”

Holly thought about that. “Can you really have it call the station house?”

“Yes, and for a few bucks more, I can have it give a message as to which part of the house has been breached.”

“Good, I like that. I mean, Daisy is an excellent watchdog, but it’s conceivable that, with the bedroom door closed, she might not hear someone enter downstairs.”

“I’ll go reconnect the bug,” Sweat said.

Holly thought she’d sleep with a gun on the bedside table from now on.

9

Holly went back to her office, wondering what the hell was going on; then she had a thought. She walked around to Hurd Wallace’s office and beckoned him out into the hall.

“Did you talk to Phil Sweat?” he asked.

“Yes, he’s out there working on a new security system for me right now, and he’s discovered a bug on my telephones.”

Hurd’s eyebrows went up. “No kidding?”

“No kidding. Tell me about how the phones went bad yesterday.”

Hurd thought for a moment. “Everything went dead,” he said, “and before we could even call the phone company, one of their guys walked in and said they were having some problems in the area and it would be fixed shortly. It was.”

“Call the phone company—on your cellphone, and not near one of our phones—and find out if they have any record of anybody working around here yesterday and fixing our problem.”

“You think somebody was tapping our phones?”

“I want to find out.”

Hurd nodded, took his cellphone off his belt, and walked out the back door. Holly returned to her office and tried to work on her personnel files, but she was having trouble keeping her mind on them.

Hurd came into her office. “The phone company says they did have problems around here yesterday, and they were fixed by a unit already in the neighborhood.”

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sp; “That’s a relief,” Holly said, “but I’m still going to get Phil Sweat to come over here when he’s done at my place and check out our system. You think he could handle that?”

“Sure. Phil used to work for the state police doing this stuff; he knows his business.”

Late in the afternoon, Phil Sweat arrived and spent two hours inspecting their office phone system. Finally, he came back to where Holly and Hurd were waiting for him.

“I think you’re okay,” he said, “especially since the phone company confirms you had a problem. Think about it: It’s one thing to bug your house and have a recorder hooked up that could be checked now and then. It’s something else to bug a police station with forty or fifty phones installed and keep track of what’s being said on them. I mean, it would be a good-sized job for the National Security Agency, and it’s not the sort of thing that some private investigator is going to be able to handle. That’s usually who’s responsible for bugs like the one on your house—somebody’s wife thinks her husband is screwing his secretary, or something like that. Sometimes it might be one business trying to find out about a competitor. The bug at your house was over-the-counter stuff, made of parts you could buy at any electronics supplier. Bugging a police station would require a whole new level of expertise.”