Blood Orchid (Holly Barker 3)

“Morning, Ham.”

“What the hell are you doing here at this hour of the morning?”

“Ham, it’s a little past eleven. What happened to your early rising habit?”

“Well, there are times when I just don’t want to get out of bed.”

Finally, Holly got it. “Oops, my fault; I just wasn’t thinking.”

“You could say that. And what the hell does Hurd Wallace want to bug my house for?”

“He doesn’t want to bug it; he wants it checked for bugs. So do I.”

“And why the hell would anybody bug my house?”

“Calm down, Ham. I don’t know, and I don’t know why they’d want to bug my house, either, but they did.”

That stopped Ham in his tracks. “They did?”

“They did. A fellow named Phil Sweat found the bug, and when I disconnected it and put an officer out back to see if anybody would try to reconnect it, he got hit over the head.”

Ham absorbed this. “Come on in, I’ll make you some coffee.”

“I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

“Oh, what the hell, it’s time you met her anyway.”

Holly followed him into the house. “Met who?”

“Met me,” a woman’s voice said.

Holly turned and found a very good-looking redhead standing in the bedroom doorway, buckling the belt on a pair of jeans that fit her slim body perfectly. Her tight, ribbed sweater was a little short, revealing a small expanse of freckled midriff.

“I’m Ginny,” she said, offering her hand.

“Virginia Heller,” Ham said, “and she is.”

Holly shook her hand. “Glad to meet you, Ginny.”

“Ham’s told me a lot about you.”

Holly laughed. “Then you have me at a disadvantage, because he hasn’t told me a thing about you.”

“Bad Ham,” Ginny said, shooting him a glance.

“I just haven’t gotten around to it,” Ham said, pouring coffee for them all.

“Phil Sweat is going to be here in a few minutes,” Holly said, “just as soon as he finishes at my house.”

“Tell me about this,” Ham said.

Holly led them out onto the back porch, which overlooked the Indian River, and told them about her break-in and the resulting phone tap.

“You sure lead an interesting life,” Ginny said.

“This is more annoying than interesting,” Holly replied.

“I think it’s real interesting,” Ham said, “that somebody thinks he needs to hear what you say on the phone. Who’s your best guess?”