Blood Orchid (Holly Barker 3)

“So-so. How about yours?”

“You remember the guy who broke into my house?”

“Yep.”

“He turned up in the Indian River yesterday, with a bullet through his head.”

“Did you do it? I mean, I know you were pretty pissed off about the intruder, but . . .”

“I might have, if I’d had the chance.”

“How do you know it was the guy? Wasn’t he masked?”

“Yeah, but I fetched him a pretty good kick in the knee, and the floater had a badly bruised knee. He fit the general description, too.”

“You run his prints?”

“The FBI computer was running very slowly yesterday; we should know something this morning, if your people can get their act together.”

“Did you get anything else from the corpse? I mean, our people usually do.”

“Oh, we struggle along, in our own small-town way. He’s Cuban—we know that from his dental work—and he had a girlfriend. I found a locket with a picture of a girl.”

“That’s sweet.”

“I thought so.”

“You want me to delve into this?”

“I think I can handle i

t, thanks. Don’t you have better things to do?”

“Sometimes it is the duty of an undercover agent to simply sit and wait. I’m looking at some property, though.”

“Where, and what for?”

“At a new development called Blood Orchid, and because it’s the kind of thing the character I’m playing would do.”

“That’s Ed Shine’s place.”

“Who?”

“Didn’t Harry Crisp tell you about Ed?”

“Nope.”

“You remember the case of the two property developers in Miami who were recently shot dead on the same day?”

“I saw something in the papers.”

“Apparently, they were both bidding on the Palmetto Gardens property.”

“Where’s that?”

“It’s now called Blood Orchid. Ed Shine, who ended up buying it, had a shot taken at him around the same time. I happened to be there when it happened.”

“So you solved the case instantly?”