Blood Orchid (Holly Barker 3)

“All right, I’ll put a couple of men on it.”

“Thanks. My people are on the search for the forty-caliber. I’ll call you if they find something.”

“See you later.”

Holly had lunch at her desk and worked on administrative matters for most of the afternoon. A little after four, Hurd Wallace walked into her office, bearing two plastic-wrapped packages. He held them up for her to see.

“You found the forty-caliber.”

“With the silencer attached. You pegged where it would be. And there’s this,” Hurd said, setting the larger of the two packages on her desk.

“What is it?”

“Open it.”

Holly put on latex gloves, then unwrapped the plastic cover. Inside was a leather rifle case. Handling it carefully, she unzipped the sodden case, revealing a Winchester .22 rifle with a scope attached. In another zippered pocket was an eight-inch-long silencer. “Bingo,” she said. “Dust them, then collect a specimen bullet and a shell casing from both of them. When you’re finished with them, send a patrolman down to the Miami FBI office with them; deliver to Harry Crisp personally. Also, run ownership checks on both weapons. I know the pistol belonged to Carlos Alvarez; it’ll be interesting to see if we can trace an owner for the rifle.”

“Will do,” Hurd said. He took the weapons away.

Holly called Harry Crisp.

“Hello?”

“Harry, I’ve had a fruitful day. What about you?”

“Did you find the pistol?”

“You first.”

“Okay, neither of the Pellegrinos existed six years ago. I’m going to have them picked up and printed.”

“Harry, don’t do that. Have them photographed and see if you can get a match from your records. You have an optical matching system in Washington, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s a better idea. Now what have you got?”

“A forty-caliber Heckler and Koch and silencer and a twenty-two Winchester rifle with a scope and a silencer.”

“Great.”

“They’ll be messengered down to you tonight.”

“Don’t do that, just overnight them directly to Washington.” He gave her the address and a case number. “I’ll send the bullet and shell casings we have, and they’ll have everything tomorrow morning. We should have the report by the close of business tomorrow.”

“That’s good.”

“Question: who was the connection between Carlos Alvarez and Pio Pellegrino?”

“Oh, I forgot to give you that. I think it was a guy named Trini Rodriguez; you should run a check on him, too. He was seen in the restaurant on one occasion, and he was one of a group of guys, including Carlos, who met weekly at the firing range.”

“You think the range is dirty?”

“No, the owner is ex-army, and he was very helpful. He’s straight.”

“Okay, if you say so. My check on Carlos turned up a clean sheet, too,” Holly said.

“Yeah, he was straight, until he got involved in this.”

“What turned him, money?”