Hothouse Orchid (Holly Barker 6)

“It’s a twenty-two-foot sloop. I bought it cheap and did a lot of work on it. My girlfriend and I take it out on weekends. I got Bruno’s berth for him; he bought a power boat, a fisherman.”

“Jimmy, you know the Boston Whaler that the marina uses as a work boat?”

“Yeah, it’s always around.”

“Have you ever noticed whether the keys are left in it?”

“No, I never took that much interest; it’s just like a hundred other Whalers up and down the river. Lauren’s talking to the night manager about it.”

“Well, at least you don’t have to duplicate your efforts,” Holly said. “And they’ll keep you posted on what they know, just as you should keep them posted.”

“Holly, can I ask you something personal?”

“How personal?”

“It’s about when Bruno tried to… you know.”

“Tried to rape me? What do you want to know?”

“How’d you stop him?”

“I broke his nose,” Holly said.

“How?”

“With a straight left. He wasn’t expecting it. I’ll give you a tip, Jimmy, if you don’t already know it: men, even bullies like Bruno-maybe especially bullies like Bruno-don’t like the sight of their own blood, especially when it’s covering the whole front of a starched and pressed colonel’s uniform.”

“What did Bruno do after you hit him?”

“He backed off; in fact, he backed right out of the building. Bruno is not stupid,” Holly said. “He got into his car, went down a stretch of country road and smashed it into a tree pretty good. Then he took off his seat belt, called nine-one-one, asked for an ambulance and went to the hospital to have his nose set and taped. That way, he had an excuse for looking like somebody who’d lost a street fight when he came back to the base.”

“I guess that was pretty smart. How do you know he did that?”

“Because I saw his car later. At Bruno’s trial, the prosecutor talked me out of testifying about breaking his nose, because he thought the humiliation might make his jury of other officers more sympathetic to him.”

“It wouldn’t make me sympathetic,” Jimmy said.

“Yeah, but imagine if you were a brother officer, inclined to protect another officer, especially a full colonel.”

“Were there any women on the jury?”

“One. She looked miserable when the verdict was read; I expect she was browbeaten into going along.” Holly thought of mentioning Bruno’s attack on Lauren, but she didn’t know if Jimmy knew about that, and it was better for Lauren if he didn’t.

The phone rang, and Holly pressed the gate button. “That will be Hurd,” she said. She walked Jimmy outside.

“Hello Holly, Jimmy,” Hurd said. “Congratulations, Jimmy. I hear you made detective.”

“Yeah,” Jimmy replied. “Thanks, Hurd.”

Holly got the bag of cigarette butts from her car and handed them to Hurd. “Here you go,” she said.

Hurd accepted the bag. “We found the other body,” he said. “The one with the right hand missing.”

“Where?” Holly asked.

“A quarter of a mile down the road from where the rented Ford was found,” Hurd replied. “A search dog found it for us. We found her handbag, too.”

“Who was she?”