Hothouse Orchid (Holly Barker 6)

“Lauren, let me be even blunter. Are you willing to kill him?”

“As you say, he’s a big guy. I would probably have to kill him to stop him.”

Hurd blushed even more. “Are you willing to fuck him, just to break this case?”

“If I have to. I mean, if I kill him, there’d be no witnesses, and we’d need evidence that he raped me.”

“You mean semen.”

“Yes. Inside me.”

“What would your boyfriend say about this?”

“I have no intention of mentioning it to him.”

“And suppose you did fuck Jimmy. Is there any way to resolve the case without killing him?”

“I think that, if he were excited enough, he might well talk about what he’d done. Especially if he thought I knew and that I was excited about knowing.”

“Lauren,” Hurd said, “one more question, and I want a straight answer. After what you went through with Bruno, why would you want do this?”

Lauren regarded him evenly. “I think I want to do it because of what I went through with Bruno.”

Hurd swiveled his chair around and gazed at the wall for half a minute before turning back to her. “Here’s my decision, Lauren,” Hurd said. “I will not allow you to try this. In fact, I order you not to. Is that perfectly clear?”

“Perfectly,” Lauren replied.

“I want to explain why I’m giving you this order.”

“I understand. You don’t have to explain.”

“Yes, I do, and I have three very valid reasons. One: such an attempt would place you in mortal peril. Two: even if you survived, the chances of your getting a confession from him would be remote. Three: even if you survived and got a confession, it’s likely that either a judge would refuse to allow your evidence on grounds of entrapment, or the defense would characterize it as entrapment and say that Jimmy confessed only because he wanted so badly to fuck you.”

“I see your point,” Lauren said.

“Will you follow my order?”

Lauren hesitated.

“Lauren, unless you tell me that you will follow my order-and mean it-I will fire you out of hand right this minute, and then you will have no legal standing to attempt what you propose.”

Lauren regarded her shoes. “All right, Hurd, I accept your order. Really, I’ll table this plan.”

“It’s not a plan,” Hurd said. “It’s a dangerous fantasy. This is not how we solve homicides.”

“Then,” Lauren said, “we’re probably going to have to accept another murder. Maybe more than one.”

“We can’t control that,” Hurd said.

“Maybe we can,” Lauren replied.

“You have an alternate plan, then?”

“I do.”

51

Holly walked into the Ocean Grill in Vero Beach, stood just inside the door and looked for Lauren Cade.