Hothouse Orchid (Holly Barker 6)

Everybody shook his head.

Holly thought she knew how the window was broken, but she kept her mouth shut.

An hour later, Holly drove Lauren back to her car at the police station parking lot. She was remembering how she had mentioned the operation to Jack Smithson at the pack-and-ship store.

Lauren,” she said, “did you tell Jack what you were going to be doing tonight?”

“God, no!” Lauren said. “He would have gone nuts! He wouldn’t have let me do it.”

“That’s what I thought,” Holly said. She dropped Lauren at her car but took another close look at her. “Are you sure you’re all right to drive?”

“Holly, I’m just fine. Really I am. When you think about it, this operation turned out better than we could have hoped for. There’ll be no trial for Jimmy, so the families won’t be put through that, and so the whole thing is just over. I’m feeling really good about that.”

“Okay, Lauren, just drive carefully on your way home.”

“Don’t worry about me.”

But Holly followed Lauren at a distance, until she saw her turn into Jack’s driveway.

Back home, Josh was waiting.

“When are we taking off north?” he asked.

“I’m going to stay one more day, just to be available to Hurd if he has any more questions for me. I also want to have dinner tomorrow night with Ham and Ginny; you can join us. I’ll fly home the day after. I’ve been checking the weather every day, and Wednesday should be a perfect flying day.”

“And when do you go back to work?” he asked.

“Monday morning, bright and early.”

“I’ll be at your house Thursday night, I think,” Josh said.

“I’ll just take a cab home from Manassas airport,” Holly said. “I’ve already arranged for hangar space there.”

“You want me to take Daisy with me in the car?” he asked.

“No, she’s flown before with Ginny and me, and she’s fine with it.”

They fell asleep in each other’s arms.

The following morning Holly called Hurd Wallace. “Thanks for your help last night,” he said. “I think it was a good idea having a woman with Lauren.”

“She was perfectly fine after she calmed down,” Holly said. “How is she this morning?”

“She didn’t come in,” Hurd said. “She left a letter in my in-box, and I found it this morning. She’s resigned.”

“I’m surprised,” Holly said. “Did you see that coming?”

“No, but I think it had more to do with her new boyfriend than it did with anything that happened last night,” he said.

“Do you know what her plans are?” Holly asked.

“No, but she said she’d be in touch. We don’t really need her to wrap up the case.”

“Well, I’m off to Virginia tomorrow morning,” Holly said. “It was good seeing you and even better working with you again, Hurd.”

“Thank you, Holly. Same here. You keep in touch, hear?”

“Will do.” Holly hung up. She was surprised at Lauren’s resignation; it didn’t seem like a spur-of-the-moment thing. She wanted to say goodbye, and she wanted one more conversation with Jack Smithson, too, so she got into her car with Daisy and drove over to his beach house.