Orchid Blues (Holly Barker 2) - Page 36

"The TV anchorlady who took a dive off a tall building?"

"That's the one. Stone Barrington and his partner-some Italian name, I can't remember it-"

"Dino Bacchetti."

"Yeah, that's it. They were the lead detectives on the case, and there was some question for a while whether Nijinsky had survived the fall and had been kidnapped, which is what Barrington thought. In the end, he got bounced off the force because he wouldn't go along with the official position on the case. I'm sorry, I'm getting you off track. Tell me about this robbery."

"A small bank was hit in much the same way as this one-very clean and professional-but nobody got killed. They suspected a woman who worked in the bank, but after she was questioned, she disappeared, along with everybody in a little religious community of some sort that was based on a farm near the town."

"How many people we talking about?"

"I don't know, a dozen or two, maybe."

"And they left town?"

"Not just left town, vanished into thin air. Nobody ever heard of them again."

"I don't know about this one, but I can check it out," Harry said. "The Bureau would have been involved; I'll put somebody on it."

"I'd appreciate that."

"Is that it?"

"No, there's more."

"Tell me."

"As a result of what Stone told me, and because it looked as though it might be an inside job-"

"That's our view, too."

"Did you question a woman named Harston?"

"Pregnant lady?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, but my man thought she was clean."

"She's one of only two employees hired in the last year; the other was transferred from another branch and seemed clean to me."

"That would be the loan officer?"

"Yes."

"We thought he was clean, too. What makes you think the Harston woman might not be?"

"She lives in a strange little town called Lake Winachobee, half an hour west of here. It doesn't appear on any map. This morning, Ham and I went out there, on the pretense of looking for some fishing in the lake of the same name, and we stumbled into a huge gun show."

"Gun show?"

"A really big one, set up in a circus tent."

"Well, there are lots of those all over the country."

"Yes, but apparently, this one is by invitation only."

"Invitation by whom?"

Tags: Stuart Woods Holly Barker Mystery
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