Orchid Blues

"All he does is peel off a strip of plastic, exposing a sticky tape and glue it to the ceiling."

"You're missing my point," Holly said. "Ham has to do it; he has to go into that room, unseen by anybody, get on a ladder, or something, and stick it to the ceiling without getting himself shot."

"Well, there is that," Eddie admitted.

"Ham, have you ever been alone in that room?" Harry asked.

"No, there have always been at least half a dozen people there."

"How long do you think it might take you to get in there by yourself?"

"I don't know," Ham said, "I can only try."

"There's more," Eddie said. "Ham, you wear your old army fatigues a lot, don't you?"

"I do when I go out there," Ham said.

Eddie held up a button. "They have buttons like these, don't they?"

"Yes."

"You sew this onto your fatigues, top front button, or on a pocket. There's a tiny microphone inside that transmits a very short-range signal."

"What good is a very short-range signal going to do us?" Ham asked.

Eddie took a pair of well-worn combat boots from his box. "It has to broadcast only as far as your feet. These will fit you," he said. "We got your shoe size from your military record." He took a tiny screwdriver from his pocket. "This is the kind of tool you use to replace a screw in your eyeglasses. You also use it to switch on a tape recorder in the right heel of the boots." He demonstrated. "Insert it a quarter of an inch, make sure it mates with the screw head inside and give it a short turn clockwise. You're up andon two memory sticks imbedded in the heel." ru

"What if he's swept while it's ru

"Then they'll pick it up and zero in on the button." He turned to Ham. "Don't let that happen," he said.

"Gee, I'll try not to," Ham replied.

39

Holly, Daisy, and Ham walked back up the beach toward her house. "I'm worried about this," she said.

"What, you don't think your old man can handle it?"

"That's not what I'm worried about. Harry is acting fu

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that, based on the information you've given him, he ought to be ordering a full-scale investigation and on the horn to Washington, networking with the other agencies involved, which-so far- includes the Secret Service, the IRS, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and God knows what else."

"You don't trust Harry?"

"Of course, I trust him, on a personal level, but he's playing some sort of political game, and I think that's dangerous."

"Well, I'm going to have to leave the politics to you and Harry," Ham said. "What I'm going to do is go home and sew this button on my fatigue shirt, then, tomorrow, I'm going to go back out there and try to plant this smoke detector thing."

"I know you are, Ham. You wouldn't do it any other way."

"Straight ahead is the only way I know."

They stopped outside her house. "You want to come in for coffee?" she asked.

"Nah, I'd better get home, I guess."

She kissed him on the cheek. "You watch your ass, you hear?"

"Don't I always?" he replied. Then, with a wave, he walked toward his car.

When Holly entered the house, the phone was ringing and she picked it up. "Hello?"

"Holly? It's Stone Barrington, how are you?"

"Oh, Stone, I don't know."

"You sound tired."

"I'm depressed and exhausted."

"Trouble with your case?"

"Oh, we're making progress by leaps and bounds on that," she said. "I'm just worried about it."

"What's the problem? I'll help if I can."

"When you were a cop, did you ever have any dealings with the FBI?"

"From time to time."

"What did you think about them?"

"New York City cops don't trust the FBI; maybe cops everywhere don't. I was naive the first time I had to deal with them, but I learned."

"Learned what?"

"That Mr. Hoover's boys want all the meat for themselves and their agency, and if you deal with them, you end up with the bones and gristle."

"I was afraid you were going to say something like that," she replied.

"You think the Feds are trying to screw you?"

"I don't think my friend Harry would do that, but I think he's trying to screw every other government agency."

"They'll do that, too."

"What should I do about it?"

"Do you have anything solid that would justify bringing other agencies into it?"

"Sort of, but nothing hard."

"Then you're going to have to ride the pony you rode in on," Stone said. "If you try to bring other agencies into it, your sweet Harry is going to cut you off at the knees, believe me."

"I don't think he'd hurt me," she said.

"Oh, he won't hurt you, he'll just box you in, well away from your case, until he's milked all the credit he can out of it. It's not just Harry, believe me; it's the way the Bureau works. They'll put themselves up front every time."

"I worked with them once before, and it came out all right," she said.

"Yeah, I read all about that. You brought them into it, didn't you?"

"Yes, and we worked on it side by side."

"But no other federal law enforcement?"

"No."

"Then they didn't have anything to worry about. If you'd gotten in their way, they'd have patted you on the head and sent you home, while the big boys in the Bureau did the heavy lifting."

"You're a cynic, you know that?"

"Me? I'm Su

"Stone, don't get me wrong, I'm not worried about getting credit My father is up to his neck in this, and I'm afraid that they're not putting enough resources into this case to protect him if he gets into trouble. I don't want to go into detail, because it's all confidential."

"I understand. Well, it sounds like you're going to have to give them some more rope, and hope they don't hang themselves and your father. If it's an important case to more than one agency, then a time will come when your Harry will have to call them in, whether he likes it or not. I think what he's doing is maneuvering to be in a position to keep the case from being taken away from him by some other bunch of Feds."

"I think you're right," she said.

"Is he a smart guy, this Harry?"

"Yes, very."

"Then you're going to have to trust him for a while longer. If he screws up, then you can always threaten to go elsewhere, or over his head."

"I guess you're right," she said.

"Are you all right otherwise?"

"Oh, I haven't had time to worry about myself; I've been too busy worrying about Ham."

"Who?"

"My father."

"Have you thought about taking some time off the job? Might do you good."

"No, it wouldn't. I'd just worry, and I'm better off occupying myself to the hilt right now."

"You're the best judge of that," he said. "Take care of yourself, and call me if I can do anything to help, or if you just need to talk."

"Thanks, Stone, you take care, too." She hung up and went upstairs, pulling clothes off along the way. She missed Jackson terribly at this moment. She wanted to crawl into bed and rest her head on his shoulder, while he stroked her hair.

Instead, she crawled into bed and waited for Daisy to settle in next to her. Daisy wasn't Jackson, but she was the best friend Holly had.