“Chief, you know the picture you posted on the bulletin board?”
“Yes.”
“I saw the guy this afternoon.”
“Where?”
Sara got up and went to the large map of Orchid Beach on Holly’s wall. She pointed at a street. “I was driving down this road on patrol, and I turned in right here so that I could turn around. It’s the trade entrance to Palmetto Gardens, where deliveries get made and the construction vehicles go in.”
“I see. And where was this man?”
“He was in the guardhouse there, wearing a uniform. He tried to chat me up.”
“You’re sure it was the same man as in the photograph?”
“Yes, ma’am. There could only be one face like that.”
“Thank you, Sara. Good job. And keep this to yourself, will you?”
“Yes, ma’am.” The young woman got up and left.
Holly went to the bulletin board and took down Cracker Mosely’s photograph, then she had an idea. She went into Jane Grey’s office. “Jane, there’s something I’d like you to do.”
“Just name it, Chief.”
“I’d like you to find out—if you don’t already know—what state agency licenses private security services. Then I’d like you to call them and request a list of all the licensed security guards with Orchid Beach addresses.”
“No problem.”
“One other thing. Ask them if they license these people to carry firearms, and if they don’t, who does? I want a list of everybody who lives at Palmetto Gardens who’s licensed to carry a weapon, and who’s licensed to carry a concealed weapon, if that requires a special license.”
“I’ll get right on it,” Jane said.
Holly was getting ready to leave for the day when Jane came into her office and handed her three sheets of paper. “Here’s everything you asked for,” she said, then left.
Holly spread out the papers and looked at them. “Good God,” she said aloud.
CHAPTER
“To the new chief of police of the Orchid Beach Police Department,” Jackson said.
“Hear, hear,” Ham echoed, grinning.
“Thank you, gentlemen. I suppose this calls for a speech.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Ham said. He squeezed her hand. “I’m sure proud of you, though.”
“Me, too,” Jackson said. “Tell us how the interview went.”
“It was pretty straightforward until the subject came around to you,” Holly said.
“Me?”
“Irma Taggert evidently has a pretty good network of spies around town. She’d nailed you and me as living together, which I denied, and she knew about our landing on the beach on Sunday.”
Jackson whistled. “I’ve underestimated our Irma,” he said. “I’ll try not to do that again.”
“Who’s Irma Taggert?” Ham asked.
“A prune who sits on the city council,” Jackson replied. “How did you handle her, Holly?”
“I pretty much told her it was none of her business, then Charlie Peterson weighed in and shut her up. She put John Westover up to asking about the airplane and bringing up a city ordinance about not landing on beaches. I told him we were outside the city limits and why we landed. He actually apologized for raising the question and gave Irma a look that fried her makeup.”
“Wish I’d been there to see that,” Jackson said.
“Charlie came down and told me I had the job by a three-to-two vote, and that they were making Hurd Wallace deputy chief. That’s okay. I can live with that.”
“So you’re home free, then?”
“I’m not going to be home free while Irma Taggert and John Westover are on the council. Why don’t you run against one of them next election?”
“Now there’s a thought,” Jackson said. “I couldn’t beat John, but I bet I could beat Irma.”
“You’re prettier, too,” Holly said.
“I’m afraid I can’t disagree with you.”
“Listen, I have more news. Cracker Mosely has been spotted in Orchid. Guess where?”
“Under a rock?”
“More or less. He’s a security guard at Palmetto Gardens.”
“I don’t know that I’m all that surprised,” Jackson said. “After all, he worked for Craig and Noble in Miami. He must have come north with Barney.”
“There’s more,” she said, taking the papers from her purse. “Just on a whim, I asked Jane Grey to get me a list of all the state-licensed security guards in Orchid. There are thirty-seven, and nearly half of them work at Palmetto Gardens. I also asked her to get me a list of everybody licensed to carry a weapon in Orchid. There are nearly three hundred people, and
“Jesus,” Jackson said, “they’ve practically got a private army there, haven’t they?” He was looking at the lists. “Uh-oh,” he said.
“What?”
“This list of the security guards at Palmetto Gardens—sixteen of them, counting Barney.”
“What about them?”
He tapped his finger down the list. “I know four of them besides Cracker and Barney. They were all kicked off the Miami police force because of felony convictions, three of them in the same racial beating. All four of them did time.”
“That means their police records have been doctored, like Cracker’s, or they wouldn’t have been licensed by the state.”
“And those are just the ones I know,” Barney said, checking off their names. “God knows how many of them I
“So that’s half Barney’s security force who are convicted felons.”
“And all of them convicted of
“I’d be willing to bet the rest have records, too, records that have been scrubbed.”
“I wouldn’t take that bet,” Jackson said. He handed Holly back the lists. “You should take this to the state attorney general’s office tomorrow. Blow it wide open.”
Holly shook her head. “Not yet. There’s a reason that people like this are carrying guns around that place, and I’m going to find out what it is. I’ll bet it’s bigger than falsifying state records; otherwise, why wouldn’t Barney just hire guys who were clean? Why go to all the trouble and risk of altering records?”
“Let’s look at the menus,” Jackson said. “Here comes our waitress.”
They sat drinking coffee over the remains of their dessert.
