"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 funny."
"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?"