her work in the papers,” Kate said, her voice flat and unemotional. “Thanks for grabbing Vance’s pack for me.”
“S’okay,” Mary said.
By then, Ron was next to Kate, could smell her: a scent of soap and a mild perfume, and a bit of sweat. Her pleasant odor excited him. “I need a favor,” he said.
“What kind of favor?” She stood her ground, unmoving, watching Mary until she had joined them there at the gate. Behind her, Billy observed them soundlessly, no indication that the two Seminoles knew one another.
“I need to use some computer equipment, and I don’t need anyone poking their noses into what I have to do. I figured this was the best place to come.” He held his hands out, palms up.
“What kind of hardware?” she asked.
Reaching into his shirt pocket, Ron produced the envelope and quickly tore it open. He showed her the small disk. “I think this is from one of those digital cameras,” he said. “Can you download the contents and show me what’s on it?”
“Where’d it come from?”
He didn’t answer her for a few moments. They were all quiet while he thought about what he was going to say. Finally, he just blurted it out. He never was any good at oblique strategies. “Tim Dodd gave it to me. Yesterday morning. I don’t know what’s on it, but I would guess it probably has something to do with his death.”
“You sure?”
He could tell Kate wanted to take the disk from him. Her shoulders flexed for a brief second, as if she were going to reach for it. “I’m pretty sure. Two classic goons showed up some time after you called and tried to disconnect my head from my shoulders.” He jutted a thumb at Mary. “If she hadn’t shown up, I would have given the disk to them and no telling what might have happened to me. They might not have believed that I didn’t know what was on it. Obviously, they beat it out of Dodd that I had it, or they would never have known to show up at my house.”
“Obviously,” Kate said. Once again she eyed Mary, giving her a good look. Ron wondered if Mary was jealous. He’d not considered the emotional tension of the two being together. Kate looked hard, unreadable again, and then she softened. “Come on in. Let’s see what’s on there.”
“Thanks, Kate.” As soon as she turned and headed for the near building, Ron and Mary fell in behind her. At their rear, Billy remained to close and lock the gate. As the three went through the door and inside, the Indian was still outside, securing the garage from which the ATVs had come. Ron turned and gave him a final look, and saw that Billy was looking directly at Mary, even as busy as his hands were with work. For a second or two their eyes locked. They must know one another, Ron mused. And then he was inside, leaving Billy out there.
“Holcomb coming back soon?” Ron asked. They were heading down the long, wide hallway toward the millionaire’s great office. Cool air surrounded them; soft fluorescence lighted the way.
“No. He and the others are going to be out in the bush today.”
“Research?”
“Of course,” she said. “Wish I could have gone with them. But I had to stay behind.” She was walking fast, and Ron could tell she was as anxious as he was to see the contents of that disk. “Lucky for you I was here.”
“Lucky for me,” Ron said, wanting to touch her hand.
They came to a locked door and Kate pulled a keyring out of her front pocket and soon had the door open. This was not the room Ron had noticed during his first visit, but it was home to an even more impressive array of computer hardware than the other one had been.
“We’ve got our mainframe in here,” she told them. “But we won’t need that for your little disk there. If it is digitized photographs, as you say, then all we’ll need is this handy-dandy Mac over here. It’s my favorite machine for graphics.”
“Doesn’t mean a thing to me,” Mary admitted. “I’ve pretty much resisted the computer age, myself. My cousin does all of that stuff for me. Does the books, types the bills, handles the correspondence. He even built a website for the business.”
“I didn’t know you had a website,” Ron said.
“Sure. Landed a couple dozen jobs from it last month.”
Kate was soon seated before a computer and