Barney Noble grinned. “I run a pretty tight ship,” he said. “Hop in, and I’ll show you around.”
“Just a minute,” she said. Holly walked over to her car and said to Daisy. “Stay, Daisy. Guard the car.” She made sure the car was well ventilated, then she walked back to the Range Rover and got in. The gate ahead of them opened, the steel claws retracted into the pavement and the car moved forward.
“Welcome to Orchid,” Noble said. “I’d heard you’d arrived in town.”
“Yes, just last weekend.”
“How’s Chet Marley doing?”
“Not well,” she said. “He’s still in a coma.”
“I heard he came out of it,” Noble said.
That was interesting to Holly. How did he know that? “For a few minutes, then he went under again.”
“Sorry to hear it. Chet’s a good man. We played a little poker once in a while.”
They had passed the barrier hedge now, and the landscape opened up in a wonderful way. They were driving along the shore of a large lake on one side of the road and a golf course on the other.
“This is beautiful,” Holly said.
“Just between you and me, it’s the most beautiful real estate development in Florida, and I’ve seen most of them in my line of work.”
“Why have I never heard of it?” she asked.
“The folks who live here like to lead a quiet life. They’re among the richer people in this country—CEOs of large corporations, heads of conglomerates, billionaires of every stripe. It’s a private club, really; we don’t advertise for customers. It’s all word of mouth among friends. You’d recognize a lot of the names of the members, but I’m not allowed to mention them.”
“What sort of security force do you have?”
“I’ve got fifteen men—twelve usually on duty or on call—there’s always somebody on vacation or out sick or something.”
“Are they all armed?” she asked.
“All armed and very well trained to use their weapons,” he replied. “We’ve got our own firing range back in the woods there.” He waved a hand vaguely to his right.
They passed what looked like the business district of a tiny village—grocery, drugstore, news shop, dry cleaner, doctor, dentist.
“We’ve got just about everything we need here,” Noble said. “None of our members ever has to go to town.” He slowed and pointed at a low building. “That’s my bailiwick right there. It’s like a small-town police station, really. We’ve got a small lockup and the usual equipment.”
“Does that include assault weapons?”
“Of course,” he said.
“I assume everything is properly licensed.”
“Sure. Florida as a state is pretty liberal about gun ownership, and we’re licensed by the state as a private security service.”
They drove through the village, and homes began to appear on both sides of the road, at widely separated intervals—or rather, gates began to appear. The houses were nearly invisible behind lush tropical plantings.
“How long has this place been in business?” Holly asked.
“A little over twenty years,” Noble replied. “The first five was mostly the construction of the village and the infrastructure, which is considerable. We’ve got our own water and sewage treatment plants and a backup generating system that pops on if there’s a power failure. None of our members ever goes more than five seconds without electrical power, even in a hurricane.”
They passed a house under construction; it was huge.
“Is that representative of the size of the houses in this place?” Holly asked.
“Sure is. There’s nothing under ten thousand square feet here.”
They passed the Palmetto Gardens Country Club, with a clubhouse that was large and comfortable looking.
“We’ve got three eighteen-hole courses here,” Noble said. “Every one of them the equal of anything in the country.”
“For how many members?” she asked.
“That’s confidential, but let’s just say that our people don’t like to reserve tee times. They like to walk out there and play, so we keep it uncrowded.”
“My dad is a big golfer,” she said. “He’s a senior master sergeant in the army, stationed in North Carolina.”
“Does he ever get down this way?”
“He plans to.”
“Tell him to call me, and I’ll give him a round here. Certain employees are allowed to use the facilities.”
“That’s very kind of you,” she said, meaning it. “Ham would love that.”
“Ham? Ham Barker?”
“That’s right.”
“Sorry, I didn’t get the connection. I did a tour with him in Vietnam.”
“No kidding. That’s three people he knows here, then.”
“Yeah, except two of them…I heard about Hank Doherty. That’s a tough way to go when you’ve been through what he has.”
“Did you serve with Hank and Chet, too?”
“I knew them both in the army, but we were never in the same outfit, like Ham and me. How is the old fart?”
“He’s got his thirty in; he’ll be retiring one of these days. Did you know my mother?”
Noble shook his head. “There weren’t any wives where we were.”
They passed a sign saying AIRFIELD.
“You’ve got a landing strip here, too?”
“Six thousand feet of it. We can take anything up to and including a Gulfstream V. All of our people arrive and depart by private aircraft. We’ve got the only instrument landing system in the country at a private airport. When our foreign members arrive, we arrange to have customs and immigration here to clear them, so they can fly directly here, nonstop, from any airport anywhere. It’s a great convenience not to have to stop at a port of entry to clear.”
“These people have their own little world here, don’t they?”
“Now you’ve got the picture. These guys work like slaves most of the time; they’re glad to get down here for a little golf or tennis and some R and R.”
They could see the Indian River now, and a marina with some large motor yachts.
“Some of them come by sea, now and then,” Noble said.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Holly replied.
“Neither has anybody else,” Noble said.
“I was surprised to be denied entry to part of my jurisdiction.”
“Sorry about that, but you have to remember that this is private property. Legally you couldn’t come in without a search warrant, but if ever you want in, just give me a call and I’ll tell the gate man you’re coming.”
“Thanks. You should warn your people, though, that if we have an emergency or a crime out here, my people are not going to wait at the gate.”
Noble laughed. “Well, we’re what you might call a crime-free area,” he said. “We’ve never had so much as a burglary, so I don’t think we’ll be needing the services of the Orchid Beach PD anytime soon.”
“Tell me,” Holly said, “why does such a crime-free development need a security force of fifteen, armed with automatic weapons?”
Noble laughed. “Let’s just say our people like us to err on the side of caution. You have to understand the mind-set with people at this leveclass="underline" most of them have bodyguards, armored limousines and elaborate security precautions at their other homes. You never know when somebody is going to try to kidnap some corporate executive, as happened in New Jersey a few years ago. Remember the oil company president who was taken and died of a gunshot wound?”
“Yes, I read about that.”
“That case and the Unabomber made a big difference in the way corporate America looked at personal security. A lot of boards of directors insisted that their top execs beef up their protection.”
They had completed a huge circle now and were approaching the gate. Noble pulled the Range Rover up to her car, stopped and held out his hand. “You let me know when Ham visits, and I’ll get him on the course.”