The Black Palmetto by Paul Carr

long.”
    “Okay,” Sam said, “but one more thing. Were you calling him when we just drove up?”
    “Yeah, I was worried.”
    Simone reached over the seat. “Let's see the phone.” She took it, punched some buttons, and wrote down the number.
    Returning it, Simone said, “I entered my number. Call us if you remember anything else. We'll let you know if we find him.”
    The door opened and she started out, but stopped. “I just hope he isn't in any kind of trouble, even if he did stand me up.”
    As she hurried toward Chopin's back door, Sam turned the car around and drove away.
    “We don't know much about Spanner, do we?” he asked.
    “Not really. All they told me is that he's been working at the research center in Miami for about a month, and all of a sudden he left, taking the flash card and the money with him.”
    “They would've done a background check on him.”
    “They did, but he came up squeaky clean. He didn't work in a high security area, so they didn't spend a lot of time and money on it.”
    “But what he took came from a high security area, right?”
    “Yes, top secret. I don't think they know how he got in there.”
    “What do they do at the facility?”
    Shrugging, she said, “It's a defense contractor site. Some kind of research, maybe weapons development work.”
    “Is it big?”
    “I'd say. It covers a couple of square miles out in the boonies near Homestead.”
    Sam shook his head. “They have to know something else we can use. Call your contact and mention the reference to Palmetto.”
    Simone shrugged. “I can give it a try.” She opened her phone and punched in a number.
    ****
    “I knew he wouldn't tell me anything else,” Simone said upon hanging up. “He made that pretty clear in the briefing.”
    “Nothing on Palmetto?”
    “No, he said he didn’t know anything about it.”
    “Huh. You think he’s lying?
    “I wouldn’t be surprised. He seemed pretty snappy about me asking.”
    That didn’t sound good.
    Sam took out his phone and called John Templeton Smith III. J.T. had served as an intelligence officer in the Navy and became one of their top computer experts. Now, about a dozen years later, he used his knowledge in various criminal activities. He’d tried honest work a few times, but it didn’t work out. Too boring and not enough pay. The FBI kept him on their radar all the time, but he somehow managed to stay at least one step ahead of them.
    “Sammy, what's going on?”
    “J.T., I’m on a guy’s trail, and I wondered if you could help me out.” He told him about Spanner and Palmetto and gave him the guy's phone number.
    “You think that's his real name?”
    “Probably not, but it's all we have.”
    “Who're you working with down there?”
    Sam glanced at his partner and grinned. “Simone.”
    She raised an eyebrow.
    J.T. whistled. “Is she as hot as ever?”
    “Yep, smoking.”
    Simone hit him on the arm, but smiled, her face flush.
    “Okay, I'll check this out, but something is nagging me about the Palmetto thing.”
    “What?”
    “Well, if I remember correctly, a few years ago there was a rumor going around about something called Black Palmetto. It was supposed to be an elite assassination unit. Not exactly government-sanctioned, so nobody ever owned up to it. But if a kill couldn't be explained away by the other groups, the rumors credited the Black Palmetto with it. It might have been just legend, though. Your guy probably couldn't have anything to do with that.”
    After Sam closed the phone, Simone said, “Do you think it's wise to bring J.T. in on this?”
    “Sure, why not?”
    “Isn't he a little light in the integrity department?”
    “Some people might think so, but he's never hung me out to dry.” He said it with a pang of guilt. While J.T. had always been pretty loyal, he could get greedy when a lot of money figured into the equation, and Sam always kept that in mind.
    Simone rolled her eyes. “Okay, but if this job turns