Smith's Monthly #15

by Smith, Dean Wesley

  “I’ve really got to learn how to play poker,” Agent Munn said as she looked around, shaking her head.

  Lott and Julia were shown to guest rooms up the wide wooden staircase by Annie, and both given time to take showers and change clothes while lunch was prepared.

  Lott had started to feel extremely rummy and tired from lack of sleep and the helicopter and then the car ride, but the shower refreshed him. And getting into clean clothes helped as well.

  Now some lunch and a good cup of coffee and he might almost feel half human again. But there was no doubt he was going to need a good night’s sleep tonight. He was just too old to be staying up all night. Those days of doing that on stakeouts were long past him.

  Julia looked just as refreshed as he felt when she came down the stairs a few minutes after he had joined the other four in the kitchen. Lott had taken a chair at the brown granite kitchen counter facing into the kitchen and Annie was working on sandwiches.

  Doc stood to one side watching and drinking a Diet Coke out of a bottle.

  Some sort of chicken soup cooking in a large pot on the stove smelled wonderful, and Annie was just finishing making them all sandwiches from fresh French bread and turkey.

  Fleet was helping Annie as much as he could, which made Lott smile, since Annie moved so fast on things like this, it made anyone near her look like they were just moving in slow motion. She had been that way as a kid as well.

  As Julia joined them, pulling up another stool beside Lott, Agent Munn, who had stepped into the living room to talk, hung up her phone and turned to Fleet. “About thirty of the makes and models and vin numbers of the cars are being sent to you now.”

  Fleet nodded and moved from the kitchen and into the living room area to use his iPad and then make a call.

  When he came back a moment later, after Annie had given both Lott and Julia fresh cups of coffee, Fleet said, “That’s not going to take long to trace. Even being careful.”

  “How much you want to bet none of them were bought around here,” Doc said.

  “No bet,” Agent Munn said.

  Lott agreed. This was too small an area, too many small towns to have someone buying that many cars even over years, and then having the cars vanish.

  They were talking about the wonderful view and Annie was about to serve up lunch when Fleet’s phone beeped and he glanced down at it. Then he answered it, staying at the edge of the kitchen counter instead of moving away, which meant it was news for all of them.

  No one spoke as Fleet quickly wrote down a few names and something else Lott couldn’t read from where he was sitting. Then he listened for a minute and then scribbled down more notes.

  “Thanks,” Fleet said finally and clicked off his phone.

  Then he looked at Lott and Julia and smiled. “Every car was bought from the same used car dealership out on the old Boulder Highway in Las Vegas.”

  Lott was stunned. “Las Vegas?”

  “You are kidding?” Julia asked.

  “I’m not,” Fleet said. “They were all bought by a man by the name of Mack Regan from Boise. All were paid for with cash.”

  “I know that name,” Doc said.

  Fleet nodded. “A shiftless private detective who manages to skate around the law more than inside it. Red hair, balding, bad teeth, worse breath.”

  “Plays private games around Boise,” Doc said, remembering and clearly disgusted. “Never seems to be short of money.”

  “The one and the same,” Fleet said, nodding.

  “Anyone know where he is now?” Lott asked, feeling suddenly worried.

  “We need to get him under wraps quickly,” Julia said.

  “I agree,” Agent Munn said.

  Fleet smiled. “Mack Regan booked a one-way flight to Vegas yesterday and bought another car with cash just about an hour ago. He reserved two nights at the Golden Nugget downtown and the car he bought is now parked in valet parking for the night, so doesn’t look like he’s headed north until tomorrow morning.”

  “I don’t have anyone down there I can completely trust,” Agent Munn said, looking worried.

  “We do,” Lott said, smiling. “Let’s send Andor and the rest of the gang to sit on him for a few days. Make sure he and that car never move until we get this all settled up here.”

  “Can you do that?” Agent Munn asked.

  Lott and Julia both laughed.

  Annie smiled and nodded as well. “Five or six retired detectives out to solve cold cases. Trust me, you don’t want to get in their way. They can do it and be trusted completely.”

  “And Mack Regan won’t like it one bit,” Lott said, smiling.

  “Good,” Doc said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  May 15, 2015

  11:30 A.M.

  A home across the lake from the Tamarack Ski Resort,

  Near Cascade, Idaho

  After lunch, the conversation quickly turned to the upcoming plan. Julia had been worried about it because she knew that they couldn’t tip off Williams in any way until he arrived. They had to catch him in the act, if they could, and have all his help rounded up before then.

  It needed to be like a perfect trap play on the poker table. The other player needed to have no hint at all that they were on to him and held the winning cards. That was the only way this would work.

  Julia only had one worry. They had no idea how Williams got from his mansion on the west side of the lake to the mortuary in the downtown area without being seen. That bothered her, but it seemed to be a problem they could deal with after finding out exactly who was helping Williams.

  “So who do you think your friend Trish would have reported what she saw to?” Agent Munn asked, pushing her empty bowl that had been filled with a chicken noodle soup away.

  For Julia, that soup and the soft-bread sandwiches had been perfect. She felt full and for some reason protected.

  “Knowing Trish,” Julia said, remembering her bright smile and light, fun attitude, “the first cop she saw.”

  “As you come into town from the mountains, just past the old golf course, the county sheriff’s office is right there on the highway,” Fleet said.

  Julia had no doubt that Trish would have just turned in right there.

  “That would be the place,” Julia said, nodding. “If Trish saw a car go over that road’s edge and into the water, she would want to report it as soon as possible and to the right people. I’m amazed she didn’t call me when she got into town, to be honest.”

  “I have no warrants or probable cause to get taps on the county sheriff’s phones and computers,” Agent Munn said.

  “I know some people,” Fleet said. “It will get done. Including all his financials. See if any extra money is pouring in over the years.”

  “Don’t tell me about it,” Agent Munn said, smiling.

  “We will leave no trace,” Fleet said. “Just background your people can rediscover later under warrants.”

  Agent Munn nodded.

  “And the mortuary Williams’ holding company owns,” Doc asked. “Who runs that?”

  “Don’t know yet,” Fleet said. “I will have my people digging into that as well this afternoon and evening. Again tracing the money.”

  Julia nodded. “So there was a mention of a plan.”

  “A decoy plan, more than anything else,” Agent Munn said. “We were thinking you two, as friends of Trish, could go in and check with the sheriff about her being missing. See what he says.”

  “He’ll take a report and ignore us,” Lott said.

  “Not sure what that’s going to do,” Julia said, puzzled. “Lott is right, he’ll ignore us.”

  “I doubt he will,” Agent Munn said, “if you tell him you are headed up to Trish’s place and plan on staying there for a week or so to wait for Trish to come back? He must know there’s a body dump coming.”

  “You think he might move on us at that point?” Julia asked.

  “If he doesn’t know you are detectiv
es, yes,” Annie said. “If he thinks you are just two retired friends of Trish and Trish was your only family, he’ll stop you.”

  “Assuming,” Agent Munn said, “if he is the one working with Williams. If he is working with Williams, he won’t be able to take a chance of anyone like Trish seeing a car dumped into that lake.”

  “We can be monitoring the phone and computer lines to make sure no warning goes out to Williams,” Fleet said. “We’ll block anything that he attempts to send.”

  “And we can have you wired as well,” Agent Munn said. “And have agents ready at a moment’s notice to back you up.”

  “My gut sense is that he’ll try to lure us to a private place later in the day to clear out the problem we are causing?” Julia asked.

  “More than likely,” Agent Munn said, nodding. “Again, if we have the right man.”

  “And he will call the mortician and give him a warning as well,” Annie said. “Which will tie the two of them together.”

  Julia looked at Lott who shrugged.

  “I’ve done stings like this a dozen times over the years,” Lott said.

  “So have I,” Julia said. She didn’t say that they always scared her to death. With Trish dead, she wanted to make sure the bastard who killed her was locked up for good. And for that, she would do damn near anything.

  “So sleep on it for the night,” Agent Munn said, standing. “I’ve got to get back to the lake.”

  “I’ll keep my people digging and looking for other possible suspects as well,” Fleet said. “I’ll drive you back to the airport. They should have the helicopter serviced and supplies for your people loaded by now.”

  “Thank you,” Agent Munn said, first to Fleet, then to Doc and Annie. “We couldn’t be doing this without you.”

  “If it puts away a monster,” Doc said. “It will be worth far more than we are doing.”

  Agent Munn turned to Lott and Julia. “Think about it.”

  Julia shrugged. “No need to think about it. We’ll see you in the morning.”

  Lott nodded. “We’re ready when you are.”

  Agent Munn nodded and then left with Fleet, leaving Annie and Doc standing beside the kitchen counter and Julia and Lott still sitting.

  “You two go do what you need to do,” Julia said to Doc and Annie. “I have just about enough brain left to do the dishes before a nap overtakes me.”

  She stood and picked up her empty soup bowl and headed for the sink.

  “I’ll help,” Lott said, moving with Julia to start the cleanup.

  Both Doc and Annie nodded and took out cell phones and went into the living room. Both clearly very focused.

  Julia glanced up at the wonderful, but clearly tired face of Lott. How had she gotten so lucky as to find a man like him?

  After this was all over, they needed to take this trust and friendship and affection to the next level, of that there was no doubt.

  She motioned that he should come down closer to her as if she was going to whisper something in his ear.

  She then just kissed him. Square on those wonderful lips of his.

  Before he could react in any way, she pulled back, smiling.

  “Thank you,” she said. “For being you.”

  Lott smiled at her. “Whatever I did, I’m going to have to figure out how to do more of it.”

  She laughed, and the two of them turned to clean up the kitchen together. And that felt wonderful to Julia.

  Natural and perfect in the middle of all the ugliness they had faced at that lake.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  May 16, 2015

  7 A.M.

  A home across the lake from the Tamarack Ski Resort,

  Near Cascade, Idaho

  Lott felt almost human after a nap, a fantastic dinner with Annie and Doc and Fleet and Julia, and then a long night’s sleep. The image of that dead woman in that car hadn’t really haunted him much, but Lott had no doubt that once they got Williams put away, the image would come back when Lott least expected it.

  He had that problem over the years with different cases and often woke up Carol in the middle of the night shouting. She always managed to calm him down and get him back to sleep after a short cup of hot chocolate.

  And she never asked what had given him the nightmare. And he had never shared. There was no way he had ever wanted to bring the horror he saw on the streets into his home.

  Julia was already sitting at the dining room table talking with Annie and Doc when Lott managed to get showered and downstairs. Julia looked radiant and smiled at him when she saw him coming down the stairs. He wouldn’t mind seeing that smile a lot more in the mornings, of that there was no doubt.

  Julia was dressed in jeans, a dress blouse, and a thin gold necklace. She had her hair pulled back off her face.

  Annie was in her standard blouse and dress slacks, and had a suit jacket hung over the back of her chair. Doc just looked like Doc, with jeans and a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

  The sun hadn’t hit the mountains across the lake from them, making it seem like it was still dark outside. The smell of coffee filling the wonderful home was like a welcome glove around him.

  Annie got up from the table and kissed him on the cheek as he came toward the table, then pointed to the chair next to Julia. “Sit. I’ll get you a cup of coffee the way you like it. Breakfast will be as soon as Fleet gets back from picking up Agent Munn at the airport.”

  Lott went over and sat down next to Julia. She touched his arm and said, “Good morning. Feeling better?”

  “I’ll let you know after the first cup of coffee,” Lott said. “But I think so.”

  She laughed as Annie slid the cup in front of him and sat down.

  The coffee smelled even better coming right off the cup and he sipped at the hot liquid, letting the taste just flow through him.

  “Doc and Annie were just telling me their history,” Julia said, “and how Doc and Fleet made so much money.”

  “I honestly don’t know how we got so rich,” Doc said. “That was Fleet’s doing. I just played poker.”

  “But I didn’t know you were involved with capturing the White House Chief of Staff’s killer,” Julia said. “And it was on that case that you two met?”

  “It was,” Annie said, leaning over and kissing Doc.

  Lott had been on the edges of that investigation as well. It had been a traumatic time, especially since the guy had also killed Doc’s father.

  Before Julia could ask another question, there was the sound of footsteps on the porch and Fleet and Agent Munn came in, bringing with them a bitingly cold draft of air from the still mostly-dark morning outside.

  Fleet looked to be his normal self, with a silk business suit and an open collared dress shirt under it. But Agent Munn looked exhausted and slightly rumpled in her black slacks and dress blouse and FBI dark jacket.

  “Coffee?” Annie asked.

  “Please,” Agent Munn said, sitting at the kitchen table where Annie told her to sit.

  Julia got up and went into the kitchen area clearly to help Annie with breakfast. Lott loved the fact that those two liked each other so much. And that Annie was encouraging him to move on after the years of being alone.

  “Okay,” Annie said as she worked on cracking some eggs, clearly running the show as she tended to do. “We all need details. Who wants to go first? Fleet?”

  Lott watched as Fleet nodded, giving Agent Munn some time to sip the coffee Julia had brought her.

  “My people looked into all the phone calls Williams made near ten different women’s disappearances. Not once did he call his car man in Las Vegas. So we’re clear to get that guy stopped.”

  Lott nodded. Last night he had talked with Andor and got him all prepared and how no one, not even the Chief, could know what he and the rest of the Cold Poker Gang were going to do.

  Andor guaranteed that no one would know until it was all clear. Then they would haul the car man’s ass down to the stati
on. They all should be in position now.

  “Let me take care of this before the guy hits the road and we lose him,” Lott said.

  Everyone nodded and Lott took his cell phone and called Andor.

  “Yeah,” Andor said, his voice gruff, exactly how he always answered the phone.

  “Detain the bastard,” Fleet said. “Williams made no contact with him before every murder, so he is just a part of the puzzle. Keep that part in Vegas.”

  “We’re set,” Andor said. “He doesn’t know it, but his room reservation has just been extended.”

  “Perfect,” Lott said. “Thanks. Just make sure that bastard makes no calls to anyone. I’ll call you when we have Williams contained.”

  “You got it,” Andor said and hung up.

  Lott hung up and nodded to the group that had been listening to the call. “One piece down.”

  “Second part,” Fleet said. “The driver bringing the casket in from Seattle. It seems there is no regular driver, so my sense is this is just a regular delivery. There are two other caskets besides the transport casket in the delivery order.”

  “We’ll contain him anyway after the delivery,” Agent Munn said. “Without anyone seeing it happen.”

  Lott nodded. “Two pieces down.”

  “We are going to have to detain the mortician at about the same time the driver arrives,” Doc said. “We can’t take a chance on the guy opening the casket and finding a dummy in there.”

  “We checked all phone records over the past year,” Fleet said. “Including outgoing calls from towers that might have been made on a burner phone. No outgoing calls to Williams have ever been made from that mortuary. It seems this system just functions without communications between the parts.”

  Lott nodded. That made sense.

  All the women Williams had taken had just vanished without a trace or a crime scene or any evidence in the slightest. Now Lott was starting to see why.

  Agent Munn nodded to Doc’s statement about needing to take the mortuary right after the truck driver left. “Here’s what I think we should do,” she said. “We have eyes on the truck and when it approaches the mortuary, we’ll need people inside to hold the guy.”