Cold Call: A Cold Poker Gang Mystery

by Smith, Dean Wesley

  “You and Andrews are going down as two of the greatest serial killers of all time,” Julia said. “Andrews is already singing as well, blaming it all on you. Death row won’t take long for you two.”

  “It wasn’t us,” Sheriff Blake said as two FBI agents stepped into sight in the hallway, rifles aimed at the sheriff.

  “Please put the gun down now, sheriff,” Lott said, indicating the FBI agents. “It’s over.”

  The sheriff put the gun slowly on the desk, his hands shaking. His face was totally white and he was sweating so hard, it was starting to stain his shirt.

  The two FBI agents came in and quickly cuffed him, said he was under arrest for the murders of at least forty women. Then holding him there like that, one agent read Blake his rights.

  When they were done, Lott looked at Sheriff Blake. “You said it wasn’t you that killed all those women, yet we know it was. You killed them and Andrews embalmed them and you both got your sick jollies with the bodies before dumping them in the lake.”

  “I didn’t kill them and Andrews didn’t embalm them,” the Sheriff said, looking panicked. “I swear. That was all Willis Williams’ doing.”

  “Yeah, right,” Julia said. “And how do we prove that?”

  For an instant the sheriff looked even more panicked. Then his eyes brightened and he said, “Williams kept all their clothes, their jewelry, everything. He called it his trophies. We only got rid of the bodies, nothing more.”

  “Where does he keep all that?” Lott asked, stunned.

  “Damned if I know,” Sheriff Blake said. “He took it all with him every time in a black bag.”

  The FBI agents pulled Sheriff Blake from his office, put a piece of tape over his mouth, and instead of turning toward the front door, turned toward the cells in the back. The sheriff’s office was on lockdown until Williams arrived in town and showed up at the mortuary. And the sheriff was going to get to experience one of his own cells for a short time.

  “You get all that?” Lott asked into the air.

  “Loud and clear,” Agent Munn said. “Loud and clear.”

  Part Six

  THE SHOWDOWN

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  May 16, 2015

  5:20 P.M.

  McCall, Idaho

  Julia found herself walking along the beautiful mountain McCall Lake as dark settled over the water. The main part of town was just behind them, the dark mortuary ahead of them.

  She was walking hand-in-hand with Lott, the man she was coming to love more and more each day. And she wished like anything this could have been under different circumstances, because it felt so right.

  Maybe at some point she and Lott could go up to Taos and walk along the lake there. That would be perfect, especially on a beautiful spring night as this was.

  The warmth of the day hadn’t yet left the air and the smell of pine trees and steaks cooking at a nearby restaurant were like a comforting blanket.

  She felt very rested because after the sheriff was tucked away, she and Lott and Annie and Doc and Fleet had gone back to Doc’s house on Cascade Lake.

  She and Lott had stretched out on couches in front of the fireplace and both taken short naps. She could have gone up to her room, and he could have gone to his room, but it seemed they wanted to stay close to each other at the moment.

  She really wanted to stay close to him a lot more when this was finished. He seemed to be a rock to her worry, even though she could tell, and he had said, he had been scared to death a few times, especially when Sheriff Blake pulled his gun.

  But knowing the FBI agents were right outside the door had helped calm them both.

  Fleet had said that he and Agent Munn had search warrants ready to file for the mortuary, the sheriff’s office and home, and Williams’ home on the lake as soon as Williams ended up at the mortuary.

  As soon as they arrested Williams, search warrants would be issued for his other homes in Boise, Seattle, and Las Vegas.

  They had had to file the search warrant for the mortuary first, but Fleet and Agent Munn were positive that Williams would not find out about it before he did his boat trip across the lake.

  They had had a nice early dinner that Annie and Doc had cooked, then had all headed back into McCall.

  Just at dark, Julia and Lott had headed down the beach to go in the back door of the mortuary and get set up for Williams’ arrival.

  Williams had been in his home on the lake for four hours now and hadn’t made a call or taken an incoming call.

  “This has been a nice walk,” Lott said.

  “It has,” Julia said, squeezing his hand. “Let’s do it again without half the world listening and a serial killer on the loose.”

  “Deal,” Lott said, glancing around to see if anyone was watching.

  Julia knew that a number of FBI agents were watching, but she couldn’t see any of them.

  They went up the back steps to the mortuary from the beach as if they belonged there and went inside.

  The room was a stark, white room with three metal embalming tables lined up. Shelves filled with various supplies filled the right wall and the concrete floor was washed down and clean. But the place still smelled of a slight rotting flesh covered with the odor of disinfectant.

  The gold casket sat on the lift to the back of the room and a door to the right led into a small office there, which also had a shower and bathroom. Stairs from the upstairs were against the left wall with the door closed at the bottom.

  The larger freezer door on the left of the lift was to a cooling room. Julia didn’t want to know if any townspeople were in there at this point. They were going to have to find another mortuary starting tomorrow.

  Julia had watched numbers of autopsies as a detective and it was always the smell that got her the worst. The smell in this place wasn’t much better.

  Agent Munn greeted them.

  “How’s Andrews holding up?” Lott asked.

  “Pleading for a doctor and a deal,” Agent Munn said, laughing. “He has also said, while being recorded, that Williams did the murder and the embalming, confirming the story the sheriff said.”

  “The rats are jumping this ship,” Lott said. “Did you ask him how he leaves the lights in the mortuary and the back door open or locked for Williams.

  “Andrews said the upstairs lights are always off,” Agent Munn said. “These lights are on, back porch light is on, back door is unlocked.”

  “So we’re set,” Lott said.

  “And where is the victim?” Julia asked.

  “Andrews said they leave her in the casket on the lift, and leave her alone with Williams,” Agent Munn said. “They are always upstairs when he arrives and never saw the victims alive. When Williams calls for them a couple hours later, she is dead and embalmed.”

  Julia was so glad they had rescued the girl in Washington.

  A moment later, Annie opened the back door and came in and shut it behind her.

  “Nice smell,” she said, waving her hand in front of her face.

  “So now we are completely set,” Lott said.

  Agent Munn nodded. “My people will tell us when he arrives and goes in the back door here. It will take them about fifteen seconds to get to the back door to block it.”

  “So now we wait,” Lott said. “How about we do that upstairs in the dark in those comfortable chairs in the waiting room?”

  “I agree,” Julia said, having no desire at all to stay in this smell or this room of death. “It’s just barely dark out there. It might be hours.”

  At that very moment a voice came through their communication links in their ears. “Williams just left his boat dock, no running lights, wearing black.”

  “How about fifteen minutes,” Agent Munn said, smiling. “Report when he lands.”

  “Copy,” one of the agents said.

  She went over, made sure the back door was unlocked, then the four of them stood there, waiting.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

&n
bsp; May 16, 2015

  5:40 P.M.

  McCall, Idaho

  Lott couldn’t believe they were about to capture Williams. And they had built a very, very strong case against the killer already. A case so strong, not even a good lawyer was going to get him off.

  Lott really wanted to see the smirk on the man’s face just disappear. That smug you-can’t-catch-me attitude had been more than he could take, especially when it came to that young married college girl named Carrie Coswell.

  Carrie had just vanished seemingly into thin air while jogging and everyone knew that Williams had done it, but there hadn’t been one shred of evidence that he had. Lott and Andor had been the lead detectives on the case and had wanted to just smash the smirk from Williams’ face.

  Now Lott knew that Carrie’s body would be found in that lake, in a car, and now Williams would go to jail for her death. And Carrie’s family could finally get some closure.

  “You all right?” Julia asked, taking his hand.

  “Just thinking of one of this animal’s victims is all.”

  Julia squeezed Lott’s hand and smiled at him. “We almost got him. Almost.”

  They stood there, waiting. Lott figured it would take Lott about twenty minutes, going slow, to cross the distance from his place to the dock near the mortuary.

  After fifteen minutes, Lott glanced at his watch.

  Julia was looking nervous as well.

  “Why do I feel this isn’t going to work as planned?” Lott said.

  He turned to Agent Munn. “Have your people check for any kind of signal along the shore out to the lake in case we have a leak somewhere.”

  “Do it, folks,” Agent Munn said.

  After a moment one agent came back. “We have a state police car in the Shore Lodge parking lot, its lights going as if it has pulled someone over. That’s it.”

  “Someone check it,” Agent Munn said. “Everyone else remain in position.

  Three more minutes went by until an agent came back. “The State Police Car is empty. Its headlights were on high-beam aimed out over the lake, the bubbles going.”

  “Find out who was driving that car,” Agent Munn ordered, clearly very, very angry.

  “Those of you at Williams’ home, close in and secure the place and secure him if he comes back to that dock.

  Lott knew he wasn’t coming back to the dock. He had been warned off. And knowing Williams, he had a plan and a way to escape. But if they acted quickly enough, with enough force, they might be able to catch him.

  “We need to lock down every road in and out of this town,” Lott said. “No one in or out without eyes on them. And Williams will be in disguise.”

  “Do it, people,” Agent Munn said. “Get the State Police to help as well and find out who was driving that patrol car and get that person rounded up as well.”

  “His name was Ben Stephens,” one of the agents came back. “He’s gone missing and is not responding to any calls.”

  Lott glanced at Julia. It felt as if he had been smashed in the stomach. Not Ben.

  Anyone but Ben.

  That wasn’t possible.

  Not with his family and kids. Ben wouldn’t do something like this.

  Then Lott heard what he had just thought.

  “Fleet,” Lott said. “Are you monitoring this?”

  “I am,” Fleet said, his voice low and clearly as shocked as Lott was feeling.

  “Ben wouldn’t do this,” Lott said, “so his family, his kids, must be threatened. Get people to his house in Boise as fast as you can. Tell them to go in silent and armed.”

  “On it,” Fleet said.

  Lott just stood there in the smell of death in the basement of the mortuary, holding Julia’s hand. Now they had one of the world’s richest men on the run.

  And one of the world’s most dangerous killers.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  May 16, 2015

  6:10 P.M.

  McCall, Idaho

  Julia and Lott caught a ride with Annie out to Williams’ home along the lake. Doc and Fleet had sprinted for the airport to contain Williams’ plane and to make sure no one rented him anything.

  Fleet had downloaded a floor plan for the big mansion for him and Annie on a tablet as they went into the beautiful, but sterile place.

  Wood and stone and glass, along with mostly bright white furnishings and carpet and counters and cabinets made the home feel far, far from a home on a mountain lake. It felt more like the inside of a hospital to Julia.

  “This is like looking inside a snowstorm,” Lott said, looking around.

  Julia could not agree more. It was awful. The worst design she had ever seen.

  Why would you have white kitchen counters, white tile on the floor, white carpet in the living room with white furniture?

  As they went from room to room, nothing changed.

  The place had no color at all. Just white and glass and white stone.

  The FBI had already secured the home and were now patrolling around the edge of the entire lake, both by boat and by land. But as Agent Munn had told them, it was a very large lake. Almost fifty miles of shoreline and coves and hidden homes. They just didn’t have enough manpower in here to do that as well as set up roadblocks on the roads.

  And it would take time to get more people, time that allowed Williams to escape.

  Fleet had a horde of computer people searching for any record that Williams or one of his many companies owned another property around the lake, but so far that had been for nothing. Just this one huge property that jutted out into the lake.

  They looked around, and all of them looked for any kind of secret room that wasn’t on the plans, but one clearly didn’t exist. That was easy to see with the open floor plan. The FBI would bring in sounding equipment to see what was under the building, but Julia doubted they would find anything at all.

  “We’re missing something,” Julia said. “He would know we would find more property if he owned it here.”

  Lott and Annie both nodded.

  “So he wouldn’t really leave this place,” Julia said. “And this would be where he would keep his trophies from all his kills.”

  “I agree,” Lott said. “But there is nothing here. And they have searched the out buildings and the empty boat house.”

  Julia suddenly remembered what she had seen that had been bothering her. She turned to Annie. “Do you have an aerial shot of this property during the day taken recently?”

  “I’ll download it to your tablet,” Fleet said in their ears. He had blocked them from all the chatter from the FBI, but kept the five of them hooked together.

  A moment later the aerial image appeared with property lines marked in green dashed lines on both sides. The main house was clear, as was the dock and the outbuildings and boat shed.

  Julia looked around the end of the point and studied the trees along the far side of the property.

  “There,” she said, pointing to what looked like a faint roofline hidden under the trees. “I’m betting he’s there.”

  “Agent Munn,” Fleet said. “Need you and a couple agents at the house at once. We have a lead.”

  “Copy,” Agent Munn said. “Ten minutes out.”

  Julia looked at Lott who nodded.

  Julia knew that she was right, they had a very dangerous killer trapped in that small area. And when that happened, lots of things could go very wrong.

  She had once had a bullet smash the bones in her leg in just such a situation.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  May 16, 2015

  6:30 P.M.

  McCall, Idaho

  Lott and Julia and Annie were just inside the sliding glass doors that led out onto a wide porch over the boathouse and dock. This was as far as they could get outside the house. Lott was convinced the white on everything would give him a headache in short order; they at least had managed to find a warm spot to stand and could face out at the dark night and the trees.

  Th
e three of them were studying the various ways to get to the hidden building on the far side of the property when Fleet contacted them again.

  “You were right about Ben’s family,” Fleet said in their ears. “His wife and kids are all right, but scared to death. The two men who were holding them are down, shot in a firefight with the Boise police. One is dead, the other isn’t talking.”

  Lott looked at Julia and shook his head. Ben would have never done this without that kind of major threat to his family. Thank heavens they were all right, but now they needed to figure out where Ben was.

  “Any idea where Ben might be?” Fleet asked as Lott tried to puzzle out that same question.

  “He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t smoke, he loves law enforcement and his family,” Lott said.

  “And he would have to just wait this out, hope we took down Williams, before he dared try to rescue his family,” Julia said.

  Lott nodded, then suddenly realized what he had said and where Ben would hide. He would hide right in plain sight, close to where he left his car, but where no one who knew him would look for him.

  “He’s in the bar at Shore Lodge,” Lott said. “He will not be armed and once he learns his family is free, he’s going to be willing to help. Actually, he’s going to be so angry, he’s going to demand to help.”

  “Doc and I are one minute from there,” Fleet said. “We’ll pick him up if you are right.”

  At that moment Agent Munn and two other agents in black FBI jackets came into the house and through the living room to them.

  “Good job on saving the State Police officer’s family,” Munn said.

  “We knew him,” Julia said.

  “My partner and I trained him in Vegas,” Lott said. “We knew he wouldn’t have done anything like that without a threat on his family.”

  Agent Munn nodded. “So what kind of lead do you have?”

  Annie showed the agents the overhead view of Williams’ property. And pointed to the almost hidden roofline on the far side of the ridge near the lakeshore.