Kill Game: A Cold Poker Gang Mystery

by Smith, Dean Wesley

  “Can you get us her name and address?” Rogers asked.

  “I know it very well,” he said, shaking his head. “Her name is Kate McDonald. She’s married to the governor of the state. The Governor’s Mansion is down in the north end of town. Tough to miss.”

  All Lott could do was stare at Carl. He didn’t have one thought in his head.

  Finally he glanced back at Rogers, who was also just staring blankly at Carl.

  Neither of them had a thing to say.

  Stan’s possible first wife, possible backer in his corporation, and possible suspect in his death was a governor’s wife.

  They were suddenly so far in over their heads, it wasn’t funny.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  October, 2014

  Foothills

  Boise, Idaho

  JULIA SAT IN SILENCE as Lott drove them back off the twisting roads of the foothills and down into the tree-lined streets of the North End part of the city. She had never been in this part of the town before, and it was beautiful. Older homes tucked back from the street covered like a tunnel with branches of large oaks lining both sides.

  It was shaded and cool and everything was bright green and the homes were older, but well-kept and clearly loved.

  Finally she turned to Lott. “Sorry about not telling you about Jane. I’m very proud of her and can’t imagine how I didn’t blab about her all the time over the last week.”

  Lott laughed. “Shocked for a moment, but it’s understandable. We’ve sort of been focused on figuring out who killed her father.”

  “But I am sorry,” she said.

  “Part of getting to know each other,” he said, waving her apology away.

  “I like getting to know you,” she said, smiling at him, relieved he wasn’t upset in any way. In fact, she felt more relieved than she wanted to admit. In a very short time she had really come to value and enjoy and trust Lott. And had hopes for a lot more time together if she didn’t do something stupid to blow it all up.

  “I like getting to know you as well,” he said, giving her that smile she was really starting to love. “I have a hunch that by the time this is over, we’re going to know each other a lot more.”

  “I hope so,” she said, turning back to watch the beautiful streets and homes go past.

  “I hope so as well,” he said.

  They rode in a comfortable and relieved silence for a few blocks down the beautiful shady streets.

  “Got any ideas of what we should do next?” he asked.

  “Find someplace to eat and call Andor and fill him in on all this,” she said. “Before Carl calls the first wife.”

  “You think he might?” Lott asked.

  “It’s big money and politics,” she said. “So come to think of it, let’s do a surprise visit before she can lawyer up.”

  Lott glanced at her and then smiled. “That’s totally crazy, but I like how you think, Detective.”

  It was totally crazy. She knew that, but it might be the only way they get any information at all from a governor’s wife. If it wasn’t already too late.

  She sat back as Lott used the GPS feature in the car to direct them to the Governor’s Mansion.

  The big white mansion was two stories tall in this same area of town. It was tucked back in the trees with a large fence around it and surrounded by trees. It looked more like a southern home than one for Idaho.

  The building didn’t look much bigger than some of the other large homes nearby. But Julia could imagine back when it was first built, the mansion sat up on a slight hill looking at the valley. Now the huge old trees blocked any chance at a view.

  They pulled into an area labeled guest parking just off the street and a good hundred yards from the main house across a tree-covered huge lawn. There were no other cars at this point in the early afternoon.

  And no one in sight.

  Julie glanced around, thinking that fact very odd.

  She and Lott climbed out into the warm afternoon air and moved to the gate and the speaker there. The gate was black iron and decorative and wide enough for large trucks to pass. The rest of the fence looked about the same but was mostly covered in climbing vines. Julia could see a number of obvious security cameras and more than likely there were a few not so obvious.

  One camera was mounted right over the speaker.

  Lott pushed the button and a moment later a woman’s voice said, “Yes.”

  “Las Vegas Detectives Lott and Rogers,” Lott said, “to see Mrs. McDonald on a private matter.”

  “One moment,” the voice said.

  After about thirty seconds a man’s voice came back. “Please show your badges to the camera.”

  They both did.

  The gate clicked and opened. “Please come up the driveway to the security building on the left. Be prepared to leave your guns.”

  Lott nodded and Julia led the way through the gate. Then the two of them moved up the beautiful flower-lined driveway. She wasn’t sure what the low gold and red flowers were, but they seemed to be doing fine in the early fall heat.

  Everything about this city had a beauty about it. She had never seen a place like it before. Nevada cities like Reno and Las Vegas were stark and dry, and even though Reno had the mountains towering over it, the poverty that ran alongside the casino lights was always in sharp contrast.

  Here, this town seemed like the poster city for middle and upper class blue-collar living. Everything seemed maintained and painted and in the city brown didn’t seem to be a color that was allowed.

  At the security building, they were met by a man with a badge and a gun on his hip. Clearly in shape and more than likely military of some sort, even though he was dressed in a black shirt and black slacks and black shoes.

  He checked their badges again and asked them for their guns.

  “You two are a way out of jurisdiction,” he said. “And retired. May I ask your business with the governor’s wife?”

  Julia was surprised he had discovered they were retired, but a quick internet search of the Nevada police data base would show that clearly. But it would also show their special exemption to work.

  “It’s a private matter involving a friend from her college days,” Lott said.

  Julia had no doubt that the governor’s wife was watching on one of the cameras. So she decided to put her at ease a little bit. “We are working a very cold case and could use some more background information, if she wouldn’t mind. We won’t be long.”

  “Follow me,” the man said, nodding after a moment.

  Julia knew that more than likely the governor’s wife had told him to bring them in. It was the correct political move. If she lawyered up now, it would just prove she had something to hide and that was the last thing she would want.

  Their surprise visit was paying off in at least that little way. Now it would be interesting to see what kind of answers she gave them.

  They were shown into a side door and into a large, high-ceiling parlor that was furnished with modern furniture. The walls were painted off-white and pictures of former governors covered two walls. Tall windows looking out over the lawn filled the other two walls.

  As they entered, a woman dressed in jogging clothes and tennis shoes came in. “Sorry for the attire,” she said, smiling. “You caught me in the exercise room.”

  She had her dark brown hair pulled back off her face and clearly she had spent time in the sun, as well as had a couple face-lifts that made her look both fake and younger at the same time.

  “Very sorry to intrude,” Lott said after introducing them both.

  “Call me Kate, please,” she said and indicated that they sit down on the couch and she sat facing them in a big chair.

  “We’re here in Boise investigating a cold case from Las Vegas,” Julia said, starting off. “Stan Rocha was murdered in 1992 and his murder never solved.”

  Kate nodded. “I know,” she said. “I’m glad you are opening it back up finally.”

&
nbsp; “How do you know about the murder?” Julia asked.

  “Stan was my first husband,” Kate said, looking Julia right in the eye.

  Julia nodded. So they had been right after all.

  “When Stan didn’t come home,” Kate said, “I sent investigators to find him. About six months after his death they discovered he had been shot in Las Vegas. It barely even made the papers at the time since there were no leads and so many other more important things happening in Las Vegas at the time.”

  “Is that when you discovered your first husband’s habits with other women?” Lott said.

  Kate didn’t even bat an eye. “No, actually. Stan told me about all of his other wives in 1989, after he had married them all, including you, Detective Rogers.”

  Julia sat back. This was not going the way she had expected. Not at all.

  “So you were angry?” Lott asked.

  Kate actually laughed. “Not in the slightest. I forced him into marrying me after all. Poor Stan could never say no to a woman on anything.”

  Then Kate turned. “He liked you the most of all of them,” she said.

  Julie had no idea at all how to answer that, so she only nodded.

  “Did you know about his three children?” Lott asked.

  “Five children,” she said. “I had two children with him as well. Both now grown and married and doing well.”

  “So your past with Stan is known?” Julia asked, trying to ignore for the moment the thought of now telling Jane she had four half-brothers and sisters.

  Kate actually laughed at that. “Of course. You don’t be married to a man running for any political office and try to hide things like this. The press knows I was married before Madison and had two children and that my first husband was killed in Las Vegas. And that his murder is unsolved.”

  Kate took a deep breath, clearly lost in memory. “Madison stepped in and helped when Stan vanished and did a great job being a father to my two children after we learned of Stan’s death. The children were both so young, they don’t remember their real father at all.”

  “He knew you before Stan was killed?” Lott asked.

  Kate smiled. “There were five of us who hung around together in college. Me and Stan and Madison and Carla and Danny. Great friends.”

  Julia nodded. Clearly Stan’s brother didn’t know about any of this with his younger brother, including the two kids, so this kind of thing wasn’t in the news much. Although from what she could tell of Stan’s older brother, he didn’t pay much attention to anything but his parents and his family money.

  “One more question if you don’t mind,” Lott asked.

  Kate waved her hand. “Glad to help, detectives, if it solves Stan’s murder. And besides, you are helping me avoid a long half hour on the StairMaster.”

  “Did you know about his corporation?” Lott asked.

  Julia was watching Kate closely when he asked that question and she was honestly shocked.

  “What corporation?” Kate asked, leaning forward. “Stan had no money, which is why he married in every town, to have a place to stay while he searched for his lost treasures. I wouldn’t give him any of my trust fund’s money. I told him that was for the kids and to buy us all a house when he got done with his treasure quest, since he wasn’t actually working. And my parents were disgusted I had married him and wouldn’t talk with me for years, even after Stan’s death became known.”

  Lott shook his head and Julia did the same.

  “What corporation?” Kate asked again, this time in a powerful, demanding voice that Julia instantly understood why Stan couldn’t say no to her.

  “Stan was the president and CEO and only officer of record in a Nevada Corporation called Breyfogle Incorporated,” Lott said, “named after a lost mine to the west of Las Vegas.”

  “It was founded in 1986,” Julia said, “and had property, mineral rights, and water rights all over the state, mostly corresponding with the areas of old lost mines and treasures. We only just learned about it.”

  “And it owned almost a dozen major warehouses,” Lott said, including the one where his body was found. We just learned that as well.”

  Kate looked like she had lost most of her dark tan as she sat back in the big chair. “That’s not possible.”

  “What’s not possible,” Julia said.

  “Stan called me all excited one day that he had found one of his lost mines,” Kate said. “He had done that maybe a dozen times before, usually to beg me to send him some money. I always refused and just ignored him on that call. But that time he didn’t ask for money, and since I was pregnant with our second child, I didn’t think much about it.”

  Lott glanced at Julia, then leaned forward. “Are you saying you think he might have actually found one of the lost treasures and not told you?”

  Kate took a deep breath and leaned forward, clearly gathering herself. She looked at Julia. “You were married to him, Detective. Could he have kept that from you?”

  “I didn’t even know he was searching for treasure,” Julia said, smiling. “Stan was the most tightlipped person I have ever met and the deeper I get into this investigation, the more I understand I knew nothing about the man I married and had a child with.”

  “Well,” Kate said, sitting back and closing her eyes. “It seems that makes two of us.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  October, 2014

  Downtown

  Boise, Idaho

  LOTT DROVE IN SILENCE through the beautiful, oak-covered streets of the North End of Boise, Idaho, heading back toward the center part of town. He knew where there was a decent restaurant down near the city parks on the river where they could have a late lunch. He was starving.

  “It’s been a long time since crawling out of bed this morning in Las Vegas,” Rogers said, smiling at him. “I feel sort of shell-shocked to be honest.”

  “Food will help,” Lott said.

  “Soon, I hope,” Rogers said.

  “As fast as I can get us there without getting arrested.”

  She laughed.

  They rode in silence for a few more blocks, then Rogers said, “We have five wives, five kids, a brother who is as much in the dark as anyone, and a lost corporation. That guy I married was a real piece of work, wasn’t he?”

  “He had his issues,” Lott said, smiling at Rogers. “But if he did find that lost gold mine, how he dealt with it was far from stupid. He kept it out of the papers and kept the money to himself.”

  Suddenly Rogers turned toward him. “Gold mine,” she said. “If he did find a gold mine, someone would have to work it. Right?”

  Lott nodded, starting to see where she was headed.

  “The ore would have to be processed and sold,” she said, “and there would be records of all that in the state records. Right?”

  “I know nothing about gold mining,” Lott said, “but I’m betting you are on the money about that.”

  “We get to the restaurant,” she said, “we have to call Andor and fill him in on all this.”

  “And we need to get Annie and Doc and their people looking into the mining of the Breyfogle as well,” Lott said.

  “Every time we hit a dead end on this, another five leads spring up,” Rogers said.

  “It certainly is keeping it interesting,” Lott said, feeling both frustrated and challenged. It really felt good to be working on a case like this. His retirement had been clouded with Connie’s sickness and death. He knew he hadn’t been ready to retire and now it felt great to be back.

  “If I don’t get some food pretty soon,” Rogers said, smiling at him, “I might make this case even more interesting by passing out on you.”

  “Six blocks,” Lott said, turning on Capital Boulevard toward the old Union Pacific Historical Train Station on the hill. The place was the subject of just about half the postcards that came out of Boise. And he had to admit, driving toward it, the big clock tower and sprawling grounds around the building on the hill did make it l
ook like a postcard.

  The restaurant he was aiming for was in a building just over the bridge and close to the edge of Boise State University. A steakhouse with huge sandwiches and perfect iced tea. Annie and Doc had brought him here on his only visit up to see them and he had wanted to go back ever since.

  He pulled into the mostly empty parking lot and they headed through the warm afternoon air toward the front door of the red-brick exterior tucked in under some tall pine and fir trees. There was a smell of freshly-mowed grass combining with the smell of cooking steak. Just about perfect for an early fall afternoon.

  Inside, the steak smell got stronger and Lott could feel his stomach starting to really rumble and his mouth watering. A waitress with brown hair and a matching brown uniform with tan blouse and brown slacks and shoes got them seated at a big wooden table with soft booth seats around it. The seats were made out of some fake leather but were amazingly comfortable.

  “Do you have some sort of bread we could snack on while we look at the menu?” Lott asked.

  “Crazy hungry,” Rogers said, smiling at the waitress who smiled back and promised to bring their classic butter rolls with their two iced teas.

  Lot glanced at her. “You get Andor, I’ll call Annie and get her started on the research on the mine.”

  “You got it,” she said.

  They were both talking when the waitress got back with the drinks and bread. And they both stopped the conversation long enough to take a large bite of the butter roll. It tasted like heaven as far as he was concerned.

  Across the table, Rogers rolled her eyes in pleasure as she bit into the roll and all he could do was laugh. He was really enjoying his time with her. He had to trust that if they did solve this case, their time together would continue.

  For some reason, he had just thought himself too old to get romantically involved again. And too set in his ways, as Connie had often said of him.

  But it seems Rogers wasn’t giving him much choice in the matter. If she just wasn’t so damn good-looking and funny and smart and fun to be with, he might be able to stop the feelings.