Bad Beat

by Smith, Dean Wesley

  Las Vegas, Nevada

  LOTT HADN’T BEEN this tired in a long time. It was almost three in the morning. He hadn’t stayed up until this hour for a very, very long time. And it had been a very long day as well. But at the same time, excitement was coursing through him.

  He had had far too much caffeine and he felt slightly jittery.

  The streets of Las Vegas still had traffic, but it mostly seemed like support trucks and vans. Very few tourists were out and about and all the lights of the entire city still lit up the night sky as they did all night long.

  The compound for the families was located on a hill to the north of town in a very nice area of homes.

  He and Julia sat in the front seat of his Cadillac and Andor and Paul sat in the back seat. They were two blocks down the road from a large, gated complex of buildings that looked like regular two-story suburban homes.

  The night air was still warm, but not the blistering heat of earlier in the day. It actually felt comfortable and had a light smell of sagebrush.

  Julia had her phone on her lap open to Annie.

  Annie was also nearby in another car with Doc and Mike and Heather. Lott knew a dozen squad cars were standing by farther down the hill behind them.

  From the outside, the family compound looked like a gated subdivision, but all the buildings inside were owned by one person, and two dozen family members lived in the homes inside the complex.

  Nice homes from what Lott could tell. The family clearly took care of its own.

  Mike, in the meeting with the chief of police, had suggested that he have his people go in ahead of the detectives. His people, as he called them, were Special Forces. They were trained to deal with compounds like this one. They could go in and take out any guards and shut down alarms before the police went through the door. And never fire a shot.

  Annie told them later that after the police and a couple of trusted top detectives looked at the compound layout for Las Vegas, the chief had agreed. He had no desire to lose men in a firefight with killers who had nothing to lose.

  Mike said he could get ten Special Forces men ready to breach in two hours. Five of them were already ready to go and had been guarding Lott’s home and five more had been around Annie and Doc’s office.

  In Reno, the FBI was working with Special Forces as well, since they could trust no one in the local police department. In fact, one of the people they would be arresting tonight was the chief of police in Reno.

  Mike’s men had gone in ten minutes ago, scaling the compound walls in four places. There had been no alarms sounded and no shots fired so far.

  Now everyone was just waiting for the all clear.

  Lott had the window on his side down slightly to listen for any kind of sounds of gunshots. The police were going in at the first sound of a gunshot. But Mike had promised no gunfire. And as well as Lott knew Mike, he had a hunch there wouldn’t be any.

  The minutes stretched onward.

  Lott couldn’t believe their one cold case had turned into such a military-style invasion. And that Becky Penn was just the tip of a massive cult of killings.

  And if they were lucky, it would end tonight.

  But first they had to get through this night to make sure it really ended.

  No word from either Reno or the compound in front of them.

  And there was to be no other movement to arrest any of the other family members who lived around town until the compounds were secure or in a fight.

  Lott had been impressed at how many men the chief had gotten at three in the morning. There had to be forty detectives backed up with dozens and dozens of patrol cops all scattered over town. The idea was that every family member killer around town would be rounded up in a ten-minute span once the word was given to go.

  As they sat there, Lott also knew that cells in the jail were being cleared of vagrants and DUI cases and other small crimes to make room for entire families of serial killers.

  At eighteen minutes after Mike’s men went in, up by the main gate of the compound, Lott could see a man in all black with his gun slung over his shoulder, push open the gates.

  “It’s clear,” Annie said over the speaker-phone in Julia’s lap. “All police are moving in on the other family members.”

  Lott sat and waited until the police had swarmed the front gate and gone in, then he moved them up and parked behind the mass of blinking police lights.

  The four of them got out and Lott turned to Paul. “Stay with us.”

  Paul nodded, looking completely stunned at what was going on.

  The chief was standing just inside the compound gate as the first handcuffed prisoners were led out of the closest house.

  “Did you read them their rights?” the chief asked the two detectives.

  “Read and understood,” one detective said as they headed for a car.

  Lott studied the compound. Standing on the street like this it looked like a typical cul-de-sac in any subdivision. Ten modern houses, with the biggest at the end.

  But this street and these houses were the ultimate modern horror.

  “So how did it go?” Lott asked the chief as Annie and Doc joined them.

  Doc stood taller than Lott and was in top shape. He had dark short hair and tonight was wearing jeans and a polo shirt and tennis shoes. He and Annie just fit perfectly together.

  “Mike’s people had them all in zip-ties before they gave the all clear,” the chief said, shaking his head and smiling.

  “So where did Mike’s people go?” Annie asked, looking around.

  “And where did Mike and Heather go?” Lott asked. “Wasn’t he with you?”

  “He’s headed back to keep the pressure on the research,” Doc said. “Not the kind to hang around.”

  “And Mary May? And the guy kidnapped at the same time?” Julia asked.

  “Alive and in the basement of that house there,” the chief said, pointing to the second house up the street. “That was their ritual house. We have ambulances coming for both of them. The two are in tough shape but will survive, thanks to all of you.”

  Lott felt like a ton of weight lifted suddenly from his shoulders. He made himself take a deep breath of the warm night air just to try to slow his fast-beating heart.

  They had given closure to a lot of cold cases, but they had also saved lives.

  And who knows how many lives off into the future.

  Julia took his hand and squeezed it. He glanced at her and could see she felt the same way by the huge smile on her face.

  FORTY-TWO

  September 27th, 2016

  Las Vegas, Nevada

  JULIA WAS SO excited that they had saved the kidnapped victims.

  The chief went to supervise the arrests and Julia and Lott and Annie and Doc and Andor and Paul moved to one side of the street on the sidewalk and stood in a small line like watching a parade.

  Only there was no cheering and this parade was of serial killers.

  They all just stood silently watching as family member after family member was led to a police car.

  And they watched as Mary May and the other victim were taken from a house on a stretcher and sped away in two ambulances.

  The police just kept bringing out more family members after that. Usually two and three at a time, each escorted by a detective and a uniformed cop.

  The family members looked so normal, so regular, especially in their bathrobes and pajamas coming out of their modern homes. Yet Julia knew that she was watching one of the worst parades of killers ever to be arrested. How could such normal people living such seemingly normal lives be so evil?

  Paul just stood between Andor and Lott, shaking his head as family member after family member walked past. Some of them were sobbing, some of them saw him standing with the police and shook their heads.

  Paul and his wife were going to need to disappear under other names after these trials were over. In most places he would be considered a hero for helping to bring down so many murde
rers. But some family members of victims might wonder why he didn’t do this before their daughter or son was killed.

  Julia knew. But that explanation would not hold for many. And she understood that as well. So Paul’s best hope was to stay out of the press and then vanish into protective custody when this was over. Maybe even tonight if the chief was thinking.

  A few times a couple women and men from social services came up the sidewalk and then escorted young children down the street to waiting cars. Julia felt bad for those children. They just lost their parents and were soon to find out they were being raised by monsters.

  Finally, Julia saw Lorraine and Ray Walter being led down the front sidewalk from their big house at the end of the block. Both were wearing robes and slippers and Lorraine had a hairnet of some sort over her hair.

  The chief of police walked close behind them.

  Lott and Julia and Paul stepped forward.

  Ray saw Paul and shook his head. “I knew we should have killed you with your parents and sister.”

  “Ray!” Lorraine said sharply. “Keep your damn mouth shut.”

  Julia saw the police chief smile and then shake his head. Lorraine and Ray had been read their rights, so what idiot Ray had just said would be admissible in court if any of this ever got that far.

  “And why we let you marry our daughter is beyond me,” Ray said, spitting at Paul’s feet. “Should have killed both of you and put you with your first wife and that other woman you were going to marry.”

  “Ray,” Lorraine said, again as sharp as Julia ever imagined the woman could talk.

  The chief was damn near laughing out loud behind them now. The two detectives who were escorting the two just shook their heads and smiled as well.

  “Nice seeing you one last time, Lorraine and Ray,” Julia said. “Thanks for all the help solving this case.”

  Ray looked like he might just explode his face was so red.

  Julia and Lott just smiled.

  “It was her stupid idea to even talk with you,” Ray said, almost backhanding Lorraine, and he might have if not in handcuffs and in the grasp of a detective.

  And then Ray looked at Paul. “And her idea to keep you alive as well.”

  “Why did you kill my family?” Paul asked, his voice low and seemingly calm.

  “Because with you and your damn sister coming along,” Ray said, sneering, “your stupid father was going to continue to control the families and he wasn’t smart enough to deserve to do that.”

  Lorraine just shook her head and looked at the street.

  Paul indicated all the police cars around them. “Seems you weren’t so good at it yourself.”

  Ray tried to lunge at Paul, but the detective yanked him back into place so hard, Julia was sure it might have broken some old bone.

  “Goodbye, Ray,” Paul said. “May the great one, or whatever sick god you bow to, show no mercy on your stupid head.”

  With that, the two detectives led them on down the street.

  The chief smiled at the three of them.

  “From what I have been told,” he said, “Every active family member in town and in Reno has been caught and arrested.”

  “Oh, thank you,” Paul said, trembling.

  “You’re going to need to come with me,” the chief said to Paul. “We’ll get you set up in a safe hotel and you can have your wife return when you feel safe. But we need you giving as much testimony on this as you can over the next week or so.”

  “My wife can help with that as well,” Paul said. “We both want to.”

  Paul turned to Julia and Lott and Annie and Andor and Doc. “Thank you all for allowing me the chance to explain and doing the work to back up my story. My wife and I owe you our lives.”

  Julia nodded and Lott shook his hand. “Good luck.”

  With that, Paul and the chief headed down the sidewalk.

  Julia had no doubt they would ever see Paul again. He would vanish into the system for his own protection. And maybe be able to live a life free of the idea he might be killed at any moment.

  Then steps down the street the chief looked back at them and smiled. “Remember your promise about the press. You had better get out of here.”

  Lott glanced at Annie and Doc and Andor. “Bellagio Café?”

  “Where else at this hour of the morning?” Andor asked.

  “Where else at any time of the day?” Annie asked as they all headed out the front gate and to their cars.

  Julia felt lighter with every step.

  FORTY-THREE

  October 5th, 2016

  Las Vegas, Nevada

  IT HAD BEEN well over a week since every member of the families was arrested. Lott had been surprised that not a one managed to escape and not a shot was fired considering how fast the entire thing had come together.

  There had been no mention of the Cold Poker Gang or Mike and his people or Doc and Annie or Paul in the massive press storm that had hit the national news. The chief and other agencies were keeping them all out of it. And the press storm showed no signs of easing because of the nature of three states being involved.

  And the FBI was totally and officially involved now, which helped a lot.

  Florida had just started to dig one of the family graveyards, California would be starting over the next few days, and both Reno and Las Vegas had started to get ready to bring up the bodies.

  The lists of the victims was still a secret and if a family asked, then their child would be either confirmed or denied as being part of the killings. At the moment it was the best the police could do.

  Two family members had attempted suicide and both had failed. Lott liked that. They hadn’t given all their victims an easy way out, no reason they should have one either.

  And the underage children of the families had all been taken out of state and split up. No telling what would happen to any of them. They were victims of their parents’ evil as well.

  No real details about the ritual killings had come out yet, but Lott was sure that they would, and that would keep the press circling for a very long time, considering that some of this went back to old cults in Massachusetts.

  Annie and Doc had headed off to a poker tournament in London.

  Fleet had gone back to Boise, and today, Julia was moving in with Lott.

  It was ten in the morning when the movers had arrived at Julia’s apartment. They had both gotten up early and done the final packing. Lott had put the last of his clothes in his car and a bunch of Julia’s precious small things.

  The movers did one trip to take furniture to Julia’s daughter Jane’s apartment, then came back and made another trip of stuff to a charity.

  Then the last trip they loaded up all of Julia’s clothes and things she wanted to keep and a couple of rocking chairs and a recliner she loved for the living room.

  She and Lott had stood and watched the three young men move in a way that Lott could only barely remember ever moving when he was young.

  “So you going to miss this place?” Lott asked Julia as they stood to one side in the almost empty living room of the apartment.

  She took his hand and squeezed it. “Not in the slightest.”

  She pointed to three boxes sitting to one side. “See those?”

  “Yeah,” he said, slightly worried.

  “Those are the clothes I couldn’t fit in the closet here.”

  “So you’re moving in with me for my closet?” he asked, smiling at her.

  She pulled his head closer and kissed him. And that felt wonderful and he didn’t want it to end.

  Then when she finally let him go, she said, “Yes, of course.”

  He laughed. “I knew it. Nothing more?”

  “The kitchen,” she said laughing. “I’ve got boxes of dishes and pots and pans you know.”

  “We have room,” he said, laughing. “So nothing else at all?”

  “Well, she said, giving him a sly look, “maybe the sex.”

  “Why, young
lady,” Lott said, laughing, “I am shocked.”

  “Not as shocked as you are going to be tonight in bed,” she said.

  She once again pointed to the boxes. “I have some pretty fine lace things tucked away in there that no one has ever seen.”

  Lott looked around. “Think these guys can move any faster?”

  She laughed and kissed him and he knew right then that without a doubt, this was a damn fine day.

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Considered one of the most prolific writers working in modern fiction, USA Today bestselling writer Dean Wesley Smith published far more than a hundred novels in forty years, and hundreds of short stories across many genres.

  At the moment he produces novels in four major series, including the time travel Thunder Mountain novels set in the Old West, the galaxy-spanning Seeders Universe series, the urban fantasy Ghost of a Chance series, and a superhero series starring Poker Boy.

  His monthly magazine, Smith’s Monthly, which consists of only his own fiction, premiered in October 2013 and offers readers more than 70,000 words per issue, including a new and original novel every month.

  During his career, Dean also wrote a couple dozen Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, Spider-Man and X-Men novels, plus novels set in gaming and television worlds. Writing with his wife Kristine Kathryn Rusch under the name Kathryn Wesley, he wrote the novel for the NBC miniseries The Tenth Kingdom and other books for Hallmark Hall of Fame movies.