Smith's Monthly #15

by Smith, Dean Wesley

  “She was alive?” Julia asked a fraction of a second before Lott could.

  Fleet smiled. “She was alive. Heavily sedated, but very much alive.”

  Julia started to cry softly and then said, “Thank you, Trish.”

  Lott knew exactly what she meant. Her friend might be dead, but her death had saved another life. And who knew how many others.

  Lott hugged Julia with one arm as Fleet went on.

  “That has not been announced yet in any fashion because the FBI want to really make sure this Williams guy goes down for all of his crimes. In all three states. And they want who has been working with him as well. They haven’t even told the local Seattle police yet for fear of a leak to Williams.”

  “A trap?” Lott said, surprised. “They are setting a trap?”

  “That’s the plan,” Fleet said, “if we find here what you are afraid we are going to find.”

  “Can we help?” Julia asked, her voice intense.

  “They tell me that is also the plan,” Fleet said, smiling.

  And Lott loved the look of that smile.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  May 15, 2015

  6:30 A.M.

  High Mountain Valley

  Near the Central Idaho Primitive Area

  Julia was very relieved that the FBI surveillance had found no sign of anything being broadcast from around the house or the valley in general. So in theory, for the moment, Williams didn’t know they were on to him.

  If they actually were. All this might be a wild goose chase, but no one seemed to be treating it that way.

  And the information had saved his latest target, which just made Julia smile.

  The morning sun still hadn’t hit the tops of the peaks around the valley, so it felt more like the middle of the night than the morning. The air had a hard, crisp bite to it and the rain from the night before had made everything slick, especially the log stairs leading up to the house.

  Julia and Lott had both held onto each other while climbing those, and Julia had no idea at all how Fleet made it up them in his slick leather shoes.

  Both Julia and Lott only had on sweaters with shirts under them, so they were both starting to get cold as they stood with Fleet talking about the events.

  Fleet didn’t seem to notice the cold air at all, even though he was only dressed in a dark silk suit and a dress shirt.

  After about ten minutes, the three of them had made it up to the front porch of the large log home. Julia unlocked the front door of the lodge again and let in the surveillance team to do a sweep as they waited on the porch.

  After ten minutes, the team came back out and said, “All clear. No bugs at all.”

  Lott and Julia and Fleet headed inside and Lott went right to the fireplace to start back up a fire while Julia put on water for tea and turned on lights.

  “I have breakfast coming in shortly,” Fleet said. “I figured you two would be hungry.”

  “Very,” Lott said as Julia realized she was hungry after all.

  Julia moved over and stood at the kitchen window near the dining room table for a moment, watching as the two men worked on Trish’s body just outside the shed, clearly doing preliminary tests.

  As a detective, she had watched that process many times. She knew what they were doing.

  Along the end of the lake another group of agents were setting up their gear for the dive into the cold water. She did not envy those divers at all in that dark, cold water.

  Julia could see four other agents walking slowly up the road toward where the road came into the valley, looking for where a car or cars might have gone over the edge.

  They had extremely strong flashlights that they mostly trained along the edge of the road and sometimes down into the water.

  As the fire got going and Lott came into the kitchen area, two men and a woman came in, all carrying equipment.

  The woman looked at Fleet. “We’re going to need to set up here in the living room area.”

  “Anything you need, agent,” Fleet said.

  The woman put down the case she was carrying, nodded to the two men, and came over toward them. She was tall at maybe six feet, had on dark jeans, a dark stocking cap over short brown hair, and a heavy jacket with FBI on the front and back.

  She had the jacket open exposing a brown sweater with a tan blouse under it. Her eyes were dark and very intense.

  The FBI agent extended her hand to Julia, pulling off a thin glove as she did so.

  “Detective Rogers I presume. I am FBI Special Agent Carol Munn.”

  Julia shook her hand, smiling. “Thank you for coming in so fast and on such short notice.”

  Agent Munn just smiled and nodded at Fleet. “Tough to say no to this man, even in the middle of the night. Especially with the information you two found.”

  Agent Munn turned to Lott. “Detective Lott, a pleasure.”

  “I assure you, Agent Munn, the pleasure is all mine.”

  “Long night, huh?” Munn asked, laughing lightly.

  “Very,” Lott said, smiling.

  Then Agent Munn turned back to Julia with a serious look on her face. “I am very sorry to hear about the loss of your friend.”

  “Thank you,” Julia said, nodding.

  There was nothing else she could say.

  “Fleet mentioned you might have a plan for us,” Lott said after a moment.

  “We do,” Agent Munn said, nodding. “Fleet and I and your daughter came up with the basics of it earlier this morning. But first I would rather see what we find here.”

  Julia nodded. “Makes sense.”

  “You know Annie?” Lott asked.

  Julia glanced up at him. She could tell that Lott was surprised.

  “I worked with her and Doc on a couple of cases over the last year,” Agent Munn said. “They are an amazing couple.”

  “That they are,” Julia said, smiling up at Lott who just looked surprised.

  “Agent Munn,” one of the agents setting up equipment in the living room said. “We may have found something.”

  She turned and went back into the living room, pulling off her jacket as she went and tossing it to one side in a chair.

  On one laptop screen an image was flickering and then settling as someone on the other end stopped moving the camera.

  Julia and Lott and Fleet followed Agent Munn, standing back behind the couch, but still able to see the computer screen in front of the one agent who was sitting on the couch, the laptop on the wooden coffee table.

  It took Julia a moment to understand what she was seeing. When she did, she looked out the window toward the road.

  There, the four agents looked like dark shadows in the slowly increasing light. They were up about a hundred feet above the water. A bright light was being shown down at the ground where they were.

  “There are dozens of different tire tracks going over the edge here,” someone said who was up on the road. “Some old and weathered, some newer.”

  There was intense silence in the living room broken only by the popping of the fire.

  “Secure that location completely,” Agent Munn said to the agents on the hill. “Then continue your search.”

  “Understood,” the agent who had been talking said.

  “Tell the dive team what they may be in for,” Agent Munn said to the other agent not behind the computer.

  He nodded and went out the door.

  Julia glanced up at Lott, who looked puzzled as well. Julia knew why.

  “Agent Munn,” Julia said, “none of the women who disappeared, besides my friend, had a car in this area.”

  Munn turned and looked at Julia, then Julia saw the understanding hit Munn’s face.

  “I’ll get my people on that,” Fleet said. “That kind of research in a small area like McCall as to who is buying cars is safer coming from my people.”

  Agent Munn nodded. “Thank you, Fleet.”

  Then Agent Munn smiled at Julia. “Very good thinking, Detectiv
e.”

  All Julia could do was nod.

  They may have found a serial killer’s body dump. And if that were the case, down in those smooth, black waters out there were many, many innocent women who had died horrible deaths.

  If they were out there, at least their families would now get closure.

  Part Four

  THE SET UP

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  May 15, 2015

  7:15 A.M.

  High Mountain Valley

  Near the Central Idaho Primitive Area

  Lott wasn’t sure if he could eat even though he was hungry. Not with what was going on outside. The divers were just getting ready to go into the water.

  But when a tall guy with dark hair, a light flight jacket, and a golf hat brought in six large boxes of fresh doughnuts, a couple thermos of coffee, what looked to be a form of egg sandwiches on muffins, plus orange juice, Lott changed his mind.

  Fleet thanked the guy, said he would set things up, and asked the guy to bring up the rest as soon as he could.

  “There’s more?” Julia asked, shaking her head as she dug into sacks and boxes.

  “About three times this much,” Fleet said.

  Fleet had clearly brought enough food for all the agents working out there in the cold and the three in the living room.

  Both Lott and Julia helped set up the kitchen counter and the dining room table with all the food as Fleet made a satellite call back to his people in his office in Boise working on computers to get them searching for who had bought a lot of used cars in this area.

  And under what name.

  Then he handed the phone to Lott. “Your daughter wants to talk with you. They just arrived at their Boise offices.”

  Lott laughed and took the phone.

  “Out on a date and you send the FBI,” Lott said to Annie over the phone, winking at Julia, who laughed.

  “Dad, stop fooling around,” Annie said. “Are you and Julia all right?”

  “We’re fine,” Lott said. “And it is wonderful to hear your voice. I want to thank you and Doc and Fleet here for rushing to the rescue. It was a long and scary night last night, I must admit.”

  “Had us scared to death as well,” Annie said. “I know this Williams psycho. Worked two of his cases, remember. He’s capable of anything.”

  “We’re fine,” Lott said. “Honest. And Fleet and Agent Munn here are taking good care of us. So what’s this plan I’ve been hearing about?”

  “We’ll wait and see if what you think is there in the lake is actually there,” Annie said. “Doc and I are going to meet you at the Cascade airport later today and we can talk then.”

  Lott remembered Cascade. It was a nice town about thirty miles to the south of McCall. They had gone through it on the way to McCall.

  “Sounds like a plan,” Lott said. “Except I need one more favor of someone very young.”

  “What’s that?” Annie asked.

  “Actually, it’s two favors. We need a ride out of here through the air and someone to drive our car back out.”

  Annie laughed. “Roads that bad going in there?”

  “Oh, you have no idea,” Lott said.

  Beside him Julia just nodded in agreement.

  In the background behind Annie, Lott could hear Doc laughing so hard it sounded like he might bust a gut. Doc knew central Idaho and had spent his summers in here and on the River of No Return rafting since he had been in college.

  “Have Doc drive you in here some day,” Lott said, shaking his head at the laughter in the background.

  “Not a chance,” Annie said. “I’ve seen those mountains, been down the rivers with Doc. Don’t worry, Fleet can give you a lift to Cascade and we’ll get someone in there to drive the car out.”

  “Thank you,” Lott said.

  “Yes, thank you,” Julia said loud enough for Annie to hear over the phone.

  “And tell Andor we are all right, would you?” Lott said.

  “I will, Dad,” she said. “See you soon.” Lott could tell that Annie was barely containing her laughter as well as she hung up.

  “Doc and Annie are laughing at us flatlanders,” Lott said, smiling at Julia.

  “I’m with you two,” Fleet said. “I’d rather just pay for that car and let it sit than drive it out of here myself.”

  “We’ll get an agent to drive it out,” Agent Munn said from the living room, laughing.

  “Thank you,” was all Lott could say.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  May 15, 2015

  7:30 A.M.

  High Mountain Valley

  Near the Central Idaho Primitive Area

  Julia took a cup of coffee and one of the fresh doughnuts. She wasn’t sure if the coffee would help her stomach, but for the moment she needed to stay awake and alert and strong coffee with a little cream had helped her do that for years on the job.

  Especially when Jane had been young and sleep had been a luxury.

  Lott did the same, only he added a little sugar to his coffee and took a doughnut with a cream filling.

  “Going to pay for this later I’m sure,” he said.

  “After the long night,” Julia said. “We can afford a little price to stay alert.”

  “Agreed,” Lott said, smiling and sipping his coffee.

  Julia did the same, letting the wonderful smell and taste kick back some of the tiredness.

  She had just finished her doughnut and half her coffee when one of the men who had been working on Trish’s body came through the door. He had removed his forensics overalls and his gloves. He was fairly young, not more than thirty, with dirty blonde hair and pimples on his cheeks. He had on the standard FBI dark jacket and dark jeans and tennis shoes.

  Agent Munn stood and came over to him and Julia and Lott and Fleet joined her.

  “You have a preliminary report, Doctor?” Agent Munn asked.

  The doctor, who was clearly also an FBI agent, nodded to Julia and said simply, “I am sorry for your loss, Detective.”

  Julia was surprised. Clearly everyone knew on this team.

  She nodded back as the young blonde doctor turned to Agent Munn.

  “As was evident, the victim was embalmed. All organs were removed and her blood replaced with standard embalming fluid and a hardening agent of some sort, which kept down all decomposition. We should be able to trace the fluid back to an exact mortuary because of the special mixture used.”

  “Good,” Agent Munn said, nodding.

  Julia was very glad to hear that. That kind of evidence in a trial was very, very difficult to refute in court.

  “There are no indications of any kind of injury,” the blonde doctor said. “More than likely the victim was drugged and the cause of death would be bleeding out on the embalming table.”

  Julia just shook her head at that and Lott put his arm around her to hold her.

  “There is one more thing,” the young doctor said, glancing at Julia as if afraid to say anything because she had been friends with Trish.

  “It’s all right,” Julia said. “I’m a retired detective. I’ve been around a lot of death over the years.”

  The young doctor nodded his thanks, then turned back to Agent Munn. “The victim was sexually abused after she was embalmed. Possibly a number of times.”

  Julia felt her stomach just tighten up and Lott’s arm held her tighter, something she really appreciated.

  “We might be able to get DNA samples,” the blonde doctor said. “Since they closed her up after abusing her. Usually water would wash that away, but in this case it might be possible. We are loading the victim into the helicopter now and I suggest we get the body to a facility quickly to pull tests.”

  “Will another hour make a difference?” Agent Munn asked.

  “I don’t think an hour would matter,” the doctor said.

  “Then stay around a little longer. If what we are afraid of happens, you’re going to need to go and bring back a large team.”

&n
bsp; “Understood,” the young doctor said.

  He nodded to Julia and then turned and left.

  “I’m sorry you had to hear all that about your friend, Detective,” Agent Munn said to Julia.

  “I’m not,” Julia said. “It seems we’re going to have a lot of evidence to catch this sicko.”

  Agent Munn nodded and turned back to the living room.

  Lott eased Julia back into the kitchen area and took her cup and freshened it with hot coffee.

  “I’m all right,” Julia said as he handed the cup back to her.

  “Well I’m not,” Lott said. “I’m angry and disgusted and want more than anything to just put a bullet in some sick human’s head.”

  “Well,” Julia said, smiling at the man she was coming to love, “I’m all for that as well. That’s what I mean by all right.”

  Lott laughed and Fleet just shook his head.

  “How you detectives ever sleep at night is beyond me,” Fleet said, “with all the sickness out there in the human population.”

  “It was our job,” Lott said.

  “It was a good job,” Julia said, nodding. “I’m just glad I can still play a small part.”

  “I don’t think putting these pieces together on the most notorious serial killer of our time is a small part,” Agent Munn said as she came into the kitchen and took a doughnut with chocolate frosting out of one of the boxes of doughnuts covering the counter.

  “Divers are going in,” the agent behind the computer in the living room said.

  “You sure you want to watch this?” Agent Munn asked as Lott and Julia started with her toward the living room.

  “We have no choice,” Lott said.

  Agent Munn nodded and went in and sat beside the man at the laptop. She had known exactly what he meant.

  “Well, I have a choice,” Fleet said. “I think I’ll just stay out here with the food.”

  Agent Munn smiled.

  Julia quickly turned around and went back and kissed Fleet on the cheek. “Thank you. For everything. And I am sure my friend Trish would thank you as well.”