“Stop here, on the side of the street,” Julia said. “See the home beside the old school.”
Lott nodded. From where they were parked in front of a patch of dirt and weeds, he could barely see the home she mentioned. It looked slightly more kept up than many in this area.
“I am sure I saw Kirk Wampler, otherwise known as Lynch, get in that dark sedan beside the house. And West got in the passenger seat.”
“Oh, shit,” Andor said.
At that point, the sedan backed out of the driveway slowly, then turned away from them and vanished along the street that ran in front of the old school and parallel to the one they were on.
Julia was instantly on the phone.
Damn Lott hoped she was right. If so, this would be the first piece of luck they had had in this case in fifteen years.
It was about damn time they had some luck.
Lott swung the big SUV around and headed parallel along the street they had seen the sedan go down. He knew that both of these streets dead-ended in a few blocks into a freeway, so the sedan would have to turn toward them to get to the Old Boulder Highway.
After a block, Lott pulled over in front of one of the only houses in the neighborhood that looked kept up. He didn’t want them to see him moving.
Just as he did, the sedan went past in front of them, headed for the highway.
Lott eased back into the street.
“Annie, we have an emergency,” Julia said, making sure the phone was on speaker. “I think I just saw Lynch and West.”
“They are stopped,” Lott said, “waiting to turn toward town on the Old Boulder Highway two blocks away from us.”
“They are in a dark, late model Chevy sedan,” Andor said. “Four-door, can’t spot the license plate.”
“Can you track them in case we lose them?”
“Fleet?” Annie shouted away from the phone.
“Already on it,” Fleet shouted back from what must have been across the office.
Lott just shook his head. Again, no chance they could solve any of this without Doc and Annie and Fleet doing their computer magic.
The sedan turned onto the highway in traffic and headed into town.
Lott got to the intersection and then into traffic quickly, making one car brake suddenly, but at least he was only a dozen cars behind the sedan.
“Can you track us with my phone’s location?” Julia asked. “The sedan is only a dozen cars ahead of us in the same lane.”
“I got them,” Fleet said. “Two people in the car. I’m following them on traffic cams, so you can back off.”
Lott let himself take a deep breath and move over a lane.
The sedan made it through a stoplight while they got held up, but Fleet told them not to worry.
After a mile or so of silence, Fleet said, “The car is registered to Kirk Wampler. You hit it on the head. And I know exactly where they are going.”
“You’re kidding,” Julia asked.
“We just got into one of their bank accounts,” Fleet said. “Don’t ask how. But twice a week they go for a late lunch at the Golden Nugget Buffet. They haven’t missed in years.”
“So murderers have date nights,” Andor said.
“So you can follow them?” Lott asked.
“Without an issue,” Fleet said. “Doc and Annie are already out the door headed to the Golden Nugget to alert the security there and let me get plugged into the casino security systems and cameras.”
“Don’t let them know they are being watched,” Lott said.
“No one will get close to them,” Fleet said, “and we will make sure any signal trying to reach them from any of their alarms will be shut down completely while they are in there.”
“Good,” Lott said, “because we’re going back to the school.”
“School?” Fleet asked.
“The Saint Mary’s Girl’s School where all this started,” Lott said, getting the big white Cadillac turned off the highway and then around and on the highway headed back to the school. “They came from a home beside the old school. I’m betting there is a reason for that.”
“We’ll keep you on the line,” Julia said to Fleet.
They didn’t have a lot of time. But they had some.
And Lott had a hunch that the woman from Montana didn’t have much time left at all.
PART FIVE
Calling Dead
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
August 15th, 2015
1:15 P.M.
Las Vegas
JULIA HAD BEEN stunned for a moment when she saw Lynch dressed as Wampler come out of that home and get into the sedan. Luckily she reacted as fast as she did. Lott’s Cadillac was certainly not a car normally seen in this neighborhood, so they would have stuck out and been spotted.
Andor leaned forward between the two front bucket seats as Lott managed to get them headed back toward the school.
“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Andor asked. “Missy Andrews from Montana is being baked as we speak?”
“I am,” Lott said.
“Shit,” Fleet said over the phone that Julia held up between the three of them.
Julia just shook her head. If that was the case, the woman might already be dead. Or nearly dead.
“I’ll get us an emergency search warrant,” Andor said. “We play this by the book if we can.”
“Agreed,” Lott said. “But we go in warrant or not.”
Andor nodded and was on the phone a moment later. He simply said his name, then asked for the chief, and less than ten seconds later was connected with the chief. Julia was impressed, considering the firestorm that must be going on at headquarters.
“Chief,” Andor said, “We have Lynch and West under surveillance and we think the Montana woman is in immediate danger. We need an emergency warrant. Fast as you can get it.”
Julia watched as Lott got parked in front of the old school and Andor gave the address to the chief.
“Fleet,” Lott said, “we need to know the instant Lynch and West are blocked from any reception of an alarm.”
“A moment,” Fleet said.
Julia forced herself to take a deep breath and try to stay calm as each second ticked away in silence.
The old brick school clearly had been special in its day, but now, with two layers of ten-foot tall wire fence around it and construction half done on a bunch of stuff, the school looked just tired. More like an old prison building than anything else. The tall windows had long since been boarded up and the front door was also boarded over.
Julia was surprised that it wasn’t bigger. It didn’t look much larger than the size of a regular church. But it was two stories tall and the brick bell tower was a bell tower, not a steeple. From what she could tell, the bell was long gone.
“My people just found that Lynch and West,” Fleet said on speaker on her phone, “under the Wampler name, own the old school as well, under another shell company that was buried damn deep. And they own three of the homes around the old school.”
“Where are they now?” Julia asked. “We’re about to go into the school and we don’t want to alert them.”
“You are clear,” Fleet said. “They are just pulling into the valet parking at the Rush Tower side of the Golden Nugget. They are shut down for any incoming messages. Annie and Doc have me linked into all the casino’s security cameras and they are standing by in security as well.”
“Completely?” Julia asked.
“Completely,” Fleet said. “No one in the casino area is going to get a phone call on a cell phone while those two are in there.”
Julia glanced at Lott who nodded. “Let’s go.”
She nodded. They now could go into the school without setting off alarms that would send Lynch and West fleeing.
“We’ll let you know what we find in just a few minutes, Chief,” Andor said from behind her. “Stay tuned and stall that press conference just a few more minutes.”
He clicked off his phone. “Got
the warrant.”
All three of them climbed out into the baking heat.
Julia kept her connection to Fleet on and held her phone out in front of her as Lott and Andor opened the back of the SUV and dug out a couple large pair of wire and bolt cutters and two large crowbars.
Then they started right at the front gate on the fence.
Two minutes of work in the heat and with the hot wire fence and they had the first gate open enough for the three of them to get inside the area between the two fences. It took less than a minute to get the second fence gate open.
Both Lott and Andor were sweating. But Julia knew that if Missy Andrews was inside, time was of the essence.
“Lynch and West just reached the lobby of the buffet,” Fleet said.
“Got a floor plan of this old school?” Lott asked.
“I will pull one up and walk you through it,” Fleet said. “Door on the east side might be your best bet to get in.”
Julia glanced around as both Fleet and Lott shook their heads. “We’re going through the front.”
Julia watched, holding the phone out in front of her, wishing there was something she could do as the two of them started ripping boards down. It took them less time to expose the old front door than it had to get through the fence.
“Door’s rotted,” Lott said, staring up at the casing.
Julia could see that as well.
“Let’s hope there’s nothing solid behind this,” Andor said.
Then with a solid kick, the door smashed inward and came away from the frame, twisting into a wall and sending a cloud of dust swirling through the air.
“Watch for nails,” Lott said as they three of them went over the debris and inside.
The place smelled musty and old and unused. A wide main hallway led away in front of them, covered in dust and broken trim and doors, illuminated by the bright light from the broken front door only. On the inside, the place looked much bigger than it did from the outside.
Both Andor and Lott had grabbed flashlights and both started carefully down the hallway.
“Fleet,” Julia asked, flipping an old light switch without any success. “Is this place pulling any power?”
“Hold on,” Fleet said.
They had taken another five steps down the old high-ceilinged hallway before Fleet came back. “It is. Massive amounts, actually. That started ten minutes ago.”
“Oven,” Julia said. “Damn it!”
“Basement,” Lott said.
“Fleet, is there a basement?” Julia asked.
“There is,” Fleet said. “Staircase on the right as you come in from the main door. There is an old gym and locker rooms down there.”
Andor cut the lock on the old door with his bolt cutters and they went down the old stairs quickly, plunging into darkness that even the two flashlights didn’t seem to push back much.
“Still with us, Fleet?” Julia asked.
“Loud and clear,” Fleet said.
At the bottom of the stairs there were two doors, both of which looked like they had been used a great deal. Both had high-level security locks on them. Keypad electronic types.
“That door looks like it goes off underground toward the home next door,” Lott said.
Julia agreed. “A logical way to get unseen into the old school.”
“Let’s hope they didn’t set any kind of explosive trap on this door,” Lott said.
“Too damn late now if they did,” Andor said.
Julia agreed as both Lott and Andor started banging at the door, smashing anything that would smash.
“That’s some noise,” Fleet said.
“Breaking into the old gym area, from the looks of it,” Annie shouted over the destruction.
Finally, the door frame started to move where it had rotted out along one side. And then a moment later, it fell inward with a smash, sending dust swirling into the big room.
Cool air swept over them as they stepped forward.
A switch on the wall beside the ruined door worked this time as Julia tried it and lights in the old gym came up full and bright.
At first she didn’t understand what she was seeing exactly.
Then the details came clear and she covered her mouth and turned away and for the first time in all her years as a detective, she threw up.
And right beside her, Lott did the same thing.
On the phone in Julia’s hand, Fleet said softly, “That doesn’t sound good.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
August 15th, 2015
1:40 P.M.
Las Vegas
LOTT HAD NEVER, not once, lost his lunch over a crime scene. But what faced them in this room was so much more than a crime scene. This was a sick trophy room.
And just the vastness of the death had overwhelmed him.
He managed to clear his mouth by spitting a few times, then eased Julia up from where she was bent over and together they both turned around again.
The scene in front of them was a nightmare that he had no doubt he would ever forget.
On what looked like very narrow twin beds, with sheets, women’s butts, partially covered with underwear, and the backs of their legs were posed, two per bed. It looked like the rest of the woman’s body was simply covered up under the sheet, so it looked very much like women were laying there, face down, side-by-side on the narrow beds.
That would have been bad enough, but it didn’t stop there.
Between each bed were two child mannequins dressed in the black and white schoolgirl uniforms, standing posed as if watching the two partial bodies on the beds. One watched one bed, another watched another bed.
Only each child mannequin had a real woman’s head with long blonde hair.
The bus graveyard was going to be full of headless women’s bodies. Lynch took their heads as a trophy.
The scene was repeated like a giant dormitory all the way around the outside of the large gym and also had started another row down the middle.
Sick trophies from over three hundred dead women.
“We need to find that oven,” Andor said, his breathing heavy, his voice raspy.
“Damn,” Julia said, shaking her head.
Lott also snapped back into focusing on what was important. It was as if his mind had just gone from him for a moment and now it was suddenly back. He forced himself to not look into the faces of all the women whose heads were posed on the child mannequin bodies.
A door stood partially open on the other side of the gym and Andor pointed to it.
Lott, with Julia at his side, followed Andor toward the door as fast as they could go, not looking at anything on or beside any of the beds.
“You still with us?” Julia said into the phone she carried.
“Right with you,” Fleet said. “All three of us are here on the phone if you need anything at all.”
Lott was glad to hear that, but his strongest hope at the moment was that his daughter would never see anything like this.
Once through the door, Julia again flicked on the light and there, in front of them, was what looked like a massive pizza oven.
And it was radiating heat.
Andor moved to the control panel to the right of the big door and shut everything down quickly. Then with a glance at Lott and Julia, he opened the door.
Heat, as if they had stepped back outside into the hot August sun, flooded the small room.
Inside the oven, stretched out nude, was a black-haired woman lying on what looked to be a very thick pad of some sort.
Lott had not seen a picture of Missy Andrews, but he was betting that was her.
He grabbed an oven mitt and tossed a second one to Andor, then the two of them rolled the large tray the woman was on out of the oven. Lott wasn’t surprised that it came easily.
Julia quickly touched the woman’s hot skin searching for a pulse.
“She’s still alive. And her heartbeat is strong.”
Lott couldn’t believe the relief he felt
at that instant.
“Fleet,” Julia said into her phone. “Get an ambulance headed here at once.”
“On the way,” Fleet said.
Andor had his phone to his ear as well. “Chief, I need just you, the head of the FBI, and the State Police person in charge to come here at once. Don’t let reporters follow you.”
Andor listened for a moment. “Postpone it for an hour and then you can announce you have wrapped this all up.”
A pause.
“Not kidding,” Andor said.
Another pause as Andor listened. Then he said simply, “We found their trophy room and the Montana woman is alive.”
“Make it fast,” Andor said. Then hung up.
Lott just shook his head, then pointed to the woman on the big oven tray. “We have to get her upstairs and out of here.”
Julia nodded. “We can’t have some poor ambulance drivers seeing that room out there.”
“Agreed,” Andor said. “No one deserves to live with that image.”
Lott looked around and spotted the ambulance-like gurney tucked to one side of the oven. More than likely Lynch and West had used it to bring their victims in. It was set at the same height as the oven tray.
Lott grabbed the gurney and pulled it so that it was in front of the oven. With Julia keeping the gurney from moving, Lott and Andor lifted the woman, pad and all, onto the gurney.
Then Julia used a light sheet from a table nearby to cover her up a little.
“Back through the nightmare,” Andor said.
Lott nodded.
He knew he was going to be living this nightmare for a very long time.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
August 15th, 2015
1:55 P.M.
Las Vegas
JULIA LED THE way back through the gym, focusing on making sure the gurney they were pushing didn’t hit anything. The last thing she wanted to do was stop and look at the heads of murder victims and all the parts of bodies from other women.
At the ruined door, Lott and Andor managed to get the gurney over the wood on the floor and to the bottom of the old staircase. It was markedly warmer out in the foyer area, and Julia didn’t much like taking a woman clearly overheated out into the Vegas sun and heat, but they had no choice.
Calling Dead: A Cold Poker Gang Mystery Page 11