SIX

 

 

September 16th, 2016

Las Vegas, Nevada

 

JULIA LOVED THE fact that Annie and Doc and all the resources they had were on board this case. It was going to make things a lot easier and allow them to investigate a lot deeper to track down this killer.

Doc’s best friend and business partner, Fleet, seemed to know computer people who could dig into things and get information Julia was pretty certain wasn’t supposed to be gotten.

And it seemed that Doc and Fleet and Annie knew someone in all levels of governments in most western states. They even had the ear of the President of the United States thanks to their first case together. For two professional poker players and a businessman, the three of them had resources far beyond any normal police force.

And they weren’t afraid to use them when they believed in the cause or the case.

Julia really enjoyed Annie as a person as well. Annie and Julia’s daughter Jane had gotten to know each other and also liked each other. Which cleared up any family issues that Julia and Lott might have in their relationship.

Julia and Lott were both going slowly, but lately they had been talking about more. She wasn’t sure what that more would entail just yet, but she wasn’t going to go away.

And Lott wasn’t going away from her either.

And she loved waking up in the morning with him beside her. She felt that started the day perfectly, no matter what she was doing.

After twenty minutes of talking and laughing as they all finished eating and Annie got some food as well, Andor turned the conversation back to the case.

Julia brought her notebook back up to the table beside her now-empty cherry pie plate and told Annie what they had talked about so far.

Annie nodded, listening, then said when Julia had finished, “Where can we help?”

“We have the Toyota license number and vin number,” Andor said to Annie. “Can your computer people have any chance of finding out where that car ended up thirty years ago?”

“We might be able to backtrack from there,” Julia said.

“I’ll get them on it early in the morning,” Annie said. “Never know what those magicians with keyboards can find.”

She turned to Lott. “Can you send me the details on the other three bodies, approximate age, approximate time of death, hair color, height, that sort of thing?”

Lott nodded. “I’ll get it all out of the files and have it e-mailed to you before I go to bed tonight.”

“I think we should be able to cross-check with computer programs,” Annie said, “all the missing women from that time period to the details that we have and narrow it all down a great deal.”

“Something not even the young detectives on the force had time to do,” Andor said.

“No surprise,” Annie said. “Not with the reduction in money and manpower and the increase in population and crime, those detectives are lucky to sleep at night.”

Julia nodded at that.

“If we can narrow it down like that,” Lott said, smiling at his daughter, “we can then do the leg work to see if we can find some similarities.”

“I’d love to be a part of that field work,” Annie said. “If you need me.”

All three of them laughed and Annie smiled.

“I have a hunch we’re going to need all the help we can get to solve this one.”

“Amen to that,” Andor said.

“We like a challenge, don’t we?” Lott asked.

Julia and Annie and Andor all agreed to that.

But Julia knew this case was more than just a challenge. After thirty-plus years, it might turn out to be flat impossible. But the only way they would know was to dig in and tackle it.