FOURTEEN

 

 

September 17th, 2016

Las Vegas, Nevada

 

JULIA AND LOTT were sitting in the kitchen nook, overlooking the yard, side by side, holding hands. Annie sat across from them and they were talking about everything but the case.

Julia couldn’t believe she had just agreed to move in with Lott. And wasn’t even the slightest bit scared about it. Clearly Lott was past his deceased wife and Annie loved the fact that they were together. So Carol would not be forgotten, but Julia and Lott could now move forward into a new life together.

In an almost completely remodeled home as well, one that Julia felt very comfortable in.

So finally, with the tub of chicken smelling wonderful between them, they heard Andor’s car pull into the driveway.

“I’ll go see if he needs help with files,” Annie said, standing.

“I’ll get the plates and napkins,” Julia said, standing.

“Silverware and water,” Lott said, standing.

By the time Annie and Andor came in both carrying an armload of files, the table was set and the lid was off the bucket of chicken. And wow did that smell good. Julia had no idea how hungry she had gotten. It had been a very long day so far and from the looks of the piles of files Andor had and a couple small files that Annie had brought, the day was far from over.

All four of them made it through their first piece of chicken in record speed and were working on second pieces when Andor finally brought the conversation around to the case.

“The chief is very interested in what we are doing,” Andor said. “I filled him in a little and promised him we’d keep him up to date on everything. To solve this many unsolved cases at once would be a real boost for him.”

“And give a lot of closure to a lot of families,” Annie said a moment before Julie could say it as well.

Julia didn’t like the size of that stack of files, knowing that every file had a missing and most likely dead person that was the subject.

She took out her notebook and opened it.

“So we got answers to a few questions from lunch,” she said, looking at her notes. “We know that no one lives at Duane Thorn’s address.”

“I checked,” Annie said. “That is the only property he owns under that name. He only reports his income from selling cars and best as we can figure, his Social Security number is fake. Duane Thorn basically doesn’t exist.”

All of them nodded. That was no surprise at this point to Julia.

“And we have a theory about why the four women in the other grave,” Lott said. He explained the idea they had about why the killer tried to tell people about that grave when Paul Vaughan died, but no one looked at the journal until they found it.

It sounded very logical, but it was only a theory, so on her notes, Julia put down the theory and circled the word “theory.”

“So any luck on surveillance of that turnaround area?” Lott asked Annie.

She shook her head. “Can’t get anything better than what I have.”

She quickly passed out high-altitude photos of the turnaround area on Duane Thorn’s land. There were a couple acres up there where bodies could be buried in that desert and rock.

Julia stared at the picture for a moment and then felt her stomach twist a little. They really needed to look at that property up close, but if they got a warrant and went charging in there, more than likely it would warn off the murderer. Let him know they were on to him.

“But I have an idea how we could get images we need without being seen,” Annie said. “We fly a drone over the place, high enough to not be noticed, but with good enough cameras to get the different forms of images we need.”

Julia looked at Annie, who was smiling.

“That’s got to be some pretty sophisticated drone,” Lott said, looking puzzled at his daughter. “Don’t tell me Doc and Fleet just happen to have one.”

“Nope,” Annie said. “They don’t. But we have a team that works with us on different stuff that does. We all are meeting them tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. at the Bellagio Café to explain what we are looking for and what we need.”

“And this team can be trusted?” Andor asked.

Annie just laughed. Then she said, “When you meet them, you’ll know why I laughed.”