THIRTY-ONE

 

 

September 26th, 2016

Las Vegas, Nevada

 

LOTT GLANCED AROUND at the other three. The sounds of the casino around them only a distant background noise. Their meals mostly half-eaten still on the table.

“So what do we do next? Do we get the FBI and the chief and State Police in on what we are thinking?”

“Someone tipped off Maxwell this morning about his arrest,” Julia said. “For the moment I think we’re better running this down until we have some real evidence and need help. And we might be able to find other members of this cult who would tip off Maxwell or Paul.”

“Agreed,” Andor said. Then he glanced at Annie. “Can any of your people figure out who tipped off Maxwell either last night or this morning?”

“I have my people jamming on the family trees,” Annie said. “But how about I call Mike and Heather and see if they can track that? We can trust them as well.”

Lott liked that idea, so Annie called Mike and got him started on that, telling him in quick order what they were thinking about a cult in play on all of this.

When she hung up she smiled. “Mike and his people are dropping everything and focusing on this as well.”

“We have an army of skilled computer people digging,” Andor said, laughing.

“All the better to dig out the killers,” Lott said, also smiling. And he meant that. So many cases in his early years had gone cold simply because they didn’t have the ability to dig into backgrounds of people and the time to do some basic footwork. With this many skilled computer people at the tasks, something was bound to break.

“It’s going to take a few hours before my people can get it all and we can cross-reference between what Mike finds,” Annie said.

“And I need to check in at headquarters and the morgue,” Andor said, “to see if anything is developing there.”

“So I’ll call when I have enough information on families that we can sort it all,” Annie said, standing.

Andor stood as well.

“At the house,” Lott said. “We can sort it all on the big dining room table.”

“Can you get some whiteboards as well?” Annie asked. “Got a hunch with this much data, they will make it easier to trace family.

Lott nodded. He liked that suggestion as well. It would allow them to all see larger pictures.

A moment later he was sitting there alone in the big booth with Julia.

He turned to look at her and smiled. “Looks like we have kicked over a few dozen beehives.”

“Did I ever tell you that cults scare me to death,” Julia said.

“History?” he asked. He had never heard her mention anything about a cult in her past.

“Nope,” she said. “Just that they often have fingers in everything. I’m not sure if I really want to find out who in Reno is part of all this.”

Lott nodded. He understood exactly where she was coming from. Reno was a small town and someone inside the law had warned Maxwell. Chances are she was going to know that person.

He took her hand and they sat there for a moment just letting the calming sounds of the restaurant and casino wash around them. They both really loved it here in this restaurant.

Finally he leaned over and kissed her. “Let’s leave your car and take mine and go shopping.”

Two hours later they had five whiteboards on easels set up around his dining room and everything out of the way.

And still no phone call.

So he led her by the hand and they went into the new bedroom and lay down in each other’s arms and tried to just rest.

He had a hunch that it might be the last real rest they got before this was finished.