THIRTY-NINE

 

 

September 26th, 2016

Las Vegas, Nevada

 

LOTT SAT AT the kitchen table, just thinking. Around him everyone had a half-eaten piece of chicken on their plate and no one, not even Andor, seemed to be wanting to eat more.

“Can I ask a question?” Annie said over Julia’s phone.

“Please,” Paul said.

“Do you think this escape plan would be on a computer somewhere?” Annie asked.

“More than likely yes,” Paul said. “Maybe on two. One in the compound in Reno and one in the compound here.”

Lott suddenly saw where his daughter was going. If the escape plans and names and such were generated on one or two computers, she and her people could hack them and get that information.

“Can you give us locations of the compounds?” Annie asked.

“I’ve never been to either,” Paul said, “but both properties would have been secured under my great-grandmother’s maiden name of Westerfield. Gloria Westerfield. Both would be acreages outside of both towns. But careful on the searches.”

“We’re careful,” Annie said.

Lott glanced at Paul. “Got any idea how many main members there are of the families, ones participating in the rituals and beliefs?”

“Over thirty,” Paul said, shrugging, “not counting spouses.”

“We’re going to need half an army to go in after that many people at the same time,” the chief said.

Lott agreed to that.

“Paul, can you help us with the names on the boards, so we can start clearing detectives to help in this?”

“Glad to,” Paul said. “The sooner this is over, the sooner my wife and I can live our first day together not in fear for our lives.”

Lott could understand that. If you were born into a family that worshipped killing and thought life was cheap, that would be a logical fear.

They headed back into the dining room with Julia carrying the phone and Annie still on the line. Lott decided there were things he needed to clear up sooner rather than later.

“So let’s start back quickly with how we got into this. Becky Penn and the other three women under her body in that desert grave. And why did you stage a suicide and who actually died?”

“I had nothing to do with anything around those women’s deaths,” Paul said. “In fact, when those bodies were first uncovered and Becky was identified, my wife and I realized that the families had been setting me up for years and had kept that as a piece of insurance. Of course, I never would have lived long enough to go to trial. And even if accused, who would believe a serial killer’s word about a strange cult full of reputable people.”

Lott nodded to that.

“So what about the suicide?”

“I didn’t know about it until after it had happened,” Paul said. “I was already married to my wife and living under the Walter name. I have no idea why they did that or who that poor soul was who died.”

“And the person who pretended to be your sister?”

Paul shrugged. “One of the family members. Again, my wife and I knew nothing about anything.”

“That finally makes sense out of that fake diary,” Andor said. “And your sister just happening to find it all these years later. But got any idea why the families decided to turn it in and expose those murders?”

“Cleaning up,” Paul said. “It is very important to the families to bury all their sacrifices in a sanctioned graveyard on family property. That had happened back in the fight with me to pull me into the families and it needed to be cleaned up. Typical family thinking.”

“And you never sold cars to Maxwell or bought the land outside of town used as a burial ground?” Julia asked.

“I haven’t talked with Maxwell since my first wife died. When we turned twenty-one, he went full into the families and their beliefs and I went the other direction.”

Andor nodded and Lott could tell he was satisfied. Finally, some of this was starting to make sense.

After that, they turned back to the boards and started another board of names that were all major family members in the two cities.

And twenty minutes later Annie broke into the conversation.

“We got in,” she said.

“In where?” Lott asked before anyone else could. Julia had put the phone on the table so Annie could hear all the discussions and send the names on to her people and Mike’s people.

“We found both compounds,” Annie said. “We hacked into both compound’s computers and have all their plans of escape and all the fake names of every member and so on. They might run, but none of them will be able to hide when we kick this anthill over.”

“Fantastic!” Lott said and everyone cheered.

Lott glanced at Paul. He had dropped into a chair and it looked like he might actually start crying, the relief was so intense.

A lifetime of relief.