FORTY-ONE

 

 

September 27th, 2016

Las Vegas, Nevada

 

LOTT HADN’T BEEN this tired in a long time. It was almost three in the morning. He hadn’t stayed up until this hour for a very, very long time. And it had been a very long day as well. But at the same time, excitement was coursing through him.

He had had far too much caffeine and he felt slightly jittery.

The streets of Las Vegas still had traffic, but it mostly seemed like support trucks and vans. Very few tourists were out and about and all the lights of the entire city still lit up the night sky as they did all night long.

The compound for the families was located on a hill to the north of town in a very nice area of homes.

He and Julia sat in the front seat of his Cadillac and Andor and Paul sat in the back seat. They were two blocks down the road from a large, gated complex of buildings that looked like regular two-story suburban homes.

The night air was still warm, but not the blistering heat of earlier in the day. It actually felt comfortable and had a light smell of sagebrush.

Julia had her phone on her lap open to Annie.

Annie was also nearby in another car with Doc and Mike and Heather. Lott knew a dozen squad cars were standing by farther down the hill behind them.

From the outside, the family compound looked like a gated subdivision, but all the buildings inside were owned by one person, and two dozen family members lived in the homes inside the complex.

Nice homes from what Lott could tell. The family clearly took care of its own.

Mike, in the meeting with the chief of police, had suggested that he have his people go in ahead of the detectives. His people, as he called them, were Special Forces. They were trained to deal with compounds like this one. They could go in and take out any guards and shut down alarms before the police went through the door. And never fire a shot.

Annie told them later that after the police and a couple of trusted top detectives looked at the compound layout for Las Vegas, the chief had agreed. He had no desire to lose men in a firefight with killers who had nothing to lose.

Mike said he could get ten Special Forces men ready to breach in two hours. Five of them were already ready to go and had been guarding Lott’s home and five more had been around Annie and Doc’s office.

In Reno, the FBI was working with Special Forces as well, since they could trust no one in the local police department. In fact, one of the people they would be arresting tonight was the chief of police in Reno.

Mike’s men had gone in ten minutes ago, scaling the compound walls in four places. There had been no alarms sounded and no shots fired so far.

Now everyone was just waiting for the all clear.

Lott had the window on his side down slightly to listen for any kind of sounds of gunshots. The police were going in at the first sound of a gunshot. But Mike had promised no gunfire. And as well as Lott knew Mike, he had a hunch there wouldn’t be any.

The minutes stretched onward.

Lott couldn’t believe their one cold case had turned into such a military-style invasion. And that Becky Penn was just the tip of a massive cult of killings.

And if they were lucky, it would end tonight.

But first they had to get through this night to make sure it really ended.

No word from either Reno or the compound in front of them.

And there was to be no other movement to arrest any of the other family members who lived around town until the compounds were secure or in a fight.

Lott had been impressed at how many men the chief had gotten at three in the morning. There had to be forty detectives backed up with dozens and dozens of patrol cops all scattered over town. The idea was that every family member killer around town would be rounded up in a ten-minute span once the word was given to go.

As they sat there, Lott also knew that cells in the jail were being cleared of vagrants and DUI cases and other small crimes to make room for entire families of serial killers.

At eighteen minutes after Mike’s men went in, up by the main gate of the compound, Lott could see a man in all black with his gun slung over his shoulder, push open the gates.

“It’s clear,” Annie said over the speaker-phone in Julia’s lap. “All police are moving in on the other family members.”

Lott sat and waited until the police had swarmed the front gate and gone in, then he moved them up and parked behind the mass of blinking police lights.

The four of them got out and Lott turned to Paul. “Stay with us.”

Paul nodded, looking completely stunned at what was going on.

The chief was standing just inside the compound gate as the first handcuffed prisoners were led out of the closest house.

“Did you read them their rights?” the chief asked the two detectives.

“Read and understood,” one detective said as they headed for a car.

Lott studied the compound. Standing on the street like this it looked like a typical cul-de-sac in any subdivision. Ten modern houses, with the biggest at the end.

But this street and these houses were the ultimate modern horror.

“So how did it go?” Lott asked the chief as Annie and Doc joined them.

Doc stood taller than Lott and was in top shape. He had dark short hair and tonight was wearing jeans and a polo shirt and tennis shoes. He and Annie just fit perfectly together.

“Mike’s people had them all in zip-ties before they gave the all clear,” the chief said, shaking his head and smiling.

“So where did Mike’s people go?” Annie asked, looking around.

“And where did Mike and Heather go?” Lott asked. “Wasn’t he with you?”

“He’s headed back to keep the pressure on the research,” Doc said. “Not the kind to hang around.”

“And Mary May? And the guy kidnapped at the same time?” Julia asked.

“Alive and in the basement of that house there,” the chief said, pointing to the second house up the street. “That was their ritual house. We have ambulances coming for both of them. The two are in tough shape but will survive, thanks to all of you.”

Lott felt like a ton of weight lifted suddenly from his shoulders. He made himself take a deep breath of the warm night air just to try to slow his fast-beating heart.

They had given closure to a lot of cold cases, but they had also saved lives.

And who knows how many lives off into the future.

Julia took his hand and squeezed it. He glanced at her and could see she felt the same way by the huge smile on her face.