TWO

 

 

April 12th, 2020

Las Vegas, Nevada

 

Lott set the bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken on his kitchen table while Julia pulled out three bottles of water from the fridge. Andor had just parked outside in the driveway and was going to join them for lunch.

The smell of the chicken filled Lott’s remodeled kitchen. In the remodel two years ago, he had put in the best counters, all new cabinets and flooring, and new appliances. But the floor plan of the kitchen was exactly as it had been when he and his wife had lived here.

His wife of thirty years had died of cancer almost five years before and it wasn’t until Julia walked into his life that he could ever imagine enjoying the company of another woman. But now he did.

So now he and Julia and Andor, Lott’s former partner back on the force before they both had retired to take care of sick wives, formed a team.

And outside of the nights with the Cold Poker Gang playing cards, the three of them often met over KFC in Lott’s kitchen to talk over cases.

But Lott had a hunch today wasn’t going to be much of a good lunch, no matter how wonderful the bucket of KFC smelled. The topic was Becky Penn’s case.

Lott spread around three paper plates and Julia got some forks for pulling the hot chicken apart and some spoons for the sides that came with the bucket. They didn’t often eat much of the sides. All three of them just loved the fresh chicken.

Lott came in the back door, his solid frame and balding head moving like a bull. He had a cold towel around his neck and was sweating.

Julia handed him a fresh towel to wipe off his face and head and neck, then she sat next to Lott at the table.

Andor dropped some files at the back of the table and all three of them dug into the chicken.

Finally, after pretty much demolishing his first piece and starting on a second, Lott couldn’t take it any longer.

He looked at Andor. “Well, was one of them Becky Penn?”

When the other body was found in Becky’s grave, the case had reverted back to the regular younger detectives. By the end of the day, the techs doing the digging had found a total of four bodies in that grave, all stacked on one another with a very thin layer of dirt between them.

From what Lott had heard, they were now doing ground radar sweeps around the grave to see if others were buried close by.

Paul Vaughan’s journal had led them to the location, but he had said nothing about killing and burying other women.

Andor nodded, wiping chicken grease off his mouth with a paper towel. “It was Becky on top,” Andor said. “Confirmed by remnants of what she was wearing, hair color, and the remains of her id buried with her. They will run some DNA tests, but no one is doubting it is her.”

“And the other three?” Julia asked.

“They don’t have a clue,” Andor said. “But they are treating all three as live murder cases at the moment.”

“Three?” Lott asked.

Again Andor nodded. “They are closing Becky’s case. Seems we solved another cold case.”

Lott glanced at Julia who was shaking her head. He felt the same way. Becky’s case was far, far from closed.

Andor just looked at them. “We’re out of this one for now. You both know that, don’t you?”

Lott knew they were. As long as the younger detectives considered the three other bodies open and live murder cases, there was nothing anyone retired in the Cold Poker Gang could do.

And actually, by doing anything, they might jeopardize the entire existence of the Cold Poker Gang.

They worked cold cases. Period.

That was the firm rule the Chief of Police had put on them.

Becky’s case was officially closed and the other three were live murder cases.

The Cold Poker Gang was done with them.

Julia was nodding, and not looking happy.

Lott just sat there, not even interested in another piece of cold chicken.

“This day just sucks,” Lott said.

“Yeah, it does,” Andor said. “But we have to give the hotshot young detectives a crack at this first. Remember, we were young once as well.”

“Speak for yourself,” Julia said. “I’m still young, thank you very much.”

Lott and Andor both laughed.

Julia smiled. “Not sure how I should take that laughing.”

“Oh, oh,” Andor said, winking at Lott.

“So what are the files?” Julia asked, indicating the folding files that Andor had at the top of the table.

“I brought them for storage here,” he said, starting into another piece of chicken.

Lott laughed at that. He knew what they were without even asking. After the decades of the two of them working together, Lott knew how his partner thought.

Lott had Julia hand them to him and then without looking at their contents, he stood and put them in an empty cabinet above the fridge.

Storage.

“All four files for the bodies in the grave?” Julia asked, starting to catch on.

Andor nodded. “I’ll get more from downtown and update them as the young hotshots find information.”

Lott laughed and sat down and took another piece of chicken.

“And if they solve the cases?” Julia asked.

Lott laughed. “If they solve them like they think we solved Becky’s murder, then we go to work on all four of the cases.”

“And if they don’t solve them, then we go to work on the cases,” Andor said, smiling. “But that’s going to be years down the road I’m afraid.”

Lott nodded. “So the day officially sucks. We are officially fired from these cases.”

“We move on,” Julia said, nodding and taking another piece of chicken.

“We move on,” Andor said, wiping chicken juice from his face again.

“There are no shortages of cold cases for us to solve,” Julia said.

“Amen to that,” Andor said.

Lott knew that was the truth. But he just hated failing, hated having a case taken from him, hated everything about this.

The Cold Poker Gang hadn’t really solved a cold case. They had just found more murders that, more than likely, would turn into cold cases in a year or two.

Lott knew that all three of them hated failing. They didn’t volunteer their time in their retirement to fail.

But sometimes it happened. Sometimes even the Cold Poker Gang failed.

Or, as they say in poker, you can’t win every hand, even on good nights.

But down the road, way down the road, they just might get to play this hand again.