CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

 

 

August 14th, 2015

4:30 P.M.

Las Vegas

 

LOTT CAME OUT of Julia’s shower feeling much better. He had left a number of changes of clothes at her condo at her suggestion, since he often stayed there, and was now glad he did.

He had soaped and scrubbed his skin and hair more than he had done in years to make sure that smell was completely gone. The memory wouldn’t leave, but at least the smell would.

He had just finished dressing in jeans and a light blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and was combing his hair when Julia came in. She was wrapped in a towel and her face was red from all the sun.

“I put our clothes in the wash machine,” she said. “That might be a smell that will never come out.”

He didn’t honestly care. He might throw those clothes away even if the smell came out. Anything he could do to not remind himself of seeing that much death in one day would be a good thing.

She turned on the shower, checked the temperature, and then dropped the towel and climbed in while Lott watched.

In his opinion, she was one of the most beautiful women he had ever known. And if they hadn’t just spent the day finding more dead bodies than he wanted to think about, he might have offered to scrub her back right at that moment.

But he had a hunch she was as focused on this case as much as he was. And on saving that one woman they knew was headed in this direction and to a certain horrible death if they couldn’t stop it.

“I’ll be in the kitchen getting a snack,” Lott said to the showering woman.

“I won’t be long,” she half-shouted back.

He headed out of the bathroom, feeling almost human again.

The plan was that they would head for the Café Belagio after showering and getting changed to meet Doc and Fleet and Annie and Andor and plan what to do next.

In the last four hours, they had found all but one of the mines with women’s bodies. Schmidt and Jones had taken some of the mine locations, the chief and the other two detectives had taken part of the list. Lott and Julia and Annie and Andor had stayed in Lott’s car and taken another third of the list Annie had gotten from Fleet.

The four of them had found three more mines full of bodies.

It had been the chief and the detectives riding with him that had found the one only half full to the south and east of the city.

The chief had set up very discrete watching posts on both entrances to that canyon, hidden completely from view. No way that killer would get out of that canyon if he went in there.

The chief was also going to get officers in the State Police working the highways coming down from the north, watching for any sign of a brown panel van.

And his men were stationed, without knowing why, at all the major entrances to the city watching for the same thing.

And he had promised that nothing would be broadcast at all over any police channel.

Lott got into clean jeans, a long-sleeved white dress shirt, and put on new tennis shoes. More than likely after that smell, he was going to have to toss his favorite tennis shoes.

While he waited for Julia, he took out his small notebook and pen and sat down at her kitchen table overlooking the trees and lawn and pool common area below and started to write a list of things they didn’t know yet.

First, what was the connection between the original bus tragedy and the perp? There was no doubt in his mind there was a connection, but they hadn’t been able to find it yet.

Second were the unknown factors all the victims had in common besides black hair. He had a hunch there was more. There had to be.

Third, the question of the ownership of the mines. Did someone in that company have anything to do with this? And if so, who?

Fourth, where were the victims taken and how were they baked to death?

Fifth, why were the victim’s harvested for meat? Where did cannibalism come into play in this? Or was it even cannibalism? Was the women’s flesh being used for something else?

He stared at his list, his eye continuing to go back to the first question. The real key to locating this sick killer was that bus tragedy. If it really was a tragedy and not done on purpose. Why had that bus been so far away from where it had planned on going?

Julia came in while he was staring at the list and wrapped her arms around him and put her chin on his shoulder. She smelled wonderful, with a slight peach scent from the shampoo she used. She had on a light green blouse with a sports bra and jeans and new tennis shoes as well.

“Am I missing anything?” he asked, showing her the list he had been making.

“Underwear,” she said. “And why did Kirk need to be killed?”

He wrote both down, nodding.

“A lot of questions, that’s for sure,” he said.

“Let’s hope we don’t have to answer them before this sicko is in custody,” Julia said as Lott stood.

He looked at her as she stepped away and he stood, putting his notebook back in his pocket. “You think that has a chance of happening?”

“Not a chance in hell,” she said, shaking her head. “The person who has been doing this without getting caught for over fifteen years isn’t going to be pulled over in a standard traffic stop.”

“You think the brown panel van is stored up north somewhere?”

“Of course it is,” Julia said. “No chance a van that might be linked to an abduction is going to be driven right to this guy’s home and parked.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Lott said as they headed out and Julia locked the door behind her.

“So it’s up to us to save that woman’s life,” Julia said. “Because by the time the killer takes her to the mine and gets caught that way, she will be very, very dead.”

“The chief can’t sit on this long enough for even that to happen,” Lott said as they headed down the stairs. “There are a lot of crime scenes in that desert at the moment and he doesn’t dare hold this down for more than twenty-four hours. Even that long might cost him his job.”

“And when all that hits the papers,” Julia said. “We lose our latest victim and any chance of finding this creep.”

Lott knew she was right.

They had to crack this case and crack it quick. Time was not on their side.

Or the side of that poor woman from Missoula.