CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

 

 

August 15th, 2015

2:20 P.M.

Las Vegas

 

LOTT GOT THE air-conditioning blowing hard and the Cadillac headed toward town on the Old Boulder Highway. It felt great to just have that much be normal for a moment.

None of them said a word as he drove, being careful.

Finally, after a few minutes, Fleet spoke from the phone Julia still held in her hand.

“Update on the Missy Andrews’ condition,” Fleet said. “She’s going to make a full recovery and she has some relatives who are local who are headed to the hospital now.”

“Wonderful,” Lott said.

Julia beamed at him and he smiled back. That felt flat out wonderful.

They hadn’t been able to save all the other lives, but one was enough for the day. And now they were going to stop any more killing from happening.

“Thanks, Fleet,” Lott said. “For everything. We wouldn’t have saved her without you.”

Nothing from the other side of the phone this time.

“So how are the two monsters?” Andor asked.

“Just finishing their main course,” Fleet said. “Doc and Annie are sitting about five tables away. Casino security has the entire place secured down.”

“Have them keep an opening for three right beside Lynch and West.”

“Will do,” Fleet said. “But something you should know.”

“Go ahead,” Lott said, suddenly being worried again.

“Security scans show they are both carrying concealed weapons. Small pistols.”

Lott glanced at Julia, then back at Andor, who just nodded.

“Thanks, Fleet,” Lott said. “We’ll keep that in mind.”

Ten minutes later, Fleet handed a five-dollar tip to the parking valet at the Golden Nugget Rush Tower entrance and the three of them headed inside.

All three of them stopped at a rest room to splash water on their faces and Lott had never felt anything so wonderful as the handfuls of cold water.

Andor took some wet paper towels and just wiped off the back of his neck. Then they went back out and joined Julia, whose face looked flushed as well from the cold water.

“Our trapped mice are starting into their desserts,” Fleet said.

“Thanks, Fleet,” Julia said. “I’m leaving the connection, but putting the phone in my pocket again.”

“I’ll be watching,” Fleet said. “But just remember, they are trapped and therefore dangerous.”

“Copy that,” Lott said.

At that moment, Andor’s phone rang. He listened for a moment, then said, “They are in the buffet at the Golden Nugget. I would come in with only you three and cameras and a few arresting officers. We’ll sit on them until you get here.”

Then he put his phone away and smiled at Lott and Julia. “Seems we are about to wrap this up after fifteen years.”

“And close a lot of cases and save a lot of lives,” Julia said.

Andor nodded to that and turned and headed for the escalator that led up to the buffet.

Julia took Lott’s hand and he squeezed her hand in appreciation. He couldn’t imagine going through all this with anyone else. They made an amazing team.

As they walked around the planter that divided the buffet from the lobby area, Lott was surprised at how simply normal the two looked.

Lynch made a decent man in looks, and wore a light blue sports coat that clearly screamed money.

West had her long blonde hair pulled back and had on a light blue blouse with pearls around her neck and pearl earrings.

How could two of the worst serial killers in history look so plain and normal?

Doc and Annie sat two tables over to the left of the killers, with an empty table between them and the killers.

Andor led over to the table on the other side of the two killers and sat down.

Julia sat the farthest from the two, while Lott sat across from Andor.

Both of them were close and could move quickly. Lott was almost right beside Lynch.

“Something to drink?” A waitress asked as they were being seated.

“Two glasses of water each,” Lott said. “Climbing around inside an old school building is thirsty work.”

Both Lynch and West glanced at them, then West did a double-take.

Lott was surprised that she recognized them. He wasn’t sure what he thought of that.

“You know,” Andor said, “for being dead, Kirk, you are looking pretty nice. A real girly-man if you get my meaning.”

“Cynthia here looks much better than she did after being baked on that bus,” Lott said. “She has recovered so well.”

Both Lynch and West just stared at their half-finished desserts, their hands on the table in front of them. Lynch had been eating apple pie with a slight bit of ice cream. West had been working on a Key lime pie.

Lott didn’t much like how they were acting. They had the look of desperation which could mean they would go for their guns at any moment.

Lott glanced at Andor, then at Julia.

Both were clearly seeing the same warning signs.

“You had to assume that someday your killing spree would be over,” Andor said, continuing to poke at the two killers. “But I bet you didn’t expect two old detectives to be the ones to stop you, now did you?”

“You are right, Detective Williams,” West said. “We did expect this to come to an end.

“And you planned for it, right?” Lott said. “All sorts of ways of escape.”

“We planned for every contingency,” Lynch said, looking at West. “Didn’t we, my love.”

“We did,” West said, nodding.

Lott’s alarm bells went off inside his head as he suddenly realized the two of them were planning a mutual suicide, more than likely right here in the casino. And those were their key words to do it.

He jumped at Lynch at the same time as Andor jumped at West.

Lynch’s hand was on a gun, and Lott wrestled with her until suddenly Doc and Annie were there as well.

Lott got the gun away and put it on the table where he had been sitting.

Then he made sure Lynch was sitting back in front of her dessert.

Andor and Julia had gotten the gun from West and had done the same thing.

Casino security had materialized all around the buffet, but when Doc waved them away, none of them came in.

“Just stay seated,” Lott said to the two killers. “You have some fine folks to meet in a few minutes. Trust me, you do not want to miss this by doing something silly like killing yourselves.”

Around them, the buffet was buzzing with noise as both women adjusted where they sat, both looking shocked that their suicide plan had failed so quickly.

Doc and Annie took the two guns and tucked them away and then moved back toward the cashier, but didn’t go back to their table.

Lott and Andor sat back down, as did Julia.

Lott glanced at the two killers. “You know why we didn’t let you two just save the state a ton of money and kill yourselves?”

Neither woman moved.

“Because there are upwards of three hundred families out there that need closure on the family members you killed,” Andor said.

“And we want your two faces to be known as the ugliest killers in modern times,” Lott said.

“There will be no escape for either of you,” Andor said.

Both women said nothing, simply stared at their hands in front of them.

“Cavalry,” Julia said, softly.

Lott glanced around and saw the chief and the director of the FBI coming up the escalator.

Lott and Andor and Julia all stood.

“We needed this little time as well for some closure for us,” Lott said.

Andor pointed to the half-eaten desserts. “Might want to finish those. Might be the last dessert either of you see in a very long time.”

Then, as Lott turned away, he decided to ask just one question.

“That bus tragedy was horrible,” Lott said, stopping over the two women. “But not sure why both of you decided to continue to live it over and over.”

West looked up at Lott and just shook her head. “You don’t understand yet, do you, detective?”

“It wasn’t horrible,” Lynch said, looking at Lott with cold, dark eyes. “It was gloriously wonderful.”

“Better than we had planned,” West said.

“A lot better than we had ever hoped,” Lynch said.

“Glorious,” West said, softly. “Just glorious.”

With that the two women reached forward and took each other’s hands.