CHAPTER TWO

 

 

May 21, 2002

9:48 P.M.

Near Lake Mead, Outside of Las Vegas, Nevada

 

Willis Williams sat behind the wheel of his Mercedes, his engine off, the car tucked back into some brush along the side of the road, watching the entrance to the dark road that led down to the lake. Danny and Carrie Coswell had watched him from a spot on the bank above the lake. They would show up soon enough.

Of that he had no doubt.

He was impressed. It took almost fifteen minutes before the Toyota that had been parked off to one side of the dirt road screeched out onto the highway like the devil was chasing it.

Fifteen minutes must have felt like an eternity to them, making sure the big bad guy in the Mercedes was gone.

That made him laugh.

The Toyota headed down the two-lane highway toward town.

He couldn’t see them clearly, but he laughed at how they must be feeling. He knew it was Danny and Carrie’s first wedding anniversary. It would be one Danny would remember for a very long time and Carrie for her very short life.

He had enjoyed them watching his little play down near the lake. And he knew exactly where that Toyota was going now. Straight to the Las Vegas police, who had already been sniffing around him as a suspect for three disappearances.

The police had nothing solid, and even now he knew they would have no more, but he had better get home and get ready for a visit from the police.

He loved taunting his victims and the police almost as much as he loved killing.

Maybe even more.

He was careful, very careful, with every detail.

And the police were stupid and too bound up by their own rules to ever get to him.

He waited until the Toyota was completely out of sight and then turned on his lights and pulled onto the highway, making sure to stay right at the speed limit on the way back into town.

It took only one pass near the main downtown police station to see the Toyota parked on the street. He laughed, then turned for his home, a beautiful gated, ten-acre estate overlooking Las Vegas.

He had a stage to set and details to take care of before his police guests arrived. He was going to enjoy their visit, of that he had no doubt.

He always loved a good game.

Especially when the cards were rigged and the wager not even known.