CHAPTER TWELVE

 

 

May 14, 2015

8 P.M.

High Mountain Valley

Near the Central Idaho Primitive Area

 

They had come to find Julia’s friend Trish and they had done just that.

And everyone had been worried she had been murdered by Willis Williams. Well, if she had, this was the first body of any of his victims that had ever been found.

It didn’t seem like Williams to just leave a body floating in a mountain lake. That seemed far, far too careless for a serial killer flaunting his actions to three major police departments.

But something was nagging at Lott and he couldn’t remember what.

Lott kept trying to put pieces together, but none of this made any sense at all.

They had come afraid they would find Trish missing. Lott wasn’t sure if this was worse.

He stood on the short dock and stared at Trish’s white skin as her body floated face-up in the dark water. Light rain roughed the surface of the mountain lake, and a gentle wind formed waves that rocked Trish up and down against the wooden pier.

Trish’s face had a gentle smile on it, her hands were folded below her chest, and her legs appeared and disappeared into the black of the water. She was nude, missing rings and all other jewelry.

Julia stood beside him on the dock, her back to the body of one of her best friends. Lott had no doubt that Julia was managing to hold her emotions in check by sheer will and years of training as a detective.

In all his years as a detective, Lott had never seen anything like this. There was no doubt it was going to be difficult to tell how long Trish had been dead, let alone how long she had been in the cold water.

And the biggest puzzle was why, and how, she had ended up embalmed, floating in a small mountain lake in the primitive area of central Idaho, a hundred plus miles of dirt road away from the nearest funeral home.

Lott stepped toward Julia and touched her arm lightly. “You can go back up to the house while I get her out of there.”

Julia shook her head, still not looking at the body. “No, you’re going to need help.”

Lott had to admit that she was right. He wasn’t young anymore, and moving bodies around was never an easy task even when he had been young. But they had to get Trish out of the water to at least attempt to preserve what evidence might be found on the body.

Lott knew this was going to be rough on Julia, but they both knew they needed to do it.

“Take pictures of this every step of the way,” Lott said.

Julia nodded and got out her cell phone.

Lott got down on his hands and knees and shoved Trish’s body along the dock toward the shore as Julia recorded each move.

After he got Trish’s body close to the shore, he sent Julia to get a tarp or a quilt or something from the lodge. She moved off without a word.

He stood there in the dark looking out at the lake, at the embalmed body, at the log home lit up behind him, at the road down the side of the hill.

Nothing made sense. Nothing.

Julia started back down the trail from the log home with a quilt in her arms, so he forced himself to move. He waded into the water, the coldness shocking him.

His legs went numb almost instantly.

Julia stretched a plastic sheet on the ground just above the water line and then put the quilt over that. Then she took a couple quick photos of him standing in the water with Trish.

Then Lott watched her as she took a deep breath and came into the water. She took Trish’s legs while Lott lifted Trish by the shoulders.

The body seemed heavier than it should have, and the skin was hard to the touch.

Somehow, they managed to get Trish’s body on the quilt in the dim light and rain, take more photos, then wrap Trish in the quilt.

The plastic sheet that Julia had laid down first would make it easier for them to slide Trish along the ground. No way could they carry her.

It took them three rest stops before they got Trish’s body stored in the maintenance shed. Lott was sweating about as hard as he could remember sweating and he was out of breath.

Julia was panting as well.

As hard as it was to do, both of them knew it was better to have the body stored than leave it in the water where it might sink and never be found again.

After a few more pictures, Lott locked up the shed and rolled a large stump against the door so no wild animal could dig at it, then they turned and headed back up toward the lodge.

Neither of them had said a word since the dock.

All Lott could think about was how lucky they were that Trish didn’t smell like most bodies found floating. Some of the ones he had helped get out before had been in the water for so long that he had had to soak a rag in gasoline and cover his nose with it to even get near the rotting mess.

But not Trish.

No smell at all.

He had no idea what that meant.

They hung their coats up near the door to dry and then went upstairs to change into dry clothes.

“Get your satellite phone,” Lott said to Julia as she climbed the stairs ahead of him. “And your gun.”

She glanced back at him and then nodded.

Lott made it back downstairs first, shivering even though he had on dry pants and socks and shoes and a thick shirt and a knit sweater. He started some hot water for tea and stoked the fire in the big stone fireplace.

He laid his phone on the table beside his holstered gun.

Julia came down wearing jeans, a thick sweater, and she had dried her hair and pulled it back. Her face looked white and she clearly was as chilled as he felt.

She put her satellite phone and gun on the kitchen table next to his and they both stood there silently waiting for the tea water to heat. There was nothing either one of them could say.

This situation was so strange, Lott was convinced that they were in shock from what they had found, as well as in mild shock from the cold and the exercise.

Finally, as the water started to boil and he turned to get them mugs, Julia said, “We might be contaminating a crime scene here.”

“I doubt it,” Lott said as he poured them tea. “Besides, it’s too late now. We already did that.”

“That it is,” Julia said, taking the tea from him and warming her hands on the mug. “That it is.”