CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

 

 

May 15, 2015

11:30 A.M.

A home across the lake from the Tamarack Ski Resort,

Near Cascade, Idaho

 

After lunch, the conversation quickly turned to the upcoming plan. Julia had been worried about it because she knew that they couldn’t tip off Williams in any way until he arrived. They had to catch him in the act, if they could, and have all his help rounded up before then.

It needed to be like a perfect trap play on the poker table. The other player needed to have no hint at all that they were on to him and held the winning cards. That was the only way this would work.

Julia only had one worry. They had no idea how Williams got from his mansion on the west side of the lake to the mortuary in the downtown area without being seen. That bothered her, but it seemed to be a problem they could deal with after finding out exactly who was helping Williams.

“So who do you think your friend Trish would have reported what she saw to?” Agent Munn asked, pushing her empty bowl that had been filled with a chicken noodle soup away.

For Julia, that soup and the soft-bread sandwiches had been perfect. She felt full and for some reason protected.

“Knowing Trish,” Julia said, remembering her bright smile and light, fun attitude, “the first cop she saw.”

“As you come into town from the mountains, just past the old golf course, the county sheriff’s office is right there on the highway,” Fleet said.

Julia had no doubt that Trish would have just turned in right there.

“That would be the place,” Julia said, nodding. “If Trish saw a car go over that road’s edge and into the water, she would want to report it as soon as possible and to the right people. I’m amazed she didn’t call me when she got into town, to be honest.”

“I have no warrants or probable cause to get taps on the county sheriff’s phones and computers,” Agent Munn said.

“I know some people,” Fleet said. “It will get done. Including all his financials. See if any extra money is pouring in over the years.”

“Don’t tell me about it,” Agent Munn said, smiling.

“We will leave no trace,” Fleet said. “Just background your people can rediscover later under warrants.”

Agent Munn nodded.

“And the mortuary Williams’ holding company owns,” Doc asked. “Who runs that?”

“Don’t know yet,” Fleet said. “I will have my people digging into that as well this afternoon and evening. Again tracing the money.”

Julia nodded. “So there was a mention of a plan.”

“A decoy plan, more than anything else,” Agent Munn said. “We were thinking you two, as friends of Trish, could go in and check with the sheriff about her being missing. See what he says.”

“He’ll take a report and ignore us,” Lott said.

“Not sure what that’s going to do,” Julia said, puzzled. “Lott is right, he’ll ignore us.”

“I doubt he will,” Agent Munn said, “if you tell him you are headed up to Trish’s place and plan on staying there for a week or so to wait for Trish to come back? He must know there’s a body dump coming.”

“You think he might move on us at that point?” Julia asked.

“If he doesn’t know you are detectives, yes,” Annie said. “If he thinks you are just two retired friends of Trish and Trish was your only family, he’ll stop you.”

“Assuming,” Agent Munn said, “if he is the one working with Williams. If he is working with Williams, he won’t be able to take a chance of anyone like Trish seeing a car dumped into that lake.”

“We can be monitoring the phone and computer lines to make sure no warning goes out to Williams,” Fleet said. “We’ll block anything that he attempts to send.”

“And we can have you wired as well,” Agent Munn said. “And have agents ready at a moment’s notice to back you up.”

“My gut sense is that he’ll try to lure us to a private place later in the day to clear out the problem we are causing?” Julia asked.

“More than likely,” Agent Munn said, nodding. “Again, if we have the right man.”

“And he will call the mortician and give him a warning as well,” Annie said. “Which will tie the two of them together.”

Julia looked at Lott who shrugged.

“I’ve done stings like this a dozen times over the years,” Lott said.

“So have I,” Julia said. She didn’t say that they always scared her to death. With Trish dead, she wanted to make sure the bastard who killed her was locked up for good. And for that, she would do damn near anything.

“So sleep on it for the night,” Agent Munn said, standing. “I’ve got to get back to the lake.”

“I’ll keep my people digging and looking for other possible suspects as well,” Fleet said. “I’ll drive you back to the airport. They should have the helicopter serviced and supplies for your people loaded by now.”

“Thank you,” Agent Munn said, first to Fleet, then to Doc and Annie. “We couldn’t be doing this without you.”

“If it puts away a monster,” Doc said. “It will be worth far more than we are doing.”

Agent Munn turned to Lott and Julia. “Think about it.”

Julia shrugged. “No need to think about it. We’ll see you in the morning.”

Lott nodded. “We’re ready when you are.”

Agent Munn nodded and then left with Fleet, leaving Annie and Doc standing beside the kitchen counter and Julia and Lott still sitting.

“You two go do what you need to do,” Julia said to Doc and Annie. “I have just about enough brain left to do the dishes before a nap overtakes me.”

She stood and picked up her empty soup bowl and headed for the sink.

“I’ll help,” Lott said, moving with Julia to start the cleanup.

Both Doc and Annie nodded and took out cell phones and went into the living room. Both clearly very focused.

Julia glanced up at the wonderful, but clearly tired face of Lott. How had she gotten so lucky as to find a man like him?

After this was all over, they needed to take this trust and friendship and affection to the next level, of that there was no doubt.

She motioned that he should come down closer to her as if she was going to whisper something in his ear.

She then just kissed him. Square on those wonderful lips of his.

Before he could react in any way, she pulled back, smiling.

“Thank you,” she said. “For being you.”

Lott smiled at her. “Whatever I did, I’m going to have to figure out how to do more of it.”

She laughed, and the two of them turned to clean up the kitchen together. And that felt wonderful to Julia.

Natural and perfect in the middle of all the ugliness they had faced at that lake.