CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

 

 

May 16, 2015

9:45 A.M.

McCall, Idaho

 

Julia felt scared to death as they climbed out of the sedan in the side parking lot of the sheriff’s office. It had concrete block walls painted off-white, a shingled pitched roof, and the entire building seemed to sprawl fairly deep away from the road. From what she could tell, the back side of the building consisted of jail cells with thick metal screens over the windows.

The parking lot beside the office was small and a couple of white with black letter patrol cars were there. It hadn’t occurred to Julia to ask how just how many deputies the sheriff had.

The front was glass doors and a wooden secretary’s desk sat to one side of a small entry room. The desk was empty and didn’t look like it was ever used. A dozen vinyl-cushioned metal chairs filled the small room with a few magazine racks that had some very old magazines in them, most of them gun or hunting magazines of some sort.

The door on the right was standing open showing a hallway leading to some office. As the glass front door closed behind them, a bell went off in the back.

A man about forty with broad shoulders and dark hair came into the hall from an office near the end and smiled. He was wearing a tan uniform and a gun on his hip.

“Hi, folks. Come on back,” the officer said.

“You are coming in loud and clear,” Agent Munn said in their ears. “And we heard whoever that was as well. All communications from the building have now been cut off.”

Julia was very glad to hear that. They had both left their badges and guns in the car just in case the sheriff had a good eye for such things.

The man waited for them as they moved down the cement block hallway with worn linoleum on the floor. The other two offices they passed looked like they were used regularly, but at the moment no one was in them. The hallway smelled of burnt coffee, something most police stations smelled like at one point or another.

As they got closer, the man in uniform smiled and indicated they should come into his office, then turned and led the way inside.

Julia had no idea if this man was a deputy or the sheriff. They were about to find out. But they knew that the sheriff was in the building somewhere.

Julia went in first as the man in uniform went around behind the desk and indicated they should sit in the two chairs facing him. Over the years, Julia had done the same thing with numbers of people who came into the station in Reno. Did they all feel this scared?

She and Lott both sat and the man said, “I’m Sheriff Blake. What can I help you with on this fine spring day?”

They had their man. Now to set the trap.

Lott introduced them both as Julia sat watching Sheriff Blake’s face. Then Lott said, “We’re from Boise and are here to look for our good friend, Trish Vittie.”

At Trish’s name, Julia saw the sheriff’s eyes squint just slightly. On a poker table, that would have been enough of a tell to cost the sheriff a lot of money. In this office it was crystal clear.

“What seems to be the problem?” the sheriff asked. “Why are you looking for her? Has she gone missing?”

“She usually contacts us about once a week,” Julia said, staying on the script they had worked out. “We are her only real family. And we haven’t heard from her for a few weeks so we’re worried.”

The sheriff acted concerned and took out a pad as he would have been expected to do. “Do you have her address and I can send a car past her home.”

“She lives in an isolated cabin up in the mountains,” Lott said. “No real address, but we know it’s on the other side of something called Lick Creek Summit. We’ve never been up there, but she sent us a map and it looks very isolated.”

“So maybe her car broke down and she can’t get out,” the sheriff said.

“Possible,” Julia said. “That’s why we are going up to her place this afternoon. And if she’s not there, we’re going to stay for a week or so. She told us where the key is. But we wanted to check in with you first to make sure you hadn’t heard anything.”

When she had said they were planning on staying for a week or so, the sheriff’s eyes squinted even more. He had a really bad tell. And he didn’t much like at all that they were going in to the lake.

He stood. “Let me check to see if her name has come through any accident or hospital reports.”

“Thank you,” Julia said and Lott nodded.

The sheriff left and turned to the back of the building. At this point Sheriff Blake was playing his part perfectly. They had rattled him, of that there was no doubt.

But what was he going to do next? That was the question. If he really worked for Williams as it seemed, he couldn’t take the chance that they would be in there for another body dump, not after Trish clearly reported the last one and it cost her life.

Now they just had to sit here, being bait on the end of a hook, and wait for the fish to bite.