CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

 

 

May 16, 2015

10:05 A.M.

McCall, Idaho

 

Lott sat patiently beside Julia in Sheriff Blake’s office. They didn’t talk, but just waited as any good couple would do in this situation, hoping that law enforcement might help them.

“He tried to call the mortuary,” Agent Munn said in their ears. “We let that call go through since no one is home there.”

Lott looked at Julia and nodded. That linked the sheriff with the mortuary. Perfect.

“You have your agents in place?” Lott whispered.

“We do and they can be through the door in a matter of seconds,” Agent Munn said.

“How many others besides the sheriff in the building?” Julia whispered.

“Jailer in the back, no one else,” Agent Munn said. “All are on patrol.”

“Be ready,” Lott whispered. “This guy is already rattled. I think we can break him here.”

“You sure?” Agent Munn asked.

“I’m sure,” Julia whispered. “He clearly has never been confronted like this before. We’re going off script to shove a stick in this hornet’s nest.”

“We’re ready,” Agent Munn said.

Finally the sheriff came back in and sat down, shaking his head. “Good news is that there are no accident reports on her and the hospital shows no one admitted by that name.”

“That is good news,” Lott said and Julia nodded, playing along with the script. But right there Lott decided it was a fine place to leave the script completely. “But did you also check the morgue?”

Sheriff Blake actually jerked slightly on that.

Lott had dealt with a lot of criminals and this guy was going to fold like wet tissue paper, of that there was no doubt.

“I had a horrid dream,” Julia said, “that my friend was embalmed and floating on a smooth lake surface.”

“She woke up screaming,” Lott said, smiling at the sheriff.

The poor guy seemed to suddenly be sweating a little. This guy would have been the worst poker player in recorded history.

“Why would my friend be embalmed and in a mountain lake, sheriff?” Julia asked, staring at Sheriff Blake, her voice intense.

“We’re moving in,” Agent Munn’s voice said in their ears. “We’re coming in silent, so keep going.”

“That is a good question,” Lott said to Sheriff Blake. “How did our friend end up embalmed in a lake?”

The sheriff sputtered, then shook his head, but he had broken out in a sweat. The man knew something bad was happening to him and he had no idea what to do about it. Or how to stop it, so he tried to stay on a normal conversation. “That is an amazing dream.”

“And I dreamed her car was there as well,” Julia said, staring at Sheriff Blake. “On top of a large pile of older cars, all with embalmed women in them.”

“This is too crazy,” the sheriff said, standing and pulling his pistol and aiming it at them.

Lott and Julia both stood and stepped back. The sheriff clearly had not drawn his gun in a very long time and it was clear he had forgotten to put a clip in. He was so flustered, he didn’t even realize that.

“Outside in the hallway,” Agent Munn said in their ears. “We’re holding here.”

“No need for the gun, sheriff,” Lott said to let the agents outside know what was happening.

“Who are you two?” Sheriff Blake demanded.

“Friends of Trish Vittie,” Julia said. “As we said. But we are not sure why you had to kill her and all those other women as well.”

“Who said I killed anyone?” Sheriff Blake demanded. “You two are nuts.”

“Oh, we know you killed Trish,” Lott said. “And we’ll be pinning all forty or fifty or so murders on you as well. DNA you know, inside the bodies will be preserved in that cold water.”

Lott doubted that would be possible, but he was wagering Sheriff Blake didn’t know for certain that was the case. It was just another part of the bluff.

And from the look of how Blake went almost white and started sweating even more, he knew he had left DNA in many of those women.

“You have fun with the dead women?” Julia asked. “You and Andrews liked killing them all and then having sex with them?”

Lott smiled at Sheriff Blake. “We have your guy who bought the cars in Las Vegas. He’s singing like a bird about you paying him a ton of money to get them. You know, the cars at the bottom of that lake with all the bodies in them?”

“I didn’t kill anyone,” Sheriff Blake said, almost whining like a child. He was now sweating even harder.

“You and Andrews are going down as two of the greatest serial killers of all time,” Julia said. “Andrews is already singing as well, blaming it all on you. Death row won’t take long for you two.”

“It wasn’t us,” Sheriff Blake said as two FBI agents stepped into sight in the hallway, rifles aimed at the sheriff.

“Please put the gun down now, sheriff,” Lott said, indicating the FBI agents. “It’s over.”

The sheriff put the gun slowly on the desk, his hands shaking. His face was totally white and he was sweating so hard, it was starting to stain his shirt.

The two FBI agents came in and quickly cuffed him, said he was under arrest for the murders of at least forty women. Then holding him there like that, one agent read Blake his rights.

When they were done, Lott looked at Sheriff Blake. “You said it wasn’t you that killed all those women, yet we know it was. You killed them and Andrews embalmed them and you both got your sick jollies with the bodies before dumping them in the lake.”

“I didn’t kill them and Andrews didn’t embalm them,” the Sheriff said, looking panicked. “I swear. That was all Willis Williams’ doing.”

“Yeah, right,” Julia said. “And how do we prove that?”

For an instant the sheriff looked even more panicked. Then his eyes brightened and he said, “Williams kept all their clothes, their jewelry, everything. He called it his trophies. We only got rid of the bodies, nothing more.”

“Where does he keep all that?” Lott asked, stunned.

“Damned if I know,” Sheriff Blake said. “He took it all with him every time in a black bag.”

The FBI agents pulled Sheriff Blake from his office, put a piece of tape over his mouth, and instead of turning toward the front door, turned toward the cells in the back. The sheriff’s office was on lockdown until Williams arrived in town and showed up at the mortuary. And the sheriff was going to get to experience one of his own cells for a short time.

“You get all that?” Lott asked into the air.

“Loud and clear,” Agent Munn said. “Loud and clear.”