CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
May 16, 2015
5:40 P.M.
McCall, Idaho
Lott couldn’t believe they were about to capture Williams. And they had built a very, very strong case against the killer already. A case so strong, not even a good lawyer was going to get him off.
Lott really wanted to see the smirk on the man’s face just disappear. That smug you-can’t-catch-me attitude had been more than he could take, especially when it came to that young married college girl named Carrie Coswell.
Carrie had just vanished seemingly into thin air while jogging and everyone knew that Williams had done it, but there hadn’t been one shred of evidence that he had. Lott and Andor had been the lead detectives on the case and had wanted to just smash the smirk from Williams’ face.
Now Lott knew that Carrie’s body would be found in that lake, in a car, and now Williams would go to jail for her death. And Carrie’s family could finally get some closure.
“You all right?” Julia asked, taking his hand.
“Just thinking of one of this animal’s victims is all.”
Julia squeezed Lott’s hand and smiled at him. “We almost got him. Almost.”
They stood there, waiting. Lott figured it would take Lott about twenty minutes, going slow, to cross the distance from his place to the dock near the mortuary.
After fifteen minutes, Lott glanced at his watch.
Julia was looking nervous as well.
“Why do I feel this isn’t going to work as planned?” Lott said.
He turned to Agent Munn. “Have your people check for any kind of signal along the shore out to the lake in case we have a leak somewhere.”
“Do it, folks,” Agent Munn said.
After a moment one agent came back. “We have a state police car in the Shore Lodge parking lot, its lights going as if it has pulled someone over. That’s it.”
“Someone check it,” Agent Munn said. “Everyone else remain in position.
Three more minutes went by until an agent came back. “The State Police Car is empty. Its headlights were on high-beam aimed out over the lake, the bubbles going.”
“Find out who was driving that car,” Agent Munn ordered, clearly very, very angry.
“Those of you at Williams’ home, close in and secure the place and secure him if he comes back to that dock.
Lott knew he wasn’t coming back to the dock. He had been warned off. And knowing Williams, he had a plan and a way to escape. But if they acted quickly enough, with enough force, they might be able to catch him.
“We need to lock down every road in and out of this town,” Lott said. “No one in or out without eyes on them. And Williams will be in disguise.”
“Do it, people,” Agent Munn said. “Get the State Police to help as well and find out who was driving that patrol car and get that person rounded up as well.”
“His name was Ben Stephens,” one of the agents came back. “He’s gone missing and is not responding to any calls.”
Lott glanced at Julia. It felt as if he had been smashed in the stomach. Not Ben.
Anyone but Ben.
That wasn’t possible.
Not with his family and kids. Ben wouldn’t do something like this.
Then Lott heard what he had just thought.
“Fleet,” Lott said. “Are you monitoring this?”
“I am,” Fleet said, his voice low and clearly as shocked as Lott was feeling.
“Ben wouldn’t do this,” Lott said, “so his family, his kids, must be threatened. Get people to his house in Boise as fast as you can. Tell them to go in silent and armed.”
“On it,” Fleet said.
Lott just stood there in the smell of death in the basement of the mortuary, holding Julia’s hand. Now they had one of the world’s richest men on the run.
And one of the world’s most dangerous killers.