CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

 

 

May 16, 2015

7:15 P.M.

McCall, Idaho

 

Lott came around quickly as Julia and Annie pulled him from the freezing cold lake water and up onto the shore. He tried to blink the water from his eyes, but everything was bright golden from the huge fire.

“Dad!” Annie said, leaning over him. “Are you all right?”

Annie’s face was close on the left, Julia’s on the right.

“With my two favorite women on the planet this close, how could I not be all right?”

They both laughed and Julia kissed him on the cheek. “Can you stand?”

“Getting tougher with every year,” Lott said, smiling, “but I think so.” He had no doubt he was going to have a very sore back, and one knee felt like he scraped it on some rock or something, but otherwise he seemed to be all right. Damned lucky. At his age he didn’t bounce when he fell.

They helped him up as the water drained from his clothes. He leaned on Julia as they turned around and looked back up at the burning building and the trees around it, some of which were burning as well. The crackling and popping echoed through the night and beyond that sirens were wailing.

He knew he had to be numb and in some shock, because he couldn’t really feel the cold.

“He wasn’t in there,” Lott said as they stared at the fire that seemed to be burning hotter by the moment.

“What do you mean?” Agent Munn asked, standing beside them on the edge of the water. She was as wet as he was, her hair plastered to her face, her FBI jacket hanging soaked on her shoulders.

“He so much as told me so,” Lott said. “He said we never play the long game. He said we would never find his remains in there.”

Agent Munn nodded. “From the way it’s burning, he may have been right.”

“This was planned ahead,” Munn said.

“How did he know me?” Julia asked. “Shocked me down to my poor soaked feet.”

“He set up Trish to be found,” Lott said, looking at Julia, the woman he loved. “And for Sheriff Blake and Andrews to take the fall for him. He wanted this to end now so he could move on. The challenge of beating us again and again was over.”

“There is no way he would kill himself in there,” Annie said. “I agree.”

“So where is he?” Agent Munn asked.

“He’s close,” Lott said. “More than likely in a car near the edge of town. He was talking with us. And I think after we get into some dry clothes and get something hot to drink, I’ll bet Fleet and his people can help us find out where exactly he is.”

“Did I hear my name taken in vain?” Fleet asked as he and Doc and Ben ran along the beach to them.

They all looked worried and were moving as fast as they could. Around the fire other FBI agents were swarming the area now.

“You all right?” Doc asked, moving quickly to Annie.

“Thanks to Dad,” Annie said, giving Doc a very wet hug. “We got out of there in time.”

Lott turned to Ben. “Glad to see you’re all right.”

“Thank you all for believing in me and saving my family,” Ben said. Lott could see the pain in his eyes. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

“You’re going to have to answer some questions and face some consequences you know,” Agent Munn said, patting Ben on the shoulder.

“I know. And I will face them. I’m just glad you got him.”

“We didn’t get him,” Lott said. “This was just to let him think we did.”

“What?” Fleet and Ben both asked at the same time.

Lott was now starting to really feel the cold and Julia was shivering.

“He set all this up,” Lott said, “including Trish’s death and we went right along with it. He led us to the bodies, everything.”

“How do you know?” Fleet asked.

Lott turned to Ben. “I assume this is the only time he has threatened you in the slightest. Right?”

Ben nodded slowly. “I wanted to get the bastard as much as you all did. I was in Vegas when one of the women went missing there, remember. I hated how that bastard taunted us. But I had no choice when he sent pictures of my wife and kids tied up and a man standing there with a gun at their heads.”

“You were needed to make us think he had been warned away. He was never on that boat.”

Ben nodded. “So this all was his exit strategy. Everything?”

“Everything,” Lott said, agreeing.

Lott pointed to all the FBI agents watching the fire. “And we played right into his plan as he knew we would.”

“Damn it all to hell,” Agent Munn said, shaking her head and heading up the hill to some other agents there.

“He taunted me right before the explosion, said we never play the long game,” Lott said. “So now it’s time we figure out his long game and surprise him. But first we need some dry clothes and something very warm to drink.”

“Oh, yes, please,” Julia said.