Cold Call: A Cold Poker Gang Mystery Read online

  Julia was a fine poker player and often he hung around to watch her win money in the end.

  They were becoming friends, close friends, before ever moving forward with any relationship. They talked and saw each other every day and spent a lot of time together. They were a couple. They just hadn’t called it that yet.

  And Lott liked that as well.

  Lott had a hunch that Carol would have been glad he was slowly healing as well. His not moving on was her biggest worry in her last days of life. He had promised her he would, because she had made him, but he never thought he actually would.

  Him not moving on with life had been his daughter Annie’s worry as well for a couple years after Carol died. Annie had got him to build the poker room downstairs and start to remodel some of the house. Lott had still not touched the living room, where Carol had spent most of her last year sitting and watching television, covered in a blanket. But eventually he knew he would even remodel that.

  Eventually.

  Annie loved Julia, and half the time they would laugh about something that Lott just missed. Lott figured that if his really smart daughter liked Julia, he couldn’t be far off in his own taste.

  Julia went to the fridge, got out a bottle of cold water, and drank a third of it before turning to him while leaning against the fridge.

  He glanced back from where he was opening packages of snacks for the game and realized in her wonderful green eyes that something was really wrong.

  She was pretending to smile, but after six months he knew her well enough to know that was just a show.

  He quickly grabbed some paper plates, some napkins, and a few forks, and pointed to the table. “Sit and tell me what’s going on.”

  “That obvious, huh?”

  “Everything all right with Jane?” Lott asked as they sat down.

  Jane was her daughter and a grad student at UNLV. Lott liked her a great deal, and so did Annie.

  “Jane’s great,” Julia said, waving away any suggestion of something wrong there as she dug into the tub and grabbed a wing.

  Lott took one of the legs and bit into the wonderful taste, letting the oil and tender meat from the chicken melt in his mouth. Wow, he had been hungrier than he had thought.

  He quickly finished off the leg, putting the remains on the edge of his plate.

  Julia didn’t like legs and he didn’t like wings. Somewhere in their first month together, he had teased her once about that being enough to base a relationship on and she had agreed, then laughed at his shocked look.

  Licking his fingers and then using the paper towel to wipe off his face, he looked at the woman he was falling for more every week. “So what’s the problem?”

  “Remember I told you about my friend Trish Vittie?”

  Lott remembered clearly. In fact, he and Julia had talked about her a number of times because Julia so often got worried about Trish. Julia called worrying about Trish one of her hobbies.

  The two had been friends in high school and stayed friends, at least e-mail and call friends. From what Lott remembered of the conversations about Trish, she was very different than Julia. Trish was a floating free spirit that liked to bounce through husbands as well as adventures.

  “I do,” he said, staring into the worried green eyes of Julia. “What’s happened?”

  “She was supposed to contact me last week and didn’t,” Julia said. “So I tried to contact her in all our normal manners and nothing. No internet, no phone, nothing.”

  Lott nodded and waited for Julia to finish.

  “So I called the friends she has set up as contacts when she moved back into the mountains in Idaho a year ago and they haven’t seen or heard from her in two weeks either. And I tricked someone at the post office to see if her mail had been picked up and it hadn’t been picked up.”

  Lott sat back, worried, and not really knowing what to say. “Isn’t she living in a remote part of Idaho? Somewhere up in the mountains?”

  “She is,” Julia said. “About three hours out into the mountains from McCall, Idaho.”

  Lott sat forward as if his chair had been wired with electricity. “Is Trish wearing her hair long and blonde?”

  Julia nodded, now looking really worried.

  “Shit, shit, shit,” Lott said, grabbing his phone. He had a hunch that chilled him to the bone. More than likely, Julia’s friend was fine.

  More than likely.

  In fact, probable.

  But if his hunch was right, this wasn’t good.

  Not good at all.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  May 12, 2015

  6 P.M.

  Las Vegas, Nevada

  Lott quickly dialed Andor’s number as Julia sat there stunned at his sudden outburst and movement.

  Andor was his old partner and a member of the Cold Poker Gang as well.

  When Andor answered the phone Lott said, “Check out The Phantom files from downtown on the way here.”

  Across the table Julia had a deep worried look on her beautiful face.

  “Going to take me an hour to get copies,” Andor said. “Worth being late for the game?”

  “Worth it,” Lott said.

  “On my way,” Andor said and hung up.

  Julia stared at Lott as he put his cell phone back in his shirt pocket.

  “One of the great unsolved cases in Las Vegas,” Lott said, “is called by the name The Phantom. Actually it’s a string of unsolved cases. All disappearances. No bodies ever found.”

  Julia frowned. Clearly she had never heard of it.

  “In Seattle, they call him, The Wind. In Boise, they call him The Ghost.”

  “Him?” Julia asked.

  Lott nodded, remembering the smirking face of maybe the greatest and smartest serial killer of all time. “His name is Willis Williams.”

  Julia shook her head. “Never heard of him.”

  “That’s because he doesn’t have a home in Reno,” Lott said, trying to keep the anger at the man out of his voice. “He has an estate here, a huge mansion in Seattle, and his estate above Boise covers acres in the hills. Plus he has another mansion in McCall, Idaho, on the lake.”

  “You think Trish’s disappearance might have something to do with this guy?”

  Lot shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. I doubt it, to be honest. But since 2000, women with long blonde hair have vanished without a trace in all three major cities.”

  “You think this Williams guy is to blame?” Julia asked.

  “Clues, but no evidence linked Willis Williams to almost all the disappearances. He has never even come close to being charged or even named a person of interest, though every cop in all three cities knows he did the crimes. He loves taunting us. Takes pleasure in it, actually.”

  “That bad?” Julia asked. “Really?”

  Lott nodded. “One night he dumped a female mannequin with a long blonde wig into Lake Mead while two kids watched him. He did it just to drive us all crazy. Then two weeks later one of the kids, a girl named Carrie Coswell disappeared while out for a run. She also had long blonde hair.”

  “Oh, no,” Julia said. “When was this?”

  “Carrie disappeared in 2002. Andor and I were lead detectives on the case.”

  “You think Trish might have become part of this?” Julia asked, clearly trying to give herself some strength after what Lott had just told her.

  “No woman has disappeared from the McCall area before, so more than likely Trish is fine. But it was the first thing that came to mind and we need to go find out.”

  “Go?” Julia asked.

  He smiled and took another piece of chicken, this time a breast. “You up for a trip to Idaho to see if we can find Trish? I’m sure she’s all right, but let’s go find out.”

  Julia hesitated for only a moment, then said, “Very much so. I was thinking of doing that myself as it was.”

  Lott licked off his fingers, wiped off his mouth and hands, and then grabbed his phone again to call his daughter
.

  He knew Annie and her boyfriend, Doc Hill, were in a poker tournament down at the Bellagio, but Lott also knew that on this topic Annie wouldn’t mind being interrupted at all, even as slight the chance that this might be related to Williams, she would want to be involved from the start. Annie had been on a couple of the cases involving Williams.

  Doc Hill, Annie’s boyfriend, was the best tournament player on the planet and with his partner, Fleetwood Kort, had built a very large empire of investments and real estate. Lott had decided he flat didn’t want to know how rich Doc and Fleet were.

  Fleet had once said they were up in the scary-rich neighborhood.

  Annie used to be a Las Vegas detective as well until she met Doc on a case and retired to make a fortune playing poker with Doc. And from what Annie had said one night in passing, Fleet was helping her with investments with the winnings to shelter some of it from taxes.

  Lott also decided he didn’t want to know just how rich his daughter had gotten in the last few years either.

  When Annie answered, she said, “Hold on, Dad.” He could hear her excuse herself from the table and walk out into the casino area, since cell phones were not allowed in the poker room.

  “How’s it going?” he asked.

  “I’m hanging on, trying to make it into the money,” Annie said. “Doc is just powering over everyone as he does. We’re down to just two tables, and luckily Doc is on the other table at the moment, so I might have a chance. So what’s happening? Thought you had a poker game yourself tonight.”

  “We do, starting in about an hour or so,” Lott said. Then he quickly detailed out that Julia’s friend had gone missing up around McCall, Idaho. We’re thinking of going to look for her tomorrow.”

  “I hope she’s all right,” Annie said.

  “More than likely she is,” Lott said. “Her name is Trish and she has long blonde hair.”

  “Damn it all to hell,” Annie said, instantly knowing what Lott was talking about. And she had jumped to the exact same hunch he had jumped to. She had worked two of the Phantom’s missing person cases while a detective, and she had taken both very personally, which Willis Williams seemed to take a joy from.

  “Let me get Doc out here,” Annie said.

  Lott could hear her going back into the poker room.

  He smiled at Julia’s worried expression across the table, but said nothing.

  A moment later Lott could hear Annie explaining to Doc what had happened and what the background was. He also heard Annie tell Doc that chances are nothing had happened, but they needed to make sure.

  Then Lott heard Doc say, “Tell your dad and Julia we’ll put all our resources behind their investigation. I’ll get hold of Fleet. Tell them to be at the airport before 5 a.m.”

  Annie spoke back into the phone. “You hear any of that, dad?”

  “I did and we’ll be there. Thank you both.”

  “Let’s just hope this doesn’t involve Williams,” Annie said and hung up.

  Lott had a hunch he had just ruined Annie’s chance of hanging on in the tournament.

  He put his phone away and smiled at Julia. “Our ride has been arranged.”

  Julia reached across the table and touched his arm. “Thank you.”

  “You are welcome,” he said. “But thank Doc and Annie. They are putting anything we need behind us.”

  And both Lott and Julia knew that meant vast resources, far more than any regular detectives could ever ask for or take legally while on the job.

  Then Lott pointed to the tub of chicken. “Now eat before others get here and we have to share this with them. I want to save some for the plane tomorrow.”

  She shook her head and laughed, digging into the bucket of chicken looking for another wing.

  Lott watched her, smiling. There was no doubt he was smitten with this wonderful woman.

  No doubt in the slightest.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  May 13, 2015

  4:30 a.m.

  Las Vegas International Airport

  Julia stood with her jacket pulled tight around her, shivering slightly in the cold predawn air. Even though the day would be warm, at 4:30 a.m. out on an open runway, it could get pretty darned cold in early May. She had brought the jacket for the Idaho mountains, but was very glad she had it at the moment.

  Behind her was Doc Hill’s private jet hanger, now standing open and empty since the large private jet sat on the taxi-way about fifty paces in front of her. It looked like the two pilots were going through a pre-flight-check in the cockpit.

  Lott had picked Julia up at her house a half hour ago. Annie had met them inside the hanger and Lott was now briefing her on what some of the plans were and where they were headed exactly in Idaho. While he was doing that, Julia had gone out to get their bags from Lott’s Cadillac.

  She couldn’t believe Lott had jumped in so fast to help with her friend Trish. His willingness to help was one of the many things she loved about him.

  And she had to admit, she was falling in love with him.

  He seemed to be falling for her as well. They didn’t talk about it, but it seemed they both knew and were just going slow. She liked that.

  During the game last night, on Lott’s prompting, she had told the other three players about her friend Trish going missing.

  The moment she had said Trish had long blonde hair and lived outside of McCall, Idaho, the other three had instantly jumped to the same conclusion Lott had come to. But they all agreed that chances are they were overeating.

  They said that chances are Trish was fine.

  And their initial reaction scared Julia more than she wanted to admit. She did not want to lose her old friend Trish.

  Andor, Lott’s former partner, was the oldest of the Cold Poker Gang at seventy. But he was very spry and walked like a bull, always seeming to storm forward when he moved. Lott towered over him, since Andor barely made five-five. But with his brown sports jacket and pants that never matched and his shining bald head, he seemed far more intimidating.

  Julia had really come to like Andor, even though they seldom said much to each other.

  Sarge was ex-military from Nam and never talked about it. He was mid-sixties and had some scars on his face from different fights. Lott had full gray hair he kept cut short. Sarge had thinning hair with a large bald spot in the center of his head that always looked sunburned.

  Julia had never been able to get a real sense of him, even though he came to the games every week since his wife had died. He seemed very closed up.

  Benson was the fifth member of the Cold Poker Gang that had showed up for the game. Besides Julia, he was the youngest of the bunch, but looked older than Lott with a large gut and a limp. He had taken early retirement to work on real estate investing and gotten bored enough to want to do more detective work at times. He was married with two grown kids and only made about half the games since his wife liked to travel.

  Julia liked Benson because he had a mind that could fit unrelated details into patterns. They had solved a few cases because of Benson’s skill at that.

  They cut the game short and all five of them pored over the files Andor had brought from the department. Lott said he never thought the Cold Poker Gang would ever think of tackling Willis Williams. But now they had a connection and couldn’t not go after him.

  Julia was glad they were all so willing to help.

  She just really, really hoped they would get to Trish’s home up in the mountains and they would find her there, well. But her gut told her that was not going to be the outcome.

  After they had finished going over the files on the various disappearances linked to Willis Williams, they divided the nine Las Vegas cases up among the three staying behind in Vegas.

  While Julia and Lott were in Idaho, the other three were to go over the cases again, trying to find anything at all someone might have missed, some sort of similarity they could tie together.

  And Andor had suggested that he work w
ith a detective from both Boise and Seattle and get their files. “Call it an “old person’s task force.”

  “Think they would go for that?” Julia had asked.

  “I’ll get the Captain to call them. The least they can do is send files.”

  “My gut sense,” Lott said, “with Willis Williams, they’ll do more than send files.”

  She had headed home at ten right after the game instead of going out to dinner with Lott as was their habit over the last few months. Since he was picking her up so early, she wanted to at least try to get a little sleep and pack.

  She had managed the packing, but the sleep had mostly eluded her.

  Now the cold wind was waking her up and she was ready to go.

  She really needed to find out what had happened to Trish.

  CHAPTER SIX

  May 13, 2015

  7:15 A.M.

  Boise, Idaho

  The sun was just coloring the mountains above Boise when they touched down. He and Julia had tried to nap some on the flight, but mostly they had ended up talking about Trish.

  From what Julia said, Trish was like a wild sister she never had. They had been friends in college and while Julia didn’t date much and studied too much, Trish partied all the time and was married the first time by her sophomore year.

  It seemed she had six marriages after that one, tossing men away after she got tired of them.

  Julia and Trish were exact opposites and that had kept them in touch and talking over the years. Julia valued the wild side of Trish and the friendship and Trish seemed to value the stableness of Julia.

  Julia said Trish had planned to calm down and just read and relax after the last divorce, which is why she rented a house so far from anything. Julia said Trish was going into Boise twice a month for supplies and to go to counseling sessions. Otherwise, Trish claimed she was staying home most of the time.

  Lott had asked Julia if she believed that Trish was trying to change.

  “I believe she is, yes,” Julia said, nodding. “Is she succeeding, I doubt it. Stripes and a zebra sort of thing.”