meeting from the perch occupied by Stroudt and Montgomery. Instead she was forced to move to the north side of the cabin.”
“I assume it was Wire who identified Stroudt and Montgomery as being at the meeting,” the director asked.
“Yes sir. She found their vehicle parked down the road, took down the license number and later verified that they had rented it.”
“Do we know what was discussed at this meeting?” Mitchell asked.
“I think it may be more along the lines of what was intended to be discussed. It doesn’t appear that the meeting got too far along before it broke up.”
“Why is that?”
“Stroudt and Montgomery were discovered and chased from the area. The chase included gun shots.”
“Gun shots?” Mitchell asked again with upraised eyebrows.
“Yes, sir. Ms. Wire reported shots being fired and given the events that have unfolded since this meeting, I think we can safely assume that was the case.”
“Was she in any danger during this time?” Mitchell asked with concern.
“No sir, as I mentioned, she was on the north side of the cabin, away from the action and she told me they never knew she was there.”
“Good,” Mitchell answered. “What’s next?”
“Following the discovery of Stroudt and Montgomery, the meeting was hastily ended and all the players made a mad dash from the scene into SUVs and limousines as you can see in this series of photos taken by Wire,” Mac explained. “Here you see Connolly and Checketts in particular being ushered into vehicles that Dara reports immediately sped away from the scene.”
“What’s next?”
“The next significant event happens the following day,” Mac displayed a picture of The Snelling and of Stroudt dead on the motel room floor. “I caught the case at this point when Mr. Stroudt’s dead body was found at The Snelling, a rather seedy motel in St. Paul.” Mac displayed a picture of Stroudt’s body at The Snelling. “As you can see, Mr. Stroudt’s throat was cut from ear to ear. His time of death was around 3:00 p.m.” Mac related the discovery by a pizza delivery man and the motel manager.
“So Stroudt was in Kentucky on Wednesday night and was killed in St. Paul by 3:00 p.m. on Thursday?” Mitchell asked. “How did he get there?”
“Flew. Both Stroudt and Montgomery had return flights booked to DC from Nashville for Thursday morning. Neither of them ever showed for that flight. Instead, they drove the opposite direction, to St. Louis, where Stroudt took a Delta flight to the Twin Cities and arrived a little after 10:00 a.m. He rented a car at the airport. From there he went to a Grand Brew Coffee Shop in St. Paul for a few hours and then checked into The Snelling around 2:00 p.m. and was murdered an hour later.”
“Do you know by whom?”
“We think we do. I will get to the killer in a minute because Stroudt is not the only body he’s dropped, sir,” Mac answered. “Now, we were able to identify Stroudt from a Delta boarding pass we found in the motel room. However, none of Mr. Stroudt’s other belongings were in the room when we arrived.”
“What about his car?”
“It was dumped at a shopping mall a few miles from the motel, again with none of his personal effects inside.” Mac continued: “Upon identifying Stroudt, we tried to track down his business partner, Adam Montgomery. Apparently sensing danger from what he and his partner had seen on Wednesday night, unlike Stroudt, he wisely dropped from the grid sooner and tried to fly below the radar. He did not answer his cell phone and as we later learned, he ditched it for a burner phone. In St. Louis he borrowed a car from a distant relative and eventually drove to the Twin Cities, arriving sometime on Friday. Once in the Twin Cities, he called Sebastian McCormick, the deputy campaign director for Governor Thomson’s campaign, to arrange a meeting which took place at McCormick’s St. Paul home.” He flipped to a slide with pictures of Sebastian McCormick, Kate Shelby and McCormick’s house.
“Was there some relationship between McCormick and Montgomery?” Mitchell asked.
“No, but there was between Stroudt and McCormick, they went to law school together at the University of Virginia,” Mac answered. An aide walked into the office with two pots of coffee.
“Coffee?” Mitchell asked.
“Please.”
The director poured Mac a cup. “Cream? Sugar?”
“Right now, black,” Mac answered.
“That tired, huh?”
“You could say that, Director,” Mac answered with an exhausted smile. He took two quick sips of coffee and then pressed on. “When Montgomery arrived