his sins. He took the easy way out. He was pleased the governor won and he knew Sally would be ecstatic. She looked absolutely radiant, standing in the background, beaming a broad smile and pure joy as the governor gave his victory speech. That brought a small smile to his face. He wanted to get back to her.
Thomson finished his victory speech and Mac turned away from the television. To occupy his time, Mac interviewed the house staff, which consisted of two housekeepers, a man and a woman, husband and wife. Their general responsibilities were to look after the estate year around, even when Pope was not around. The woman generally cared for the interior and the man the exterior.
“How did Mr. Pope seem this evening?” Mac asked.
“Fine,” the wife replied. “He requested supper like he normally does when he stays. He’s never real talkative when he’s here but when I brought up his meal and set it on the table outside his office he seemed in good spirits, said good evening and thank you. It was normal.”
“When did he arrive here?”
“Yesterday afternoon,” the husband responded. “He arrived, told us what he would like for dinner and asked us to show in his guest when she arrived.”
“Who was his guest?”
“A woman, a model, I think,” the woman replied. “Her name was Veronica, very pretty and she usually came around when he visited the house here. She stayed for dinner and the night. She was here this morning, they had breakfast and swam in the pool and she left in the middle of the afternoon.”
“And this was normal when he came here?”
“Yes,” the couple replied in unison, nodding their heads.
“And again,” Mac asked, “today everything seemed normal? He didn’t seem down or depressed. He didn’t seem like a man about to take his life?”
They both shook their heads.
“And when did you take his dinner up?” Mac asked the wife.
“About an hour before you arrived.”
“Did you know he kept a gun in the house?”
The housekeepers looked at each other, fear growing in their eyes.
“Relax,” Mac said calmly. “You’re not in any trouble here. Please just answer my question, did you know he kept a gun in the house?”
“Yes,” the husband replied knowingly. “He kept it in his desk in the office.”
Something didn’t add up to Mac. Pope went from a normal evening to committing suicide in the blink of an eye.
He spent the next few minutes wandering the house, looking in the rooms, checking out the furnishings. On the patio, outside a small den on the main level, he found Wire sitting in a patio chair, looking out to the ocean, alone in her thoughts. Pope’s suicide deflated her, denying her the chance for true justice and justice for McCormick’s mother. It didn’t look like she wanted company at the moment and Mac obliged.
As he walked back up to the second floor, he strolled into the home office, which sat next to the master suite where Pope shot himself. The office was spacious, outfitted with a large wood desk, two soft chairs in front of the desk as well as a large sitting area around an ornate coffee table. Other than the bank of tall windows overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, the other walls contained mahogany bookshelves filled with classic books, fine art and worldly trinkets. Mac walked the bookshelves, admiring the fine furnishings.
The desk drew him in. On top of the desk sat a laptop computer and some random papers. The papers mostly consisted of information regarding the elections, with polling data that might as well have come from inside the Wellesley campaign. Mac was certain that in time it would be found that Pope was pouring millions into various Super PACs in addition to his attempts to manipulate the election results. Not that all that mattered much now.
He sat in the desk chair and turned to look out the windows.
Something was gnawing at him.
Did Pope really just see them coming and knew the end was near, or did he know more?
Sitting next to the desk was a briefcase. He picked it up and put it on top of the desk and opened it. “Well lookey here.”
It was a military-grade satellite phone. “Did you get a phone call?” Mac quietly muttered.
Mac walked back downstairs to the housekeeper and her husband. “Did Mr. Pope receive any phone calls in the hour before we arrived?”
“Not on the house phone,” the wife answered. “No calls that way.”