planned for it and knew the question would be coming. And there was no emotion. The political operative leaned back in the leather chair with one leg crossed over the other. There was no shock at the death of a friend. Even if he hadn’t seen the friend in two years, even if it wasn’t that close a friend, he should have registered some emotion. Instead, Mac saw nothing but ice.
“Have you seen or spoke with him since?”
“I haven’t.”
“He was here in St. Paul, Mr. McCormick, and you didn’t hear from him? I find that kind of hard to believe.”
“He didn’t call me and I didn’t see him, Detective,” McCormick answered casually.
“Can you think of any reason why he might have come here to town?”
“No, I can’t.”
“Really, I mean, you’re running a campaign for president of the United States,” Mac replied skeptically. “Don’t you think it could have had something to do with that given Mr. Stroudt is involved in politics?”
“Maybe,” McCormick conceded. “But I don’t really know because he never contacted me, Detective. I don’t know why he was in the Twin Cities.”
“Do you think he would have intended to contact you if he’d had the chance?”
McCormick shrugged his shoulders, “Maybe, Detective, maybe. But again, he never did call, so I don’t know. I can’t be the only person he knows here in the Twin Cities.”
“How about an e-mail or a text anything like that?” Lich asked.
“No, nothing.”
“Do you know why he would have been killed?” It was a sneaky question.
“Umm …” McCormick hesitated, just a second, but just enough that Mac noticed and enough that McCormick knew he noticed before he could recover. “I don’t … know why he was killed,” the deputy campaign manager answered haltingly.
Mac stared at McCormick for a minute and glanced to his right for a second to Sally who saw the hesitation too. The deputy campaign manager knew more than he was letting on. Mac wasn’t getting the vibe that McCormick had anything to do with the murder but he knew something about what Stroudt was doing or might have been doing. He wanted to dig into that more but needed a moment to think about how best to do that. So he did what he always did when he needed a minute, he wrote on his notepad. As he did so, he looked up from time to time at McCormick and then over to Kate Shelby as well. The political operatives were stoic, trying to look relaxed but they were a little uncomfortable now. Mac started thinking about his next series of questions when Lich jumped in, as if on cue.
“Judge Dixon, sir, how about you? Did you know Jason Stroudt?” Lich asked.
“I knew of him, Detective. He wrote fairly prolifically with his blog site, The Congressional Page, so that is what I know him from.” The Judge went on for about five minutes about what he knew of Stroudt’s writing and political commentary. It was a filibuster, a combination of the Judge pontificating and giving his political operative time to recover from McRyan’s questioning.
“Did you know him personally, Judge?” Mac inquired, jumping back in.
“I don’t think I do, Mac,” the Judge responded, his deep voice booming over the phone. “And I know that sounds like an odd answer but intentionally so. I have a good memory of whether I’ve ever met someone. I don’t believe I ever met Mr. Stroudt but I am familiar with him and his work.”
Mac had a thought and asked, “Judge, how about Adam Montgomery?”
“His business partner?” the Judge asked.
“Yes, what do you know about him?”
“About the same as I know about Stroudt,” Dixon answered, and proceeded to give a shorter but similar answer as before regarding Stroudt, The Congressional Page and articles on campaign finance reform and Super PACs. “Why do you ask about Montgomery, Mac?”
“We can’t find him,” Mac answered and was looking right at McCormick and Shelby when he said it. Neither of them was surprised. No raised eyebrows, no frowns, just stoic, as if they knew that to be the case. Judge Dixon was silent as well. Mac just let the statement dangle in the air for a minute and let the unease build.
From Ohio, the Judge must have sensed the discomfort as well and asked a question of his own. “Detective McRyan, may I ask a question?”
“Sure, Judge, go ahead.”
“Have you found anything in your investigation that would suggest why Mr. Stroudt came here to town? If we knew that, maybe we