could be of some help.”
McRyan smiled inwardly. They did know something and now the Judge was fishing. Mac decided to play along. “I can tell you, Judge, that as of now, there was nothing we found in his hotel room that told us why he came here.” Mac emphasized the why intentionally. The Judge took the bait.
“But you found something?”
Mac shot a glance over to Lich who shrugged his shoulders as if to say “why not.” “Judge, we’ve reconstructed his last couple of days as best we could. Stroudt and Montgomery flew into Nashville on Tuesday, had dinner, drinks and stayed overnight. On Wednesday they rented a car and it looks as if they drove into Kentucky as we have a credit card receipt for a gas station in Cadiz, Kentucky. Do you know where that is?”
“Southwestern part of the state, lake country I think,” McCormick replied quickly, too quickly.
“How do you know that?” Mac asked suspiciously.
McCormick snorted, “Detective, my job requires me to know where the votes are. I know every county in every state of the country and Cadiz is the county seat for Trigg County.”
“Really,” Mac replied skeptically, his bullshit detector on full alert. “So you’re familiar with a little town of 2,700 people in western Kentucky?”
McCormick shrugged, “What can I say, that’s the job.”
“In a state you have no shot of winning,” Mac retorted and then added, “last I saw on Real Clear Politics you guys were down over twenty points in Kentucky. I bet you haven’t run an ad in that state, in the primary or the general.”
Mac and McCormick stared at one another, smirking, while everyone else sat silently.
The Judge broke the silence, “Where did he go from Kentucky, Mac?”
McRyan just glared at the political operative, so Lich answered. “Our next hit is that he bought a plane ticket in St. Louis and flew up here to the Twin Cities yesterday morning. So he was driving through Kentucky, Wednesday afternoon, and then ends up in St. Louis yesterday. I would note that he had a return flight to DC booked out of Nashville for yesterday morning but obviously didn’t make that flight. Neither did Montgomery. Stroudt arrived here from St. Louis at 10:00 a.m. and checked into The Snelling sometime around 2:45–3:00 p.m. We put time of death around 4:00 p.m.”
“The old prosecutor in me is curious, how was he killed?”
“Slashed across the neck, damn near decapitated,” Dick answered.
“And all you found in the room was a boarding pass?” the Judge asked, still fishing.
“That’s it, Judge. No luggage or carry-on bags. No toiletries, nothing. Odd, don’t you think?”
“I do, Detective. I do. Whatever he had with him the killer must have taken.”
“That’s what we think as well. So let me ask everyone a question. Where were all of you at 4:00 p.m. yesterday?” Mac asked, not looking up from his notepad, pen at the ready.
The Judge laughed through the phone, “Nice, Mac,” he added in a tone that indicated he was starting to tire of the questioning. “To answer an unserious question seriously, we were all on a conference call at that point yesterday in our campaign offices talking to the governor.”
“I can vouch on that,” Sally added with a tone that suggested Mac was pushing it, if not with the Judge, certainly with her.
Mac could see she was uncomfortable and to a certain degree he was now just having fun pushing McCormick’s buttons. He steered back to more probative territory. “Okay,” Mac started, “let me ask a couple more questions. Judge, did you know why Stroudt was in Kentucky?”
“I don’t.”
“How about you, Kate?”
“No idea. I don’t know either Stroudt or Montgomery.”
“How about you, Mr. McCormick?”
“No idea.”
Mac asked a different question of McCormick, sensing he was still on edge, “Did you know he was in Kentucky?”
“Umm … No, I didn’t.” The hesitation gave him away again, even if the answer didn’t. He knew Stroudt was there.
The Judge came to McCormick’s rescue, “Detectives, we all have a conference call we need to get on for the campaign. I’m sure you understand.” And the tone said, even if Mac didn’t, the interview was over.
“No problem, Judge. We appreciate your assistance.” Mac and Lich pushed themselves up from the table and Sally led them out of the room.
Sally walked them to the elevator and then couldn’t contain herself. “You don’t honestly think they had anything to do with this, do you?”
“Nah,” Mac answered for himself as well as Lich. “McCormick, however, would make a lousy poker player.