the Thomson campaign end up dead in St. Paul just miles from Thomson Campaign Headquarters. The media being the media are going to fall all over themselves trying to find a connection. What is the connection? Were they hiding something? If they were, what was it?”
“The connection is that those two saw the meeting in Kentucky and took pictures,” Connolly retorted. “If the media gets that information, then we will all be fucked. The idea I’m sure tonight was to get possession of that information and finally plug that leak.”
“If you’re right, then why the shooting outside the bar?” Junior asked. “Why did Kristoff go after Dixon?”
“I don’t know.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“I don’t believe in coincidences.”
The clock struck midnight as the group filed into the conference room near Mac’s desk. On the whiteboard was the investigation, with Mac’s notes, pictures of Stroudt and Montgomery and the timeline he and Lich were developing before the events of the night. Now Mac had a lot more to add and his mind was racing with where to take the investigation next.
There was no shortage of people willing to offer suggestions, whether it was Dixon, Wire, or any of the other higher ups that were starting to appear around the conference room. The Secret Service was on the scene now and was not shy about making their presence felt and word was the FBI would soon be in the building. The only one not causing a ruckus was Kate Shelby, who sat quietly curled up in a chair in the corner, her eyes watery. She had been through hell tonight and she was fraying in front of everyone’s eyes.
The room was altogether chaotic and Mac took one look at it and shook his head and turned his back to it and looked at his whiteboard and the case.
Charlie Flanagan recognized what was happening.
He put a stop to it.
The chief called everyone together: “This is McRyan’s investigation. If you want a role, then let him assign you one. Otherwise, shut the hell up.”
Charlie Flanagan was a man who had a presence and commanded respect.
The room went uncomfortably silent for a moment and then heads slowly nodded.
Mac loved the man.
Wire sauntered up beside McRyan and watched him write “To Do” on the right side of the whiteboard. Underneath he wrote, who is our killer and underneath he put the printed picture of the man captured on Wire’s cell phone. “If he is alive, we need to see if we can find him.”
“How do you propose to do that?” Wire asked.
“Where’s Double Frank?” Mac asked out loud, not looking away from the whiteboard.
“Right here, Mac,” Double Frank came into the conference room with three cups of coffee, one for him, and one each for Mac and Wire.
“You’re on finding this guy,” Mac pointed to the picture on the whiteboard and handed Franklin a copy of the picture of the killer from McCormick’s house. “If our theory is right and he’s not at the bottom of the river, then someone is taking care of him. Take this picture and get it to all the hospitals as quickly as possible. Then we need to check out ‘off-the-books’ doctors. This guy had three in his left upper chest from Ms. Wire here at close range. That takes some serious surgical intervention so the pool of people performing that work should be pretty small. See what you can find. Take as many guys as you need to help you out and keep me updated with what you’ve done.”
“You got it.”
Next was the van from the shootout. “Paddy, you out there?” Mac was calling for his cousin Patrick, a newly minted detective.
“Right here, cousin.”
“You know the traffic cameras on West Seventh around the pub?” Paddy nodded. “We need that footage. I want to see if we can track the panel van that was in the shootout. Get a plate for it, track it and see what we can find.”
“Done,” Paddy replied.
“Mac, Duffy’s here,” the chief reported from the doorway to the conference room.
Ed Duffy was the local agent-in-charge for the FBI. His history with the department had been long and somewhat checkered, mostly due to a long simmering feud with the chief. However, he worked with Mac and the rest of the Chief’s Boys on a double kidnapping sixteen months ago and in the process snuffed out an FBI traitor. Duffy was a bureau man through and through and appreciated the work done by Mac and his friends to smoke the man out. They’d