show you the books.”
Mac was taking notes and he looked up at the mention of new voting machines and the recent problem in three states. He looked to Wire whose eyes had narrowed. She caught it as well.
“What states had the problem?” Wire asked.
“Here in Wisconsin, which was a little embarrassing, as well as Iowa and Virginia.”
Mac snorted and shook his head lightly. There were new voting machines in Iowa, Wisconsin and Virginia, all of which were key states in the last days of the election, where, along with Ohio, the election would ultimately be decided. He looked over to Wire, who was jotting all this down. Bruzinski noticed this as well.
“You seem interested in the states. Why is that? And you were introduced as being from St. Paul, why would you have any interest in this?”
“We’re interested in anything that can help explain what happened to Mr. Checketts. We’re interested in anything that can explain what happened to your CIO,” Wire answered.
“Gabe Martin? I thought his death was a hit and run.”
“It’s looking more and more like a homicide,” Ring stated out loud what he’d thought since Wednesday.
“Gabe was murdered? But Mr. Checketts took his own life. You’re still saying there’s a connection?”
“One was killed on Wednesday and one is dead today, so yes, we think there could be. Don’t you?” Wire answered, perhaps getting ahead of herself and drawing a frown from McRyan, who apparently hadn’t been ready to go there just yet. They’d only worked together for ten hours now, so they weren’t totally in synch.
“Are you saying Mr. Checketts didn’t commit suicide?” Bruzinski asked. “An officer at the scene at Mr. Checketts house who called me told me it looked like a suicide.”
“Umm …” Wire started.
Ring covered it, “From what I’ve been told from our people at the scene, there is at least some question about it. The medical examiner will have to complete the autopsy, of course, but there is conflicting evidence and so we’re covering our bases. There were some murders in St. Paul last night that Detective McRyan thinks might have some connection to Mr. Martin and Mr. Checketts and he’s here to run those down.”
McRyan gave Ring a wink, “nicely handled.”
If it were possible for the man, Bruzinski was shocked yet again. “Why would anyone want to murder him? It must have something to do with these debts in Vegas.”
“It could be a suicide, it could have something to do with the debts, it could have something to do with DataPoint, we don’t know yet,” Mac answered. “We’re trying to figure that out. We’re trying to figure out if Checketts committed suicide or was murdered. We’re trying to figure out why someone would kill your CIO, Mr. Martin a few days ago. We’re trying to figure out if there is a connection between the two. Is there anything those two were mixed up in that could lead to this?”
Bruzinski shook his head and rubbed his face with his right hand, trying to wipe the stress away. “Not that I can think of. I mean, I ran the numbers for the company and talked with Mr. Checketts daily and basically ran things when he wasn’t around, but I never really knew much about his private life, and I knew Gabe even less. You should talk to Ginger Bloom though. She was the secretary for both of them.”
“And it is Ms. Bloom who was seeing Mr. Martin?” Wire asked.
“That’s right, although we didn’t necessarily know that at the time he was killed.”
* * *
Vigneault and Foucault watched the DataPoint offices from across the street. McRyan and Company had gone inside ten minutes ago. Now the two men sat in wait—again.
“Do you know why it is that Kristoff was so worried about this company in the first place? So worried that he had us take this Martin out?” Foucault asked, peering out the windshield through the mist, the wipers automatically clearing the glass every so often.
“He has not shared that with me,” Vigneault replied. “I do what I’m told and I get paid.”
Foucault nodded as he watched the front of the building, desiring a cup of coffee, maybe a bite to eat, but knowing he and his partner could not leave their post, at least not at this location. They would have to wait it out with the radio quietly playing light rock music. Vigneault took a couple of photos of the building, the Acadia that McRyan was driving and sent them off to Kristoff,