Chapter Six
While Lich was taking Hernandez’s statement, Mac made a call to Linda Morgan for an update. The Daniels case had been on the fast track, everything else, other than the case of the serial killer, was pushed aside. Morgan confirmed that the cause of Claire Daniels’ death was suffocation by strangulation. While measuring time of death was a tricky thing, they had been able to narrow it down to between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. She’d had sex, but there was no vaginal tearing. Rape was not indicated. They would be able to get DNA from the semen, but it would take a little time. They had prints from the scene, which had yet to be matched.
“When will the autopsy be done? When can I have the official results?” Mac asked.
“Tomorrow morning.”
“Anything else? I’m on my way to meet with the chief.”
“Nope. We’ll have the autopsy done and the results to you in the morning. Any ideas on who might match the semen or prints?”
Mac thought for a moment, he’d have to run things by the chief and Captain Peters first, “I might have something for you on that later.”
“Who?”
“Can’t tell you yet. I gotta run that one by the powers that be. All I’ll say is, it could be tricky.”
Mac could hear the excitement in Linda’s voice, “Let me know as soon as you can, okay? It’d be really great to clear this one. Get the media off our asses.”
“That it would.” Mac hung up on Linda and shuffled over to a pay phone, flipping the White Pages open to the government listings. He found the number for Senator Johnson’s office. A staffer told Mac that the senator had been in town until this morning. Last night he had been at a fund raiser in downtown Minneapolis that ended sometime around 10:30 p.m. The senator
Just then Clark and Green came down the hallway with a man in a red cardigan sweater with glasses hanging on a string around his neck. Green stopped while Clark took the man into an interview room. Green had an excited look.
“Who’s that?” Mac asked.
“Daniels’ neighbor, guy named John Chase. You’ll never guess who he saw leaving Daniels’ place two nights ago.”
“Mason Johnson.”
Green went blank. “How… how the hell did you know?”
Mac related the discovery of Hernandez having seen Johnson leaving the night before. Lich approached and Mac filled him in on Chase. Lich had checked with Motor Vehicle Records. The senator had a white Lexus with Minnesota plates. It was registered under Gwen Johnson, his wife, with an apartment address at Galtier Plaza in downtown St. Paul. Mac mentioned his conversation with Morgan and that he had confirmed that the senator had been in town.
“Mac, boy, seems like we got ourselves a prime suspect,” said Lich, pulling up his trousers and popping on the balls of his feet.
“We’ll see.”
“We’ll see, my ass. Don’t look a potential gift horse in the mouth.”
“Well, let’s go tell the chief about our prime suspect and ruin his night,” Mac said.
With Hernandez’s statement in hand, Mac and Lich headed up to the chief’s office. This would be an interesting meeting. It would include the Chief, Captain Peters, Sylvia Miller, as well as District Attorney Helen Anderson. Mac had to chuckle, for as much as Chief Flanagan loathed the cameras, Anderson loved them. Anderson was something of a publicity hound. While an assistant district attorney would handle the case, the high profile guaranteed Anderson’s involvement. She was more a politician than attorney and held hardly concealed aspirations for higher office. She would love the exposure this case would bring, especially if it involved a sitting United States senator from the opposing Republican Party nonetheless. Take down a powerful Republican-now that was the way to rise in the Democratic Party.
Lich, as usual, was lighthearted about the situation, “This should be a circus if the D.A.’s involved, especially when you drop the senator on them.”
Mac agreed. “Yeah, she’ll want the spotlight.”
“She’ll pee her pants.”
It was 6:30 p.m., and while it was chaotic in the rest of the Public Safety Building, it was quiet around the chief’s office as most of the support staff had left for the day. Mac knocked on the door, heard a “Come,” and they walked in.
The Department of Public Safety Building was a city government building and, therefore, alcohol and smoke free. So naturally the chief had a lit cigar in his mouth and had taken his bottle of Irish whiskey out, with himself, Captain Peters, and even the D.A. having a touch. There was also a woman in a blue suit sitting with her legs crossed on the couch. She had red hair pinned back in a swirl, stylish dark-rimmed glasses, and what looked like a nice pair of legs sticking out from her skirt. She too had a drink in her hand. For some reason, she looked familiar to Mac, but he wasn’t sure where he had seen her. Flanagan was digging in his desk drawer. He looked up as Mac and Lich entered and stood with two drink glasses in his hand, “Hello, boys. May I offer you a libation?”
Lich readily agreed. After a moment’s hesitation, Mac decided, what the heck, he was done for the day and heading to the bar afterwards anyway. Besides, a drink would help him break the news.
Once everyone had a fresh drink, the chief made the introductions. “As you boys know, that’s District Attorney Anderson.” He waved towards the couch with his drink, “The young lady over on the couch is Assistant District Attorney Sally Kennedy. Looks like you boys’ll be working with her on the case once you have a suspect.”
Mac and Lich shook Kennedy’s hand. Mac exchanged a look with her, something familiar. The chief then prodded Mac. “Go.”
“Well,” Mac started, “we may have a pretty good lead.”
“Do tell,” the chief replied lightly.
“Well, it could be…” Mac grimaced, “…difficult.”
“Spit it out,” Peters interjected.
Mac exhaled, “We got a witness who saw Senator Mason Johnson leaving Daniels’ place last night at 1:30 a.m. and another witness who saw him leave around the same time two nights ago. You put that with time of death between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m., and he starts looking pretty good for this.”
Silence. The chief pinched the bridge of his nose, and Peters’ mouth was agape. Everyone else had a look of disbelief on their face. After a minute, Anderson broke the quiet. “Whoa.”
“Yeah,” the chief added. “Mac, you better start from the beginning.”
“Yes, sir.” Mac related what Hernandez told them. He added in Chase and the other information regarding the senator’s car and the fact he was in town last night. Then he went into what he’d learned from Linda Morgan. They had prints from the scene that were different from Daniels’. They had yet to be matched. But they also had semen from which they would be able to get DNA.
That caused Captain Peters to let out a long whistle. “Son, you’re telling me we’ll get DNA from the semen?”
“That’s what Morgan says.”
“And prints?” the chief added.
“Yes,” Mac replied. “We’ll need to see if we can access the senator’s prints. I would assume that, as a federal employee, they are on file somewhere.”
“They are,” replied Anderson. “We can go to work on that if you’d like, chief.”
“I think we’ll need that, Helen.” Then to Mac, “Seems like your case is moving quickly in a certain direction.”
