“We’ll be at the Pub. Come when you can.”
Shamus told them to use Patrick’s Room in the basement if they needed and that seemed like the place to go. They each grabbed a beer from the bar and headed downstairs. Mac closed the unique cabinet door behind them and everyone took a seat.
“So, what do we think?” Mac started.
“Stephens was a lucky man,” Lich said, his mind ending up where it usually did.
“Yeah, she was a looker,” Riles replied, “But did we learn anything?”
“Cross. We learned that. Whatever that is. We need to find out what that means. Is it a place, a name, what?” Mac replied.
“How do we find that out?” Rock asked.
“I know somebody I could ask,” Mac replied. “I’m going to go make a phone call.” He left the small conference room, found a spot in the corner of the basement and punched up Lyman’s number. Mac filled him in on what they had learned the last couple of days.
“Mac, as best I remember, Cross was an old explosives facility out in West Virginia. The company owned it for years, but it’s closed now, has been for a while.”
“Anything unusual about the place?”
“Off the top of my head, no. It was an explosives facility we had. It was old and out in the middle of nowhere. Nothing like a modern operation. They finally shut it down a few years ago.”
“Do you know why they shut it down? Any questions or controversies?”
“I’m not sure. I think we just had more modern facilities for producing explosives. I suspect it was determined that it wasn’t worth keeping open, probably because it would have cost a lot to modernize it and what not.”
“What was out there, just a manufacturing facility?”
“Pretty much. There was a big warehouse or two, so I don’t know, we might have been storing stuff there or something. The place was out in the middle of nowhere as I recall. I was never actually there myself, but I looked Cross up on a map once and it was a little town in the hills. The facility itself was well out of town, being an explosives plant and all.”
“Anyone you could talk to about the place?”
“I could try. I still have some friends at PTA.” Lyman didn’t sound hopeful.
“It’s a long shot I know, but I’d appreciate it just the same. We’re kind of up against the wall, and this is the only thing we have found.”
“I’ll let you know.”
Mac flipped his phone closed and headed back to the conference room. When he opened the door, Riley was hanging up his phone. He didn’t look happy. “What gives?” Mac asked.
“We have to go see the chief.”
“What for?”
“He wants to know why we’re looking into PTA.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
A few days earlier, it had been a happy occasion to come into the chief’s office. The Irish whiskey had been out. Smiles and backslaps all around. Not now. One look at Flanagan’s face told the boys that he was not pleased. His tie was loose, his hair messed, the dark circles around his eyes had suddenly returned. “Sit,” was all he said when they walked in.
Helen Anderson was already sitting on the left side of the couch and didn’t look any happier. Her arms were crossed, and she had a stern look on her face. Sylvia Miller sat on the other end and looked pensive. While Mac didn’t like making the chief mad or causing Miller discomfort, he could give a shit about Anderson. What did concern him was Sally. She was conspicuous by her absence from this little meeting. Helen knew they were dating and he imagined that if it hadn’t happened already, Helen would be asking her what she knew.
As they all sat down and the chief came around his desk, the mayor came in, also unhappy. He’d been their friend a few days ago. One look told Mac, the mayor wasn’t here to be friends.
“So,” the chief started, “can someone tell me what in the hell you four have been up to?”
Riley started, but Mac put his hand on his knee and jumped in. The investigation was his idea. “Chief, you can put it on me.”
“What the hell, Mac?”
“Chief, I found some things a few days ago in finishing up Knapp, that caused us to go back and look at a few things related to the Claire Daniels murder, as well as one of Knapp’s alleged victims, Jamie Jones.”
“What?” Helen Anderson replied, aghast. “Why in the world, detective, would you dig up all of that?”
“I’d like to know as well,” the chief added, doubt in his eyes.
Mac walked them through the whole story. Flanagan and Miller looked intrigued, Anderson incredulous, and the mayor sick. They all had their individual reasons.
“Hell of a theory, Mac,” Flanagan said, with a little smile and shake of his head.
“Yes, sir.”
“Pat, you went along with this?” the chief asked, looking over to Riley.
“Yes, sir. We all did,” Riley replied assuredly. “Mac’s onto something here.”
“Excuse me?” Anderson accused. “From where I’m sitting, I don’t see it. You have no evidence to implicate PTA in anything. You have a number of coincidences that make an interesting story, perhaps, but nothing that would hold up in court.”
“We’re not in court yet,” Rock replied. “We’re investigating…”
“And who authorized that?” the mayor interjected. “Obviously this is news to the chief.”
“Couldn’t tell the chief,” Lich added.
“Why not?” Flanagan, surprised.
“Sir, we were trying to protect you. If we found something, we’d come to you. If we found nothing, then you’d never know that there were some possible questions, not so much about Knapp, but about the Daniels killing,” Mac said.
Riley jumped in. “It’s been rough enough for the department as it is, sir. We didn’t want to come to you with this, unless we found something to support the theory.”
“Well, on that account, I’d say you’ve failed,” Anderson replied.
Mac held up two fingers, “We’ve had two days! TWO! If we’re right, PTA has had five weeks or more to try to cover this up, which puts us way behind. But in two days of poking around, we found this Cross lead and link between Landy Stephens and Jamie Jones. We’ve already linked Jones to Daniels. And I just can’t get past two women, lifelong friends, both from a small Ohio town who die in St. Paul on the same night. Something’s going on here. If we keep looking, we might find more.”
“If you keep looking, all you’ll do is embarrass the department and my office.” Anderson answered. “You have a theory that, while I can see where you’re going, doesn’t have any evidence to support it. PTA’s lawyers would make monkeys out of us if we went after them with this. They’ll paint you as a bunch of rogue detectives who investigated without authority. It’ll be a disaster for you, the chief, the mayor and, yes, my office.”
“I thought we were on the same team?” Mac replied, disbelief on his face. “We haven’t asked to go to court yet. Who knows what we might find if we keep looking. If we develop a good case, then you can decide.”
“I won’t take this into court against PTA.”
Mac, pissed, raised his voice. “We wouldn’t ask you. We’d ask someone who’s actually seen the inside of a courtroom, not a chicken-shit politician more interested in protecting her bony little ass and her senate run.”
“That’s enough, detective!” the mayor replied angrily.
Mac ignored the mayor and glared at Anderson, not backing down.
