Electing to Murder

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

“Electing to Murder.”

The director and Mac briefed Attorney General Josiah Gates a little before 5:00 a.m. Gates had served as attorney general for the past two years and was a close personal friend of Vice President Wellesley. The attorney general had a reasonable expectation of holding his job if his good friend were elected. So it was with a little surprise and much to Mac’s great relief, Attorney General Gates had no intention of keeping his job via potential election fraud.

A half hour after the briefing, Mac sat and listened as Mitchell and Gates held a conference call with the secretaries of state for Iowa, Wisconsin and Virginia. By a little after 6:00 a.m., each state was already starting the process of arranging to test their DataPoint machines. By 6:30 a.m., the secretaries of state for the other DataPoint states had been brought into the loop as a precaution and would be testing their machines as well.

At 7:00 a.m., Attorney General Gates and FBI Director Mitchell left to brief President Barnes. Thankfully, Mac did not have to give that briefing. “No offense, Detective, because I suspect you’re most concerned with the murders,” Attorney General Gates stated seriously, “but the president will have to be most concerned about the elections on Tuesday.”

“Understood,” Mac answered, and he did. “Sir,” Mac asked FBI Director Mitchell, “will you be needing me for the next few hours?”

“No, Mac,” Mitchell answered with a small grin, having anticipated McRyan’s question. “My driver is downstairs and he will take you to the Marriott. I already have a room reserved for you. Go crash. I’ll probably want you back here when we get Connolly in.”

Mac didn’t hesitate. He went to the Marriott, checked into his room, crashed on the bed and immediately fell asleep.

While he slept, a lot happened.

Following his early morning briefing, the president moved decisively, issuing an executive order to have all DataPoint machines inspected. A follow-up conference call with the secretaries of state occurred at 8:00 a.m. and by 9:30 a.m., results started flooding into the FBI office of Civil Rights that in fact the rollback virus was on the memory cards for the DataPoint machines in the three keys states. The good news was that in other states with DataPoint machines, it didn’t appear there was an issue, so the rollback virus was limited to Iowa, Wisconsin and Virginia.

A conference call was then held at 10:15 a.m. with the campaigns wherein the rollback virus was disclosed and the measures that needed to be taken were explained. For the machines to operate properly, the memory cards had to be replaced. The scramble was already on to manufacture the cards. The previous manufacturer DataPoint used for the memory cards was contacted and agreed to immediately begin production of the memory cards, at an extremely high markup, of course.

And then there was the media.

The early morning briefing by the FBI director and attorney general was not on the president’s original schedule. When the FBI director and attorney general show up unannounced, something is up. That caught the attention of the White House Press Corps and they picked up the scent quickly. That gave the Judge an opening to start the ball rolling on DataPoint. Word of the conference call with the secretaries of state leaked and it appeared on a political reporter’s Twitter feed, followed by a quick Huffington Post blog post that went viral within minutes. It even made its way onto the Sunday morning political shows as breaking news. It was all the pundits could do to avoid looking at their cell phones while debating who would win on Tuesday night. Even the great George Will wasn’t sure what to say.

Following the morning shows, Barnes Administration and Thomson campaign sources, mostly off the record, confirmed that there was a significant problem with and tampering of the voting machines in three key battleground states. The Wellesley campaign was oddly silent and simply was providing “no comment,” and for good reason. At 11:30 a.m. eastern time, the attorney general and FBI director held a press conference and disclosed the attack on the electoral system, explaining what the virus would do and what its possible impact would have been.

Neither the attorney general nor the FBI director minced words. The murders were tied to the manipulation of the system, indicating the attack had both domestic and foreign components. However, the implication was clear. Someone who was a supporter of Vice President Wellesley had conspired to manipulate the election results and murdered seven people in the process.

The media, already in overdrive two days before the election, went ballistic with wall-to-wall coverage. Never had the actual mechanics of voting machines been so thoroughly and quickly dissected as was now being done on FOX News, NBC News Channel and CNN. With the help of smart boards, the networks demonstrated what the impact of the rollback of one vote of every twenty for Governor Thomson would have been in those three states, assuming the current polling numbers and projected voter turnout. Clearly the manipulation would have caused the states to slip to Vice President Wellesley.

The headlines were predictable.

Electoral Theft.

Rolling Back Democracy.

Manipulating the Franchise.

Hacking Democracy.

Virus Politics.

The one that caught Mac’s attention was the FOX News headline—”Electing to Murder.” To him, that captured what the case was really about, the victims. It was also the headline that led to the question: “Who was behind this?”

That part of the story had yet to be told, but the media was asking and digging.

Attorney General Gates and Director Mitchell were clear that they did not have a suspect although there were people of interest they were looking to talk to and would do so very soon. In actuality, it was one person of interest—Heath Connolly. Connolly’s name was never uttered but his name started percolating to the surface within fifteen minutes of the end of the press conference. Judge Dixon at work again. Khrutov’s name leaked as well and that escalated the story further, Russians and Republicans conspiring to fix the presidential election.

The reaction of the Political Left was outrage and one of let’s not jump to conclusions on the Political Right.

The problem for the right was it was hard not to jump to a conclusion because it was all so obvious to see. Damage control mode was the operating mantra of the vice president’s campaign as well as Senate and Congressional Republicans. The vice president himself had met with reporters immediately after the press conference and said anyone involved needed to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

“Does that include if this involves someone in your campaign?” an ABC reporter asked.

“Without question.”

Five minutes later came the first report of Connolly’s name.

Once Connolly’s name came out, the interview of any Republican on any political show, even FOX News, was uncomfortable to watch.

After his nearly four hours of sleep, Mac took in all of this chaos from the couch of his suite at the Marriott a few blocks from the Hoover Building. A quick shower and some good room service had him feeling somewhat refreshed. Now, 1:00 p.m., he was lounging in a bathrobe and his boxers watching a football game, when there was an expected knock on his door which he opened to find Wire. She’d gone to her Arlington, Virginia, home to get some rest, a shower and she offered to buy some clothes for Mac, who’d flown to Milwaukee and then Washington with nothing but the clothes on his back.

The few hours of rest had done her well and she looked good. Skinny blue jeans accentuating her long shapely legs, tight black top, black leather jacket, makeup and her long black hair pulled back in a sleek ponytail. “I say this as a man utterly in love with his girlfriend and without any hint of lecherousness, but Dara Wire, you clean up really nice.”

“Thanks,” Wire replied with a bright smile, appreciating the compliment. “Here you go,” she handed him two bags that contained two pairs of jeans, a package of boxers, socks, T-shirts and two Henley shirts, one gray and one black.

“Thanks, partner,” Mac replied as he darted into the bedroom although he left the door open a crack so they could talk.

“So you’ve seen the news, I take it,” Wire asked, dropping into one of the soft leather chairs.

“Cripes. My cell phone has been going crazy. Sally, the Judge, Riley, Rockford, Lich, Jupiter, heck, even my mother, it’s been unbelievable. I turned on the football game just to get away from it.”

“You call anyone back?”

“Sally,” he replied with a sheepish voice.

“Of course. You are so damn smitten.”

“I know. Anyway,” getting back to the political talk, “can you say October surprise?”

“This isn’t finding out about Bush’s DWI three days before the election,” Wire replied as she looked to her left towards the bathroom and caught a quick glimpse of McRyan’s reflection in the bathroom mirror, the separate bedroom door into the bathroom wide open. He was naked except for his boxers. She could make out his ripped physique and thought no wonder Sally Kennedy was in so deep. “So Connolly is coming in when?”

“He’ll be arriving sometime around 2:00 p.m. He’s on an FBI jet coming back from Ohio. His lawyer has already been in contact with the Justice Department and will be there.”

“He surely won’t be coming to town unnoticed.”

Mac laughed, “No, no he won’t. The Judge saw to that.”

“Are you in on the interview of Connolly?” Wire asked. She was, after all, an employee of the Thomson campaign.

“Not in the interview itself but I get to watch,” Mac answered. “Which is fine, by the way. If you think about it, Dara, I’m a homicide detective and our homicides are closed for the most part. We have this guy back in the Twin Cities and the two from last night in Milwaukee who either murdered or were certainly involved with the murders of Martin and Checketts, so to a certain degree, my job is done.”

“Don’t you want to know who is behind this, though?”

“Hell-to-the-yeah,” Mac answered enthusiastically as he emerged from the bedroom dressed in jeans and a black Henley and white undershirt. “But election fraud and manipulating voting machines is the FBI’s beat, not mine. If the bureau figures out who’s behind this voting machine business, we’ll know who the shot caller was on the murders and we’ll get closure.”

“We know who’s behind the voting machines. It’s Connolly.”

“Maybe,” Mac answered.

That drew a stern look from Wire. “What do you mean maybe?” she growled.

“Exactly that,” Mac answered. “Maybe. Look, Dara he’s involved up to his well-coiffed sideburns, I’m just not completely convinced he’s the one calling the shots is all.”

“Why not?” she asked hotly.

“Easy, Dara,” Mac replied calmly, “easy. I know how you guys feel about Connolly. But you and the Judge are so wrapped around the axle on this guy that you may be making him bigger than he is.”

“What do you mean bigger?”

“He’s Satan in your eyes, and he may be. But seven bodies have been dropped. Someone has been paid a lot of money and expended a lot of resources to make this all happen. Campaign managers don’t have that kind of scratch.”

“Where have you been?” Wire mocked. “Look at all the money in politics. These damn Super PACs and all the money they’re spending. He can have that money with a snap of his fingers.”

“Okay, but from whom? And let me tell you something, rich people don’t just give that kind of money away without knowing where it’s going, Dara, or having a say in how it’s to be used,” Mac replied. “You don’t end up being or staying rich that way. I know you think Connolly’s the great and powerful Oz, but I’m sorry, he doesn’t get this big pot of money without having to answer to someone on how it’s spent and on what it’s spent.”

Wire fumed and Mac understood it. She and the Judge had been on Connolly for months and were fully invested in the belief that he was responsible for everything, that he was responsible for Sebastian’s death. Mac was being objective, remaining open to all possibilities. They might be right, but he might be right too.

“Look, Dara,” Mac said, sitting down. “Connolly’s deeply involved and that son of a bitch is going down. But we need to have an open mind that there could be someone higher up the food chain.”

“Like who?”

Mac sat back on the couch and crossed his right leg over his left, “How about the person who never got out of the limousine?”

Wire looked at him skeptically.

“Tell me again about when the limousine arrived,” Mac asked.

Wire sighed with disgust but then stopped abruptly and sat back into her chair. She closed her eyes and thought back to when the limousine arrived. “I was on the north side of the cabin at that point.”

“So that limo was the last to arrive, right?”

She nodded. “Yes. A man came running out of the house and opened the door for him.”

“The man who came to the car, tell me about him.”

“He was part of the security detail.”

“Was he just one of the guy’s or was he in charge?”

Wire nodded, “I think he was in charge. I’d seen him giving orders earlier.”

“Okay, so the man in charge of security came out and opened the door for the limousine.”

“Yes.”

“But the man didn’t get out. His leg was out, on the ground, as if he was going to get out, but he didn’t.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Wire stood up and walked to the hallway entry way into the hotel room. She stood at the end of the hallway, against the wall and looked back into the room at Mac, just as if she was looking around the northwest corner of the cabin on Wednesday night. She got down on one knee and held her hands up as if she were holding a camera. “The door was open. Then I saw a leg and I was snapping a photo and then I heard someone yell ‘there’s someone up there.’”

“In the direction of where Stroudt and Montgomery were up in those trees, right?” Mac asked.

“Yes.”

“Then what happened?”

“Shots were fired.”

“Right away?”

Wire closed her eyes and leaned against the wall. She was replaying Wednesday night in her head and the sequence of events. She opened her eyes and smiled at Mac, “No, the shots weren’t right away, there was a delay. Not a long one but there was a delay.”

“The delay was perhaps because someone had to give that order, right?” Mac asked, leading her.

Wire hesitated and then a look of understanding appeared on her face, “Right. The security man looked down into the car,” she closed her eyes again. “He said something to the man and then he …”

“… Gave the order,” Mac finished.

“Yes. The order came from the limo and then the man yelled: ‘Don’t let them get away.’” Wire nodded and looked at Mac, a creased smile on her face. “That could be the case. You could be right.” She stood up and walked back to the couch and sat down. “Of course, it’s too bad you won’t be in the interview to ask Connolly about it.”

Mac shrugged. “I’m not worried about it,” he answered as he opened a Diet Coke. “There is a good reason not to be in this interview.”

“What’s that?”

“Connolly’s not going to talk—not yet.”