Electing To Murder by Roger Stelljes Read Free Book Online Page A

not caring about the fact the building was no smoking. He was the Judge, who was going to stop him. He took a deep drag on the cigar and blew smoke into the air. He shook his head: “Fucking Connolly, what is he up to now?”
    Wire shook his head. “He’s a snake.”
    “He’d fuck one if you held it straight,” Dixon railed as he took a drag on his cigar. “However, we know why you were in Kentucky last night, but we need to figure out what drew Montgomery and Stroudt there, what they saw and what Connolly was up to. Maybe its election fraud or maybe it’s something else. Whatever it was it was enough for the security people to open fire.”
    “And those two were not a safety concern,” Wire replied.
    “That’s right, Dara,” the Judge replied, gesturing with his cigar. “They saw something, something not meant to be seen and we need to find out what that was and right quick, kiddo.”
    “I’m on it,” Wire answered as she pushed herself up out of the guest chair.
    “What’s your next step?” the Judge asked.
    “Fly back to Washington and see if I can track either Stroudt or Montgomery down there. See if either of them went back home. I have a 6:08 a.m. flight to DC to find out.”
    The Judge picked up his phone, “Not soon enough, Dara. I want you starting at 6:00 a.m. there, not here. I’m going to get you back there tonight.”
    * * *
    McRyan and Lich were back at the St. Paul Department of Public Safety and Mac’s first order of business once he reached his desk was to call Delta Airlines regarding the boarding pass.
    “I’ll call if I need anything further,” Mac said politely. “Yes, I have your direct number. Thanks much.”
    Mac moved his mouse and opened up an e-mail. He clicked print twice and walked over to the printer. “So our Delta passenger is in fact Jason Stroudt and he hails from Alexandria.” Mac took a print-off of Stroudt’s flight information and handed it to Lich.
    “Alexandria. So he’s from lake country. That makes him somewhat local then,” Lich said.
    “Negative, Ghostrider,” Mac answered as he walked back to the printer. “His current address is Alexandria, in the great Commonwealth of Virginia.” Mac took off another copy, this time of Stroudt’s Virginia driver’s license.
    “Virginia? Really?” Lich said, looking at the document quizzically. “What the hell is a guy from Alexandria, Virginia, doing at The Snelling?”
    “The better question is: what is a guy who lives in Virginia, but flew in this morning from St. Louis,
now
doing dead at The Snelling in St. Paul?” Mac asked as he walked over to his chair and plumped himself down, exhaled and pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is something a little different than the usual from The Snelling.”
    “When did he get to St. Louis?”
    “Good question, Dicky Boy,” Mac answered, turning to his computer. “I asked Delta about that but Stroudt hadn’t been on another Delta flight in two years. So he got to St. Louis by some means other than Delta. We have to look into that to see if we can construct a timeline for his last couple of days.”
    “What does Mr. Stroudt do for a living?” Lich asked.
    “I don’t know yet. The contact at Delta sent me an e-mail with payment information for Stroudt.” Mac opened the e-mail and scanned the information. “He booked his flight under a corporate credit card for a TCP Enterprises with a Washington DC address. You take this information and start looking into that. See if he rented a car and perhaps track it down.”
    “What are you going to do?”
    “Find out when Mr. Stroudt left Virginia and went to St. Louis. Maybe we can find out what he was doing down there and it could shed some light on what he was doing here in Minnesota.”
    * * *
    “I still don’t get how Wisconsin is close,” Kate Shelby said as she looked at her laptop, once again culling through polling data, their nightly ritual. The Chinese food boxes were now empty yet littered