The St. Paul Conspiracy by Roger Stelljes Page B

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.”
    “At this point, yes. We’ll have to see the final autopsy report and think about how