The St. Paul Conspiracy (5 page)

“Mace, Claire wanted to meet you.”

It was not often that he was made uncomfortable, even intimidated by anyone, and in particular a woman, but Claire had that affect on him initially. It was her beauty. She was the most attractive woman he had ever met. However, once he met her, shook her hand and spent a few moments with her, he liked her immediately. He found her to be warm, funny and intelligent. They talked for what seemed like hours, both within a group of people, as well as by themselves. There were numerous times each of them broke off to converse with others, but somehow they always ended up back together. At the end of the night, as everyone was leaving, he found himself standing next to her, waiting for the valet to bring up his car. He wondered how he could mention somehow seeing her again. She made it easy. As the valet pulled up her car, she mentioned she was going to be in D.C. in a couple of weeks. She wondered if they could get together for lunch. Of course, he said, just call his office. He didn’t even know if he was scheduled to be in town, but he decided he’d make sure he was.

Sure enough, two weeks later, Claire showed up on his calendar. She was going to stop by the office to say hello. However, it was not going to be around lunch, but at 5:00 p.m. He figured she was busy but would stop by to say hello, probably on the way to the airport.

She stayed for five hours. They talked about everything going on in Washington. She had interviewed for a position with CBS, working in the capital. The job would start in January. She was excited about the opportunity. While she loved Minnesota, she was growing bored with local news and she wanted to work on a larger stage.

Toward the end of the evening, the topic of the senator’s wife came up. He had only told Jordan about his marital problems. For whatever reason, he told Claire everything. She just listened. She didn’t judge him. She didn’t lecture or argue about his wife’s desire to have a career of her own. She just listened.

At the end of the night, he walked her to the door of his office. He felt like a teenager on his first date. There was nobody around; he could have probably kissed her good night. He was attracted to her, yet he wasn’t sure if she was attracted to him. He’d never cheated on his wife, and he held back. Well, not completely. “I’m going to be in the Cities in a week. Maybe we could get together for a drink?”

“I’d like that.” She left him her home number and leaned up and kissed him on the cheek.

Claire was all he could think about for the next week. On Friday, he got into town and immediately called her. They agreed he would stop by her place for a drink. When he got there, they were in bed within fifteen minutes. She was everything he dreamed she would be. She was an energetic, aggressive, even wild lover. He’d never been with anyone like her. He felt twenty-four, instead of forty-four. She made him feel like a man again.

As a senator, he had always made frequent trips home. He loved his state, and it was good politics to be seen at home, lest it appear you become more a resident of Washington, D.C., than Minnesota. Having met Claire, he made it a point to get home each weekend. He made the trips home three-and-four-day weekends with plenty of political events to cover the visit. But most late nights were spent with Claire.

He would have to talk to Jordan. Hines knew all about Claire. He was the only one he’d told about it. He didn’t know if what he had with Claire would last. He wasn’t sure long-term relationships with a woman like her would work. She had a career of her own and was not the type to be the supportive, stay-at-home wife to a senator. But she had made him feel alive again. He wanted to spend as much time with her as he could to see if it might work. But if nothing else, he knew that his marriage was over. It was time to have that conversation with his wife. He thought she might be having the same feelings. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

Then there would be the political fallout. He and Jordan would have to plot out how best to handle the divorce from a political standpoint. It wasn’t unheard of for politicians to get divorced. What he didn’t want was a scandal. If he did it soon, with four years left in his term, any short-term political damage could be repaired, especially if the divorce was handled right. As he entered the lobby to his office, the receptionist indicated Jordan was waiting for him inside. As he walked into his office, Hines, with a concerned look on his face, motioned for him to close the door. The senator closed the door and asked, “What’s up?”

“Claire’s dead.”

Chapter Five

“We also learned she’s a horny little minx.”

Mac and Lich spent the afternoon interviewing people at Channel 6. First up was Station Manager Mary Carpenter. Carpenter hired Daniels three years earlier from a station in Denver, where she had worked for two years. Prior to that, Daniels had worked in Salt Lake City. According to Carpenter, while it hadn’t been officially announced, Daniels had taken a network job in Washington.

Carpenter was unaware of anything special or unusual Daniels had been working on or investigating. In fact, when they heard she had been found dead, Carpenter had asked around, but nobody seemed to know much of anything. It hadn’t been unusual for Daniels to work the background of a story unbeknownst to Carpenter and then bring it to her or a news producer.

Mac asked, “We’d like to get a list of stories she’s worked on, as well as a list of anybody who sent threatening letters, e-mails, messages, or things of that nature.”

“We’re already working on it,” replied Carpenter.

Interviews with the rest of the station staff were similar. Daniels was well-respected, worked hard and was the total perfectionist. As with Carpenter, all were unaware of whom she was dating.

Tim Mullany was Claire’s most frequent cameraman and her closest friend at the station. They had worked together since she came to Channel 6. He was a fifteen-year veteran at the station, had worked with numerous reporters over the years and stated that Daniels “was easily the best I’ve worked with. She was a total perfectionist. Yet she did it in a way, the perfectionist part, that wasn’t offensive.” Smiling, Mullany continued, “She was here three years and had a lot to do with the work ethic picking up around the station.”

“Was she seeing anyone?” Mac asked.

“I’m pretty sure she was.”

“Do you know who?”

“That I don’t know. Claire kept her dating private. She never told me about the people she dated, and I never really asked. It was none of my business.”

“She made it into the tabloid pages a lot,” Lich said.

Mullany nodded, “Claire was someone that people were interested in. She was a beautiful woman, and she dated some fairly well-known people in town, an athlete or two, some fairly prominent business people. She tried to be discreet about it. I kind of admired that.”

Joe Elliott came to the conference room next. He was the sports anchor for Channel 6. He’d arrived at the station at the same time as Daniels and the two had dated briefly. If Daniels made the men’s heart’s skip a beat, Elliott made the ladies swoon. He had been a college linebacker at Indiana and didn’t appear to have let the years get the better of him. He looked like he could go out and play now. Mac got right to the point, “I understand that you dated Claire Daniels awhile back?”

Elliot smiled, “Yeah, we came to the station about the same time. We didn’t really know anyone and kind of struck up a friendship.”

“It was more than friends though?”

“Yeah, I was certainly attracted to her right away, and I had just gotten divorced and was looking to get back into the swing of things. Claire was at the right place at the right time.”

“Why didn’t it last?”

“I certainly had no intent of getting into any sort of relationship at that point. And our relationship, if you want to call it that, was pretty intense, but wouldn’t have lasted.”

“Intense how? Sexually intense?”

Elliott cringed, looking as if he wanted to stop the conversation. “I wish I wouldn’t have used that term. Claire’s was, is, my friend, and I can sense where you’re going with the question. I’m not sure what nature our relationship was or took has anything to do with what happened to her. I mean, it was two and a half years ago.”

Mac leaned forward in his chair. “I wouldn’t ask the question unless we thought it relevant. And you’re right as to where I’m heading. As uncomfortable as this is, I need to know if she was into anything kinky or out of the ordinary.”

“Does this have something to do with how you found her this morning?” asked Elliott, going into reporter mode.

Mac stayed neutral. “Again, I wouldn’t ask unless it was relevant.”

Elliott looked away at a picture on the wall for what seemed like a couple of minutes, thinking about what he wanted to say. “Claire was no repressed Catholic school girl, that’s for sure. She wasn’t promiscuous, but she liked sex, a lot. Told me she always had, from the time she was a freshman in college. Said she even made a sex tape with an old boyfriend her junior year. She used to joke she’d end up like Paris Hilton if that thing got out. And she exuded sexuality. It was almost intimidating when she came onto you, like a sexual freight train, this pulse you would get from her.”

“Was she into anything kinky, weird, anything like that?” Lich asked.

“Weird, no. Kinky, a little. She wasn’t into anything like whips, chains, anything like that. But she was intense, energetic. I’d even say a little wild. I used to say, ‘And woman say men are loud.’ I mean, you knew when she had an orgasm.”

“You said I was right about kinky. How was I right?”

“She liked different positions mostly. I remember she told me once about a shirt her friend had which showed these two little devils, male and female, in all kinds of different positions. She said she wanted to try them all. We tried a few, but nothing too crazy. It was fun. She was fun. Like I said, she was something in bed, almost perfect at sex. I mean she could really get you going.” Elliott seemed to smile at the memory.

“Why did it end?”

“People at the station found out, so we ended it. We were new to the station, and we both felt it didn’t look right.”

“Did you remain friends?”

“Yes. We actually became really good friends. In fact, I just recently became engaged, and she bought my fiancée and me this wonderful gift for our house.”

Mac shifted gears. “I haven’t had a chance to speak to her family. Claire had been married, right?

“Yes.”

“Must have been before she came here?”

“Yeah. She married a guy named Kevin Daniels out in Salt Lake City. It didn’t work out, lasted maybe a year and a half, and that was it.”

“Why didn’t it work?” Lich queried.

“It was her career. She didn’t want to stay at home and have babies, and he wanted that from her. She always said it was a big mistake. He wasn’t a bad guy. He probably thought he could change her, convince her to do the family thing.” Elliot shook his head, “But that wasn’t Claire then and may never have been. She was ambitious and intense about her career. Shit, I’ve never seen someone so intense about everything she does.”

“Perhaps that explains the DVDs” Mac said.

“DVDs? What are you talking about?” asked Elliott.

“When we were looking around her place, we saw she has this cabinet full of DVDs of her work.”

“That’d be Claire,” stated Elliott, nodding and smiling. “She was very vain and a complete and total perfectionist. She was like a football player. She’d watch film of herself all the time. It’s why she was so damn good at what she did.”

* * * * *

The rest of the senator’s afternoon schedule was cleared. There hadn’t been much on it, mostly lobbyists who would be more than happy to accommodate him and speak with him another time.

He couldn’t believe it. He’d been with her just the night before. She was fine when he left. The first question he asked was, “When? How?”

“She was found dead in her condo this morning,” Hines replied. “The media doesn’t have much, but I spoke with a few people, and apparently someone strangled her. They think sometime last night, although the police haven’t released anything official yet.”

Johnson and Hines sat in silence for a number of minutes. Hines broke the silence. “You saw her last night?”

“Yes.”

“What happened?”

Johnson didn’t like the tone of the question. “What do you mean, what happened?”

“Easy. What did you and Claire do?”

“What do you think we did?”

Jordan knew what that meant. However, he was not only the chief of staff, but a former prosecutor, and he suspected now that his best friend might end up being a suspect.

“Did you use a condom?”

Johnson jumped out of his chair and screamed, “What?

Hines put his hands up immediately to say, “I’m not asking what you’re thinking.” He put his finger to his lips and looked towards the door.

Johnson composed himself. “What do you mean you’re not asking what I’m thinking. You’re asking me if I used a condom. Yes, Claire and I had sex. I did not use a condom.”

“So, you left semen behind.”

It was a statement, not a question, and in that instant Johnson knew exactly where Hines was going. Not only had his lover been killed, he might be a suspect.

“I did.” Johnson responded in a soft voice, “But, Jordan, man, I didn’t kill her. I swear to God. She was alive and well when I left.”

“What time did you leave?”

“Around 1:30 a.m.”

“Did anyone see you leave?”

Johnson immediately bowed his head, running his right hand through his thick black hair. “Yes.”

“Was it someone you knew?”

Johnson exhaled, “No, it was someone walking along the sidewalk. I looked outside before I left to see if anyone was out there. I waited until after 1:00 a.m., so someone from the bar crowd didn’t see me. I didn’t see the guy, but I obviously missed him. He passed by me right under the street light.”

The senator realized he was in a pickle. Suddenly a ton of thoughts flashed through his mind all at once. If this got out, what would his wife say? What about the political implications. Could he survive? He didn’t kill her, but it would probably come out that he was seeing Claire. “So what’s gonna happen?”