Roger Stelljes - First Case

As Mac scrolled through the video to confirm the alibi, things got interesting at 2:45 a.m. when Burrows was clearly getting agitated, standing and pointing at the dealer. At 3:07 a.m., Burrows looked to have lost eighty dollars on a hand he’d doubled down on. He slammed down his chips and pointed at the dealer again. This brought security to the table and Burrows was escorted out of the casino. The dealer’s shift ended at 5:00 a.m. Apparently Burrows waited in the parking lot and followed the dealer to his apartment in Prior Lake and beat him badly. The dealer was alive and in stable condition at the hospital.

Burrows ran because he thought Mac and Company were there to arrest him for the beat down on the dealer. He knew nothing about the murder of Gordon Oliver.

Once in the interrogation room and when Mac and Lich were certain that Burrows’s alibi would hold, the man broke down. His marriage was falling apart, his hours were way down at his job and everything seemed to be spiraling out of control. Mac felt some sympathy for him.

The Prior Lake police would be stopping by to pick up Burrows for his pending legal issues in Scott County. Before they did, Mac took a moment with him, sitting on the edge of the table, next to Burrows’s chair: “Martin, you’ve got some anger issues, dude. Going after Oliver, threatening to kill him, all that. I know he was sleeping with your wife and your marriage is falling apart, but I gotta tell you, I met your wife today. She’s definitely not worth throwing your life away over. You’re a young guy and you’ve got a lot of years left. Now you’re going to do some time for what you did to that dealer, and you should. The man will make it but you did some damage. While you’re doing your time, get yourself some help. Maybe have your attorney make some anger management counseling part of whatever sentence you end up with. Because if you don’t get that temper of yours under control, the next time you lose it you might end up killing someone and you will have thrown your life away.”

It was a few minutes after ten when Mac and Lich strolled into McRyan’s Pub, the other McRyan family business. The two grabbed stools at the bar and were served Grain Belt Premiums by a retired detective now bartender. Mac took a long pull from the bottle and exhaled and looked at his watch. He had a meeting in an hour a few miles away.

“So your first case, what do you think so far?” Lich asked, taking a pull from his beer.

“I’m thinking we spent the day interviewing and talking to a lot of people and our one good lead went in the shitter an hour ago,” Mac replied with disgust.

“Happens,” Lich replied lightly, having seen it a hundred times.

“I’ve been thinking though,” Mac said, taking another drink. “Oliver seems to have had two things in his life, his job at the law firm and chasing skirts. He did those two things and that seems to be it.”

“What’s that tell you?” Lich asked.

“That we’ll find our murderer out of one of those two things. It’s either something he’s been working on or…”

“…someone he’s been working on,” Lich said. “He’s working a case or he’s workin’ a broad.”

“That’s right, workin’ a broad,” Mac said, shaking his head, a perturbed look on his face.

“What?” Lich said, seeing the look.

“I hate guys like Oliver.”

“Womanizers?”

“Predators. I’ve known guys like him for years. Played hockey with them, went to college and law school with them. I’ve seen friend’s wives and girlfriends pursued by guys like Gordon Oliver. They like women in relationships. They like to pursue them. They like the challenge of it.”

“It’s like Charlie Sheen,” Lich said.

“How so?” Mac asked.

“He said he paid for prostitutes, not because he wanted them to stay but because he wanted them to leave. It’s the same thing here. Oliver gets the married woman. She’s not going to stay. It’s like Cassidy Burrows said. No strings attached.”

Mac disagreed. He turned and faced Lich. “Dick. That doesn’t make it right.”

“I’m not saying it does,” Lich answered defensively.

“You’re not exactly disapproving,” Mac retorted and took a long drink of his beer. “It’s just flat out wrong. It can ruin peoples’ lives. Look at that Mathis woman at the law firm. She wouldn’t have pursued Oliver. But he pursued her like it was a conquest. That could have ruined a relationship that she’d been in for years. Same thing with Cassidy Burrows. He was acting without thinking about any of the consequences attached to those actions.”

“Is that why you gave Burrows that pep talk back at the station? Because of Gordon Oliver?”

Mac shrugged. “I don’t know. The guy has issues but his remorse seemed genuine. I suspect he’s going to have plenty of time to think about what he did and I thought it couldn’t hurt to encourage him to get some help, that’s all.”

“Ah, that catholic upbringing is showing through, lad. Father Flynn at the Cathedral would be proud of you, boyo,” Lich said in his best Irish brogue.

Mac checked his watch, took one last sip of his beer and dropped a ten on the bar.

“Time for one more?” Lich asked. “I’ll buy.”

Mac shook his head, “I’ve got to make one more stop before I go home.”

“The question now is how much do you really want to know?”

Mac met Meredith Hillary at a hockey party his junior year at the University of Minnesota. Mac was excelling on the ice for the Golden Gophers, playing on the second line, starting to see power play time, playing a physical and fearless brand of hockey that made him a huge fan favorite at Mariucci Arena. He was certain to be voted captain at the end of the season. He was a big man on campus, knew it, strutted around like one and enjoyed the benefits of it.

Meredith Hillary was impossible to miss at the party. She was hauntingly attractive with dark green eyes, a bright smile with long legs to match her long black wavy hair. And she was smart, studying to go to law school, which Mac had been giving thought to as well. Mac had a new girlfriend at the time but Meredith was unattached and once she met him, she pursued him and it didn’t take long for Mac to let her catch him. He was in love and thought she was too.

Meredith came from money. Her father was a senior executive at General Mills and her mother was a renowned vascular surgeon. They both made their way up from humble beginnings and now enjoyed the fruits of their labor and the status they had attained. Meredith was bound and determined to do the same. She wanted the professional success and the status that would come with it; the wealth, the big house, the fancy cars, the beautiful children who went to expensive private schools and colleges. She wanted the good life and she wanted the trophy husband to go with it.

Michael McKenzie “Mac” McRyan seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

He wasn’t going pro as a hockey player but he was handsome, ambitious, smart if not borderline brilliant, graduating magna from the University of Minnesota and heading to law school. They married after their second year of law school together. Mac had a six-figure job lined up post law school which meshed well with her similar job offer from a large firm.

Mac was happily on board with the plan that Meredith had set in motion.

Then his two cousins, his two best friends, the co-best men at his wedding, were murdered in the line of duty. Mac felt the calling of the family business and changed the plan.

Meredith was not on board.

She didn’t want him to do it. She didn’t understand why he needed to do it. In her mind, Mac should have felt just the opposite. He should have felt fortunate that he could avoid such a dangerous line of work, blessed that he had options in life that were more lucrative, safe and in her mind acceptable. She said he was destined for more than working a police beat.