QB1 (13 page)

In that next game, San Francisco had Houston
at home. Houston was a team with a hot offense and looked like a
playoff team. San Francisco was up 17 to 7 at half time and the
team went on win 28 to 10. They made it look easy. Reilly was made
a captain after the game.

Chapter 22

“Tonelli, are you out of your fucking mind?”
David Fong, the chief of the San Francisco Police Department Police
Chief stared back at Inspector Tonelli, seated next to Captain
Conners. “Let me get this straight,” Fong said. You’ve got one dead
quarterback’s wife accusing the other quarterback’s wife of murder.
No evidence, just a feeling and you want to go after her on that
basis.”

“Well,” Tonelli hesitated and cleared his
throat, “let’s put it this way, Chief, we’ve done some preliminary
checking on her and she is a reputation with some people. I can see
why Elisabeth Reilly didn’t think of Lydia Isackson initially, but
thought about it and suggested to Mullins we check her out.”

“I know her, Tonelli! I met her at a symphony
fundraiser. She’s beautiful, intelligent and one of the nicest
human beings I’ve ever met. What the fuck are you talking
about?”

“Captain, you met one side of Mrs. Isackson.
Lydia Isackson is not liked by the other wives on the team. She is
involved with many charities, but has done little except attend
functions. She seems to be involved in everything. Many have
characterized her as merely a social climber. A number of people
have intimated that she’s had a number of affairs. She knows guns
and Paul Isackson owns a number of handguns and a couple of
.22’s.”

“Beautiful women usually aren’t liked by
other women. We start investigating this woman and the shit will
hit the fan. What do you want to do Tonelli? Bring her in for
questioning? That isn’t going to happen.”

“Sir, there is motive here. Lydia Isackson
liked it here.”

“That’s not much motive, Tonelli.”

“You’re right Chief. That’s why if there is
anything here, I would think it would be an affair between her and
Tony Reilly, a spurned woman, possibly?”

“Are you making this shit up as you go along,
Tonelli?”

Conners jumped in, “Chief, we wouldn’t have
come to you if we didn’t think this had some merit. We want to take
a look at this as quietly as possible.”

“I doubt it’s going to stay quiet 24 hours,
Captain. Where is the FBI on this?” asked Fong.

“We haven’t mentioned it to them and they
aren’t communicating with us.”

“Of course they’re not, those motherfuckers.
Do they know about Tony Reilly sailing in Mexico for the last
month?”

“We haven’t told them because they haven’t
returned phone calls.”

“What the fuck is this, high school?” He rose
and paced his office. “Jesus Christ, working with these assholes is
always like pulling teeth.” He sat back down put his hands on back
of his head and his feet on his desk and fumed. “Well I don’t want
the SFPD hung out to dry on this. Do you understand me?” He stared
back and forth at the two men in front of him.

“Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to
call up numb nuts Nelson or Forbes or the ghost of J. Edgar Hoover
and demand a fucking meeting tomorrow afternoon. By that time,
you’ll have a report on my desk on everything we have found out
including a full report on Reilly’s Mexican cruise vacation and all
your suspicions about Lydia Isackson and anything else that we
have. Let’s say 4 PM, Okay? So, you have 24 hours Tonelli and then
I hand it over to those fucking swinging dicks at the FBI which
will be the same as giving it to TMZ. Now, get the fuck out of my
office.” He yelled at them as they left, “When the history of this
abortion is written, I want our skirts clean.”

As the two men walked down the corridor out
of the Chief’s office, Tonelli said to Conners, “That went better
than I expected.”

Chapter 23

San Francisco at Chicago was a Sunday evening
game on ESPN. The story of Tony Reilly was featured before the
game. The story of a hot quarterback who was able to step in and
rally his team now had two solid performances under his belt.

“This was an excellent team before Paul
Isackson went down,” Reilly said during a pregame interview. We
were in the playoffs last year and we expect to be in the Superbowl
this year. We’ve got the best D in football and the focus every
week is to prove we’re the best team on the field.”

“Tony, you’ve shown great decision making and
poise in the last two games. How did you develop those skills?”

“I’m a student of the game. My coaches and
teammates made me better. Paul Isackson always took the time to
show me how to be better and I’m just thankful he’s still by my
side to help me. I’m a sponge, man. I worked at getting better and
had great teachers.”

“You’ve attributed your decision making
skills to running the taxi squad against one of the best defenses
in football. How important has that been to your success?”

Reilly laughs. “I practiced getting my ass
kicked all week. I encouraged the defense to do it. You do that
long enough and you can see mistakes and where the opportunities
are. It’s me and the rest of the scrubs against the best. That’s
how Terrence Brown and I developed our skill together. I know what
he’s going to do or he knows where I want him to go because we’ve
done it so many times. I study defenses. I’ve seen what the best
defense in football can throw against me. You better bring your “A”
game against this offense, because it’s my job to pick you
apart.”

San Francisco picked apart the third best
defense in football 48 to 13. Reilly came out of the game at the
start of the 4th quarter with a 38 to 3 lead for his new backup to
get some playing time in. Tony Reilly was the highest rated
quarterback in football for the month. He had yet to throw an
interception.

Chapter 24

Paul Isackson actually was not on board with
the rest of the team. After attending a couple of practices after
the Texans’ game, he returned to Utah to spend time with his
family. Lydia stayed back in the Bay Area with her heavy social
calendar. She loved the Bay Area and wasn’t crazy about her large
extended family and the strict Mormon lifestyle back home. She had
moved on.

Her days consisted of rising late in the
morning. Having breakfast with her daughter, leaving her with the
nanny, and then off to the club for a workout with her personal
trainer and lunch with her girlfriends. That left the late
afternoons to play. Lydia had a number of playmates. Always
discreet, Lydia liked her male friends. As she told her
girlfriends, “Paul just doesn’t need it very often.” Lydia did and
she had no problem finding an assortment of discreet friends for
extended “sessions”. With Paul out of town, these trysts became
more frequent. Her busy social calendar allowed her to meet and bed
a rolodex full of discreet horny guys.

But, Lydia was a football girl at heart. She
had always liked Tony Reilly. When he took over at quarterback and
played the way he did, that interest in him grew. She called him
one afternoon and suggested they get together. She had flirted with
him on a number of occasions and saw he liked it. That’s how it
started.

Chapter 25

The three of them finished talking to Jose
Padilla in Avalon and walked out of the bar, strolling slowly in
the warm California sun. “It sounds like Tony had a great time the
last month. Wish I was there,” said Liz.

I stopped and looked at her. “I’ll bet he was
thinking about you. He headed right back to you, first chance he
got.” I thought about it for a minute. Told them, “Wait here, I’ll
be right back,” and walked back into the bar. Padilla was starring
at his beer and looked up at me when I sat down across from
him.

“Jose, I forgot to ask you something.”

“Si, senor?”

“Did Tony talk about another woman?”

“Yes, he did. I not tell you in front of his
wife. Please don’t tell her. I know he loved her. He was going to
go back to her.”

“What did he say about the other woman,
Jose?”

“He say he make big mistake with other man’s
wife. He want to end it, but woman is difficult to leave. He say it
is not good for him. He say he come here to forget her.”

“Did he tell you the woman’s name?”

“No. He say it is wife of man on his
team.”

I nodded. “Anything else you can tell me,
Jose?”

He thought about it for a moment. “He say he
love his wife, senor.”

Chapter 26

I looked out the window at 30,000 feet and at
the two people across from me. “So where are we with this? Where do
we go next, Roge?”

Roger looked up from the peanut butter and
jelly sandwich and the glass of milk in front of him, “The question
is still the same. Who knew Tony Reilly was going to be back to his
house that night?”

“His agent and the Team, we know that. Who
else?”

“Lydia Isackson?” said Liz.

“How would she know?” I said.

“She knows everything. She’s probably blowing
Oscar Tierney.”

“Any word from Tonelli?” I said to Roger.

“Nothing yet,” said Roger.

“We should know soon.”

“Roger, see if Torley can get something on
Lydia’s email and cell phone calls.”

“That’s illegal,” said Roger smiling at
me.

“Are you fucking with me?” Roger looked down
and started typing. “Do you have an Internet connection?”

“Sometimes, it goes in and out,” he said.

“We should go talk to Tierney when we get
in,” I said.

The limo was waiting in San Jose. I got
Tierney on the phone and told him we were on the way over. I called
Velma and filled her in on what we’d been up to, listened to her
bitch for 10 minutes and left a message for Tonelli asking him to
call.

The press was still at Team Headquarters but
the numbers were down. We still hadn’t seen any reference to us in
the press. We kept out of sight like before. The three of us
climbed out and entered the admin building by the back door. Shawn
Samuelson greeted us and escorted us to Tierney’s office.

“The world travelers,” he greeted us warmly
giving Liz a hug.

“And traveling in style on your dime,” I
said. “I appreciate your help.”

“Anything you need, Tom, Carte Blanche on
this. What have you learned?”

“Well,” as Tierney was settling back into a
deep comfortable leather chair in front of his desk, we did the
same. “We know that for the past month, Tony Reilly was on a boat,
sailing around Baja and surfing.”

“No wonder nobody has seen him. Wouldn’t he
have had to go through immigration?”

“You’re supposed to check in at the ports and
get processed into Mexico but it’s not enforced,” I said. “When the
contract looked like it was ready to be signed, his agent emailed
him and eight hours later he called Rosenbloom and said he was on
the way back. Rosenbloom called you and said he was on his way in
the next day. We know only Rosenbloom and you knew he was coming
back. We still don’t know who knew he was going to be at his house
that night.”

“Just sailing around Baja for a month?” said
Tierney.

“He was really enjoying himself,” I said. “He
worked out hard everyday. He was there staying in shape, running
and swimming. The guy he was with said he was very quiet and seemed
to be unhappy when he arrived and as the weeks went on, his whole
attitude changed. By the time they left, it seems like he came back
ready to get to work and play football.”

Tierney just shook his head, “What a
waste”.

“We’re working on a few other things. I’ll
call you as soon as I know something.”

“What other things?” Tierney asked.

I wasn’t going to tell him about Lydia
Isackson. “I don’t know, I haven’t thought them through yet.” He
nodded.

“Elizabeth, looks like the services are going
to be the end of the week. I understand you’re working through this
with our people.”

“Yes, Oscar. Final details are up in the air,
but your people have been great,” she said.

“The governor called me this afternoon. He
wanted to let me know that all of his resources were available to
me. He was very upset, even emotional. An hour later, the President
of the United States called.”

“That’s impressive. Did you ask him why the
worst excuse for a human being was heading up the investigation for
the FBI?”

“No. He wasn’t calling to hear that, but I
think he’ll take a return call if it comes to that. Point being,
the entire country and probably a big piece of the world want to
know what happened here. You’ve made some progress here, Tom. Have
you shared it?”

“I’m talking to the SFPD, who is trying to
talk to the FBI.”

“Are you making progress?”

I stared at him, for a moment. I’d been in
these meetings a thousand times and I had a standard answer, but
you have to deliver it. “I need a couple of days; I’m working on
some things.”

“Good, I know you can do it.” He bought it.
“I’d like to put Shawn Samuelson on your team.” No, he didn’t buy
it.

“Respectfully, sir I’ll be happy to keep
Shawn in the loop, but I’m not working with anyone. This is not a
team, it’s me.”

“You seem to have a team with you.”

“No, this is just the practice squad that’s
tailing along at the moment.” Tierney laughed.

“Okay, follow up on what you have going and
keep me and Shawn informed.” He bought it.

Chapter 27

“The practice squad?” Liz and Roger were on
my ass. “Fuck you, PI Boy,” said Liz.

“Mr. Mullins is consistently emotionally
dishonest,” said Roger.

“Fuck you, Roger. I’ll take it from her, but
I’m not taking your pseudo intellectual crap.”