QB1 (16 page)

“So, why do you have him around if he’s so
manipulative?” Liz asked.

“I like him when he’s not being a dick.
Having a genius around has its advantages. He knows all the
electronics we use. How to repair things. He used to follow the
maintenance man around. He’s a wiz with computer networks. He
changed the accounting system in the office. Velma had been doing
the books forever by hand including payroll. Roger computerized the
whole business. Put in systems and controls. It’s like having a
Stanford business school graduate on staff. He doesn’t sleep much.
You ask him to do something and he’ll plow through it till it’s
done. I’d have to get three people to replace him.

“And you pay him minimum wage.”

I laughed, “Yes and I’ll continue to pay him
minimum wage. There are also incentives for projects and he gets
more for computer work we give him. His parents don’t want him paid
more. It’s a concession that they even let him work but, Roger runs
the show over there. They can’t say no to him, so I do.”

“Lately with the investigative work, he’s
gone to a new level. Together with Torley, another guy who works
for us, they’re doing computerized investigations that are…amazing.
I had a guy call me up from a big Silicon Valley company and tell
me he was amazed at the speed they figured out an issue that was
systematically draining them of cash. Had it diagnosed and traced
for an arrest in one day. It was a guy in Italy. Interpol arrested
him last month. We have a contract now with the company for
diagnostic, preemptive security. Roger loves that kind of stuff.
I’ve been holding back on signing more customers because I don’t
want to tie him up just doing that."

“Fucking, Roger,” I said shaking my head.
He’s around because he’s glued to me.”

I looked at her, “So, what have you been up
to?”

“Talking to your lawyer, who is now my lawyer
and to Rosenbloom.”

“It would be nice if it was over.”

“Doesn’t sound like you think it is.”

“I don’t see how it could be.” I sipped my
drink.

“What’s going to happen to us if it is?”

“Us?”

“Yea, us.” She looked at me.

“I guess that’s up to you.”

“In the last three months I’ve only made love
to one guy.”

“Lucky guy.”

“Very lucky,” she said.

“Any chance of his getting lucky
tonight?”

“Up to him, I guess. He could start by
kissing me.”

“I was thinking I’d go for a tit.”

“That’s the reason you don’t have a
girlfriend.”

“Probably right.” I put my arms around her
and gave her a long, slow, passionate kiss. “Welcome back,
beautiful.”

Chapter 33

I was sitting in front of Oscar Tierney’s
desk at 9:30 the next morning. “So, it all sounds like bullshit to
me, Tom. They’ve got 4 guys talking a ‘dramatic event’ in the same
time frame as the shooting. Nothing even close to specific. And
there is no indication that these guys are even violent! I don’t
know how they even got arrested for mentioning a ‘dramatic event’
on an illegal wiretap.”

“No wonder, the FBI isn’t talking. There is
nothing to talk about.”

“Where do we go from here?”

“Well, I suggest we continue to poke at it
and hope we get lucky.” Tierney turned around and looked out his
window onto a guy fielding punts on the practice field.

“That’s our second round pick trying to field
punts.” Mullins walked over and watched as the punt bounced off the
players face guard.

“I could do that.” Both men laughed.

“Yea, but you don’t have his speed.” They
watched again as this time the rookie watched the ball into his
chest and then sprinted the length of the field.

“He is fast.”

“He’ll be a good receiver someday. We didn’t
need him, but you take the best player available and we had him
higher.” They watched as the player did it again. “Well shit, Tom.
Keep me posted on your progress. Meanwhile, make yourself at home
around here.”

“Thank you Mr. Tierney. That was the plan.” I
walked down to the locker room which was full of players getting
ready to practice. I spotted Jerry Cochran and walked over to him.
Another player sat dressed for practice on a bench beside him.

“Hey Jerry,” and I nodded to the other player
sitting beside him.

“Hey Tom, you think they found the guys who
did it?”

“No.”

“No?”

“Not unless they designed a killer robot to
sit in his garage waiting for him.” I glanced at the player sitting
next to him whose knee was bouncing 100 miles an hour and then
looked back at Jerry.

“This is our rookie center, Carl Jackson. His
motor runs a little hot.”

“I can see that.” The young guy looked up at
me and said hello.

“He’s as dumb as fence post.” We both
laughed.

“Pleasure to me you, Carl.” The young man
smiled up at me.

“God help us if I go down.”

“He’s just a little nervous,” I said.

“No, he’s really stupid. What was your major
in college, Jackson, General Ed Requirements? You know why he’s
sitting here? Coaches told him to stick close to me and maybe he
could learn something. His locker is on the other side, so he gets
in early, dresses and then comes and sits by me. He doesn’t want to
miss any pearls of wisdom out of my mouth.”

“That’s a good plan, Carl.”

“Only he’s just too fucking stupid to learn
anything. It’s a waste of time. So, you’re still on the case?”

“Oh yeah, we’re working on a couple of
things. Still knocking on doors.”

“How’s Elizabeth? Services set for
Friday?”

“I gave her a ride home this morning. She’s
working on the details. I think she was going to call Connie to get
some help.”

“I hope she does. We want to help her any way
we can.” Jerry finished putting on his workout clothes. “Come on,
rookie, let’s go watch me get taped. We can work on the concept of
snapping the ball. Now let’s go over this again, when the man says,
hike…” He gave me a wink as he walked by.

Carl Jackson hesitated a moment, watching
Jerry walk away. He said under his breath, “I just graduated Cum
Laude in Economics from Penn State,” and also winked at me. “It’s a
rookie thing.”

“Let’s go rookie,” Jerry shouted across the
locker room. It was going to be a long preseason for that guy, I
thought.

I went looking for Matt Benson and found him
in a trainer’s room getting worked on, stretching. He had earbuds
in and took them out when he saw me. “Hey, Tom. I hear you found
Jose Padilla.”

“Sitting on a bar stool in Avalon. We told
him about Tony. Padilla was crushed. They got close cruising around
Mexico in your boat and surfing.”

“I’ll bet. Did he say they had a good
time?”

“He said Tony had the time of his life. Jose
said he became a much happier guy over the course of that
month.”

“Well that’s what the Doctor ordered. I’m
glad that last month was a good one. He wasn’t a happy camper when
he left.”

“Jose, said it was about a woman. He said he
had made a big mistake with another woman, not his wife.”

“It’s usually about a woman.” Benson started
to wrap some tape around his wrist.

“Come on, Matt, what was going on?” Benson
finished with one wrist and started taping the other.

“What makes you think he told me what was
going on?”

“I just think he might have told you. He went
to you, told you about a mess he was in. You handed him the keys to
your boat and told him to get lost for awhile.” Benson cut the tape
with his teeth and just stared at me. “Was it Lydia Isackson?” He
blinked.

“Why did you ask me that?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Just a hunch.”

“Just a hunch?”

“A name that keeps coming up.”

“Well that name is going to fuck this team
up, maybe beyond repair.”

“It’s just between us right now.” He stared
at me and then he nodded. “Why is there no record of cell phone
calls between them?”

“They were careful? We have meetings about
behavior as representatives of the league. We’re warned about
affairs with married women. We’re also warned about other players’
wives and girlfriends. If they were having an affair, and I do mean
if, because he never said it to me, they were careful.”

“I’m about positive they were having an
affair,” I said.

“I think you’re right,” Benson said.

“He breaks it off and she kills him in his
garage on the night he comes back?” I said.

“The thought had occurred to me.” We stared
at each other. “Now what?” he said.

“I don’t know.”

“Could be a terrorist thing. They got those
guys under arrest. Even if they were having an affair, it could be
irrelevant.”

“It isn’t terrorists.”

“You sure?”

“Pretty sure.”

“This is a big pile of shit,” he said shaking
his head. “You better be sure before you let the cat of this
bag.”

“I think I’ll go talk to the cat.”

Chapter 34

San Francisco faced two tough opponents in a
row at the beginning of December. Tennessee was coming off a big
home win against division rival Indianapolis. After the St. Louis
game, San Francisco was again playing on the other side of the
country. Traveling like that takes it out of a team. It screws up
practice schedules. If there were ever a time for a let down, this
was it.

Didn’t happen. Usually Monday is day off
after a Sunday game, especially when the flight gets in after
midnight from the previous game. The team leaders went to the
coaches and told them to have a late practice on Monday and move
the week’s schedule up. It was an unusual request, but this had
become an unusual team. The players were supposed to be in at 2 PM
for practice, but most of the team were there by noon, reviewing
film of Tennesee. A number of new offensive plays and defensive
looks were suggested. Rather then complaining about the extra work,
the players, to a man, weren’t just motivated, they were on a
mission. By the time they got on the field the following Sunday,
they were ready.

Tennessee turned out to be the next victim.
San Francisco’s defense was relentless, setting up the offense for
three straight opening scores. At half time, the score was 24 to 0.
The Tennessee couldn’t move the ball. They went on to a 41 to 10
victory with every player on the team seeing playing time.

The players wanted to use the same practice
schedule for the following week’s game against Minnesota. The Coach
decided it was too much. The players were welcome to come in and
watch film and work out, but no formal practice. All the players
were in Monday afternoon. Reilly and the receivers worked on
passing routes with DB’s shadowing them. The Minnesota were 11 and
1. San Francisco was 10 and 2 and had won 9 in a row. This game was
probably going to determine home field advantage throughout the
playoffs. It was a Sunday night game and the biggest regular season
game of the year. Minnesota had the best rated defense in football,
San Francisco was second. Minnesota had the best running back in
football. The combination of San Francisco’s two backs were the
best running game in football. Minnesota had a veteran Quarterback
with two Championship wins under his belt and he was probably in
his last season. San Francisco had Tony Reilly, the hottest
quarterback in football. Two evenly matched premier teams. San
Francisco at home were a two point favorite.

Before the game, the San Francisco Coach,
Charlie Warren, was interviewed by ESPN.

ESPN: Welcome Coach. It’s been a crazy season
for you, going 1-2 to start the season, losing your starter and
backup quarterback in the first half of game four, coming from
behind to win that game, and then running off 9 in a row.

Coach Warren: It’s an old cliché, but we’ve
been taking one game at a time. It’s been an incredible run, but
we’re focused on the game tonight.

ESPN: What were you thinking when your two
quarterbacks went down that day?

CW: I was thinking we were screwed. (Laughs)
There was so much going on with the fight that broke out after the
second injury. Remember, we not only lost our second quarterback,
but our safety Brian Reed was tossed. I just said to Tony Reilly,
control the ball and let’s get out of the half.

ESPN: Half time and Tony Reilly comes to you
and says let’s go hurry up and spread the field. Up till then, the
team wasn’t using that offense often.

CW: Tony knew exactly what he wanted to do.
What we were doing wasn’t working. He convinced us he could do it.
I said, let’s give a try and the rest is history. That afternoon,
Tony Reilly took over the offense and made me look like a
genius.

ESPN: (Laughing) Did you know you had a such
a talented player buried on the bench?

CW: Of course not. I knew I had a talented
student of the game who worked his tail off every day at practice
to be a better player, but I never imagined he had come that far. I
also knew that we were capable of playing with any team in the
league. Tony’s performance that day was simply incredible. Since
that day, he’s just gotten better.

ESPN: Your offense and defense has gotten
better throughout the season. Why the big turn around?

CW: The leadership of this team has stepped
up and I’m referring to individual leadership with the likes of
Tony Reilly, Matt Benson and Reggie Robinson. People, who are
inspired, inspire others. This is the easiest team I’ve ever
coached. I have to make these guys go home at night. They are
quietly confident that they are the best team in football and they
can’t be stopped. I rarely say anything to motivate this team. You
know why?

ESPN: Why?

CW: I don’t have to. They motivate themselves
and each other. Winning is contagious. Every coach should get an
opportunity to coach a team like this once in his life.