QB1 (6 page)

“I’m in our offices now.”

“I’ll drive down and see you in an hour.”

“Thank you, Tom. I’m looking forward to it.
May I speak to Shawn again? ”

I handed Shawn his phone. He listened for a
moment and hung up. I said to him, “I want you to be low key. Looks
like the press doesn’t know where she is yet, but I imagine it will
be a zoo when they find her.”

“Yes sir. I’ll have very specific
instructions for my men. Do you want them in the house?”

“No, I’ll have someone in the house. If there
is an issue how do we contact you?”

“Use my cell phone number. I’ll be here until
you return.”

“Thanks Shawn. You ex-military? “

“Yes sir, Ranger and Delta Force.”

I nodded. “They’ll be someone in the house
with Mrs. Reilly.” I took out a business card and wrote a cell
phone number on the back. He’s a twelve year old kid named Roger
Goody.”

Chapter 10

I left Roger sitting with his computer at the
kitchen table with Liz still asleep. Filled him in on the situation
with security and drove the 30 minutes south, down to the team
offices. The outside of the place was a zoo with press. I saw every
network satellite truck with hundreds of people standing around out
front. Police and security waved me through, parked and went in. I
was immediately shown into the office of the President and General
Manager, Oscar Tierney.

“A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Tierney, again
I’m sorry about your loss.”

“Thanks for coming in Tom. We’ve met before
haven’t we?”

“Yes we have, sir. I met you a few years ago
with my Dad, Chief Edward Mullins of the San Francisco Police
Department. I was up in your box for a game. It was quite a
thrill.”

“Oh I remember Ed Mullins, he passed last
year, didn’t he?”

“Yes sir, heart attack.”

“Sorry to hear that, son. He was a great
guy.”

“Yes he was.”

“Well, this is devastating, Tom.” He stared
out his window, shaking his head. I could see some players running
sprints on the practice field. I looked around the room and saw
personal photos of Tierney shaking hands with two Presidents. Up on
one wall was a large depth chart of the team. For every position
there were magnetic strips with player’s names, so they could be
moved around. The first name at the QB1, starting quarterback
position was Tony Reilly’s name.

“Tony was on his way to being one of the best
that ever played the game, Tom.”

“I think you’re right, sir.” He paused still
staring out the window. “Tom, I have to think of what is going to
happen to the team going forward. This kind of thing could hurt us
for a long time. My job is to see that doesn’t happen.”

“Yes sir.”

“First of all I have to protect the
individuals on this team. We have no idea if additional personnel
on this team have been targeted by these fucking rag heads.” I
almost laughed when he said that but managed to stifle it.

“Already this morning I’ve had FBI, Homeland
Security and the San Francisco police Investigators in here. You
know what I think?” He didn’t wait for a response. “They’re all a
bunch of fuckups in suits. They haven’t a clue what happened or
what to do. Is this a conspiracy to kill professional athletes? Was
this a random act of a bum walking the road? Nobody has nothing.”
He turned back around and looked out his window again. “How’s
Elizabeth?”

“Very upset. I took her to my house. She was
asleep when I left.”

“How do you know her, Tom?”

“Just casually, I met her at a restaurant.
She has no family here and didn’t know who to call. She doesn’t
have a lawyer. I left her asleep on my couch. I’m not sure what the
next step is for her. Probably figure it out when I get back.
Police have no reason to believe she was involved. She’s been
cooperative.”

“Elizabeth Reilly couldn’t have had anything
to do with this,” said Tierney. “She’s a sweetheart. I know she and
Tony were having problems but I’d heard they were going to get back
together.” Tierney shakes his head, “Tony was under a lot of
pressure. Tom, just between you and me, these contract negotiations
should never have gone on as long as they did and I accept
responsibility for that. It’s blood under the bridge at this point.
My responsibility is to get this situation under control and get a
team prepared for the start of the season in a month.”

“I spoke with Robert Greenfield this
morning.” Greenfield was the President of the League. “We agreed we
have a situation here we’re not prepared for. We have nothing in
place for an investigative stand point. We know security but for
something like this, from the NFL’s standpoint, we don’t know where
to go. When there has been a crime committed in the past by a
player or to a player, we’ve had law enforcement handle any
investigation aspects and we’ve stayed out of it. This situation
demands coordination. I’ve suggested that we bring in our own
investigative team to coordinate with the various law enforcement
entities and conduct any additional inquiries as they see fit. We,
and I mean the collective we, from the standpoint of all
professional sports, need to get a handle on this situation so we
can deal with it. This could be jihad against professional athletes
or any kind of celebrity. Did you see El Jazeera out front?”

“I didn’t but I’m not surprised,” I said.

“This is the biggest act of terror since Nine
Eleven and we have all these feds and cops running around with
their heads cut off. He sat up in his chair and looked across his
large desk at me. Tom, I want you to come on board as the team
representative in this investigation. I need you to drop whatever
else you’re working on and get into this full time.”

I thought for a second and said, “That’s
easier said then done, Mr. Tierney. We’re a small agency and
frankly we’re as busy as we could possibly be, at the moment. There
are far bigger organizations that could conduct this kind of an
investigation on a national basis.”

“I don’t give a fuck about a national basis,”
he said. I need someone on the street, here. I need to know what
the fuck happened to my quarterback, right now!” He stared at me
and I didn’t say anything. “I’m willing to offer you $50,000 to
start this investigation right now. And a retainer of $200,000 to
be paid at double your existing rates for any work done. I will
also retain your firm with yearly guarantees for investigative
work. I’ve cleared it with the League that you will also be offered
investigative work as situations come up. You will have a separate
contract with the league for that work. All of this will be
guaranteed.” He stared directly at me. I was thinking, “How many
athletes has he worked over this hard in the last 7 years?”

“You’ve thought this through? My getting
involved just may add to the circus outside.”

“I need the best investigator available,
working for me,” he said.

I thought for a moment and said “I need to
run this by my partner.” I thought about it for a minute, my eyes
never leaving his, “Fax a contract to my office. I also need to run
this by an existing client of mine for any conflict of
interest.”

“Who’s that?” said Tierney.

“Elizabeth Reilly.”

Chapter 11

I got back to my house before noon. Saw a guy
sitting in a car across the street and he waved to me, obviously
working security. I walked up the stairs and saw Liz and Roger
sitting at the kitchen table playing backgammon through the window.
“Oh my God,” I said, walking through the door. “That isn’t
backgammon is it? What have I told you about backgammon in this
house, Roger?” I yelled. He quickly started picking up the
pieces.

“It’s just a game,” he said.

“It’s just a game you cheat at. How many
times do I have to tell you? This is an NBZ. Tell Liz what an NBZ
is.” Liz sat there with an amazed look on her face. Roger mumbled
something.

“What?”

“Tell her what an NBZ is!”

“No Backgammon Zone.”

“That’s right this is a No Backgammon Zone.
How many games did you play, Liz?”

“Um, two?”

“And you lost two, didn’t you?”

“It’s just a game, Tom,” she said.

“Oh no, it isn’t,” I said. “It’s much more
than that. It’s an opportunity to steal your money.”

“How much did you lose?”

“Well the first game was just learning, but I
wasn’t doing too well in this game.”

“And this was for the money, right?”

“It was for a dollar.”

“And the next game would have been double or
nothing and so on till he owned you. He’s a devious little
shit.”

“You’re mean, Mr. Mullins,” Roger said.

“He’s been wonderful, Tom,” Liz said. “He
made coffee and toast and called up the police and got my things
delivered here.”

“NBZ, Roger.” I shook my finger at him,
“Fucking kid. Go put on some nice clothes, we got work to do.”
Roger folded up the game and ran out the back door with the board
under his arm.

“He cheats at backgammon?” asked Liz. I just
shook my head and sat down across from her.

“How are you doing?” I said.

“I don’t know. I’m trying not to think about
it.”

“Did Roger tell you where I’ve been?”

“He said you were talking with the team.”

“I was with Oscar Tierney. He wants to hire
us to investigate the murder.”

“Aren’t the police doing that?”

“That’s not the problem. The problem is
between the SFPD, State Investigators, FBI and Homeland Security,
there could be a difficult investigation as a turf war will
inevitably break out. Feds are supposed to trump everyone else, but
I have very little confidence in them. Tierney wants someone on his
side, coordinating or at least representing him and the
League.”

“He’s a smart guy. He’s always been nice to
me.”

“What about you? Have you talked to an
attorney?”

“I don’t know who to call. Tony and his agent
handled the legal stuff.”

“Have you talked to anyone?”

“I just woke up. All I’ve done is lose a game
of backgammon.”

“We should go talk to Tony’s lawyer and his
agent. His agent is Rosenbloom isn’t it?”

“Yes, I’ve met him a few times.”

“Let’s call him and tell him we want to see
him. He should be able to get you headed in the right direction.
Who is Tony’s lawyer?”

“I don’t know,” she said.

“Tom, I’m sorry about not telling you about
Tony in Sonoma. It was a bad time for me. Tony had left the week
before and I was miserable.”

“Well, I figured something was going on.
Nothing was said for a couple of minutes. “It was wonderful,” I
said. She leaned against me and started crying.

“Oh my God, what a mess.”

“What happened last night?”

“I don’t know.” She looked at me and said, “I
really don’t know. I hadn’t heard from Tony for a month. Before he
left, he asked me to stay while he was figuring things out. He
asked me not to talk about us to anyone. He said he had to figure
it out on his own. He wouldn’t say what the problem was. He just
said he was working through some problems and he hoped we could
stay together. This was after he had been living by himself for a
month, after just walking out. I didn’t really have anywhere to go,
so I stayed. I have a music studio in the house, so I just kept
working. I was waiting to hear what we were going to do.”

“Was there another woman?”

“He said there wasn’t.”

“Were you guys not getting along before all
this?”

“Well, he had become distant. He said it was
a contract thing that would eventually resolve itself. I thought he
just needed some space so I didn’t bug him about it. I guess I’m
not confrontational. When he said he was moving out in April, I
couldn’t believe it. The next week I decided to go up to Sonoma to
have a change of scenery. And, I met you there.”

“He moves out for a month and then says he’s
going to leave town for awhile and you don’t hear from him for a
month and then one night he shows up murdered in the garage.”

“That’s about it.”

“What happened last night?”

“I took an Ambien at midnight and at around 2
AM I woke with the SWAT team in the room. I was in bed and there
were men in my room with guns. I got dressed and they took me to
the police station. They read my rights and asked if I needed a
lawyer. I said no because I didn’t know anything about what had
happened. They gave me a test to see if I fired a gun and a blood
sample. I had nothing to hide. I didn’t even see the body. I just
saw lots of people around the car and the place lit up with police
cars. It was a nightmare. They questioned me for a long time. They
decided to release me and then asked me who I wanted to call. I
couldn’t think of anyone and so I said you.”

“What are you not telling me?”

She thought for a few seconds, “Nothing.”

“They’ll look at every phone call or email
you’ve ever made. If there is anything else, tell me or your lawyer
now and we’ll deal with it.”

She looked at me and said, “There is
nothing.”

“Someone either followed Tony from the
airport or knew he was showing up at the house last night. Was
there any contact between you and him, email, cell phone? This is
all easy to determine. If there is anything you’re not saying, tell
me now and we’ll deal with it.”

She turned to me and looked me in the eye.
“Like I told the police, Tom, I don’t know anything.”

We found a number for Rosenbloom’s agency.
Liz called him and arranged an appointment for 1:30 downtown. He
said he was anxious to see her and had been trying to contact her.
I thought about logistics and said, “I think we should get a
driver. That way we won’t have to fuck with parking.” I called a
friend with a limo and arranged to be picked up. I showered, put on
a suit. Roger, Liz and I piled into the car. She had on a black
dress and looked stunning. I told her so.