by Pete Bowen
“I got that impression this afternoon, but I’ll get some answers.”
“Thank you, Mr. Tierney. I look forward to hearing from you.”
“No, thank you, Tom. This is why you’re working for me.”
Mullins sat back down next to Liz and looked over at Roger. “Were the games for money?” he said to Liz.
“Yea, Roger owes me two bucks.”
“Always get cash from him. He’s a weasel about money. Go to bed Roger.”
“That’s because you only pay me minimum wage,” Roger said as he walked out.
Liz and Mullins turned to each other and both cracked up, laughing. “He’s a pistol, huh?” said Mullins.
“You’re very hard on him,” she said. Mullins shook his head. “Can I ask you something? Why do you have Roger around you if you’re going to be unkind to him?” she asked. “It’s an unusual relationship.”
“I’ll tell you about Little Roger Goody.”
Chapter 32
"The Goodys lived next door to us my whole life. When my Mom died when I was 10, Ilene became almost a step-mom to me. The families were close. I would often go to their house for dinner as my Dad worked long hours sometimes, as a Chief in the SFPD. They were a childless couple for 18 years of marriage when unexpectedly Roger showed up when I was 17. I had never been around babies. I didn’t even know how to hold one. A new baby next door was a big damn deal. I immediately fell in love with the kid. I spent a lot of time holding him. I’d take him for a walk in the stroller. He was so damn cute.
It wasn’t long before we realized that this was a smart kid. He was unusually alert. He didn’t sleep a lot. Then at about six months, he started talking. His parents always talked to him like he was an adult. There was never any baby talk in the Goody house, except by me. I could always get a laugh out of him.
You know his father is the Dean of the Psychology Department at Cal? That gave him access to the best child development people in the world. Roger was in a program with other gifted kids. He ran the class. A lot of gifted kids are shy and withdrawn, not Roger. He was just the opposite, very outgoing and engaging. Roger would remember the name of everything after being told once. By the time he was nine months old, he was reading. He loved puzzles and numbers. You know Sudoko? He was solving those before he was a year old. I hate Sudoku. I can’t do them! His parents exposed him to a lot of different things but numbers were always his thing. He could give you the square root of any number in seconds by five years old.
He was like a sponge. He wanted to know about everything. He was a pest. The Goodys had a Chinese nanny who taught him Mandarin, which he speaks fluently as well as God knows what else. He has a friend who he speaks to in Vietnamese.
One of the things that happened very early is that he latched onto me. If I went over to see him, he would cry when I left. I loved being around him. I would do my homework and he would sit in the room reading or drawing. He would entertain himself. He was like my baby brother and that relationship just continued. He’d read my college text books when I was doing homework. His comprehension was unbelievable. We would discuss things like he was an adult, when he was, like four.
He had a tutor at 5, and by 7 he had finished up the course material through the 6th grade. Math and science were easy for him. He thought about things from different angles. Stuff the notes would say, if I had bothered to read them. He always was on the computer. His mother used to have to take away and hide it to get him off. He soon learned to network with other people through the Internet. He loved online games and quickly mastered them and moved onto the next one. He learned game theory and how to design games. He still runs a game that he designed where he is the godfather of a crime family. He doesn’t play it as much now, but at one time there were 10,000 other people playing it.
You couldn’t send him to a regular school. He got along well with other children, but was light years ahead of them. He has always been home schooled but he would play sports with other kids - not always successfully, but he’s had his moments. He played Little League baseball up until last year. Too busy playing real cops and robbers for that kind of thing now. I rolled my eyes.
He likes chemistry and physics. He doesn’t have a long attention span for various subjects lately. He learns a lot about a subject and then goes onto something else. He’s very knowledgeable about electrical engineering and architecture. His mother sees that he is always reading something and will discuss it with him. He knows the Classics. He hasn’t latched onto any one thing. He can play the piano but isn’t a prodigy. He has an electric guitar but just isn’t crazy about music. His parents could get him into a college, but he won’t go. Since he’s home schooled, his mother lets him study whatever he wants.
The big thing lately is Law. Can you imagine a twelve year old reading law books? He met my attorney a couple of years ago. Saw all the books in his office and started pumping him about what an attorney does. Next thing I know, he’s into it. It’s not just criminal law. It’s contracts, tax. I just don’t get it. I asked Laverney to test his knowledge. He had him sit in with law students in study groups. He said he wouldn’t be surprised to have him be able to pass the bar. He’s been at it on and off for a year.
He really gets off on tangents. He went through a Buddhism phase last year. He would quote Buddha to me all the time. He loves Ornithology, the study of birds. He’ll give me the proper scientific name of various birds just walking along the street. When he doesn’t know something, he’ll immediately look it up online and it goes in the vault, never to be forgotten. Last month we were out doing something and he begins telling me about the mapping of the genome of the Zebra Finch. After about an hour of that, I called for a cease and desist. Sometimes he wants me to know about something, other times he’s just thinking out loud.
He seems to like only one thing consistently, that’s being around me, doing what I’m doing. Often he’ll come over and see what I’m doing and offer to do it for me. If I’m involved in something, he wants in. Lately he’s been doing a lot more of the day to day management of the agency, the endless routine stuff that drives me crazy. He reads all the office reports and handles my office email. He’ll respond as me and then blind copy me. He even writes like me. If it’s something I should know about, he’ll text me or come to talk to me about it.
The biggest problem with Roger is he gets whatever he wants. He’s got everyone eating out of the palm of his hand. He’s cute and smart and knows it. I won’t stand for any of his shit. The parents actually like this arrangement since they’ve basically lost control of him. He’s deviously manipulative and usually I can see it a mile away because I know how he thinks. I don’t always get why he’s being manipulative, but just know he’s fucking with me for some reason. I think it was Aristotle who said, “There was never a genius without a touch of madness.” I put up with absolutely no shit from him because when you give him an inch, he takes a mile. He has accepted that. The only thing that slows him down is to threaten to not allow him to be in the office or around me."
“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 th
e 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 affa
ir, 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.
