by Marie Force
“What happened when Willie refused to give him more money?”
“Marco got really mad. My whole family was mad with us.”
“That must’ve made things awkward between you and Willie.”
She cast her gaze downward. “Yes.”
“I know this is very difficult for you, Carmen, but I need to know what was going on in Willie’s life so I can rule out people he knew as possible suspects.”
“What do you need to know?” she asked, her chin quivering.
“Were you and Willie fighting?”
Nodding, she said, “A lot. I wanted to give Marco the money so my family would stop being so angry with us.”
“Was the fighting unusual for you and Willie?”
“We never fought about anything except for my brother and money. We have so much of it,” she said, gesturing at the opulently furnished room. “What would it have mattered to us to give him some of it?”
“What led to the restraining order?”
“I don’t know what that is.”
“It’s a court order that forces Marco to stay away from you and Willie and your family.”
“He... I... I didn’t know about that.”
Sam wanted to shoot herself for being so ham-handed. “I’m sorry. I assumed you knew, which was insensitive of me.”
Carmen broke down, shaking her head as tears spilled down her cheeks. “He went to court to keep my brother away from us?”
“I’m so sorry you had to hear it that way.”
She continued to shake her head. “How could he have done that and not even told me about it? Marco made some mistakes, but he is my brother. He is family.”
Sam could easily see both sides of the issue but didn’t share the thought.
“I’ll never get to ask him why he did it. The last time I talked to him...” She choked on a sob. “We fought about the money. He said we’d talk about it after the game, but I knew we wouldn’t. He never wanted to talk about it.”
“Did you have a joint checking account?” Sam asked.
“Yes. Why?”
“Could you have written a check to your brother without Willie knowing about it?”
“I suppose so, but I wouldn’t have done that. Willie would’ve been mad at me.”
“Carmen, I know this is so painful, but I have to ask if Willie was ever violent with you.”
“No! Never! He wouldn’t do that. He loved me. We had a bad time over the situation lately with Marco, but before that, we were always happy. Always.”
“One last question. Could you tell me who his agent and manager were?”
“His agent was George McPhearson. I’m trying to remember his manager’s name. Charlie something. George would know.”
“Do you know how we can reach George?”
“His agency is in New York. I think his name is the name of the company.”
“We’ll find it. Thank you for talking to me and for helping us to figure out what happened to Willie.”
“Do you think you will arrest the person who killed him?”
Under normal circumstances, Sam felt confident giving some assurance that the perpetrator most likely would be caught. In this case, however, she couldn’t say for certain. “I hope so. We’re doing everything we can. I promise.”
“Thank you.”
* * *
Sam and Hill were quiet on the elevator ride to the lobby. They’d left Carmen in the care of her family, and Eduardo had thankfully kept his distance as they said their goodbyes.
“The brother is a bit of a thug,” Hill said.
“I think he’s used to getting his way and didn’t like having us tell him what to do.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right about that.”
“Seems like she has two thugs for brothers. Marco bears looking into.”
“I’m one step ahead of you. My deputy did a run on him yesterday after I first heard about the restraining order.” Reading from his phone, Hill said, “I just heard back from George, my deputy. Marco has quite a sheet in the D.R. Drugs and larceny, B&E, gang-related stuff. He’s a busy dude. I can’t believe Willie gave him close to a million bucks, and he came back for more. That takes some kind of nerve.”
“And yet,” Sam said, “I can see how Carmen wanted to keep the peace. Just give him the money, and make everyone happy.”
“Willie was wise to think about the future. You hear so many stories about professional athletes who blow all the money during the salad years and leave themselves short for the golden years.”
“Hard to believe that people with that kind of money could ever be short on cash.”
“People who’ve never had money tend to go through it like crazy when they get it.”
“True. So where can we find Marco Peña?”
“We were able to track him down in the D.R. My deputy was unable to find any sign of him leaving there in the last week. The last time he was in the U.S. was in April. One of us should probably go there to track him down.”
“I hate to say this because I’ve always said I’d never be this kind of cop, but I can’t go. Nick is heading out of town for a couple of days, and I can’t leave my son. He took the news about Willie really hard and—”
“It’s okay, Sam. You don’t have to explain. I’ll go.”
“Are you sure? Do you have time? I mean, technically this isn’t even your case.”
“The director has given me wide latitude to decide what I want to work on personally and what I want to delegate. This interests me, especially in light of my ties to Ray. I don’t mind going.”
“That would be very helpful. Thank you.” And it would save her limited travel budget from taking a big hit. It occurred to her that once again she’d be indebted to him. His chips were starting to pile up. She wondered when, if ever, he’d call them in.
“No problem,” he said as they got into his car. “Where to now?”
“I want to see Jamie Clark again.”
“What’s the quickest way to get to Adams Morgan?”
“This time of day, take the Whitehurst to Rock Creek. Get off at Calvert Street.”
“Um, okay. Whatever you say.”
“I’ll show you.” Sam said, directing him as she pondered the meeting with Carmen and the next steps with Jamie. “I like Carmen. I don’t want to think he was cheating on her.”
“I know. I’d hate to have to tell her that.”
“It would almost be worse than telling her he was killed,” Sam said. She watched the city fly by through the passenger window as she went over the parts and pieces of what they’d learned so far. “If he was fooling around, let’s hope that info never has to come from us.”
“If this is a case of a random fan exacting revenge, we might never figure out who did it,” Hill said after a long period of silence.
“That thought has occurred to me, but there was just enough chaos in Willie’s life and in the lives of people involved with the team to make it worth our time to dig a little deeper into the people around him. If we’re spinning our wheels, I guess we’ll figure that out soon enough.”
“I don’t get the feeling that we’re spinning our wheels.”
“Neither do I,” Sam said. “Willie missing that ball screwed something up for someone, and that someone was mad enough to kill him. Or it had nothing at all to do with missing the ball, and the error gave someone the opportunity to commit the perfect crime.”
“Also a good possibility.”
“I need to see where we are with Collins.” As she reached for her cell phone it rang. She glanced at the caller ID to find Darren Tabor’s number. Her first impulse was to ignore the pesky reporter, but he’d been good to her in the past so she took the call. “I’m busy, Darren.”
“I know, and I’m sorry to bother you. I just need you to confirm one detail before I run it in an update to the online version of the Vasquez story.”
“What detail is that?”
“Is it true he was fou
nd in a Dumpster?”
Sam’s heart slowed to a crawl as she saw red. “Who told you that?”
“You know I can’t reveal my sources.”
“Tell me right now, Darren. Was it someone at HQ?”
“Might’ve been. So is it true?”
“Listen to me. Are you listening?”
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t shoot the messenger, Lieutenant.”
“We’ve withheld that detail because we might need it later. I’m asking you as a professional and as a colleague not to run that. We haven’t told his wife about that either. I’d hate for her to hear it in the media.”
“Aw, jeez, Sam. You’re killing me here.”
“How about this? When we close this one, I’ll give you the exclusive. Do we have a deal?”
“Oh, all right. But don’t forget you owe me.”
“I won’t,” she said blowing out a deep breath. “Tell me one thing, Darren. Was it Stahl who called you?”
“I’m not saying. You know I can’t.”
“Fine. I’ll be in touch.” She ended the call muttering, “Motherfucker” under her breath.
“Got a leak?” Hill asked.
“More like a rat,” Sam said as she dialed dispatch and asked to be patched into the chief immediately.
“Lieutenant,” the chief said. “Do you have news for me?”
“Nothing yet, but we’re following a number of promising leads.” Promising might be taking it a bit too far, but he didn’t need to know that. “The reason I’m calling is we’ve once again got a leak at HQ. Darren Tabor just called me to ask if it was true that Willie was found in a Dumpster. We’ve kept that detail quiet in case we need it later, so I’d like to know how this is happening—again.”
“So would I,” he said in a tight tone that told her he was pissed too.
“You know as well as I do that it was Stahl. He’d love nothing more than to make me look bad by sabotaging my investigations. I don’t want to tell you how to do your job—”
His bark of laughter halted her diatribe. “By all means. Don’t let me stop you.”
“Have Archie check the phone logs. I bet the call traces back to Stahl.”
“You think he’d be stupid enough to place a call to a reporter from inside this building?”
“I think he’d be arrogant enough to assume he’d never get caught.”
“You might be right about that.”
“I’m always right about these things. Will you have Archie check?”
“Yes!”
“And will you tell me what he finds out.”
“No way.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Life isn’t fair. Go back to work. Find me a killer.”
“I’m on it.” She slapped her phone closed. “I hope he nails that bastard.”
“What’s the deal with that guy Stahl anyway?” Hill asked as he navigated beastly midday traffic.
“I wish I knew. He hates my guts and always has. It didn’t help when I was promoted to lieutenant and they gave me his command. He got sent to the rat squad,” she said, referring to the Internal Affairs division, “and he’s been a pain in my ass ever since.”
“So you used to be under his command?”
“Yeah, and those were good times, let me tell ya. It’s safe to say he was a pain in my ass then too.”
Hill laughed. “I bet you were a pain in his as well.”
“Me? A pain in the ass? I’m hurt.”
“Sure you are,” he said.
“He’s a total boob. Couldn’t find his own ass in a barrel of monkeys and had no business running a detective squad.”
Laughing again, Hill said, “Where the hell did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“The thing about the barrel of monkeys.”
“I made it up. You got the point, right?”
“You’re a character, Holland. Truly.”
“I hear that once in a while.” Sam ventured a wary glance at him and found him watching where he was going. Perhaps it was possible, after all, for them to find their way to a collegial relationship that had no hint of romantic interest attached to it. She sure hoped so because if he was sticking around, she didn’t need the headaches associated with that kind of drama.
“So what did you do to stir the ire of Lieutenant Stahl?”
“Well, first I was born to Skip Holland. They started out together, and my dad made it to deputy chief while Stahl never got past lieutenant. He always resented my dad for that. So when I came along and rose through the ranks pretty quickly, he was all set to hate me just because my last name was Holland. It didn’t help, I suppose, that I was, you know, somewhat insubordinate while under his command.”
“You? Somewhat insubordinate? I can’t picture that either.”
“Shut up. Yes, you can.”
When they arrived in the Adams Morgan neighborhood, Sam directed him to Jamie’s apartment building off Columbia Road. They parked and walked up three flights of stairs.
“I pictured something fancier for the head trainer of a Major League Baseball team,” Hill said when they reached the third-floor landing.
“I know. This is nice but average at best.”
“Right. And everything in her financials checked out?”
“I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.”
Sam knocked on the door and pressed her ear against it, but didn’t hear any movement inside. She knocked again, this time using a closed fist for greater impact, and heard the shuffle of feet on the floor.
“Who is it?”
“Lieutenant Holland,” Sam said, holding up her badge to the peep hole, “and Agent Hill.”
A series of locks disengaged and the door opened to reveal a woman who looked much different than the one they’d met yesterday. Judging from her puffy eyes, red nose and disheveled appearance, she was clearly in the throes of grief and hadn’t slept at all.
“What’re you doing here?”
“We need to speak with you again,” Sam said. “Could we come in, please?”
“Um, sure. I guess. I’m not really dressed.”
“We won’t take much of your time.”
Jamie stepped aside to admit them. The living room was simply furnished with a sofa, love seat and small entertainment center. No pictures, knickknacks, nothing of Jamie. Sam wondered if this was one of those places that came already furnished.
She and Hill took seats on the sofa while Jamie curled her legs under her on the love seat. “Have you found out what happened to Willie?”
“Not yet,” Sam said. “We’re still working on it. That’s why we wanted to see you.”
“Why me?”
“We’ve heard from several people associated with the team that you and Willie shared a particularly close relationship.”
“So? I told you that yesterday. We were good friends.”
“From what we’ve heard from others, it was common knowledge that you and Willie were... How shall I say it? Closer than friends.”
Jamie’s face went blank for a second and then a flush of anger flooded her cheeks. “They’re saying we were having an affair.”
“There is some speculation to that effect. Yes.”
Jamie stared straight ahead and was quiet for a long moment. “Do you know what drives me crazy?”
“What?”
“That men and women can’t be friends without people jumping to all sorts of incorrect assumptions.”
“So you’re saying there was no affair?” Sam asked.
“I said yesterday there was no affair.”
“That was with your bosses outside the door. We were hoping you’d be more forthcoming away from work.”
“There’s nothing to say! We were friends! Colleagues. We worked closely together all season and then later when he was trying to stay healthy enough to finish out the postseason. I don’t understand how that becomes an affair.”
“People see two people spending a lot of time together
, and they jump to conclusions,” Hill said.
“There was no affair. He was devoted to his wife and children. He was my friend, and I loved him. As a friend. Nothing more.”
Sam was beginning to believe her. “Did he speak to you about his wife or his family or any issues they might’ve been having?”
“Here and there. I knew about the situation with Carmen’s brother. That was weighing on him. He wanted to give him the money, but he was afraid he’d be throwing it into a bottomless pit. It had to stop somewhere, you know? He’d given him a lot of money.”
“Do you know how much?” Sam asked, running on a hunch.
“I think it was close to a million.”
“That’s a rather personal detail to share with a colleague, isn’t it?” Sam asked.
“He was torn up about the situation. He’d worked so hard to get where he was, to make the kind of money that most people only dream about. And everyone in his life wanted a piece of his pie.”
“Who else besides Carmen’s brother?”
“Her parents, her other brother, his parents, his siblings, his cousins, the friends he grew up with in the D.R. Everyone was after him all the time. It hurt him because it wasn’t in his nature to say no to the people he loved. But he said he felt more like a banker rather than a ballplayer. Sometimes I got the feeling that he thought no one cared about him. They only cared about his money.”
“Does that include Carmen?”
Jamie pursed her lips, as if she was trying to decide how much she should say. “Carmen enjoys the finer things in life. Willie was happy to provide them for her.”
“But?”
“No buts.”
“Did he include her among the people who wanted his money more than they wanted him?”
“I couldn’t say. He didn’t talk about her like that with me. He was always very respectful of her as the mother of his children.”
“He loved his kids.” The statement was intended to gauge Jamie’s reaction to the mention of Willie’s children.
Her eyes flooded with tears. “He adored those boys. He said everything he did was for them, so they could have a better life than he’d had.”
“Did he grow up poor?”
“Extremely. He worked so hard. No matter what anyone says, he was the hardest working member of the team. No one wanted that win more than he did. I just... I don’t know how he missed that ball. It was so shocking.”
