by Pete Bowen
“Mr. Mullins leaned down to help the woman and sent me out to let the police know it was over. The police were already there and someone took my picture. I was surprised they got there so soon.”
“Well, that sounds like a pretty exciting day. Better than hanging around the house playing Xbox I guess.”
“Oh I like doing that too.” The crowd laughs.
I’m shaking my head. I can’t believe what I’ve just seen. I looked around and see Liz sitting up in bed with the sheet drawn up to her shoulders and she’s starring at me with her mouth open. I shirk my shoulders and shake my head. I got nothing.
She said, “I meet the most amazing men.”
Chapter 7
The cat was out of the bag with her. The next day I called everyone including Roger. He thought I’d be mad but what could I say? I had taken off and told other people to deal with it. If there were repercussions it was my own fault. There were multiple offers for me to do interviews. I didn’t want to. Financially, it didn’t make sense to turn it down, but I did. There was talk of movie and book rights. There were other opportunities that didn’t involve TV interviews and the cover of the Rolling Stone. Fame just didn’t have much of a draw for me. Looking at the down side of a boatload of money was that I didn’t want to be famous for killing someone. My Dad left me in great shape with Real Estate investments. The agency was doing well. I didn’t feel I needed the money and the whole being famous thing didn’t really interest me.
Roger was another story. This was not my decision. I talked to his parents and suggested that opportunities be carefully considered. I would hate to see him on Maury but his parents weren’t rich. He could bank big money for school on this thing and who knows how long this opportunity would last. The other part of this was, Roger liked it. All my people were telling me Roger might just be a star. By the end of that week there were two million hits on Youtube of him on Leno.
Liz and I sat around all day Saturday talking about all this. That was in between eating, drinking, soaking and…making love. She was completely on my side on this. I talked to everyone involved and by late Saturday afternoon, I told the PR company to turn down everything for me. I wasn’t interested in anything. I wanted privacy. Having one superstar in the family was going to be enough.
Liz said she had to get back Sunday noon. We stayed in bed all morning leisurely making love. She called me killer one time in the throes of passion but apologized for it when I winced. Later, she was sitting having coffee when she got very serious and said those dreaded words, “We need to talk.” She hadn’t said much to me of a personal nature in the last couple of days. A married sister in Dallas and working on a music project with a guy in Southern California. Living in a house with a roommate in Redwood City. But, I thought we had gotten very close. I was in love but that isn’t always a good sign.
She looked me in the eye and said, “I want you to promise me something.”
“Okay,” having no idea where this was going.
“I want you to promise me you won’t come looking for me.” In a week full of surprises this might have been the biggest. It didn’t take long for me to connect the dots and the conclusion was….married. “I’m going through a personal mess at the moment and I’ve got no place for you in it.”
“I see.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. Things may change and I know how to get in touch with you if you’re still interested but not right now.”
“Well Baby, we’ll always have Sonoma,” I said and smiled. A tear fell down her cheek and she kissed me.
“You’re going to be okay, Tommy. I never met anyone who has it more together than you, hero.” I carried her bag to the car and noticed that it had dealer plates, no license, no tracing the car. We kissed again and I watched her drive off. This hurt. But, I kept my promise. As much as I wanted to, I didn’t go looking for her.
Chapter 8 Six weeks later
The phone rang at 4:06 AM. “Wake up, it’s Tonneli.”
“Yea. What do you want?”
“Wake up.”
“Why?”
“Bad news.”
“What?” Like I was expecting good news.
“Tony Reilly has been shot and killed.” This got me out of bed.
“The Quarterback Tony Reilly?”
“Yea, it looks like a terrorist hit.”
“What the fuck?”
“He was shot twice in the back of the head getting out of his car tonight at his house. The words “Praise Allah” were written on his car.”
“Anyone see this?”
“We don’t think so. His wife was asleep in the house. Looks like it was at least an hour before a private security cop saw the garage door open and went to take a look. He called it in. We woke up the wife, she doesn’t know anything.”
“Wow, this sucks,” I said, trying to take this in. Tony Reilly had been The Football hero last season. He was a Bay Area guy. Went to Cal. Lived in San Francisco, for Christ sakes. This was horrible. It then occurred to me…”Why are you calling me?”
“His wife wants you to pick her up. She’s here at Central. We’re done with questions. Her house is an investigation scene and closed up.”
“His wife?”
“Elizabeth Reilly, she requested you pick her up. She knows you. Hey Tommy, this is a big fucking deal. Press is swarming. Drive in to underground parking and we’ll get you out of here.”
“Okay, I’ll be there in a half an hour.”
Elizabeth Reilly? Why would she want me? I took the Porche downtown. I turned on the radio and got about the same information I had just gotten from Tonnelli. Live reporter on the scene outside the house. It was all over every radio station. There was speculation that this was an attack on high profile Americans. The FBI and Homeland security were expecting to make a statement and was advising caution for sports figures and celebrities. With light traffic I made it to SFPD Central in 20 minutes. A cop was waiting for me and had me in restricted parking by the elevator. We took the ride up to the 16th floor and immediately shuffled into Captain Edward Conners’ office where the Captain along with Tonnelli and two Lieutenants sat. I shook hands all around. I knew them all. I’d known Conners as a good friend of my Dad’s, since childhood. “I said this is a horrible thing, Reilly was beloved here after last year.”
Conners said, “We’ve just been saying the same thing, Tommy. Look, we’ve questioned Mrs. Reilly and apparently she knows nothing about this. It turns out the couple had been separated for the last 3 months. Reilly just showed up tonight. She wasn’t expecting him. She says they hadn’t even talked since last month and she didn’t know where he was since then. She doesn’t seem to know anything about this. We gave her a residue test, nothing. She has been fully cooperative and she doesn’t have a lawyer and doesn’t want one. We’re going to turn her loose.”
The next of kin would have been the first person to pop up on the investigative radar. “So she didn’t know he was showing up tonight after a month?”
“That’s what she says. But, from what we’ve been able to find out so far, no one else did either. We’ve talked to his agent and Reilly told him he was coming back tonight, but he didn’t have any details. There was an imminent contract deal and his agent suggested he return ASAP with an email. He wrote back he was on his way back and would contact him tomorrow. He’s been in this contract dispute and wasn’t reporting to camp. Apparently, there had been some movement in negotiations and he decided to return from wherever he was. The agent says communication had been rare during the last month and he didn’t even know where he was.”
“Someone knew he was coming home,” I said. “Mrs. Reilly didn’t hear any of this go down?”
“She was asleep in her room when SWAT went in. We scared the shit out of her. She says she knows nothing about this and that looks like the case. And if that’s how it went down, yea, you have to think someone had to be waiting there. Anyway, we got some work to do but we’re done with Mrs. Reilly,
for the moment. How do you know her by the way?” Conners asked.
“I don’t,” I said. “Or I don’t remember meeting her.” The Chief looked puzzled. “So, you think this is a terrorist hit?" I asked around the room.
“Possibly or made to look like one,” said Conners. “The word Alhamdulillah was written in marker on the top of the car. It means “Praise Allah”. It could be a signed terrorist hit. It makes sense, it’s a hell of a lot easier to gun down an American celebrity and get world wide notice than to take down a building. All you need is one guy looking to poke 77 virgins and a gun. Or, that could all be just bullshit. Anyway, that’s enough to get the Feds involved and you know what that means…a clusterfuck with the press all over everything. This will be about as big as it gets when it comes to an investigation.”
“Look,” Conners looked me in the eye, “you’re going to have to find a place for Mrs. Reilly for at least a few days. She has no family in the area. We’ve got the house sealed. Please stay in touch with Tonnelli. If Mrs. Reilly needs to get some personal things out of the house or any help, let him know. We’ll try and get you out of here tonight without the press. You know what a pain and the ass they can be,” and winked at me.”
“Okay, thanks Captain,” I said as I stood up and shook hands.
“Tommy,” the Chief looked me in the eye, "we all appreciate your help with the Butcher case. If Mrs. Reilly remembers anything that you think might help us out, you know how to find me.”
“You got it, Chief.” Tonnelli took me down a floor and into an office that had a cop standing outside. I followed him in and saw her sitting on a couch. With a tear stained face and red eyes, sat Liz McNulty. I was too stunned to say a word.
She immediately stood up and walked by me and said, “Let’s go.”
Chapter 9
We drove out of the underground parking without being noticed. I looked over at her as she stared straight ahead. After a minute I broke the silence. “I’m sorry.”
She drew her hands up to her face and screamed, “OH MY GOD!” Screaming, crying women are not my strong suit. I put my hand on her shoulder as I continued to drive. She was sobbing and loudly cried, “OH MY GOD," again. “And they think it was me!”
“I was talking to the police and they don’t think you did it. It’s just policy to question the family first.”
“Oh my God,” she cried again and bent over in her seat. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said feeling completely useless. “Do you have a friend or family you might want to call?”
“Oh no,” was all she said. I don’t think she heard me. I continued to drive toward my house. I thought about going to a hotel, but decided that wasn’t a good idea. Sit down and figure out where I should bring her, was the thought. She leaned her head against the passenger window. She said nothing more. She just sat there and wept.
I said, “this is my house,” as we drove into the garage. We sat there in the dark garage for a minute and said, “Let’s go in and figure out what we’re going to do.” We got out of the car and went in. She sat down on a couch and I thought, as bad as this girl looks with tear stained cheeks, she is stunningly beautiful. I sat down next to her and put my arm around her.
She leaned into me and said quietly, “Oh no”.
At 7:15 AM I heard a knock at the door. Liz was lying on the couch asleep with a blanket over her. I’d been sitting there watching her for the last hour drinking coffee. I quickly got to the door. I didn’t want whoever was knocking to wake her up. I saw it was a large black guy, dressed in a suit, through the side window. Checked my weapon in the back of my waist band, opened the door and quietly said, “What do you want?”
“Tom Mullins?”
“Who’s asking?” He handed me his card.
“I’m Shawn Samuelson. I’m head of security for the San Francisco football team.” I didn’t say anything and just waited for him to continue. I closed the door behind me and stepped out on the porch. “Mr. Mullins, I understand you picked up Mrs. Reilly from the police department last night.” I still didn’t know where this was going. "Mr. Mullins, the team and the President Oscar Tierney would like to extend its sympathies to Mrs. Reilly and offer anything she may need during this time." I nodded. “Also, Mr. Mullins, Mr. Tierney would very much like to speak to you regarding the events of last night. He told me, he would be honored if you could meet with him this morning to discuss the investigation of Tony Reilly’s death.”
“I’m tied up at the moment, Shawn.”
“Yes sir, Mr. Mullins, could you please speak to Mr. Tierney? He held up his cell phone. He was very insistent that he would like a moment of your time.”
I considered it for a second and said okay. He punched in a number on the cell. “Mr. Tierney, I have Mr. Mullins here,” and handed me his cell.
“Hello Mr. Tierney,” I said.
“Hello Tom, how are you this morning?”
“Tired and feeling pretty bad about Tony Reilly,” I said.
“You have no idea how I feel, Tom. It’s why I wanted to set up a meeting with you. I would like to discuss you working with the team in the investigation of his death. We are prepared to offer you a significant retainer to represent us and the league during this investigation. Can you meet with me in my office to discuss this? I would like to move on this immediately.” I thought about this for a moment.
“Possibly, can you put security outside my home?”
“I believe Mr. Samuelson can arrange that quickly. Is Mrs. Reilly there, Tom?”
“Yes, she’s asleep. I don’t want her disturbed.”
“We’ll take care of that.”
“Okay, Mr. Tierney, where would you like to meet?”
“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.”