by Pete Bowen
No one said a word. Tony continued, “I’m the weak link here. I know that. But I am the man today, and that is subject to change (a few laughs). My promise to you today is that I will be prepared every game to get us the W. We’re a different team than we were four days ago. I desperately need your help. The help of each and every one of you to be successful and to prove to everyone in the world, we are the best team in football. Will you help me?”
Matt Benson stood up and slowly looked around the room. “Anyone here surprised with Tony’s performance yesterday?” A few hands came up and then Reilly raised his hand, everyone laughed. It became silent again and Benson continued, “Because if you were surprised then you don’t know Tony. He’s been riding me for two seasons. I know Tony. He has the best head for football of any man I’ve ever met. His performance Sunday proved what I already knew, Coaches don’t know shit. They coach scared. Scared to fuck up. Scared to lose the game and lose their job. Tony’s been given an opportunity to run this offense. He will be successful. He has the brains and heart to take this team all the way. I believe you, Tony. This is the best team in football today. You want my help, my man? You didn’t even have to ask. We have something to prove. You’re the guy who is going to prove it to them. Speaking for the rest of the team, we’ll help you, every step of the way.”
In that next game, San Francisco had Houston at home. Houston was a team with a hot offense and looked like a playoff team. San Francisco was up 17 to 7 at half time and the team went on win 28 to 10. They made it look easy. Reilly was made a captain after the game.
Chapter 22
“Tonelli, are you out of your fucking mind?” David Fong, the chief of the San Francisco Police Department Police Chief stared back at Inspector Tonelli, seated next to Captain Conners. “Let me get this straight,” Fong said. You’ve got one dead quarterback’s wife accusing the other quarterback’s wife of murder. No evidence, just a feeling and you want to go after her on that basis.”
“Well,” Tonelli hesitated and cleared his throat, “let’s put it this way, Chief, we’ve done some preliminary checking on her and she is a reputation with some people. I can see why Elisabeth Reilly didn’t think of Lydia Isackson initially, but thought about it and suggested to Mullins we check her out.”
“I know her, Tonelli! I met her at a symphony fundraiser. She’s beautiful, intelligent and one of the nicest human beings I’ve ever met. What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Captain, you met one side of Mrs. Isackson. Lydia Isackson is not liked by the other wives on the team. She is involved with many charities, but has done little except attend functions. She seems to be involved in everything. Many have characterized her as merely a social climber. A number of people have intimated that she’s had a number of affairs. She knows guns and Paul Isackson owns a number of handguns and a couple of .22’s.”
“Beautiful women usually aren’t liked by other women. We start investigating this woman and the shit will hit the fan. What do you want to do Tonelli? Bring her in for questioning? That isn’t going to happen.”
“Sir, there is motive here. Lydia Isackson liked it here.”
“That’s not much motive, Tonelli.”
“You’re right Chief. That’s why if there is anything here, I would think it would be an affair between her and Tony Reilly, a spurned woman, possibly?”
“Are you making this shit up as you go along, Tonelli?”
Conners jumped in, “Chief, we wouldn’t have come to you if we didn’t think this had some merit. We want to take a look at this as quietly as possible.”
“I doubt it’s going to stay quiet 24 hours, Captain. Where is the FBI on this?” asked Fong.
“We haven’t mentioned it to them and they aren’t communicating with us.”
“Of course they’re not, those motherfuckers. Do they know about Tony Reilly sailing in Mexico for the last month?”
“We haven’t told them because they haven’t returned phone calls.”
“What the fuck is this, high school?” He rose and paced his office. “Jesus Christ, working with these assholes is always like pulling teeth.” He sat back down put his hands on back of his head and his feet on his desk and fumed. “Well I don’t want the SFPD hung out to dry on this. Do you understand me?” He stared back and forth at the two men in front of him.
“Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to call up numb nuts Nelson or Forbes or the ghost of J. Edgar Hoover and demand a fucking meeting tomorrow afternoon. By that time, you’ll have a report on my desk on everything we have found out including a full report on Reilly’s Mexican cruise vacation and all your suspicions about Lydia Isackson and anything else that we have. Let’s say 4 PM, Okay? So, you have 24 hours Tonelli and then I hand it over to those fucking swinging dicks at the FBI which will be the same as giving it to TMZ. Now, get the fuck out of my office.” He yelled at them as they left, “When the history of this abortion is written, I want our skirts clean.”
As the two men walked down the corridor out of the Chief’s office, Tonelli said to Conners, “That went better than I expected.”
Chapter 23
San Francisco at Chicago was a Sunday evening game on ESPN. The story of Tony Reilly was featured before the game. The story of a hot quarterback who was able to step in and rally his team now had two solid performances under his belt.
“This was an excellent team before Paul Isackson went down,” Reilly said during a pregame interview. We were in the playoffs last year and we expect to be in the Superbowl this year. We’ve got the best D in football and the focus every week is to prove we’re the best team on the field.”
“Tony, you’ve shown great decision making and poise in the last two games. How did you develop those skills?”
“I’m a student of the game. My coaches and teammates made me better. Paul Isackson always took the time to show me how to be better and I’m just thankful he’s still by my side to help me. I’m a sponge, man. I worked at getting better and had great teachers.”
“You’ve attributed your decision making skills to running the taxi squad against one of the best defenses in football. How important has that been to your success?”
Reilly laughs. “I practiced getting my ass kicked all week. I encouraged the defense to do it. You do that long enough and you can see mistakes and where the opportunities are. It’s me and the rest of the scrubs against the best. That’s how Terrence Brown and I developed our skill together. I know what he’s going to do or he knows where I want him to go because we’ve done it so many times. I study defenses. I’ve seen what the best defense in football can throw against me. You better bring your “A” game against this offense, because it’s my job to pick you apart.”
San Francisco picked apart the third best defense in football 48 to 13. Reilly came out of the game at the start of the 4th quarter with a 38 to 3 lead for his new backup to get some playing time in. Tony Reilly was the highest rated quarterback in football for the month. He had yet to throw an interception.
Chapter 24
Paul Isackson actually was not on board with the rest of the team. After attending a couple of practices after the Texans’ game, he returned to Utah to spend time with his family. Lydia stayed back in the Bay Area with her heavy social calendar. She loved the Bay Area and wasn’t crazy about her large extended family and the strict Mormon lifestyle back home. She had moved on.
Her days consisted of rising late in the morning. Having breakfast with her daughter, leaving her with the nanny, and then off to the club for a workout with her personal trainer and lunch with her girlfriends. That left the late afternoons to play. Lydia had a number of playmates. Always discreet, Lydia liked her male friends. As she told her girlfriends, “Paul just doesn’t need it very often.” Lydia did and she had no problem finding an assortment of discreet friends for extended “sessions”. With Paul out of town, these trysts became more frequent. Her busy social calendar allowed her to meet and bed a rolodex full of
discreet horny guys.
But, Lydia was a football girl at heart. She had always liked Tony Reilly. When he took over at quarterback and played the way he did, that interest in him grew. She called him one afternoon and suggested they get together. She had flirted with him on a number of occasions and saw he liked it. That’s how it started.
Chapter 25
The three of them finished talking to Jose Padilla in Avalon and walked out of the bar, strolling slowly in the warm California sun. “It sounds like Tony had a great time the last month. Wish I was there,” said Liz.
I stopped and looked at her. “I’ll bet he was thinking about you. He headed right back to you, first chance he got.” I thought about it for a minute. Told them, “Wait here, I’ll be right back,” and walked back into the bar. Padilla was starring at his beer and looked up at me when I sat down across from him.
“Jose, I forgot to ask you something.”
“Si, senor?”
“Did Tony talk about another woman?”
“Yes, he did. I not tell you in front of his wife. Please don’t tell her. I know he loved her. He was going to go back to her.”
“What did he say about the other woman, Jose?”
“He say he make big mistake with other man’s wife. He want to end it, but woman is difficult to leave. He say it is not good for him. He say he come here to forget her.”
“Did he tell you the woman’s name?”
“No. He say it is wife of man on his team.”
I nodded. “Anything else you can tell me, Jose?”
He thought about it for a moment. “He say he love his wife, senor.”
Chapter 26
I looked out the window at 30,000 feet and at the two people across from me. “So where are we with this? Where do we go next, Roge?”
Roger looked up from the peanut butter and jelly sandwich and the glass of milk in front of him, “The question is still the same. Who knew Tony Reilly was going to be back to his house that night?”
“His agent and the Team, we know that. Who else?”
“Lydia Isackson?” said Liz.
“How would she know?” I said.
“She knows everything. She’s probably blowing Oscar Tierney.”
“Any word from Tonelli?” I said to Roger.
“Nothing yet,” said Roger.
“We should know soon.”
“Roger, see if Torley can get something on Lydia’s email and cell phone calls.”
“That’s illegal,” said Roger smiling at me.
“Are you fucking with me?” Roger looked down and started typing. “Do you have an Internet connection?”
“Sometimes, it goes in and out,” he said.
“We should go talk to Tierney when we get in,” I said.
The limo was waiting in San Jose. I got Tierney on the phone and told him we were on the way over. I called Velma and filled her in on what we’d been up to, listened to her bitch for 10 minutes and left a message for Tonelli asking him to call.
The press was still at Team Headquarters but the numbers were down. We still hadn’t seen any reference to us in the press. We kept out of sight like before. The three of us climbed out and entered the admin building by the back door. Shawn Samuelson greeted us and escorted us to Tierney’s office.
“The world travelers,” he greeted us warmly giving Liz a hug.
“And traveling in style on your dime,” I said. “I appreciate your help.”
“Anything you need, Tom, Carte Blanche on this. What have you learned?”
“Well,” as Tierney was settling back into a deep comfortable leather chair in front of his desk, we did the same. “We know that for the past month, Tony Reilly was on a boat, sailing around Baja and surfing.”
“No wonder nobody has seen him. Wouldn’t he have had to go through immigration?”
“You’re supposed to check in at the ports and get processed into Mexico but it’s not enforced,” I said. “When the contract looked like it was ready to be signed, his agent emailed him and eight hours later he called Rosenbloom and said he was on the way back. Rosenbloom called you and said he was on his way in the next day. We know only Rosenbloom and you knew he was coming back. We still don’t know who knew he was going to be at his house that night.”
“Just sailing around Baja for a month?” said Tierney.
“He was really enjoying himself,” I said. “He worked out hard everyday. He was there staying in shape, running and swimming. The guy he was with said he was very quiet and seemed to be unhappy when he arrived and as the weeks went on, his whole attitude changed. By the time they left, it seems like he came back ready to get to work and play football.”
Tierney just shook his head, “What a waste”.
“We’re working on a few other things. I’ll call you as soon as I know something.”
“What other things?” Tierney asked.
I wasn’t going to tell him about Lydia Isackson. “I don’t know, I haven’t thought them through yet.” He nodded.
“Elizabeth, looks like the services are going to be the end of the week. I understand you’re working through this with our people.”
“Yes, Oscar. Final details are up in the air, but your people have been great,” she said.
“The governor called me this afternoon. He wanted to let me know that all of his resources were available to me. He was very upset, even emotional. An hour later, the President of the United States called.”
“That’s impressive. Did you ask him why the worst excuse for a human being was heading up the investigation for the FBI?”
“No. He wasn’t calling to hear that, but I think he’ll take a return call if it comes to that. Point being, the entire country and probably a big piece of the world want to know what happened here. You’ve made some progress here, Tom. Have you shared it?”
“I’m talking to the SFPD, who is trying to talk to the FBI.”
“Are you making progress?”
I stared at him, for a moment. I’d been in these meetings a thousand times and I had a standard answer, but you have to deliver it. “I need a couple of days; I’m working on some things.”
“Good, I know you can do it.” He bought it. “I’d like to put Shawn Samuelson on your team.” No, he didn’t buy it.
“Respectfully, sir I’ll be happy to keep Shawn in the loop, but I’m not working with anyone. This is not a team, it’s me.”
“You seem to have a team with you.”
“No, this is just the practice squad that’s tailing along at the moment.” Tierney laughed.
“Okay, follow up on what you have going and keep me and Shawn informed.” He bought it.
Chapter 27
“The practice squad?” Liz and Roger were on my ass. “Fuck you, PI Boy,” said Liz.
“Mr. Mullins is consistently emotionally dishonest,” said Roger.
“Fuck you, Roger. I’ll take it from her, but I’m not taking your pseudo intellectual crap.”
“Practice squad that’s tailing along at the moment,” Liz said sarcastically.
“He laughed! It was a joke!”
“Did you like that joke Roger?” Liz asked.
“I thought it was condescending.”
I went across to the back of the limo, “I’ll condescend you, you little fucking…. Liz got between us defending Roger and I sat back down.
My cell phone buzzed, Tonelli. “What do you got?”
“Where are you?” he asked.
“Driving up on 280 out of San Jose. What fucking difference does it make where I am? I’ve been waiting on you, what do you got?”
Cell phone records for Lydia Isackson show no calls to or from Tony Reilly’s cell. Lots of calls though, that woman is on the phone most of every day.”
“Who is she talking to?”
“Lots of people, I guess, but that’s probably irrelevant. I just got a call from the FBI. They’ve arrested four men that they say are people of interest in the Tony Reilly cas
e, four Muslims from Union City.”
I pulled the phone away from my mouth and said to Roger and Liz, “FBI has arrested four men of interest in the Tony Reilly case.”
Roger looking at his computer, “Yeah, four members of a mosque from Union City.”
“Where do you see that?”
“It’s on the AP wire from 5 minutes ago.”
I said to Tonnelli, “When did you get this information, it’s on the AP wire?”
“About 5 minutes ago.”
“Oh, that’s cool. They released it to you at the same time they released it to the press,” I said.
“Well, it explains why they’ve been so quiet," Tonnelli said. "They may have this sewn up.”
"So, Liz didn’t do it, huh?” I looked over at her. I said into the phone so everyone could hear, “Okay Roge, take the cuffs off her.”
Chapter 28
San Francisco went to Seattle the following week and beat the Division leaders in the rain. San Francisco defense played possessed with four take-aways that the offense turned into 18 points.
San Francisco had basically been a pass oriented team during the last few years. They used that pass to set up the run. They used a running back by committee approach, meaning they had a veteran running back, Reggie Robinson, who received most of the carries and a rookie fourth round draft choice named Keiland Best who was carrying the ball less than half the time. Robinson was a power runner who ran well straight ahead. Best was a better receiver with good running skills. Keiland Best emerged in the Seattle game. Taking dump off passes in the flat for long runs and breaking tackles and running over smaller defensive backs, he had six catches for 74 yards receiving with a score. In the fourth quarter, he broke a 57 yard draw play for a touchdown and ended up with 122 yards running. San Francisco cruised to a 38 to 13 victory and now had a new weapon in their offensive arsenal.