06 Fatal Mistake by Marie Force Page B

the team’s trainer.” To Sam, he said, “Um, should I tell her?”
    “Go ahead.” That made one less person Sam had to tell.
    “Tell me what?” Jamie asked, looking from Ray to Bob.
    “Willie was killed last night,” Ray said.
    Her legs buckled. “No. No, no, no .”
    Ray reached for her and caught her in his arms when she would’ve fallen. Bob scooted over to make room for Jamie on the sofa.
    Sam glanced at Hill and caught his eye. It was interesting, she thought, that Jamie’s response to the news had been almost exactly the same as that of Carmen Vasquez. Very interesting, indeed. She’d worked with Hill enough by now to conclude that he too found the reaction odd, based on the way he’d tuned into Jamie’s intense reaction as well as the subtle lift of his eyebrow.
    “Ms. Clark,” Sam said after water had been brought in for the other woman, “we’re very sorry for your loss. As you can imagine, we have a lot of ground to cover in our investigation and it would help to know anything you can tell us about Mr. Vasquez’s movements after he was escorted from the field.”
    She took a tissue from the box Ray offered and wiped her tears. “I’m not sure what transpired between the field and the training room, but I was with Willie last night after the game. I might’ve been the last member of the Feds organization to see him alive.”
    “Why do you say that?” Sam asked.
    After she took another full minute to pull herself together, she spoke softly. “Willie has battled hamstring pulls this season, so we’ve worked closely over the last few months and became friends. I usually take the Metro home to Adams Morgan after the games, but he offered to give me a ride because the city went nuts after the game.” Her voice broke, and she paused to deal with a new influx of tears. “It had to be two hours or more after the game ended when we finally left. Team security walked us to his car. Do you need the information about his car? He just got a new Lincoln a couple of weeks ago.”
    “We have it,” Sam said. “But thank you.”
    “When you left,” Hill said, “were there still a lot of people around the stadium?”
    “Some, but most of the craziness had started to move away from the stadium by then.”
    “So no one other than the security personnel saw you leave with him?” Sam asked.
    She shook her head. “I didn’t see anyone I knew in the player parking lot when the security detail walked us out.”
    “Any unhappy fans hanging around, hoping for a glimpse of Willie?” Sam asked.
    “Not that I saw. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t there. I was focused on Willie. He was so upset. I was worried he shouldn’t be driving, but he assured me he’d see me home safely.”
    “Did he mention his wife or family?” Hill asked.
    “He said he was sad that he had to face them as a failure. I tried to tell him he wasn’t a failure, that he’d had an amazing season and that no one would blame him for one mistake. He scoffed at that and said of course they should blame him. Who else should they blame? Nothing I said seemed to help him.”
    “Help me to understand something, Ms. Clark,” Sam said. “Here’s a ballplayer who is by all accounts well-liked and well-respected by his teammates. And yet, he’s leaving with you rather than one of his so-called friends on the team. Explain to me why he was with you and not one of the other players.”
    Sam could tell the other woman was dying to say something snippy but refrained, probably in deference to the law enforcement officers as well as her bosses. “After the...the error, Willie came off the field and went directly to the training room. He didn’t set foot in the locker room until everyone else had left. He couldn’t bring himself to face his teammates. When the game ended, I went back to my office in the training room. I found him there, so I stayed with him until he was ready to leave. I thought that was the right thing to do.