Double Play (31 page)

Benji paused his
videogame and sat the controller on the coffee table, hopping up.
“When I got home a half hour ago he wasn’t here.” He placed his
hand on her arm and searched her face for a clue. “Why? What is
going on?”

“
I am
going to kill him.”

She turned on her
heel and threw upon her office door. Her anger melted into despair.
The room appeared as it had a week and a half ago. Quinn’s clothes,
which had previously been strewn all over the floor, were gone. The
futon that he had slept on for the last week and a half had been
propped back into its sofa position and the blankets messily piled
on top. Worst of all, his duffel bag was no longer in sight. Her
eyes fell to a piece of paper lying on her cleaned desk, the gold
signet ring she’d stumbled upon earlier in the week now serving as
its paperweight. Written on her baseball-shaped stationary, it
said:

Sorry, Cat. Don’t
hate me forever, okay?

His scribbles
blurred as tears sprang into her eyes. She crumpled it in her palm.
“Damn it.”

Benji took the
note out of her hands and opened it up. “Sorry? About
what?”

“
Turns
out Detective Kahn was right and Ryan didn’t fall off our balcony.
Quinn pushed him.”

“
What?
Why?”

“
Ryan
didn’t want to throw the playoff series.”

“
I
don’t understand. I thought he was your best pitcher.”

Cat cocked her
head. “No, not throw-throw. Throw, as in take a dive, lose on
purpose, you know, cheat.”

“
Cheat?” He snapped his fingers. “The gambling. That’s why
Quinn made so much money. But if Ryan wouldn’t go along with
it—”

“
It
wasn’t just him. They’re cheaters, all of them. Adam, Joel and
Damien.”

“
Damien? The one who died?”

“
Not
before he had a chance to join in on the fun. I think it got to
him, though. That’s why he was drowning his sorrows the night he
died.
”

“
So
Adam and Joel played so badly last night on purpose?”

“
The
whole series, actually.” She thumped herself on the forehead. “I
should’ve known something was up. It was weird enough that Adam
tanked once, but he was off every time he took the
mound.”

“
Quinn
orchestrated the whole thing?”

“
He
was making so much money … I don’t know why I didn’t see it.” She
shook her head. “That bastard.”

“
Damn.” Benji ran his hands through his hair. “I was really
starting to like him, too.”

“
Yeah,
well, this is what happens when you trust a McDaniel.” She caught
his surprised look and shrugged helplessly. “Other than me, that
is.”

“
So
what are you going to do?”

“
What
choice do I have? I was going to give him a chance to
explain
,
but this,” she
pointed to the empty room, “speaks for itself. I have no choice but
to
go to
Kahn
.”

“
Detective Kahn? Won’t Roger have a problem
with that?”

That was the million dollar question. Cat rubbed
her temples, hoping to suss out a million-dollar answer.

Benji waved a hand in front of her face.
“Cat?”

“
Roger’s the general manager. These were
his three players.”

“
Are you saying you think he was
involved?”

“
No!” Cat shook her head vehemently. “Of
course not. Roger would never. He’s a good man.”

“
But?”

“
But ….” She didn’t want to admit this out
loud. She felt like she was sullying the baseball legend’s name
just thinking it. “He’s not a martyr. He’ll know what kind of
nightmare this is going to bring on the team and himself. And
Quinn, too, although I don’t think that’ll keep him up at
night.”

Benji snorted.

“
Roger’s been a Soldier for the last thirty
years,” Cat continued. “He’s programmed to protect this
team.”

“
You think he’s going to sweep it under the
rug? What is it they say, ‘handle the matter
internally?’ ”

She
answered with a simple shrug. Maybe he would reprimand the
guys, but that’d be even worse. Discipline had never been Roger’s
strong suit. Just ask Paige Aiken. Her papa bear had “punished” her
for being expelled from college by sending her to the Caribbean for
a month. What penalty awaited Adam and Joel, a Mediterranean
cruise?

“
The truth will come out eventually. It
always does,” she said finally, “and when the story breaks, it’s
going to be much worse for Roger if it looks as if he condoned
it.”

“
Hey,
you know me.
I’m all for
going to the cops,”
Benji
said. “I’m actually glad
I don’t have to twist your arm to be safe and
smart this time.” She smiled appreciatively. She’d never admit it,
but she liked having him worry about her.

“
What about your brother?” he
asked.

So much for that sentimental
smile
.

“
What about him?”

“
Did
you try to call him? Maybe … I mean, you can’t just report him
without … not that I would blame you if you did.”

“
I
didn’t even think about it. The whole twenty minutes home from
Joel’s house I was too busy trying to think what I was going to say
to him when I saw him. I didn’t expect him to be gone when I got
here.” Cat grabbed her cellphone out of her back pocket and dialed.
She nodded at Benji.

“
It’s
ringing.”

He rolled his
eyes. “I know.” He rested his hand on hers and pulled the phone
away from her ear.

A muffled ring
was coming from across the apartment. They followed it to the
kitchen.

Cat flipped the
lid on the trash can, where the black cellphone sat atop a couple
of pieces of uneaten pizza.

“
Should I answer it or do you want to leave a
message?”

“
It
was a burner.” She scoffed. “I should’ve known. The only
indispensable possession Quinn has is his motorcycle. That stupid
bike is all he cares about.”

“
Hey,
that’s it!” Benji rushed around to the other side of the countertop
and pulled out the grocery list notepad, flipping through to the
back page. “Last week, I had to give the apartment manager Quinn’s
vehicle information so they wouldn’t tow his Harley while he was
staying here. Maybe we can track him with it. Yeah, right here,
it’s a 2008 Harley Davidson Fat Bob, red, license plate
838—”

“
I’m
gonna stop you right there.” Cat leaned against the countertop.
“Criminals that throw away cellphones and don’t have a permanent
residen
ce
aren’t up to
date on vehicle registration. He probably lifted those plates on
his way into town and tossed ’em in our dumpster on his way out.
There’s a reason he’s never been arrested and it’s not because he’s
a choir boy. Quinn knows how to cover his tracks.”

“
Okay,
but I doubt he had time to get a paint job or a new bike. You could
at least alert the cops of his make and model. We don’t know when
he left. Maybe he’s still in the area.”

“
You
said you’ve been home for the last half hour. He could be in Canada
by now.”

“
It’s
worth a try. The sooner you call, the sooner the manhunt begins and
the better chance they have of extraditing his sorry
ass.”

Cat noticed she
was gnawing on her index fingernail and quickly pulled it away from
her mouth. “I don’t know.”

“
I
know he’s your brother but Cat, he really screwed you over
here.”

“
Trust
me, this isn’t about familial loyalty. He
is
my brother,
same last name and everything. Once the media hears that it was a
McDaniel who broke our ace’s arm and orchestrated a dive, I’m in
even deeper. I wish there was a way to out the players and leave
the McDaniel name out of it.”

“
Well,
there’s not. Joel, Adam and Ryan are going to point the finger
faster at Quinn than you can say plea bargain.”

“
I
know. Joel already extorted me with that.”

Benji scoffed.
“So Joel and Adam are just going to get away with this? What’d they
get out of their part anyway?”

“
What
do you think? The only thing guys like them understand.”

“
Money?”

“
Cha-ching.”

“
Wait
a sec. If they were betting on the games, too, then there’s a paper
trail.”

“
They
didn’t. Joel said they were being compensated for their parts and—”
Cat paused. “Huh.”

“
What
is it?”

“
That
doesn’t make any sense. Remember how I told you that players who go
to the postseason get bonuses and the better they do, the bigger
the bonus? If the team had won this series, the guys stood to gain
around one hundred twenty thousand dollars each. Joel, Adam and
Damien had to be getting more than that for their participation or
what would be the point?”

“
Nice
bonus. I wish I got that kind of money every time the biology club
did a beach sweep.”

She gave him a
little shove. “What I’m saying is that Quinn doesn’t have that kind
of change, even after his winnings.”

“
Maybe
somebody else was betting on the games, somebody whose bankroll was
significantly higher.”

“
Or
maybe Joel wasn’t telling the truth about not gambling. If he was
stupid enough to do this, I wouldn’t put anything past
him.”

“
Joel,
perhaps. But Adam doesn’t strike me as an idiot, even with the
mohawk.”

“
Only
one way to find out.”

She ripped a
paper towel off the roll and wrapped it around Quinn’s tossed
cellphone in the trash can. She sat it on the counter and blotted
it with another towel.

“
Ew.”
She wiped the cheese grease off the buttons and thumbed through the
call history, but the screen was blank. “Nothing. See? He’s the
master of covering his tracks.”

As she moved to
throw the phone back in the trash, Benji snatched it out of her
hands.

“
Uh-uh. I’ll recycle that. A hundred and thirty million of
these are going to hit the landfills this year and recycling them
would save enough energy to power East Amherst for a year.” He
frowned at the trash can. “Shame on Quinn for throwing it
out.”

“
Shame
on Quinn for a lot of things.” Cat
considered her options
. “Maybe Grams has a way to
contact him.”

Benji began to
remove the battery from the back of the cellphone. “Maybe … I mean,
I’m just saying, the season’s over, the damage is done. You have a
point, if this is all out in the open, all it’s going to do is
bring the attention back to you.” He shrugged. “Maybe this way we
can get our lives back and start focusing on us, you know, the
wedding and everything.”

Ah, so we can
replace one nightmare with another
.

“
Yeah,
but you should’ve seen Joel’s supersized McMansion. It’s hard to
let that go.”

Benji shrugged
again, half of his attention still on the cellphone.

“
Maybe
I could find a way to deal with this whole mess if they were
spending the profits on something that actually advanced society,
but those guys are trash with money. They’re throwing it away on
Faulk Flips and
mehmaan khanas
.”

“
What?”

“
Don’t
ask. A special Hindu-inspired room in Joel’s house.”

“
So,
basically, their egos.”

“
And
when it comes to that, the sky’s the limit. Who’s to say they won’t
try this same scam next year on their own? Or a year after that?”
She ran her hands through her hair. “I’d just love to get five
minutes with Quinn.”

Benji nodded and
crossed his arms. “Okay. Let’s find him then.”

“
How?”

“
Didn’t your grandma say he was in Key West this
summer?”

“
He
wouldn’t go back there. Quinn has a way of burning bridges on his
way out.”

Benji made a
sweeping gesture around the apartment. “Obviously.
He had to go somewhere, though.
Do
you know any of his friends?”

“
Quinn
doesn’t have any friends, only business acquaintances. Joel and
Adam wouldn’t know anything ….” She stopped drumming her
fingernails on the countertop and met his eyes. “But there is
someone else in town Quinn was partial to. Feel like taking a
ride?”

“
Isn’t
this the same spot we parked in the other day?”

Cat looked around
the packed riverfront parking lot. “Let’s hope one of these cars
belongs to Webbs. She and Quinn seemed to have a little more going
on than just sportsbooks.”

Benji frowned at
the permanently-docked casino ship. “I hope we get something out of
this. Last time we were here, the cigarette smoke upset my
allergies so badly I had to cancel my morning class.”