Double Play (33 page)

Cat didn’t know
why the mere sight of black and whites made her palms sweat. She
obeyed speed limits. She always put an extra quarter in the parking
meter, just in case. She didn’t even tear the tag off her
mattresses. Yet still, unlike other law-abiding citizens, she
imagined, she didn’t find the presence of police officers
reassuring. The law enforcement she’d dealt with had been
“serving,” not “protecting,” and not quite in the usual sense. Even
though she’d never been arrested, she’d spent enough time paying
bail or waiting for visiting hours to explain the knot she had in
her stomach as she approached the uniformed officer behind the
desk.

A uniformed
officer passed by her and hurried up the concrete steps. Fearing
she was attracting more attention by standing outside, she followed
him. He held the door open for her and she approached the manned
desk, where another officer met her with a smile.

“
How
can I help you, ma’am?”

She paused for a
second, nearly turning around to see who this “ma’am” was until she
realized he was speaking to her. It didn’t matter how many suits
she wore, how many bylines she had, or how many times a respected
member of society such as a cop called her ma’am, Cat still felt
like that helpless little girl with the dirty clothes and bad
attitude.

“
Uh, I
need to speak to Detective Kahn, is he working today?”

The cop let out a
snort of laughter, as though the question in itself was amusing.
“Sure is. Let me get him for ya.”

He picked up his
phone. “Hey Detective, there’s a young woman out here to see
you.”

Cat stepped back
from his desk and walked over to peruse the bulletin board. Her
eyes scanned the drug awareness posters and then dropped to the mug
shots of Buffalo’s Most Wanted. She double-checked for a tall,
pale, strawberry-blond man who might or might not speak with a
Scottish accent. Quinn hadn’t made the cut yet, but she wondered if
he’d soon have a poster of his own. She opened up her purse,
checking to make sure the printout that Webbs had given her was
still inside.

A minute later,
she heard boots clomping down the hallway and then Detective Kahn
appeared. He looked much more casual than in their other meetings,
his sports jacket and khakis replaced by a navy blue thermal and
jeans. His police badge hung from a lanyard around his neck
and perched between his
well-defined pecs
. He grinned when he saw her.

“
Ms. McDaniel? I didn’t expect to see you … well, ever
again.”

“
Hi.”

“
What
can I do for you?”

She gave him a
shaky smile. “I’ve got something I think you’ll want to
see.”

“
Sure,
why don’t you come on back to my office?”

“
Uh …
okay.” She took one last look at the lobby doors. She hadn’t wanted
to stray too far from freedom, but Detective Kahn was waiting to
escort her down the long, windowless hallway. He gave her a
suspicious onceover. “You aren’t just paying me back for all those
impromptu visits I made to your workplace, are you?”

“
I
wish.”

The hallway
flooded into a large open office full of metal desks and thankfully
many windows and even an emergency exit. He pointed to a chair next
to the messiest desk in the room.

“
Okay,
so it’s not an office so much as a desk.”

“
No,
it’s … nice.” She tried to avoid staring at the mounds of files and
loose papers. “You’ve seen the mouse hole that is my
cubicle.”

“
Can I
get you a glass of water or some coffee?”

“
No,
thanks.”

He shrugged and
pulled out his desk chair. “So what brings you down
here?”

Cat shoved the
printout sheet into his hands.

His eyes darted
around the page. “Snow Bird payout statement? What is
this?”

“
Just
read it.”

He complied, his
lips moving slightly.

Cat clasped her
hands in her lap, nibbling on her bottom lip as she tried to read
his face.

Finally his eyes
widened and he looked up. “This is over a million dollar payout
after last night’s loss. Shotcallerballer? What is
this?”

“
Just
keep going. His payment profile’s on the next page.”

Cat took a deep
breath as Detective Kahn licked his thumb and turned the page. This
was it. There was no turning back now.

Detective Kahn’s
eyes slowly rolled up to hers. “George Hudson?” He slowly sat back
in his chair. “The owner of the Buffalo Soldiers?”

“
One
in the same.” She pointed at the address block on the statement. “I
thought that maybe the name was a coincidence, you know, it could
be common, but the credit card address, there on Mulholland Lane,
that’s his. I was there for his wedding reception this
summer.”

He turned back to
the first page and shook his head. “George Hudson, Buffalo
billionaire, bet on his team to lose? Clearly, this is a violation
of the league rules but as far as legality goes—”

“
There’s a little bit more.”

He closed his
eyes. “There always is.”

“
You
remember our last conversation at the stadium?”

Detective Kahn
nodded.

“
Well,
the other day I had found out Joel Faulk was having money problems
and after the way the game had went—well, did you watch
it?”

“
Only
on T.V. Glad I didn’t waste my money on tickets.”

“
This
morning I dropped by Joel’s house to ask him a few questions
because he’d left the stadium last night without talking to the
press. I ended up pressing him on what you and I had discussed, if
he was covering up for something that happened on the
balcony.”

Detective Kahn
sat up in his chair. “And?”

“
And … we had our wires crossed. He thought I knew the
whole story—the real story—and he started telling me that he, Adam
and Damien were being paid to play less than stellar. They threw
the games so that the team would lose the series.” She deliberately
left out any mention of the poker game and Ryan Brokaw. It was
probably only a matter of time before he connected the dots back to
Quinn but she couldn’t be the one to rat him out, at least not
until she heard it from his own mouth.

“
Son
of a bitch. So that little shithead Alvarez blew the game on
purpose last night?”

“
Game
one, game three and game five.”

“
Joel
Faulk told you this personally?”

“
I was
at his house this morning. Then I went to the Snow Bird and found
out about George Hudson.”

“
You’ve been busy, huh?” Detective Kahn snapped his fingers at
another police officer across the room, who came bustling
over.

“
What
is it, Hoss?”

“
Page
Judge Davis and start the paperwork on a subpoena for George
Hudson’s financial records.”

“
George Hudson the billionaire?”

“
No,
the George Hudson who mops the floors down at the donut shop. What
do you think?”

The cop smiled
and winked at her. “What crawled in his coffee today?”

Detective Kahn
handed him the casino printout. “This.” He turned his attention
back to Cat. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to give me a
statement right now?”

“
Oh. I
don’t really … I mean, I don’t have to until the prosecutor summons
me, right?”

He sighed and
pinched the bridge of his nose. “One of these days you’re going to
tell me what your beef with the law is.”

He’d seen her
family’s records. “I think you already know the answer to
that.”

“
Don’t
worry about it for now. I suppose you’ll have your own matters to
attend to on this. What you brought me should be enough to get the
warrant, but you will be asked to testify later on.”

“
Hoss,
this is crazy.”

Detective Kahn
looked up to his partner. “Oh by the way, this is my partner, Will
Dedeaux. Will, this is Catriona McDaniel, the reporter for the
Buffalo Soldiers.”

“
The
one you said was giving you all the problems with the Brokaw
investigation?”

“
Ah,
ah, ah.” He pressed a finger to his lips. “Let’s get back to the
case at hand.”

Cat inwardly
smiled at his diversion. She’d said a few choice words about him
behind his back, too.

“
I
also want to work on getting the bank records for Joel Faulk and
Adam Alvarez. If there are significant deposits that came from
anywhere but the team, I want to know. In the meantime, we’re gonna
get the boss himself.” He looked back at Cat. “I hope that doesn’t
make things too tense for you around the office.”

“
I’m
used to it.”

She didn’t just
mean the last week here in Buffalo. If Detective Kahn had done his
homework on her work in Las Vegas or Santo Domingo, he’d have found
out this wasn’t the first time she’d caused a tycoon to miss his
tee time. But he didn’t seem to be aware of her recent capers, so
perhaps he’d only versed himself in the McDaniel family
shortcomings after all.

“
Well,
I just thought I’d give you a heads-up. If you were planning a slow
news week now that the playoffs are over, you’re in for a rude
surprise.”

He stood up and
she followed, relieved. Their meeting was coming to an end and so
far Quinn’s name hadn’t come up. “As long as I’m not the subject,
I’ll take any scoop I can get.”

Detective Kahn
placed his large hand on her shoulder. “I’m really glad you came to
me with this. I’m sure you struggled with going to the team or
coming here and I want you to know you made the right
decision.”

“
Actually, it wasn’t as much of a struggle as you’d
think.”

She might have an
unhealthy distrust of the law, but she knew without a doubt that
Roger’s first instinct would’ve been to protect his own. It wasn’t
his fault. After playing baseball all his life, he was conditioned
to an “all for one and one for all” mentality. It was a stretch to
think she’d be a part of it, but she knew surer than beer at a
ballgame that Quinn wouldn’t fall under the Soldiers’ umbrella of
protection. At least the Buffalo Police Department would go after
the guilty, no matter what uniform it wore.

“
That’s good to hear. I know I gave you kind of a hard time
before with Brokaw and—hey, Brokaw. The ace pitcher going off a
balcony the day before game one in a dirty series? That can’t be a
coincidence.”

“
Uh
….”

He tapped his
index finger on his chin before reaching across his desk and
yanking out a bottom file folder from the stack. “Maybe I wasn’t
too far off about one of the guys doing it after all.”

“
I … I
don’t know. I really was asleep that night so believe me when I say
I didn’t see anything.”

“
Oh
trust me, I believe you. Now.” He looked up from the open folder,
grinning. “I’m actually considering getting you a key to the
city.”

Detective Kahn’s
confidence in her was giving her a fit of conscience. He thought of
the two of them as a team. She was no better than Adam Alvarez or
Joel Faulk. With teammates like those, who needed
adversaries?

Never mind.
Detective Dedeaux was his actual teammate and she was merely a
spectator who had just made their job a little easier. Quinn was
blood and if she owed anyone her loyalty, wouldn’t it be
family?

Then again, how
did sharing DNA entitle Quinn to her allegiance over the noble
Detective Kahn? Here was a man who put his life on the line for a
mediocre wage and scrutinized benefits to aid the City of Buffalo,
including her and Benji. Quinn had done nothing but ma
ke
their li
ves
a veritable nightmare for the last week
before fleeing with nearly a half a million dollars.

Her game of
mental ping-pong stopped when she realized Detective Kahn was
staring at her.

“
Are
you okay?”

She blinked and
attempted a smile. “Sorry. I spaced out there. It’s been a long
day.”

At least that was
the truth.

“
I
hear ya there. I was supposed to be heading home for dinner right
about now.”

“
I
really should be going. I’m sure I’ve just given you some monster
overtime.”

“
I’ll
say. I think I’ll be able to green light my kid’s braces on this
one.” He chuckled and pointed to his own teeth. “He’s got Daddy’s
overbite.”

Cat liked the
detective’s smile, although this was the first time she’d seen him
flash it. It didn’t appear to be going anywhere now. Once he’d
gotten over his initial shock at her discovery, he’d seemed
downright tickled. The guy loved his job.

She loved hers,
too, though she wished her upcoming headlines were about playoffs
instead of payoffs.

“
Can
you give me any idea of when I can expect the Soldiers’ world to be
turned upside down?”