Rough Trade

strangled him. Who do the police think did it? Do they have any suspects?”
    “The cops like Jeff Rendell for the killer. So far he’s their number one suspect.”
    “Of course he’s their number one suspect. Not only did he argue with his father right before he died, but he also inherits the team. The cops will assume that profit was the motive because that’s the easiest thing to think. The only trouble is that they’re wrong.”
    “What makes you say that? I mean other than the fact that he’s a friend of yours.”
    “You have to promise that what I’m going to tell you doesn’t go beyond these walls.”
    “Scout’s honor,” replied Elliott, summoning up a credible rendition of the traditional two-fingered salute.
    I quickly sketched out the Monarchs’ financial situation for him. When I was finished, Elliott whistled softly under his breath.
    “Do the cops know about any of this?” he asked.
    “No.”
    “Why not?”
    “Well, for one thing, if Beau had died of a heart attack—which is what we all thought-—there was no reason to tell them.”
    “They didn’t ask what Jeff and his father fought about?”
    “They asked, but he didn’t tell them.”
    “So now the cops assume he’s hiding something.”
    “They’re right. He is. The only trouble is it’s not what they think it is.”
    “Then you have no choice but to come clean and tell them the whole story—the debt, the bank, the offer from L.A....”
    “I’m not sure that would be such a hot idea.”
    “Why not?”
    “For one thing, while we might be taking away one motive we’d just be handing the cops another. Beau made it perfectly clear to us on Sunday that he wouldn’t move the team. With him out of the way, Jeff is free to make a deal with L.A.
    “Not only that, but the minute we tell the cops, we tell the world. You know that as well as anybody. Think about it. Right now it’s bad enough that Jeff and Chrissy are in this mess. They have to go through the funeral and figure out a way to hold on to the team before the bank comes in and takes it away from them. But as soon as word gets out that they’re even considering moving the team, it will turn into an absolute nightmare. The politicians, the media, they’ll be out for blood. A reporter from Dateline will be waiting for Chrissy behind the lettuce at the grocery store, and the guys from Hard Copy will be trying to squeeze through the laundry chute. Unless the cops have something besides the fact that he’s the obvious suspect, it’s better to keep our mouths shut until we figure out what we’re going to do to get the bank off our backs.”
    “Kate, you don’t understand. This isn’t a game. As soon as it gets out that this Rendell guy was murdered, the cops are going to be feeling the heat to come up with a killer. They’re going to go after your friend Jeff and they’re going to go after him hard.”
    “With what? What have they got?”
    “All I know is what Marty told me. I’m sure there’s more. Like I said, when the uniforms first showed up, they thought Beau had fallen down the stairs and either hit his head or broken his neck. From an investigational standpoint, a fall down the stairs is just like a fall from a window. There are two separate scenes—the place where the victim fell or was pushed from, which in this case was the top of the stairs directly off the backdoor of the dead man’s office, and then there’s the place where the victim landed.”
    “I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Monarchs Stadium,” I said, “but it’s a really funky setup. The team offices are in a series of double-wide trailers suspended from the stadium roof and connected end to end like railroad cars. Every thirty feet or so there’s a metal staircase that connects the office to the concourse level. The stairs are really steep and narrow, like the gangway on a ship.”
    “So who else had an office close to Beau’s?”
    “Jeff’s office is on one side and I think Coach Bennato’s is on the other, but I’m not sure. There may also be a secretary stuck in there somewhere.”
    “There is. But Beau’s secretary was out sick that morning. They brought a girl from accounting up to answer the phones, but she kept having to run back to her own desk.”
    “Did she see anything?”
    “No, but apparently she heard plenty.”
    “From what I gather, everyone did.”
    “But that’s not all. The crime lab found drag marks in the carpeting in the dead man’s