He introduced Jamie Clark to Sam and Hill. “Jamie is 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.