“It was because of his family that I kept my mouth shut,” Bob said. “People like Carmen. No one wanted to see her hurt by her husband’s stupidity.”

“Is Ms. Clark here today?” Sam asked.

“No,” Bob said. “She took a personal day.”

“We’ll need her address.”

“What for?” Bob asked.

“What do you think?” Sam asked, beginning to be annoyed by him.

“She had nothing to do with this,” Bob said.

“And you know this how?”

“I know her! She’s not a killer!”

“If that’s the case, then she has nothing to worry about. But you’ll pardon me if your assertions aren’t enough to keep us from looking more closely at her and her relationship with Willie.” To Ray, Sam said, “Can you please get me her home address?”

“Yes, of course,” Ray said, reaching for his phone.

“Get Rick Lind’s while you’re at it,” Avery said.

“What the hell do you want with him?” Bob asked.

“We’d like to talk to him about the meltdown he had in the locker room after the game, for one thing,” Sam said. “You know, the meltdown you failed to mention to us yesterday?”

Bob’s ruddy complexion darkened with rage. “He was rightfully pissed off! The loss gets pinned on him along with the blown save. But that doesn’t mean he killed Willie.”

“Maybe not, but it would’ve been nice to hear about the incident from you when we asked if anyone had spouted off after the game,” Sam said.

“I told you to be forthcoming,” Ray said, visibly displeased with his manager.

“I didn’t think a thing of it!” Bob said. “Of course Lind was pissed. A lot of people were.”

“Including Mulroney?” Hill asked.

“What did you hear about him?” Bob asked.

“Just that he had a lot to say about Vasquez after the game,” Hill said.

Bob glared at Hill. “Do you have the first clue what Willie denied his teammates by missing that ball? Do you have any idea how hard we’d all worked to get to that moment? All he had to do was catch the goddamned ball! We pay him sixteen million dollars a year to catch the goddamned ball!”

“That’s enough, Bob,” Ray said. “People were understandably upset. I think that goes without saying.”

“Perhaps it does,” Sam said, “but when we asked you yesterday if anyone was particularly vocal, this was the information we were looking for.”

“We apologize for our failure to provide that information,” Ray said. “We were shocked by the news of Willie’s death on top of the shock of the loss. Yesterday was a rough day around here, to say the least. I hope you’ll accept my apology on behalf of my organization.”