“Now I’m going to offer a deal to him, Anderson, and Steven, and whichever cracks first and tells me what happened doesn’t get the death penalty. I’m sick of playing around. And we need to interview Lyle and see if he was covering for his dad being there the night of the murder. I have a feeling all three were involved in this.”

“I’m not sure Roscoe was. I got the feeling he actually thought he was in love.”

Will ran over. “Talked to Anderson’s ex again like you asked.”

“And?”

“He had motive,” Will said. “When I asked Bebe about Coach Mallory, she admitted Anderson knew he and Patty were sleeping together, and that Patty wanted to stop. The coach flipped out, and Patty threatened to report him for statutory rape if he didn’t leave her alone. Bebe said Coach Mallory started showing up everywhere, trying to hold Patty after class, catching her at the gym, standing outside her house in the middle of the night, stuff like that. Bebe said she didn’t tell us or the cops because the coach is a nice guy, whatever that means, and she didn’t want him to get into any trouble.”

“So the mayor showed up in Vegas and made a scene at the bar, but Roscoe was probably the stalker Diana told us Patty was scared of.”

“Jilted lover takes revenge,” Gates said.

“You could be right,” I said, “but I don’t see him torturing and killing her. For starters, there’s the blood in Anderson’s basement. Roscoe couldn’t have tortured someone in his own place without the neighbors hearing.”

“Anderson and Roscoe are the best bets, with Steven covering for them. Steven played football for four years under Roscoe, and so did Anderson. All his players would do anything for him,” Gates said. “He killed Patty and got Anderson to help, and they got Steven to cover for them.”

“Maybe. We’ll know soon enough. Will, get Roscoe down to the station. I’ll meet you there. Make sure Howard doesn’t get anywhere near him and screw this up. I want first crack at him. And tell Nikyee I’m coming by tonight to talk to Lyle again.”

Gates waited until Will had left before she said, “People aren’t going to be happy that we’re amending our case and going after the local football coach taking the team to the state championships.”

“I’ll talk to the press once we know for sure who did what. I’ll take the hits, not you. It’ll be fine.”

She nodded and glanced over at Lyle as his mother pulled up and he ran to her. “About your mom,” Gates said, “I shouldn’t have—”

My phone rang. It was Pritcher. “Hold that thought.” I answered and said, “Yeah, Russell, what is it?”

“Congrats on your bust.”