Football is Murder (Bee's Bakehouse Cozy Mysteries Book 4) (Bee's Bakehouse Mysteries) (16 page)

Chad nodded. He sighed. “I’m sorry for giving you guys the runaround before. I didn’t kill Johnny.”

Chief Daly placed his elbows on the table and leaned forward. “Tell me something I don’t already know. Why are you telling me this now?”

Chad glanced at Jessie. “Because this has gone too far. I can’t stand by and watch another innocent person get hurt.”

“So you were involved. You were there when Johnny was killed.”

Chad shook his head, his expression pained. “No. I’m not a monster. He was my best friend since we were kids. I didn’t kill him.”

“But you know who did.”

Chad nodded.

“And you didn’t come forward.”

Chad threw his head back and stared at the ceiling. He let out a pained sigh. “It’s not that simple. I wanted to. Believe me when I tell you I wanted to tear apart the animals responsible.”

The chief cleared his throat. “But you two hadn’t spoken for months. According to my sources, you had an argument and never made up after it.”

Chad raised an eyebrow. “Let me guess,
she
told you that?”

“Who’s
she
?”

“Pamela Rivers. It was her, wasn’t it?”

The chief shook his head. “I can’t divulge that information.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Why don’t we get to the point,” Chief Daly barked.

Chad ran his hands through his hair. “Fine,” he whispered, almost to himself. “My fight with Johnny. Him cutting me off. It’s all part of the same thing.” He looked up at them. “You already know about my financial situation.”

The chief nodded.

“It’s the same old story,” Chad said with a bitter laugh. “I hit the big leagues and all of a sudden I was making more cash than I knew what to do with. More money than I could ever hope to spend.” He cleared his throat, obviously uncomfortable. “That was before I discovered the blackjack tables, of course.”

“Gambling?” Jessie asked softly.

Chad nodded. “Yeah. Blackjack at first. Then whatever table had the highest stakes. Then pretty much any kind of betting I could get my hands on. Several million dollars doesn’t last long when you’re betting hundreds of thousands on the result of one game. Well, not just one game. Lately, that’s not been enough of a rush. I’ve been moving toward multi-bets.”

“You squandered it,” the chief said.

“And then some.” Chad rubbed his cheek. “It seemed like I was going to hit rock bottom any day. And then Coach Williams came through. Told me he knew all about my problems but not to worry. He had a side gig. And he was willing to bring me in.”

“A side gig,” the chief repeated.

Chad waved his hand. “I know. I know. Highly illegal. Look, I don’t care anymore. You can lock me up and throw away the key for my part in it. I’ll probably be safer in jail than out here. Though it wouldn’t surprise me if they had plenty of connections in there too.”

“They?” Jessie asked.

“Coach Williams and Marvin Scott.” He laughed humorlessly. “I’m surprised you don’t know. They’re behind all of this. And the league doesn’t even have a clue.”

Chief Daly sat back hard in his chair. “You mean to tell me two people are dead because of a game?”

Chad nodded sadly. “I wish it wasn’t true. Johnny was my best friend.”

“He was involved too?”

Chad snorted. “No. No, of course not. He was a good guy. Decent. He suspected I was involved and watched me closely on the field. It didn’t take him long to have his suspicions confirmed.” He shook his head. “He was a smart guy. Too smart.”

“What happened?”

“He confronted me. Told me that I was better than that. Of course he knew about my gambling problem, even though I’d never told him about it. He offered to help me.”

Chief Daly leaned forward. “What did you say?”

“I freaked out at first. Told him he was crazy. Told him he didn’t know what he was talking about. That was what caused the rift between us. I ignored him for months, but he wouldn’t give up. He said he’d stick by me. Make it all okay.”

Jessie swallowed. “You went to the coach?”

“No,” Chad said, screwing his face up. “Of course not. Johnny was the closest thing I had to family. No way would I put him in danger like that. No, he’d finally gotten through to me.”

“So how did they find out?”

Chad shrugged. “I don’t know. I kept out of Johnny’s way all those months. But then I changed my mind. He got through to me, see? He promised me he’d help pay off my debts and all he wanted in return was my word that I’d stop throwing games.”

“That’s where the money came from.”

Chad nodded, eyes red-rimmed now. “I didn’t want anybody to know, even though he said he didn’t care. I went to his home in the middle of the night. He gave me the money. In cash, so there’d be no paper trail. I wasn’t sure how far Coach Williams and Marvin had their claws sunk in. For all I knew, they had private detectives poring over my bank records. How else could he have known about my debts?” He shook his head. “Anyway. He gave me the money and we hung out for a while. Just like old times. We agreed to meet up later in the week to figure out how to get me out of the mess I’d caused. Then the next thing I know, he winds up dead in that club. They set it up. We hung out that night at his home, just a couple hours before. He wasn’t planning on going out.”

“But,” Jessie said hesitantly. “You were found with the money days later. Where did the second payment come from?”

“No, there was just one. I guess… I guess I was so shocked by his death that I was numb. I left it in the trunk. Five hundred thousand. Can you imagine? When I was arrested, I’d finally come to my senses and realized I needed to get rid of the cash in case it could be traced back to him.”

“I still don’t understand,” Chief Daly said finally, after an oppressive silence had fallen over the room. “Why didn’t you come forward? When we arrested you, you had plenty of opportunities to tell the truth.”

Chad shrugged his huge shoulders. “What can I tell you? I was afraid. The day after the murder I get a call from Marvin. No number came up. Warned me to keep my mouth shut and toe the line. Or there’d be consequences. They killed my best friend. What was I gonna do? Rat them out?”

“What’s changed?”

“They killed Gonzales. I couldn’t believe it. He was harmless. Wouldn’t hurt a fly. Even then, I was too afraid to speak up. But then… Something clicked in my mind today. I was sitting at home with a bunch of paparazzi outside, watching the news on TV to see if the cops had found anything. I realized then. If I didn’t do something then other innocent people were going to die. And then I saw you go into that office.” He jerked his head at Jessie. “It didn’t take a genius to work out what you were up to, considering you came to my home last night and interrogated me.” Chad buried his face in his hands. “I hate myself for letting them do that to Gonzales too. That one is my fault. And I can’t let them get away with it any longer, even if it means I go to jail for my part in the game-rigging.”

Chapter 19

Jessie dropped her paintbrush into a jar of water and stood back to survey her handiwork. Her latest acquisition was a set of six farmhouse dining chairs that would go perfectly with the industrial bench she was planning to renovate and use as her kitchen table. She had snapped them up even though the finish was fading on most of them. Now she had finally succeeded in sanding and painting them all. And she had to say, they looked good.

It was a welcome distraction from the goings-on of the past couple of weeks. Chief Daly had called her that morning with the news. They had used Chad as the bait in a sting operation. Marvin Scott had stood his ground and continued to play the part of the debonair newspaper man, but Coach Williams had unexpectedly broken down and admitted everything.

He and Marvin had been friends since boyhood, united by their common dream that they’d one day hold power and money. They’d been operating together for almost as long as they’d known each other. The photo Jessie had seen had shown them at an alumni event at their exclusive private high school on the east coast. After Coach Williams confessed and Marvin had no choice but to talk to the cops, he had admitted destroying the photograph after Jessie noticed it.

The media soon uncovered a long history of collaboration between the two men, going back twenty years to when Coach Williams was a player. He wasn’t the only person in Marvin’s pocket, either. He had a guy in the Stanleyton Patrons baseball team and a number of contacts in college teams around the state. The cops were still working around the clock to uncover his network. For now, both Marvin and Coach Williams had been arrested and charged with murder. They talked freely about the game-rigging, but each tried to pin the murders on the other.

Gary Gonzales had been as deeply involved as Chad Denver. After the Cooper murder, he had panicked and insisted he was finished with the scam. He threatened to go to the media if Williams and Scott didn’t let him walk away. That had been too much of a risk for them to take, even though it meant wasting all the effort they’d put into pressuring Denver to take the fall.

Jessie sighed. She kept trying to put it to the back of her mind, but it always surfaced again. She rubbed her hands on the old shirt she had worn for painting and stepped back inside. She’d been thinking about it for months and now was the perfect time to do it.

She pulled out her laptop and clicked one of the links in her list of bookmarks. The colorful homepage of Classic Cruises popped up and she felt a blast of relief. Bee wouldn’t be able to accuse Jessie of treating her like a frail old woman now when it was obvious that Jessie needed the vacation every bit as much as her aunt.

* * *

Melanie swanned through the front door just as Jessie was ready to complete her booking. Jessie looked up in alarm. She had assumed that Mel would laugh off the idea of going on a cruise, but now she realized she should have let her cousin be the judge of that.

“I’m booking a cruise for Aunt Bee and me,” she said quickly. “Want to come?”

Melanie snorted. “Yeah, sure. I’ll just grab my shuffleboard set.”

Jessie made a face. “It’s not like that. It’s a relaxing break. They’ve got spas. And golf. And movies.”

“When have you ever played golf?” Melanie asked, leaning against the refrigerator.

“Um, never? But I might take it up. Anyway, are you interested?”

A smile slowly worked its way across Melanie’s face. “I might have been, but I don’t think I can afford it now.”

“What are you talking about?” Jessie laughed. “You told me when you got here that you might never need to work again. What have you done? Frittered it away?” Jessie stopped. The memory of Chad’s story was still fresh in her mind and she didn’t feel comfortable making jokes about gambling.

Melanie strode across the small room and threw herself down on the couch. “A home is a big investment.”

Jessie’s eyes widened. “Where are you thinking of buying?” she asked warily, feeling like crossing her fingers behind her back and praying it was somewhere within the state. They had spent more time together in the past month than they ever had as adults, and Jessie knew she’d be very lonely if Melanie took off across the country again.

Melanie grinned. “Springdale. If it’ll have me.”

“You’re gonna buy the house across the street?” she asked, faltering. Jessie knew what that meant—if it was on the market, then Chad had lost the battle against his banks.

“No,” Melanie said, waving her hand. “I tried. But it’s not for sale. No, I’ve found a place on the other side of town. It’s a bit of a mess right now, but the price is good and we can renovate.”

“Who’s we?”

“Me, you and Aunt Bee, of course.”

“Aunt Bee is in her sixties, Mel. I don’t think she’s going to be up a ladder with a hammer anytime soon.”

“No,” Melanie admitted. “Well, she can help by wandering around and shouting at us. Whatever. I just want you guys to be involved. If that means you sit on the porch talking while I do the hard work, then so be it.”

“Sure. I could use the strength training. If I ever feel like I’m in danger again? I want to be able to run faster than my assailant.”

Melanie smiled. “I guess it was a once-off. You could train for months and still not outrun Chad. And that’s a good thing. Imagine what might have happened if you’d gotten away from him?”

“Chief Daly would have called for backup before Marvin had a chance to do anything bad. Chad didn’t know that, though.”

She shook her head. They were still waiting to hear the outcome for Chad. He had admitted playing a part in the game-rigging scandal and been dismissed from the team. But he still hadn’t been sentenced. Jessie hoped he wouldn’t be sent to jail—she felt sorry for him. He had gone through enough in losing his best friend and he’d gone out of his way to keep Jessie out of danger.

She couldn’t help noticing the light in her cousin’s eyes just then.

“Mel, have you got a thing for Chad? It sure seems like you do.”

Melanie laughed. “No. I don’t think it’s me you need to worry about.”

“What do you mean?” Jessie demanded, but her cousin just smiled and tapped the side of her nose.

* * *

“Oh Jessie, you’ve got paint on your hands.”

Jessie backed away from the bench and dropped her spoon as Aunt Bee came over for a closer inspection. “It’s okay. I scrubbed them before I came here.”

Bee frowned disapprovingly. “You sure?”

“I’m thirty-seven, Aunt Bee. Soon to be thirty-eight. You think I got this far in life without learning to wash my hands?”

“I just don’t want you poisoning my customers with paint.”

Jessie smiled to herself. It was obvious that Bee could use a break. Little did she know that she had one coming up.

In a few short weeks, they’d fly to Florida and board the Azure Princess. From there, they’d have seven days of rest and relaxation in the Caribbean. What could be better than that?

“What are you smiling about?” Bee snapped.

“Whoa,” Jessie laughed, holding up her hands. “Calm down. I don’t want you scaring my customers.”

Bee shot her a look that might have turned her to stone.