Eduardo started to say something else, but Hill closed the door in his face.

Sam returned her attention to Carmen. "The incident you referred to... What happened?"

"Marco got involved with some bad people, and he owed them a lot of money. I don't know all the details, except that Willie refused to give him any more money. Marco said they'd kill him if he didn't get the money, but Willie refused to give in."

"Did you agree with his decision?"

"I, um, well... No. I didn't agree. We argued about it. I didn't understand why Willie wouldn't help my brother. He had plenty of money."

Sam thought it interesting that she said Willie had plenty of money, not they had plenty of money. "What did he say when you tried to convince him to give Marco the money?"

"He got mad. He said it had to end at some point. He wasn't made of money, and just because he had a lot now, didn't mean he always would. He said he'd be lucky to play for ten more years, and if we spent all the money now, what would happen to us later?"

Sam had to agree with Willie's smart thinking. "Do you know how much he'd given Marco in the past?"

"Close to a million."

Sam had to hide her shock at the high number. Who could blame the guy for cutting off the leech? "What did Marco need with that kind of money?"

"He made some bad investments." Carmen seemed almost ashamed as she spoke of her brother's poor judgment.

"Was he in trouble with the police?"

She nodded. "He had problems with drugs. That was one reason why Willie said no more. He was afraid Marco was spending it on drugs."

"Was he?"

"I don't know. Willie hasn't let me see him in years."

"What happened when Willie refused to give him more money?"

"Marco got really mad. My whole family was mad with us."

"That must've made things awkward between you and Willie."

She cast her gaze downward. "Yes."

"I know this is very difficult for you, Carmen, but I need to know what was going on in Willie's life so I can rule out people he knew as possible suspects."

"What do you need to know?" she asked, her chin quivering.

"Were you and Willie fighting?"

Nodding, she said, "A lot. I wanted to give Marco the money so my family would stop being so angry with us."

"Was the fighting unusual for you and Willie?"

"We never fought about anything except for my brother and money. We have so much of it," she said, gesturing at the opulently furnished room. "What would it have mattered to us to give him some of it?"

"What led to the restraining order?"

"I don't know what that is."

"It's a court order that forces Marco to stay away from you and Willie and your family."

"He... I... I didn't know about that."

Sam wanted to shoot herself for being so ham-handed. "I'm sorry. I assumed you knew, which was insensitive of me."

Carmen broke down, shaking her head as tears spilled down her cheeks. "He went to court to keep my brother away from us?"

"I'm so sorry you had to hear it that way."

She continued to shake her head. "How could he have done that and not even told me about it? Marco made some mistakes, but he is my brother. He is family."

Sam could easily see both sides of the issue but didn't share the thought.

"I'll never get to ask him why he did it. The last time I talked to him..." She choked on a sob. "We fought about the money. He said we'd talk about it after the game, but I knew we wouldn't. He never wanted to talk about it."

"Did you have a joint checking account?" Sam asked.

"Yes. Why?"

"Could you have written a check to your brother without Willie knowing about it?"

"I suppose so, but I wouldn't have done that. Willie would've been mad at me."

"Carmen, I know this is so painful, but I have to ask if Willie was ever violent with you."

"No! Never! He wouldn't do that. He loved me. We had a bad time over the situation lately with Marco, but before that, we were always happy. Always."

"One last question. Could you tell me who his agent and manager were?"

"His agent was George McPhearson. I'm trying to remember his manager's name. Charlie something. George would know."

"Do you know how we can reach George?"

"His agency is in New York. I think his name is the name of the company."

"We'll find it. Thank you for talking to me and for helping us to figure out what happened to Willie."

"Do you think you will arrest the person who killed him?"

Under normal circumstances, Sam felt confident giving some assurance that the perpetrator most likely would be caught. In this case, however, she couldn't say for certain. "I hope so. We're doing everything we can. I promise."

"Thank you."

Sam and Hill were quiet on the elevator ride to the lobby. They'd left Carmen in the care of her family, and Eduardo had thankfully kept his distance as they said their goodbyes.

"The brother is a bit of a thug," Hill said.

"I think he's used to getting his way and didn't like having us tell him what to do."

"Yeah, you're probably right about that."

"Seems like she has two thugs for brothers. Marco bears looking into."

"I'm one step ahead of you. My deputy did a run on him yesterday after I first heard about the restraining order." Reading from his phone, Hill said, "I just heard back from George, my deputy. Marco has quite a sheet in the D.R. Drugs and larceny, B&E, gang-related stuff. He's a busy dude. I can't believe Willie gave him close to a million bucks, and he came back for more. That takes some kind of nerve."

"And yet," Sam said, "I can see how Carmen wanted to keep the peace. Just give him the money, and make everyone happy."

"Willie was wise to think about the future. You hear so many stories about professional athletes who blow all the money during the salad years and leave themselves short for the golden years."

"Hard to believe that people with that kind of money could ever be short on cash."

"People who've never had money tend to go through it like crazy when they get it."

"True. So where can we find Marco Pena?"

"We were able to track him down in the D.R. My deputy was unable to find any sign of him leaving there in the last week. The last time he was in the U.S. was in April. One of us should probably go there to track him down."

"I hate to say this because I've always said I'd never be this kind of cop, but I can't go. Nick is heading out of town for a couple of days, and I can't leave my son. He took the news about Willie really hard and-"

"It's okay, Sam. You don't have to explain. I'll go."

"Are you sure? Do you have time? I mean, technically this isn't even your case."

"The director has given me wide latitude to decide what I want to work on personally and what I want to delegate. This interests me, especially in light of my ties to Ray. I don't mind going."

"That would be very helpful. Thank you." And it would save her limited travel budget from taking a big hit. It occurred to her that once again she'd be indebted to him. His chips were starting to pile up. She wondered when, if ever, he'd call them in.

"No problem," he said as they got into his car. "Where to now?"

"I want to see Jamie Clark again."

"What's the quickest way to get to Adams Morgan?"

"This time of day, take the Whitehurst to Rock Creek. Get off at Calvert Street."

"Um, okay. Whatever you say."

"I'll show you." Sam said, directing him as she pondered the meeting with Carmen and the next steps with Jamie. "I like Carmen. I don't want to think he was cheating on her."

"I know. I'd hate to have to tell her that."

"It would almost be worse than telling her he was killed," Sam said. She watched the city fly by through the passenger window as she went over the parts and pieces of what they'd learned so far. "If he was fooling around, let's hope that info never has to come from us."

"If this is a case of a random fan exacting revenge, we might never figure out who did it," Hill said after a long period of silence.

"That thought has occurred to me, but there was just enough chaos in Willie's life and in the lives of people involved with the team to make it worth our time to dig a little deeper into the people around him. If we're spinning our wheels, I guess we'll figure that out soon enough."

"I don't get the feeling that we're spinning our wheels."

"Neither do I," Sam said. "Willie missing that ball screwed something up for someone, and that someone was mad enough to kill him. Or it had nothing at all to do with missing the ball, and the error gave someone the opportunity to commit the perfect crime."

"Also a good possibility."

"I need to see where we are with Collins." As she reached for her cell phone it rang. She glanced at the caller ID to find Darren Tabor's number. Her first impulse was to ignore the pesky reporter, but he'd been good to her in the past so she took the call. "I'm busy, Darren."

"I know, and I'm sorry to bother you. I just need you to confirm one detail before I run it in an update to the online version of the Vasquez story."

"What detail is that?"

"Is it true he was found in a Dumpster?"

Sam's heart slowed to a crawl as she saw red. "Who told you that?"

"You know I can't reveal my sources."

"Tell me right now, Darren. Was it someone at HQ?"

"Might've been. So is it true?"

"Listen to me. Are you listening?"

"Yeah, yeah. Don't shoot the messenger, Lieutenant."

"We've withheld that detail because we might need it later. I'm asking you as a professional and as a colleague not to run that. We haven't told his wife about that either. I'd hate for her to hear it in the media."

"Aw, jeez, Sam. You're killing me here."

"How about this? When we close this one, I'll give you the exclusive. Do we have a deal?"

"Oh, all right. But don't forget you owe me."

"I won't," she said blowing out a deep breath. "Tell me one thing, Darren. Was it Stahl who called you?"

"I'm not saying. You know I can't."

"Fine. I'll be in touch." She ended the call muttering, "Motherfucker" under her breath.

"Got a leak?" Hill asked.

"More like a rat," Sam said as she dialed dispatch and asked to be patched into the chief immediately.

"Lieutenant," the chief said. "Do you have news for me?"