His face went slack with shock. "Rick's dead too?"

"I'm sorry, but yes. He was found dead today at the Capitol Motor Inn."

"What's that got to do with Elle?"

"The company was in big trouble."

"We've had some problems, but big trouble is a bit of a stretch."

"She's completely broke. Every credit card is maxed out. The paper can't meet its payroll next week. Her house of cards was dependent on those World Series TV rights. In her mind, Willie ruined everything, and Rick didn't help by failing to close out the game when he had the chance."

"She wouldn't kill them. I mean, she's not always the warmest woman in the world, but she's not a murderer.

"Checks for ten thousand dollars each were written to Boris and Horace from your joint account the day after the game. Can you tell me what that was for?"

"I have no idea."

Avery let the statement speak for itself and watched as the realization hit Ray like a sledgehammer. "We believe she paid her bodyguards ten thousand dollars each to kill Willie. She took care of Lind herself."

"Why? Why wouldn't she get them to take care of him too?"

"Because Lind was personal."

"Personal? What does that mean?"

Once again, Avery let his silence do the talking, letting a moment pass during which the truth dawned on Ray.

"No. Elle and Rick Lind? Come on! That's not true. I don't believe it."

"I'm sorry, Ray, but we can prove it."

"How?"

"We have a witness that puts her in Lind's room. She heard them having sex once before. We believe the forensic evidence being gathered as we speak will prove recent sexual activity involving both of them in the room where Lind was killed."

Ray covered his mouth with his hand and turned away from Avery, his shoulders stooping a bit from the devastating news. "God, I was such a fool."

Avery rested a hand on his old friend's shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

Ray shook him off. "I don't want your pity."

"It's not pity."

"You never liked her, did you?"

"I never said that."

"You didn't have to. My mother always said I'd regret marrying her. People thought I was after her money. It was never about the money. I loved her."

"I know you did."

"I'd like to go home now."

"You're free to go."

Ray started to walk away, but turned back to Avery. "Thanks for getting justice for Willie. I really wish he'd caught that ball, but he certainly didn't deserve to die for missing it."

"No, he didn't."

Ray nodded in agreement and walked away.

Avery watched him go, sad for his friend and a little sad for himself too as another case came to a close. Who knew when he'd next lay eyes on the gorgeous lieutenant who'd occupied his thoughts far too often in recent months?

As he headed for the escalator, he knew he had to accept that he'd never have what he wanted from her. It was time to move on. With that in mind, he sent a text to Shelby asking if she had time for lunch tomorrow.

Elle went ballistic when she saw Darren and a Star photographer waiting outside HQ to document her arrival.

"You're both fired! Don't you dare come to work tomorrow!"

The photographer clicked away, capturing the tirade as Darren took copious notes of the venom that spewed from his publisher's mouth.

Sam took her time walking in as Elle once again fought her every step of the way.

An hour later, Elle and her bodyguards had been processed through central booking and settled in different interrogation rooms. Sam, Hill, Cruz, Malone and Charity Miller were watching them through one-way glass. Horace seemed nervous, Boris looked bored and Elle was still furious, pacing relentlessly from one end of the small room to the other.

Because they'd been working for close to fifteen hours by then and fatigue was setting in, Sam suggested they divide and conquer. She asked Hill to take Boris, Cruz had Horace and she would be going at Elle.

Lieutenant Rango stepped into the small room. "We found some of the blond hairs you needed in Lind's room, Sam." He handed her the evidence bag.

"Excellent! Charity, I need a warrant for her DNA."

"I'll get it for you."

"As an added extra," Rango said, holding up a second bag. "We've got some used condoms from under Lind's bed. We might be able to tie at least one of them to her."

"Lovely," Sam said. "Will you get them to the lab ASAP and put a rush on it?"

"On my way there now."

"Thanks, Rango. Good work. Cruz, will you let Lindsey's office know we're almost ready for them to swab her?"

"Yep."

"Any word from the lab on the knife?" Sam asked.

"They were working on it when I called earlier," Malone said.

"Great."

"Let's get this done," Sam said.

The others filed out of the room, leaving Charity and Malone to watch from the observation area.

"Hill," Sam said in the hallway.

He turned back to her.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm great. I just helped arrest the wife of my childhood friend. Never better."

"I'm sorry it turned out to be her. Ray has to know you didn't enjoy that."

"Yeah, I'm sure he'll be all sorts of forgiving after I help put his wife away for the rest of her life." He shook his head. "Sorry. I don't mean to take it out on you. It's her I'm pissed with. She had everything, for Christ's sake."

"She didn't know any other way to live but rich and entitled. When that was taken from her, she struck out at the ones she blamed, never suspecting for a second that she'd get caught."

"I feel sorry for Ray," Hill said. "He's a hardworking guy who's put a lot of himself into running the team. Who knows where this will leave him?"

"Hard to say right now, but I'm sure it'll work out for him. People won't blame him for what she did. Let's get this done so we can get the hell out of here."

They joined Cruz at the far end of the hallway and entered the three rooms simultaneously.

"I'm not saying a word to you," Elle said when Sam walked in.

"You can just listen for now. Boris and Horace, your faithful henchmen, have told us everything."

"They wouldn't dare say a word about me to you!"

"Oh no? Funny how chatty they got when we told them they were looking at life in prison with no chance of parole unless they helped us to make a case against you. They told us everything-how angry you were with Willie and how you told them something had to be done about him, that he couldn't get away with ruining everything for you." Sam was spouting pure speculation, but judging from the reaction it drew from Elle, she wasn't far off the mark.

"They told us how you lured Willie to the seedy motel by blackmailing him with info about how he'd spent time there before with underage girls. How did you know that? Did your lover boy Rick tell you he'd seen Willie there before? Did you tell him you were going to call his wife, Elle? Is that how you got him there?"

Without skipping a beat, Sam continued. "Doesn't really matter how you got him there. Boris and Horace took over once he arrived, didn't they? They put him in a room with Amber, hoping to distract him with sex, before they killed him in one place, dumped him in another and took his car somewhere else and all but destroyed it. Did they use Willie's own baseball bats to destroy the car he'd loved so much? That would've been poetic, right? You must've been pretty pissed off with Willie to use almost the last of your available funds to pay Boris and Horace to do your dirty work for you."

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Elle said, a little less forcefully since Sam had offered a time line of how Willie's murder had gone down.

"Rick was a little more personal, since you'd been banging him on the side. You thought you could count on him to give you what you needed with the season on the line, but he didn't get it done for you either, did he? All he had to do was strike out three batters. Three measly batters and the Feds would be in the World Series, and you'd get the influx of cash you desperately needed to save your daddy's empire. But it didn't happen, did it? One of the best closers in baseball couldn't get it done for you, could he?"

Elle crossed her arms and raised her chin defiantly. "I want a lawyer."

"No problem. Who would you like us to call?"

She named one of Washington's top law firms. "Tell them I want someone over here tonight to get me out of here."

Sam didn't bother to tell her there was no way she was getting out of there any time soon. She'd figure that out soon enough. "I'll give them a call. I'm sure they're standing by at the ready at this hour on a Friday night."

She walked out of the room, letting the door slam shut behind her. A patrolman stood watch outside the door. "No one goes in or out of there without me knowing."

"Yes, ma'am, Lieutenant."

Sam went to the observation room to see how Hill and Cruz were making out with the bodyguards.

Horace was in tears, sobbing loudly as Cruz took him through the same scenario Sam had laid out for Elle.

"Ms. Elle," Horace said between sobs, "she said Willie had to go. He'd messed up everything, and why should he get away with that? Me and Boris, we didn't want to do it, but Ms. Elle, she said we had to or we'd get fired. We didn't want to get fired. We did it just the way she told us to. We just did what we was told to do."

"Nice work, partner," Sam whispered, beaming with pride as Freddie gently coaxed a confession from Horace.

Freddie pushed a yellow pad across the table. "Write it down, exactly the way it happened."

Horace dried his tears and reached for the pen with his left hand. As Lindsey and Byron had suspected, the killer was left-handed.

In the adjoining room, Hill worked over Boris. "Elle told us what you did. She said it was your idea to kill Willie."

"She said what? It wasn't my idea!"

"That's what she said."

"I don't understand. Why would she blame me? I just did what she told me to do. I always do what she tells me to."

"Have you killed for her before this?"

"No! I've never killed anyone before. It made me sick to do that to Willie. He wasn't a bad guy. He made a mistake. But Ms. Elle... She said he had to go. We couldn't let him get away with ruining everything."

Hill pushed a yellow pad across the table. "Write it down. Exactly the way it happened."

"Excellent," Sam said as it all came together.

"We've got enough to charge all of them with first-degree murder of Willie," Charity said. "I want the results of the DNA tests before we pin Lind's murder on her." She handed the warrant to Sam.

Sam grabbed the extension off the wall and dialed the morgue.

Byron Tomlinson answered.

"This is Holland. We've got the warrant. Can you get down here to take a swab for me?"

"On my way."

"Thanks."

While she waited for Tomlinson, Sam went into her office to look up the phone number for the law firm Elle had requested. She left a message with the answering service and then took a moment to check her own phone for messages. She was delighted to find a text from Nick.

On the way home. Heard you got into another scrape while I was gone. I can't leave you unsupervised for even a day. Missed you. See you in the morning.

Sam smiled as she reread the message. It felt like forever since she'd last talked to him. She couldn't wait to hear his voice and have his strong arms wrapped around her. The anticipation gave her a much-needed adrenaline boost.