CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Roger, I hope you had a nice lunch,” said Felix.

“Oh. Yes. Yes, I did, thank you.”

“Roger, where are the toxicology and tissue samples reports for Butch Cavet?” he asked.

“I thought I gave you those. I’ll have to look for them again. I know they’re around here somewhere. If I don’t have them, I’ll redo all of them. It will take a few days.”

“That would be a shame,” said Carl, standing behind the man. Roger froze in his tracks. He knew that voice, and he stilled, waiting for a bullet. “How much did she pay you?”

He was awkwardly, painfully quiet for what seemed like hours. Neither Carl nor Felix were in any hurry to push him. They could wait all day. He could not. He was going to have to speak with them or die right where he’d lay. The morgue.

“Don’t lie, Roger. You’re already in deep shit,” said Felix.

“She gave me fifty thousand,” he frowned with an exhaustive sigh.

“What did she want?” asked Georgie.

“She wanted me to slow everything down, and anything that came up leaning toward CTE, I was supposed to lose. She needs for this to not be reported until after December 17 th .”

“Why then?” asked Georgie.

“It’s the championships,” said Carl. “What does it matter? Why does that date matter to her?”

“I don’t know. That’s the truth,” he said, shaking his head. “Felix, I just needed the money to pay off my student loans and debts.”

“And what about Cavet and his family? What do they get?” asked Georgie. “Do you have any idea the bullshit that woman has placed in their contracts? It’s criminal, and she’s going to go to jail. So are you.”

“No,” said Carl.

“Carl! He tried to destroy evidence.”

“Yes, and he almost did. We need him to remain right here and feed that woman what she wants to hear. You make one move to her side. You lose so much as a paperclip, and I will make sure you never see the light of day again.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“What did you tell her today?” asked Felix.

“Nothing. There’s nothing to tell yet. I meant it when I said that the tissue and toxicology samples are around here somewhere. I just have to find them. She wanted to know if we had full results from the brain studies yet. I told her it might be a few weeks.”

“What did she say to that?” asked Carl.

“She said that was good for her, and she’d appreciate it if I could make it last longer. Apparently, at some point, the league officials are coming in to question all the owners.”

“When?” asked Georgie.

“Before December 17 th . That’s all I know, I swear. I’m sorry, Felix. I promise I wasn’t going to tamper with anything, just buy her some time so that I could get out of debt.”

“Well, you’re deep in debt now,” said Carl. “You owe that viper, you owe me, you owe Felix, you owe fucking everyone!”

Roger took a seat on the stool, lowering his head in shame. Felix knew that he’d been struggling with his student loans and credit card debt, but he’d made it a practice not to interfere in personal matters with his employees. Roger was a grown man, and he would need to figure this out by himself.

“What now?” he asked, looking up.

“Swear to me that you won’t run or tell her that we know,” said Carl.

“I swear, Mr. Robicheaux. I swear to God I won’t say a word to her. What do I do with the money she gave me?”

“Does that help you?” smirked Carl.

“Yes, sir. It pays all my credit card debt and some of my student loans.”

“Then pay those bills fast. In cash. Don’t put it in the bank. Go to the credit card companies and pay the debts in cash. That way, even if she’s stupid enough to claim that she bought you, there’s no trace of that money hitting your bank account. You could always just claim that someone loaned it to you or that you hit the jackpot at the casino.”

“Thank you, sir,” said the younger man. Georgie smiled at her husband, loving that soft, fatherly side of him.

“Out of curiosity,” said Georgie, “did the toxicology report show anything at all?”

“Triptans. It’s an ingredient most commonly used in migraine medications. I suspect he had severe headaches that were almost debilitating at times. There were a few traces of pain medications, but I think it was an injectable. No narcotics, no illegal drugs that appeared in the bloodstream. Tissue samples are still running.”

“That’s what we suspected,” said Georgie. “The migraines could be caused by CTE, right?”

“Definitely,” said Felix and Roger together. The older man smiled at the younger man, shaking his head. He was a good doctor, a good coroner, and he hoped like hell this didn’t ruin his career forever.

“One other thing,” said Roger. “I’ve seen several suicides by blade to the wrists. Without fail, there is blood beneath the nail beds.”

“And?” frowned Carl.

“There was none beneath his nails or the nail bed. Do you know how difficult that would have had to have been? He would had to have had something long, like a knife away from his hand. This wasn’t a knife. It was a razor blade. Thin, small, and sharp.”

“But we found no blade at the scene,” said Felix, frowning at them. “Nothing.”

“Maybe we need to go back and check again. Take that ice bathtub apart,” said Carl.

“You can try, but she’s not letting anyone near that place.” There was a knock on the door, and an assistant came in. “What’s up, Alissa?”

“I thought you should know that it was just announced on the news that Gwen Pinken Sharp sold her shares of the Fire to her sister, Glenda. Glenda now owns sixty-five percent of the team, while her brother only owns thirty-five percent.”

“That does make for interesting family dinners, doesn’t it?” frowned Carl. “Let us know when you have the full reports. And Roger?”

“Sir?”

“Don’t take any more money from anyone.” He smirked at Carl, realizing how fortunate he was at this moment.

“Yes, sir. Not a dime.”