Title: Heeled

Author: Walt

Disclaimers: This is strictly a fan fiction/story suggestion piece. The main "L & O" characters (and others previously seen in "The Franchise" are owned by Dick Wolf, and are only borrowed for this story suggestion. This suggestion is based on two recent incidents: One that occured in the Oakland Alemida County Colosieum on September 13, 2004 where Texas Rangers pitcher Frank Francisco in anger threw a chair at a fan that hit him, then bounced off him and hit a female fan, breaking her nose, combining it with what happened September 28, 2004 in Los Angeles when Dodgers outfielder Milton Bradley yelled at a fan who threw a beer bottle at him.

Feedback: Of Course.

Please be aware there are references here to prior story suggestions of mine, many of which are on other sites. If you want to see the earlier story suggestions, E-mail me privately and I'll be happy to provide the links for such stories.

The story opens on a very warm and humid late Wednesday night-early Thursday morning in early August near the Chelsea Piers. A woman in her early 20s is walking several dogs west on 23rd street, talking to them when out of nowhere, a man comes running from the corner towards the dogs, with their suddenly speeding up to get closer to whoever it was and the owner barely holding on until they then suddenly stop, with the woman screaming and dialing 911 on her cell phone.

The woman was Celia Martin, who had just seen the man die in front of her, apparently having been stabbed twice in the stomach, with a long blood trail going up 12th avenue.

"I can't believe it, Ray Quinones", said Joe to Ed upon seeing the dead body, with Ed replying, "The man who threw a ball into the stands last year? Unbelivable!"

Upon seeing Joe and Ed, Celia tells the detectives when asked, "He turned the corner on 23rd walking funny and the dogs I'm walking suddenly sped up to go to him before stopping, sensing something was very wrong. He appeared to be still alive at that point, but probably died while I was calling 911.", with the Detectives thanking her.

Anita then arrives at the scene, with Ed mentioning, "He cost his team the Central Division last year."

"What are you talking about?", then asked Anita, with Ed replying, "Last August, a bunch of fans in Miami were heckling a couple of pitchers for the Houston team as they were warming up late in a game the home team was winning by a lot. Our victim was the 'closer', or a man who comes in usually when his team is winning a close game and tries to hold the opponent at bay. He wasn't warming up when the heckling started that night as the game was a rout, but some fans were saying derogatory things about one of the pitchers warming up. As the hecklers got worse, he started shouting, and there was a scene where the victim threw a ball at some of the fans. That ball hit a man in the head who died a few hours later."

"Wow! I didn't know it was our victim who did that", then said Anita, who then asked Ed, "Wasn't he arrested for throwing the ball?"

Ed's replied, "He was, however, he was let go because several eyewitnesses said he threw the ball because two other men who started the entire thing were about to charge the field and go after him and some of the players, and they were worried others would follow. The ball missed the people he was aiming for and hit the other man."

Joe chimed in by saying, "He's right. One of my old partners who retired to Miami a few years ago was at that game and called me after that whole mess happened. He was sitting near there and said he thought a good 15-20 fans were going to run onto the field had the ball not been thrown. That's the only reason he was only suspended for 15 games, fined $25,000 and didn't have any criminal charges filed. He was still facing a civil suit by the wife and parents of the man who died in the incident, and the family also has a separate suit against the teams and the stadium for what happened."

"You think it was possibily related to that?", Anita asked the Detectives, with Joe replying, "Possible, but for now I'd look first at the strip club a couple of blocks north of here. It's a place a lot of ballplayers go to when they're in New York, and Quinones was known to go there when he was in town."

The Detectives do just that, heading for (place name of fictional version of Scores here), a well-known spot on 12th avenue and 25th street for both its showing of all sports and its well-paid strippers with a very high-end clientele, including besides ballplayers a number of well-known celebrities. The trail of blood led to a wall near the entrance. The manager on duty (Jack Farmer) would talk to Joe and Ed

"Odd thing is, there wasn't anything even remotely close to a fight going on tonight", said the manager to the Detectives.

"Things get much worse in there?", asked Ed, with Jack replying "Sure. Just the other night in fact, we had a big brawl in here between a couple of men who were going too far trying to get one of the ladies. Luckilly, no one was hurt."

"Could that have been related to what happened tonight?", asked Joe, with Jack replying "Possible, but I doubt it. Quinones and his new team only got in this afternoon, and a number of them were here tonight."

Ed then said, "That's right!. I forgot Quinones was traded after last season to Tampa, and they came in tonight after playing in Toronto this afternoon. They would likely come here since they don't play until Friday."

"What do you mean?", asked Anita as she arrived at the scene, with Ed replying "I had forgotten that our victim had been traded from Houston to Tampa in the off-season, and since the Houston team is at Shea through tomorrow night we thought he was with them. The Tampa team happens to be in New York as well since they are off until Friday when they start a series at Yankee Stadium."

"Guess you have some ballplayers to talk to", then said Anita.

Two other Tampa players who were at the club with Quinones then come out to talk to Lennie and Ed. Both basically re-interate what Jack had told the Detectives that there appeared to be nothing wrong, and Quinones decided to leave early to call it a night.

One of the players told Joe and Ed, "We got here about 9:00 and were planning to stay through the end of the second game of the TV doubleheader, the one that airs Wednesdays on cable. Ray had decided to go back to the hotel wanting to get some sleep since he pitched today, but we wanted to stay. We didn't hear anything outside until we were told what happened to Ray."

The Detectives then interview others at the club who basically said the same thing before they re-examine the crime scene, this time going east on 25th street towards 11th avenue.

Ed would say to Joe, "Interesting. There appears to be these litle red dots going across", with Joe asking for forensics to check to see if that was blood, which the Detectives find out when they return to the scene early the next morning after getting some rest was the case.

(continued in part two)