Chapter 3
"It's pretty competitive, but I never got the sense that anyone was… that kind of enemy. Mack worked hard to improve his game. That's why the Rangers finally picked him up."
"How long have you been divorced?"
"Two years."
"And you were… amicable?"
"Not at first. It was very hard. But we learned… for Dani's sake."
"When did he see her?"
"She would go with him on Sunday nights and stay until Tuesday."
"Every week?"
"Except when he had an out of town game."
"What about practice?"
"They didn't usually have practice on Mondays. If they did for some reason, he has a friend, Michelle, sometimes she would babysit. Or if she couldn't, he could always call me."
"Thank you, Mrs. Thornton. I'm very sorry."
"Uh, I guess I'll have to… take care of the arrangements. Who do I call?"
Alex dug a card out of her pocket. "This is the number for the medical examiner's office. It may be a few days before we can release his body."
"Oh. Okay."
Alex smiled. "I'll just go get my partner," she said. She slowly climbed the stairs. "Bobby?" she called.
"In here," he said.
Alex swung the door the rest of the way open and found him holding a stuffed bear in his arms, feeding it a baby bottle.
"I just had to… feed the baby," he said quietly.
"Shh!" Dani put her finger to her lips. "She's falling asleep!"
Bobby looked at Alex as if to say, "Yeah, be quiet, you'll wake her!" After a slight chuckle, he carefully got to his feet. He gently laid the bear on Dani's bed and put a little blanket over it. Bobby squatted in front of her and smiled. "Bye, bye," he whispered. "I had fun playing with you."
"Bye bye, Bobby. I had fun, too." She gave him a quick hug and ran past them down the stairs to her mother.
"Sweet girl," he said as they got into the car. "Get anything?"
"Thornton had some kind of female friend, close enough to babysit."
"Funny how the ex knew we were there about him."
Alex whined. "Ah, maybe. She seemed pretty okay to me. Maybe he was always in trouble."
"Hockey's a rough game. Attracts a lot of tough guys."
He rubbed his arm absently, and she was reminded of the day before. Alex pulled into the lot by a quickie mart and parked. "I need a drink. I'll be right back," she said.
When she handed him the sports drink, he knew. But this was Alex, and he couldn't really be angry with his best friend for caring about him, could he?
"I want your job," Logan jibed from behind Goren. A handful of other guys stood near the glass, too, all eyes on the tv screen in front of Bobby.
Goren sniggered. "Luck of the draw, Logan." He glanced around at the audience. Not as big a crowd as when they had a porn video, but enough.
"What is this, anyway?"
"Hockey player, Mack Thornton, turned up dead last night. He played for the Connecticut Whales before the Rangers picked him up. I'm studying up on games from his last season with the Whales."
"Some slap-shot," Logan said, pulling up a chair beside Bobby.
"Yeah, I remember this guy. I caught a couple of games on cable last season."
"You thinking one of the other players?"
Bobby shrugged. "I don't know. Just thought it was worth checking." After Mike's reaction to the next play, Goren raised an eyebrow at him. "Don't you have a case of your own to work on?"
"Oh, uh… yeah." Logan stood. "I guess I'll get back to it. Hey let me know if you need any… uh, help."
Once Mike left, Bobby settled back in his chair. He wrote a couple of notes in his binder, which was perched on his right leg.
A knock, and he looked up to find Alex in the doorway. "ME's office called. Autopsy's done."
Goren shut down the video and the other guys wandered back to their desks, moping. He followed Alex out and down the hall.
"Heart attack?" Asked Bobby.
"No." Rodgers spun to face him. "You?"
Bobby rolled his eyes. Was there no one in all of NYPD who hadn't heard about yesterday? "No."
"Good." Elizabeth turned back to the body. "Traces of alcohol… a lot of it, and cocaine."
"Coke?" Alex asked. "We didn't find anything at the scene."
"Injected."
"I didn't see a needle mark," Bobby commented.
Rodgers smiled. She'd finally one-upped him. "Under his tongue. He was murdered. Killer probably waited until he was so drunk he passed out, then injected the coke right into his vein. He went into cardiac arrest within minutes."
"This guy had an enemy," Alex mused. "I think it's time we go talk to Michelle," she told Bobby.
"He was never home. She couldn't handle it. So when he signed on with the Whales, and he needed someone to comfort him…"
"You were there for him," Alex supplied the words as if she hadn't heard this same story a thousand times.
"Exactly."
"And now that he moved up to the Rangers?"
"It hasn't been easy," Michelle said, fingering the heart pendant on her necklace. "But I love him. And he loves me. We're working on it."
"So you were with him last night?" Bobby interjected.
Her lips parted enough that he could see her teeth. "Like most every night."
"You had sex," Alex said.
The woman reacted with a jolt of surprise, then embarrassment. "Yes."
"Were you drinking?" Bobby's turn.
"We had a few."
"How did you get home?", now Alex.
"I called a cab."
Alex got the name of the company and the approximate time, the route she said they took. She hadn't kept the receipt.
"You know, I always wanted to play hockey," Bobby said. The women stared at him. "But, I could… never afford to be on a league or anything," he said shyly. "I always thought if I got to play, that you know, the other guys, you know, would back off… that they'd be afraid of me, and leave me alone." Bobby picked up a picture of Michelle and Mack off her bookshelf. "It's a sport for tough guys, you know? Mack ever get in any fights, you know, out of the arena?"
"Sure, one or two," she answered.
"He ever get in any fights," Bobby moved in closer to her, touched his finger to the edge of her face in the picture, "… with you?"
"God, no! We argued sometimes, sure, but, he never… never laid a hand on me."
"What about his ex?"
"No, not that I ever heard."
"And Dani?"
"Never."
A/N I'd love to get some reviews about now! I hope you're enjoying.