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Normally, Will liked to conduct interviews. After all, that's why a patrol cop usually decides to become a detective. There is a significant difference between patrolling the streets and solving crimes. It isn't for every cop, but it had been the road Will had wanted to take. He hadn't known it would lead to times like these though, staring into the eyes of a victim's family member who looked half scared to death and half just plain angry. He hadn't known sometimes he wouldn't want to hear someone's confession.
"Why didn't you tell me about the fight you had with your granddaughter?" Will asked. The stark and cold interrogation room was a very different place than the warm and inviting office the two had been in just days before.
"What argument Detective?" Henry asked. "Matilda and I never argued."
"Never?" Will asked, feigning surprise. "Not even about a position as an assistant coach?"
"I don't know who you've been speaking with Detective, but Matilda and I never argued about that. She came into my office one day and asked me if she could have the job. I told her no and that was it." Henry said. He was trying to speak calmly, but his body language was giving it away that he was less than thrilled to speak about this particular subject.
"But that's not where she ended it Henry," Will told him. "Matilda came back to talk about it again. She went to your office to make you give her that job and she wasn't going to leave until you said yes. What happened that day, because I know you said no."
"Nothing Detective, nothing," Henry sighed. "She was so anxious to start her career but I told her to be patient. I told her she had plenty of time she never got to have."
"About that no you gave me earlier" Matilda said as she charged into Henry's office, "I just can't accept that Pop. I'm sorry, but I just can't."
"Is that right?" Henry chuckled, barely looking up from the paperwork on his desk. "You're telling me you know more than I do now?"
"Of course not," she sighed, "but you can't say no. I need this job Pop."
Sighing, Henry placed his pen on his down on his desk and pointed for Matilda to sit down in the seat in front of him. Did she really think he wanted to turn her down or that he wanted to take away something from her that she had always wanted? Yes, he could easily give her the assistant coach job. But that was the problem. He had never taught his children, grandchildren or players things in life came easy.
"Matilda, my final answer is no," he told her.
"Pop, you have-" Matilda began but Henry cut her off.
"What have I always told you and your brother about life?" Henry asked.
"That no one owes us anything," she sighed.
"Yet, you keep telling me something different," he said, this time a little annoyed. "I don't have to give you anything Matilda. The fact you're my granddaughter doesn't mean I have to give you a job."
"I know that Pop, I didn't really mean it that way," she told him, guilt filling her eyes. "But this could be my big break."
"You're break is coming Honey," he laughed. "Just wait for it."
"Is that break… is that break with another team?" Matilda said, almost whispering.
"I don't know," he replied softly. "Maybe it would be better for you to go to another team and learn things from them."
"But I don't want to learn things from them," Matilda protested. "This team's culture is the only kind of culture I want to be around. I want to be around a team that values strong characters over egos. I want to be around players who are happy when their teammates succeed, not jealous. I want to be around the culture you built."
"Then maybe you should wait until a new coach comes along," Henry said. "You'll have to prove to another coach that you deserve this job, but you'll still be with the Phoenix family."
"And when will that be Pop?" Matilda asked softly, smiling. "You love this team and I don't think you'll be ready anytime soon to leave them."
"You're probably right," he softly chuckled. "Maybe just one more championship, just one more championship to prove to the world what these guys can do."
"They want to do it one more time for you," Matilda smiled. "Those guys love you like a dad. They want to pay you back for everything you've given them, and that's what I want to do for you. I want to be a coach so everything you've built can live on."
"I know Honey, I know," he told her as he reached across the desk and held her hand. "But you have to be patient. You're time is coming, just trust me on that."
"If that's all that happened why didn't you tell us about this before?" Will asked.
"Tell you what?" Henry asked, his face suddenly becoming flushed, tears forming in his eyes. "Tell you I'm the reason my granddaughter is dead? Do you want me to tell if I would have given her that job she would be still alive? It's my fault she was at that building that night. This is my entire fault!"
Will had seen some pretty emotional responses when interrogating suspects, but he had to admit, this reaction had surprised him. Maybe it was because Will had seen him on TV for almost twenty years, but it felt to him that he knew Henry. Will had seen a lot of emotions from Henry on the court, but he had never seen the man come close to tears.
"None of this is your fault," Will told Henry, who was wiping the tears away from his eyes. "We'll get the person who did this to Matilda, I'll promise you that. This is a team who will never give up."
Scotty had interviewed some pretty high-profile people on the job before, but this day was taking the cake. He couldn't believe Frank Rogers, Barry Rosen, and Hank Hicks were sitting right in front of him or that he was actually sitting in Roger's living room. The Frank Rogers he kept telling himself. The Frank Rogers who had led the Phoenix team to five championships, including the one won the year after Matilda died. Frank had retired the year Matilda died, and the two others had retired the next year. Rosen and Hicks had been just important to the franchise, and all three were future hall of famer players. But these players hadn't just been players to Matilda. They had watched her grow up and had all been uncles to her. The grief Matilda's death had caused them was still clearly with them as Scotty and Lilly gently interviewed them.
"Had any of you spoken to Matilda before her death?" Lilly asked and all three shook their heads.
"Matilda had been a little in her head before she died," Frank told her.
"What do you mean by that?" Lilly asked. "Was that kind of thing unusual for her?"
"Not really," Hank shrugged. "She got that way sometimes. She would be thinking about something for a while and kind of forget about the rest of the world for a while. She got that way right before she got married and right before she had Cat. Sometimes she just needed to be alone."
"Do you know what was Matilda thinkin' about?" Scotty asked. "What was makin' her live inside her head?"
"That assistant coach job maybe," Barry suggested and the others nodded. "She was disappointed she hadn't gotten the job, so I didn't think much of it when she seemed a little distant."
"But she never told any of you what was actually bothering you?" Lilly asked, hoping Matilda had confided in one of her uncles.
"We would have known if Matilda was in some sort of trouble," Hank told her confidently. "I joined this team when she was six Detectives, I knew everything about her."
"I'm not tryin' to be rude here guys, but Matilda made someone made enough to strangle her," Scotty told the men curtly, "but so far all we've heard is no one was angry at her. That just couldn't be possible because Patrick confessed to help coverin' up her murder."
"None of us even knew Patrick," Barry told Scotty. "We don't know what or who he was involved with, and we don't know why he would want her dead."
"What do you mean by involved with?" Lilly asked. "We haven't heard anything to suggest Patrick was involved in anything questionable."
Barry looked to Frank and the slightly older man nodded. It took a few moments for Barry to gather his words and it was clear by the wringing of his hands he wasn't too comfortable talking about what he had to say.
"I didn't say anything about it when she died because I didn't know he had been involved," Barry told them defensively. "I'm still not sure what I heard was even true."
"Whatever you heard, it's important you tell us," Lilly told him reassuringly. "It's our job to verify it." Barry nodded and took a deep breath.
"We were playing the Storm when I heard about it. Some of us had gone out to dinner with some of the Storm players, the guys we were friends with, and we let one of the Storm's rookies tag along," Barry explained. "It was an early game, one of the first of the season, and I could tell something was bothering the kid. I asked one of my friends about it but he just brushed me off, saying the kid was just nervous."
"But you didn't think so," Scotty said and Barry nodded.
"I could tell the guy had something on his mind, so later when we got to a bar I took him outside to get air," Barry said. "I asked him if he was okay and he said yeah, but I could tell he wasn't telling the truth. So I pressed him some more."
"And what did he say?" Lilly asked.
"That he had been… approached," Barry said simply.
"Approached?" Scotty asked. "What does that mean?"
"That's what I asked him," Barry replied. "He told me that a bookie had approached him, but not one of those scummy guys, he was one of those real high-end bookies, the ones real rich guys used. He swore to me he had never gambled, but one of his uncles had, and that's why he thought this guy had approached him."
"Approached him for what?" Scotty asked, but he had a sinking feeling he knew the answer.
"I think you can guess Detective," Barry sighed. "He offered him forty grand to throw a game."
"He offered him forty grand to lose a game?" Lilly asked. "Why would he think this player could do that? I thought you said he was just a rookie?"
"He was but he was a closer," Barry told him. "That kid could sink a three under any kind of pressure. The Storm counted on him to score big shots at the end of games. This bookie didn't just pick any game; he picked a game between the Storm and the Heard. Those games that been decided by three points or less for the past two seasons."
"As atrocious as this is, what does it have to do with Patrick?" Lilly asked.
"As you can imagine, the kid wasn't too thrilled with someone asking him to take a bribe," Barry told them. "He went to his uncle and practically threatened to kill him until he told him who this bookie was working for."
"Patrick," Scotty sighed and Barry nodded.
"His uncle didn't know for sure," he told them, "but he guessed."
"Why would the vice president of the referee committee approach a player to throw a game?" Lilly asked. "Why wouldn't he go to a referee?"
"The bookie had told the kid that bribing a referee was too risky," Barry replied. "The referee scandal had just blown over, but his client needed money and he needed it fast."
"What did you tell the kid to do?" Scotty asked and Barry just laughed.
"I told him to sink those threes," Barry smiled. "And he did."
"Did you tell Matilda about this?" Lilly asked and Barry nodded, but this time looking toward the floor.
"I told her it was just a rumor, that I had no idea if what true or not. I told her not to get involved unless she saw something for sure that proved Patrick was dirty," he said. "But knowing Matilda I'm sure she couldn't stay away."
"She never told any of us she ever confronted Patrick," Hank told them. "If she would have, she would have told us."
"Thank you three for your help," Scotty said as he and Lilly got up to shake the men's hands. "You've been a big help."
Scotty drove he and Lilly back to the station as Lilly called Stillman to tell him they had learned some pretty important information.
"What he say?" Scotty asked after Lilly got off the phone.
"He wants us to go over everything together again," she said. "He thinks it's going to help us get focused."
"I know we're the voice of the victim Lil, but sometimes…" Scotty drifted off and Lilly nodded.
"I know Scotty, I know," she sighed. "Sometimes, I don't want to know what happened."
"Whoever killed that girl, she trusted them," Scotty grumbled. "How could they look into the eyes of someone who trusted them and strangle the life out of them?"
"I don't know Babe," Lil sighed, "but we have to get justice for Matilda, even if that means bringing even more pain to her family."
Scotty only nodded but he felt better when they stopped at a red light and Lilly held his hand. The feeling of her love made everything seem a little better.