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“Cause Hargrove lost his nerve,” Hill said. “He’s got a lot of years and a lot of experience. But when you don’t adapt to your players and the changes in the game, you reach a threshold and that’s as good as you’ll ever do. He’s stuck in the past. And he’s riding herd on a bunch of stallions that want to win and he doesn’t know how to harness that power.”
“And he was going to hand the reins over to you?” Jack asked.
“That was the agreement when I came on,” Hill said. “But then last week Steve calls me into his office and says he’s changed his mind. He doesn’t feel like it’s the right time, especially since his starting lineup is struggling with grades. He’s got some hotshot freshman prospect coming up he wants to give some playing time to next season. Said we need to regroup and refocus on the future and let the current team phase out gracefully. Said none of them has what it takes to be a championship team or go any further than high school ball.”
“And what’d you say to that?” Jack asked.
“I told him he was crazy,” Hill said, taking a swig from the bottle. “I didn’t even care that he said he wasn’t retiring. But to basically give up on these boys when they’ve put everything into making the team they are today.” He stopped and shook his head. “It doesn’t even make sense. I think he was just afraid to go out on a loss and have someone take his spot who starts winning again. I can see how that would prick a man’s pride and ego.”
Jack hmmed sympathetically. “Is that when he told you your contract wasn’t going to be renewed?”
“Ha,” Hill said, getting worked up. “He didn’t even have the balls to tell me then. I guess he worked it out with the school board and they’d be the ones to break the news. I tried calling him, and when he didn’t answer my calls I showed up at his house. He’s the one who hired me, so he should at least have the guts to fire me face-to-face.”
“When was the last time you saw him?” Jack asked.
“Wednesday at school,” Hill said. “Before the school board met. It was just a regular day. Nothing special. Then after I found out he’d stabbed me in the back I went out and got drunk. Called in sick on Thursday. When he didn’t show up for school today I didn’t think much of it. And then I started hearing the rumors that he’d killed himself. Maybe he felt guilty.”
“Where were you this morning between six and eight o’clock?”
“I got to the weight room around seven to start letting the guys in who like to get an early workout,” he said.
“Any other changes or upsets with staff or the players?” Jack asked.
“Oh, sure,” Hill said. “Hargrove was about to shake up the whole apple cart. He wanted a whole new coaching staff. And he wanted to shake up his starting lineup. We’ve got a couple of guys with grade issues, but grades don’t matter when you play like they do. But Hargrove was a stickler for grades. Said academics had to come first. Which is a great answer when you’re talking to media and parents, but it doesn’t mean crap when you’re talking football. So take your pick.”
Hill gestured wildly with his beer and I knew it wasn’t his first. Probably not even his second even though he couldn’t have been home from school too long.
“Between angry parents, coaches, and players,” Hill said, “I could think of a whole lot of reasons for Steve to want to end it all.”
Chapter Six
“First impressions?” Jack asked once we were back in the car.
“Definitely a disgruntled employee,” I said. “Just like any story, there’s threads of the truth in there colored by his own emotions. Mostly anger in his case. He’s a guy on the edge. He’s pretty much lost everything, and doesn’t have much else to lose. But his alibi is easy to check out.”
“Yeah, I know,” Jack said. “Why is it so much easier when it’s murder?”
“Because then it’s someone else’s fault,” I said. “It’s hard when those heroes get knocked down off their pedestals.”
Jack looked at the time and said, “We’ve got time to grab dinner before we visit Cami Downey’s roommate. Her name is Toby Wallace. She’s a law clerk as well and said they’re in the middle of a case, so she’s running late. I thought we’d do things her way before we show up with the forensic team and start going through the home.”
“So diplomatic,” I said. “She works for Judge Stevens too?”
“No,” Jack said. “She works for Judge Mitchell. She’s the one who filed the missing person report this morning.”
“Cami has been dead at least a couple of days,” I said. “She just now got concerned enough to file a report? She’d know there’s no waiting period in Virginia to file for missing persons.”
“I guess law clerks are busy and they don’t see each other that often.”
Jack pulled into the parking lot of the Silver Dollar Diner. I hadn’t been there since I was a kid, but I always trusted cops to pick the best places to eat, so I didn’t offer an opinion.
The Silver Dollar Diner was two old train cars that had been welded together and painted white with a red checkerboard trim. You could see straight through from one side to the other because of all the windows, and they were doing a brisk business considering the weather.
“Wow, this is a blast from the past,” I said. “I don’t remember the last time I was here.”
“I do,” Jack said. “Carly Martin’s ninth birthday party. You were mad because you wanted to wear your vintage New Kids on the Block shirt and your mom made you wear a dress instead.”
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “I loved that shirt. Wish I still had it. They’re back together again. I could wear it to their concert. I can’t believe you remember that.”
