CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Lou Carlson and Serena Tully met with Don Blake in the courthouse cafeteria. After making introductions, they sipped coffee while Blake expanded on his written report.

“I don’t know how to bring this up tactfully, Ms. Tully, but your husband seems to have had a number of extramarital affairs.”

Blake stopped and waited to see what her reaction was going to be.

She turned to look at Lou Carlson. When she smiled wistfully, he replied, “That’s good news, Don. Get them off the moral high ground. I don’t think Ms. Tully is going to be surprised by anything you tell her. You may as well give it to her all at once.”

“Okay. Your husband seems to have been part of a group called the Fifth Down Club. In that group, the chief activities were partying with football groupies, drinking and drugs. Seems that when he said he was out at the clubhouse watching films, or in the hotel before and after games, he was really out with these guys. The women he took up with were part of this crowd. I guess he’d pair off with one until the relationship would run its course and she’d be replaced. We’ve identified the most recent one.”

Serena was twisting her wedding ring, which she realized she hadn’t taken off yet. “This woman, what does she look like?”

Blake drummed his fingers on the manila envelope of photographs. “Are you sure you want to know? I don’t think it’s going to do anyone any good to go over the gory details.”

Serena snapped at him, “Are those pictures of her in there? May I see them? I presume you both know what she looks like. I’d like to see for myself. May I?”

She held her hand out. Blake pushed the packet over to her. She undid the catch with trembling fingers. Blake noticed and suggested she might want to take them to the bathroom.

“No, Mr. Blake, I’ll be fine. May as well see what Tom’s been up to with his free time.”

She pulled the photos out and stared at the blow-ups of Tiffany Ames. “She’s cute in a Barbie doll kind of way.” Serena studied the photographs. Abruptly, she slid them back into the envelope. “Too much make-up though,” she said and left the photos in front of her.

“Your husband was taking this woman to away games. He was seeing her at training camp. He was buying her expensive gifts.”

Serena checked to make sure her hands weren’t giving her away. Assured that she looked composed, she smiled at Don Blake, who went on sure that she was anything but.

“I think we have to lean on the Ames woman. Get her to sign an affidavit now. A lot easier and faster than building a paper case, Lou.”

“I agree. Do you think she’ll pull the kid out of school?”

“Yeah. If she calms down and thinks it through. She’ll figure that after some period of time our interest in Tully will pass and so will her usefulness. She’ll retrieve the kid and go on like nothing happened. She’s scared now.”

“Is she afraid of you, Don?”

“Probably. When she isn’t pissed.”

“Why don’t you go shake her up again? Let’s get her to commit to an affidavit. In the meantime, we should pursue all these avenues in case she stonewalls us or flees. All your ideas are good ones. Go with them.”

“Excuse me,” Serena cut in. “I’ve seen that list. This has to be expensive. I don’t have any money, Mr. Blake. I don’t know how or when I could pay you for all this. Mr. Carlson is hoping to get his fee from my share of the house. I appreciate everything you’ve done so far, but I’ll be left with nothing.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m not going to send you a bill for my services. This is an old favor owed by me to Lou Carlson. Now, I’m squaring things.”

“Thank you, Mr. Blake. Seems I’m the lucky one, at least on this.”

“I want to keep this quiet for now, Don. I don’t want Tom Tully or Al Garfield to have the slightest idea we’re on to him. Let Sid Bowman prove there’s hidden assets first. Then we’ll go after him with the adultery, perjury on the interrogatories, maybe even fraud with the club. When we have it all in place, then I want to push this wall over on them. When the time is right.”

“Mrs. Tully, did your husband ever buy things for you or the kids, the house, anything, with money you couldn’t account for?”

“That’s a laugh. Tommy bitched about how little he made as a coach. When he played, he wasn’t a big star. And he wasn’t into saving money. We got married after he retired and he had to work. He hadn’t held on to any of the money he made as a player. No, there wasn’t any unaccounted-for money flying around our house. What Tom made, we spent. The only nice gift Tom got me was a very expensive watch, which I just had to sell. But he always made a big deal about what a great price he got on it. How he didn’t pay close to what it was worth.”

“Well if anything comes …”

“Wait a minute. There was something odd. When we first met Dr. Reece and Tom had to pay him for the evaluation, you know the retainer, he handed him an envelope with the whole thing in cash. All eight thousand dollars. I was curious about why he went back into the office to pay him, so when they went into the testing room I pushed the office door open and peeked in. I saw the stack on his desk.”

“Really,” Carlson said, tapping his finger against his nose as he pondered the meaning of an envelope full of cash.

Don Blake asked, “Did he say where he got the money from?”

“No. He told me it was none of my business. Tom told me that all the time about money. He made it; he could do what he wanted with it.”

“Anything else, Lou? If not, I’ll be on my way. We’ll see what Sid turns up.”

“That’s fine, Don. Listen, I really appreciate what you’ve done.”

The two men stood and shook hands. As Blake walked away, Carlson looked past him to the entrance.

“One second though, Don. Why don’t you stay around for awhile?”

Standing in the doorway was Al Garfield, his coattails swept back, thumbs hooked behind his belt. Tom Tully was staring malevolently at them and before him, held in place by his shoulders, was his son, who, seeing his mother, threw his eyes to the floor.