Free 5 A Sporting Murder by CHESTER D CAMPBELL Page A

been
service-connected.”
    “He didn’t say he was wounded. I’ll
bet he broke his leg when he tripped over his calculator.”
    “That’s not being very charitable,”
I said, emphasizing it with a tsk tsk.
    Tillie appeared with our coffee and
poured. We didn’t need to ask.
    Jill took a tentative sip. “Good
and hot.”
    “Always is here. Not like Brother
Gordon. He’s a cool customer. I got the impression he wasn’t all that concerned
about the possibility of skullduggery among the NBA people.”
    “Certainly not as much as
Smotherman.”
    “Yeah. And he doesn’t call his firm
Puck and Stick Accountants, either.”
    “Booo.” She twisted her nose.
    “He livened up a bit when you got
him talking about hockey, though.”
    “He’d have to be a big fan to put
up the kind of money Terry was talking about.”
    “Right. But I have a feeling he’s
too busy crunching numbers to be of much help to us.”
    I put the subject on hold when our
fresh fruit salads arrived.
     
     Back at the office, I got on the phone to Louisville while
Jill updated the case file on Preds vs. NBA. I reached Lieutenant Dobyns at the
police department and explained that I was a retired OSI agent in Nashville who had prosecuted a drug dealer/courier from Louisville years ago. I told him
about spotting Izzy Isabell in Nashville and asked if they had received any
information regarding him since his release from prison.
    “I’m not aware of anything,” he
said, “but I can check it out. Do you have a contact in the Nashville Police
Department?”
    “Homicide Detective Phil Adamson,”
I said.
    “I know Adamson. He did a seminar
here a couple of years ago. I’m sort of constrained by policy from providing
information except through another police agency.”
    “That’s fine,” I said. “Just call
Phil if you come up with anything.”
    I checked in with Phil and told him
about the conversation.
    “You think this guy is still on
your case after all these years?” he asked.
    “It doesn’t sound like he’s
changed. Worse, if anything.”
    “Okay. I’ll let you know if I hear from
Louisville.”
    With that out of the way, we sat
around Jill’s desk for a strategy session to prepare her for the interview with
Aregis tomorrow morning.
    “One thing we need to know is where
the money’s coming from to finance this deal,” I said. “I’m sure we’re talking
about hundreds of millions of dollars. Is Aregis the investor, or is it his
Coastal Capital Ventures?”
    She skimmed a newspaper clipping
from the file. “They haven’t confirmed what team they’re talking about, either,
but this story speculates it could be the Sacramento Kings, Portland Trail
Blazers or Minnesota Timberwolves.”
    “See if you can get him to name any
people he’s talked with.”
    “Wonder if he talked to Arnold
Wechsel? Be nice if I could get his reaction to that name, wouldn’t it?”
    “True, but there’s no way you could
get into that. You might probe around a bit as to how he got interested in this
deal. I didn’t see anything in his background that would hint at a basketball
connection.”
    Jill looked up from her notes. “Should
I inquire into what caused him to move his business to Nashville?”
    “Sure. It might be significant if
his move was related to this NBA franchise. I’d doubt it, but it would be
helpful to know.”
    We discussed several additional
possibilities before winding up our session. Jill had one other bit of
preparation for the interview. Being a whiz at computer graphics, she quickly
dummied up a business card for Contributing Writer Jill Parsons (her maiden
name) of Sporting World Magazine . She printed out a few to go in her
billfold.
    Afterward, we spent a little time tying
up some loose ends on an insurance case we’d just finished, then took off early
to get dressed for our annual Sunday School Class Christmas Party. We had been
members of the class at Gethsemane United Methodist Church since moving