“I know how you must feel, Father. Understandable. . one of your parishioners and all. But we must apprehend the perpetrator, whoever it is.” Koznicki finished the final morsel of Dover sole, touched napkin to lips, and turned another page in his pad. “Then there is the quarterback, Robert Cobb.”
“Yes, he was late, too, wasn’t he? Even later than Kit Hoffer.”
“That is correct. Fifteen minutes later than Mr. Hoffer. So, a very similar opportunity to do in Mr. Hunsinger. And fixing a flat tire with no witness to corroborate is a pretty flimsy alibi. However, once more we were at a loss to establish a motive. It would seem that though there was no lack of ill feeling between the two, they did work well together on the playing field. That must have made Mr. Cobb’s job more easy and successful.”
“Probably the same holds true for Jack Brown, the trainer, doesn’t it? I mean, I didn’t think there was any reason in the world why he would want to kill Hunsinger.”
“That is true as far as the interview you attended yesterday. But in further questioning of some of the other players-interviews carried out by other detectives on this case-a little more light was shed on this matter.”
“Oh?” Koesler finished the sandwich and began to nibble on another bread stick.
“It seems that Hunsinger lived on the mere edge of the conditioning one would expect of a professional athlete. A fact that would force Mr. Brown to have to work harder to keep Hunsinger in playing condition. But what is even more germane is that Hunsinger went out of his way to lead others on the team into temptation. It far surpassed the breaking of curfew. It led to chemical abuse, even cocaine.”
“I wonder why he would do that?”
“Several hypotheses have been advanced. The most popular theory seems to be that Hunsinger wanted, perhaps needed, to dominate, to control others. This seems so because he regularly tried to trap the younger, newer members of the team. If he could trap a newcomer, then he had control from that time on.”
“So the trainer would have to watch these young athletes be drawn into the bad influence of Hunsinger and have their careers-their lives-possibly ruined. But would that be sufficient motive for murder?”
Koznicki shrugged. “Perhaps. Athletic trainers devote their professional lives to keeping athletes healthy, or, at least in good operating condition. The conduct of Mr. Hunsinger would have been in direct conflict with the trainer’s goals. He, perhaps next to a medical doctor, could most fully understand what these drugs could do to men. . men he had pledged himself to keep healthy.”
Koesler’s bread stick was gone. The waiter cleared the table. Roznicki ordered tea. Koesler asked for decaffeinated coffee.
Koesler felt very gustatorially satisfied. He wondered if he should have any dinner at all. “I realize that I’m talking to a professional and all I know about this sort of thing is what I read and see on TV, but if I had to make a guess, it would be Mrs. Galloway.”
“You are being far too modest, Father. You have been a significant help in not a few of our cases in the past. Nor would I deny you on your guess, your intuition, as it were.”
“That’s really all it is: intuition. She doesn’t have any alibi until kickoff, when she showed up in the owner’s box. So, there’s ample time. No one knows whether she ever returned the key to Hunsinger’s apartment. And even if she did, she could easily have had a duplicate made. And revenge is an awfully powerful motive.”
“All that you say is true, Father. But there is the matter of the elapsed time. Approximately a year passed between the time that Hunsinger broke off his affair with her and his death. That is a rather extended period to sustain feelings of revenge.”
“But not unheard-of. A strong emotional feeling-particularly an obsession-can last a lifetime. I’ve seen that happen. Perhaps it was an emotion whose time for execution came.”
“Perhaps, Father. But I think the odds lengthen with time. Then, again, there is the strychnine. If she had been gone from his apartment for a year, how would she know about the poison, which he had had in his possession no more than a matter of a few months at most?”
Koesler shook his head. “I don’t know, except that if she had a key to his apartment, she could have gone in at any time and-what do they say in the movies? — cased the joint. She certainly knew when he would not be there. All she had to do was read the paper. There were practices, games-best of all, out-of-town trips for away games.
“As a matter of fact, now that I think of it, that could just explain why she might have done it now instead of a year ago. Suppose she is nursing this long-term hatred. She goes up to the apartment sometime when she knows he won’t be there and finds the strychnine. The discovery triggers desire for revenge. She hatches this plot and does the deed. She mixes the strychnine in with the DMSO and leaves it on the shelf in the spot reserved for shampoo. She knows all about Hunsinger’s storied obsessions. She knows he will automatically reach for the shampoo in its usual spot. She knows he will not be wearing his lenses in the shower. He will not be able to read the label and the bottles are the same shape.
“And now we reach the final question.” Koesler slapped his brow with the palm of his hand. “Why doesn’t she bother to disguise the color difference? Even if Hunsinger could not read the label, he could certainly notice the different coloration. I still wonder, Did Mrs. Galloway know that Hunsinger was colorblind?”
“That we do not know.”
“Is it possible to hide so basic a defect from a lover? Never having been, or had, a lover, I am not in the best possible position to say.”
Koznicki chuckled. “It is a good question, Father. We know that his colorblindness was a condition Hunsinger felt most reserved about. He even managed to keep it out of the team’s physical-health record. Apparently, he was also able to keep knowledge of his condition from his teammates … no easy feat, considering how very closely they live for much of the year. If he was able to keep the defect from his teammates, could he also have kept it from a paramour. .?” Koznicki left the question hanging.
“Which, I suppose, brings us to the one Cougar player who freely admitted that he knew about Hunsinger’s problem: Niall Murray.”
“Ah, yes, Mr. Murray. Fresh from Ireland and he finds himself in the midst of a
“What do you mean, Inspector?”
“Mr. Murray is well aware-as are almost all his athletic colleagues-of Hunsinger’s compulsions. He knows Hunsinger needs corrective lenses for astigmatism. He has heard of Hunsinger’s. . uh. . active social life, which dictates a second shower at home after games. He knows about the poison in the apartment. He has at least a slightly reasonable motive in that he is one of the new young players Hunsinger has tried to corrupt. . although, even with that in mind, he seems to have considered Hunsinger a good source of advice and counsel, not a subject for murder.
“And finally, he and Mrs. Hunsinger are the only ones to admit knowledge of Hunsinger’s colorblindness.”
“Yet,” Koesler picked up Koznicki’s review, “Murray and Mrs. Hunsinger are the only ones who have an alibi with no holes for the entire time in question on Sunday. Now I see what you mean by he knew everything but did nothing. Something like that old saw about the medical profession: an internist knows everything but does nothing; a surgeon knows nothing but does everything; a pathologist knows everything and does everything, but it’s too late.”
“Yes,” Koznicki smiled, “something like that.”
“Isn’t it odd that out of eight possible suspects, the six who have the strongest motives for doing harm to Hunsinger”-Koesler could not bring himself to use the term murder, even though the use of strychnine could have no other purpose-“also have the most opportunity. While the two with the least motive each have airtight alibis.”
Koznicki shook his head. “If this were fiction, and I were writing it, I would alter the plot so that the police would have an easy job of it. But this is life. And life, I believe is not painted in bold black and white strokes, but rather in shades of gray.
“Somewhere, among these people, is one who had the motive, the opportunity, the necessary knowledge, including-whether he or she will admit it-awareness of Hunsinger’s colorblindness. The one who did the deed. We will find that person.”
Koznicki pronounced the final sentence so decisively that, with really nothing more to go on but this statement, Koesler was convinced.
The waiter brought their beverages. Tea for Koznicki, decaf for Koesler.
“What do they do today?” Koesler asked.
