Page 91 of Risky Match
“No, sir.”
An eternity later, someone knocks on the door. It opens, and Deputy Harrington says, “It’s time. Would you join us in the debriefing room?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Always. But I’m assuming you’d like answers to your questions. I’m told you have a lengthy list.”
“I do.”
“Then follow me.”
“Where’s Bri?”
“She’ll be there.”
We walk down the hall and enter a small, windowless conference room. Bri is already waiting for us.
Harrington directs me to sit across from her while he takes the seat at the head of the table.
“I’m pleased to report that we have successfully broken up a smuggling ring, saved lives, and retrieved stolen property that was illegally removed from various European countries.”
Bri says, “Do you finally believe me about Blake? He wasn’t involved. Is that why he’s here?”
“We know Blake is innocent. The whole story is complicated, though. You both played separate roles, along with other participants who will not be named here. When we finish this debriefing, you’ll understand more.”
Bri nods. I’m more confused than ever.
Harrington continues, “We now know the identities of everyone involved. Noah was running the smuggling operation. He recruited Marco when he couldn’t hide enough coins in Blake’s trophies and racquet handles.”
“Originally, I thought Thomas was involved, too. Am I right that he wasn’t?” Bri asks.
“Yes.”
“There was a note in Blake’s trophy that said ‘Stay the course. It will keep paying off.’ Was it Noah wanting to make sure Blake didn’t replace him?” Bri asks.
“That’s the one thing we haven’t figured out, but that would be a reasonable assumption,” Harrington answers.
Blake chimes in, “It would be wrong though. The note didn’t have anything to do with the smuggling or my coach. The engraver for that tournament always puts a note of encouragement in the base of the winner’s trophy. He was just reminding me that when you win, you must be doing things right and should stay the course. But I have another question. How does Natalie fit in? She was my doctor. It doesn’t make sense. Is she even a sports psychologist?”
“The real Natalie is a licensed psychologist. The person you know as Natalie is actually CeCe Wright. She lost her license about five years ago. Then about two years ago she teamed up with Noah to assist him in his side business.”
“What happened to the real Natalie?” I ask.
“She’s off the grid in a remote area doing research.”
“What about Josh? Was he involved?”
“No. He met the fake Natalie through Marco. Apparently, Noah had been worried that you would fire him. He wanted Natalie in place on your team to convince you not to make any changes.”
“Why did I think she was helping me with my panic attacks?”
“She probably was. Until she lost her license for sleeping with several of her patients, she was a successful psychologist. Her goal was to keep you winning tournaments and working with Noah so they could use you to smuggle coins. They needed you to keep playing.”
“What finally convinced you that Blake was innocent?” Bri asks.
Harrington says, “I have a confession. We knew at the beginning of the investigation that Blake wasn’t guilty—at least it was unlikely he was willingly involved. We’d suspected Noah for a long time. And we knew someone else on Blake’s team was working with him. Initially, we thought it was Blake until he reached out to a museum asking about a coin he found. He wanted to know if it was valuable. The museum contacted us, and we arranged to meet with Blake in private. It was then that we recruited Blake to help us.”
Bri’s jaw drops as she jumps to her feet. “How dare you keep that from me? You led me to believe he was likely guilty. You even had me bug his room when you knew he was innocent.”
