Murder at the Foul Line

Copyright

The events and characters in this book are fictitious. Certain real locations and public figures are mentioned, but all other
characters and events described in the book are totally imaginary.

Copyright of the collection © 2006 by Otto Penzler

Introduction copyright © 2006 by Otto Penzler

“Keller’s Double Dribble,” copyright © 2006 by Lawrence Block; “Nothing but Net,” copyright © 2006 by Jeffery Deaver; “Bank
Shots,” copyright © 2006 by Sue DeNymme; “The Taste of Silver,” copyright © 2006 by Brendan DuBois; “Fear of Failure,” copyright
© 2006 by Parnell Hall; “Cat’s Paw,” copyright © 2006 by Laurie R. King; “Mrs. Cash,” copyright © 2006 by Mike Lupica; “White
Trash Noir,” copyright © 2006 by Michael Malone; “Galahad, Inc.,” copyright © 2006 by Joan H. Parker and Robert B. Parker;
“String Music,” copyright © 2006 by George Pelecanos; “Mamzer,” copyright © 2006 by R. D. Rosen; “Shots,” copyright © 2006
by S.J. Rozan; “In the Zone,” copyright © 2006 by Justin Scott; “Bubba,” copyright © 2006 by Stephen Solomita

All rights reserved.

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First eBook Edition: October 2009

ISBN: 978-0-446-56953-8

In affectionate memory of Evan Hunter

And for his wife, Dragica,

with thanks for making my friend so happy

Contents

COPYRIGHT

INTRODUCTION

KELLER’S DOUBLE DRIBBLE

NOTHING BUT NET

BANK SHOTS

THE TASTE OF SILVER

FEAR OF FAILURE

CAT’S PAW

MRS. CASH

WHITE TRASH NOIR

GALAHAD, INC.

STRING MUSIC

MAMZER

SHOTS

IN THE ZONE

BUBBA

Otto Penzler

B
asketball was a little different when I was growing up, which is just before James Naismith reputedly invented the game in
1891.

First, most of the players were white. I don’t know if they
could
jump, but I do know they
didn’t
jump. Dunking was something you did with a doughnut and a cup of coffee. There was such a thing as a two-handed set shot.
I’m not making this up. Hook shots were common, and soon some of the better players developed a jump shot. Foul shots were
frequently taken underhanded, with two hands guiding the ball toward the hoop. Eventually, to help speed the game up, the
twenty-four-second clock was invented.

Second, players actually played by the rules, mainly because the referees called fouls and other violations. Traveling, for
example, was called if a player carried the ball for two steps. Today it’s called only if he carries the ball to another city.
Basketball was described accurately back in the Dark Ages as a noncontact sport. If you bumped into a player, you were called
for a foul. Today the foul is called only if you hit someone repeatedly, generally with a blunt instrument.

Also, players seemed tall but human. Today the guys who used to be the “big” forward (now known as the power forward) are
the speedy little guys who bring the ball up the court. The big guys seem descended from another planet.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not some old fogey who thinks players were better when I was a kid. I’m an old fogey who thinks basketball
players during the past quarter century or so are the best all-around athletes in the world. They just don’t play the same
game. I’m not sure when it went from being a team sport to being a game played by five individuals to a side, but it was probably
when ESPN’s
SportsCenter
started to show highlights every night and 95 percent of them were dunks (just as most baseball highlights on that show are
home runs, and there’s nothing more boring than watching one long fly ball after another landing in the seats).

But perhaps the biggest difference in the game is the level of criminal activity. One of the big crime stories of the 1950s
was when some Manhattan College, CCNY, and Long Island University players conspired to fix games so that certain gamblers
could make a killing. The scandal rocked the sport for years, and those teams, then national powers, never recovered.

Today, of course, that would be looked upon as kid stuff. Now we’re really talking. Stars are commonly arrested for drug abuse,
drunk driving, wife (and girlfriend) battering, barroom brawling, rape, and so many other acts of violence and criminality
that it is difficult to keep track.

There was a time when I thought Kermit Washington’s brutal punch of an innocent and unsuspecting Rudy Tom-janovich, caving
in his face, fracturing his skull, breaking his jaw and nose, and causing a potentially lethal spinal fluid drip from his
brain, was the most disgusting thing I’d ever seen on a
basketball court, but that was before Ron Artest and fellow thugs on the Indiana Pacers brawled with fans in Detroit. Now,
I’ll quickly concede that some guy who throws a cup full of beer into the face of a six-foot-eight-inch tower of muscle is
so stupid that he probably deserves a good whipping, but still…

Even this pales when compared with Latrell Sprewell’s attempted murder of his coach. Not merely in the heat of the moment,
mind you. He grabbed P. J. Carlesimo, put his big hands around his throat, and choked him until he was pulled away. He left,
came back about twenty minutes later, and
did it again!
(Well, Sprewell explained later, it’s not like he couldn’t breathe
at all
.) Because he’s a star athlete, he didn’t do a single day in jail. Instead, he got traded to the New York Knicks and became
a crowd favorite. When he left the team as a free agent, he spurned a $29-million offer, explaining that it wasn’t enough,
that he had to feed his family.

Jayson Williams, a great basketball player and a charming man, was not convicted of killing his chauffeur.

In a never-ending headline story, Kobe Bryant was arrested for rape but admits only to being stupid and an adulterer. Allen
Iverson, who has all the charm of a Mexican snuff film, was arrested with illegal weapons—again. Charles Barkley cold-cocked
a pencil-thin opponent in the Olympics for no discernible reason. There
was
a perfectly good reason for him to throw someone through a barroom window. He’d been hassled by the idiot. When asked if
he had any regrets about the incident, Barkley said yes. He was sorry they hadn’t been on a higher floor.

The notion, then, of mixing basketball and crime in this collection seems predictable—a natural combination, like ham
and eggs, Laurel and Hardy, yin and yang. Or, to put it more darkly, it’s a predictably unnatural combination, like Michael
Jackson and little boys, S&M, Paris Hilton and farm animals, and the team of buffoons (sorry, self-described “idiots”) known
as the 2004 World Champion Boston Red Sox.

It would be difficult to think that a group of fiction writers, people who make up stories, could find a way to write about
crime and criminals in a way that surpasses the real-life adventures we can all read about in the tabloids, but the assembled
team of top-notch mystery writers has done just that. This Dream Team of outstanding authors has put together a game plan
that will keep you at the edge of your seat right to the last second. Here is the lineup of superstars:

Lawrence Block has received the highest honor bestowed by the Mystery Writers of America, the Grand Master Award for lifetime
achievement, and received the equivalent prize, the Diamond Dagger, from the Crime Writers’ Association of Great Britain.
He has produced more than sixty novels, mainly about such series characters as the tough alcoholic private eye, Matt Scudder;
his comedic bookseller/burglar, Bernie Rhodenbarr; and the amoral hit man who appears in this volume, Keller.

Jeffery Deaver is the author of twenty novels, many featuring Lincoln Rhyme, including
The Bone Collector
, which was filmed starring Denzel Washington. Deaver has been nominated for four Edgar Allan Poe Awards and an Anthony and
is the three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader’s Award for Best Short Story of the Year.
Garden of Beasts
won the 2004 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award by the Crime Writers’ Association of Great Britain for the best thriller in the
vein of James Bond.

Sue DeNymme has a rich bloodline of storytellers, embellishers, and exaggerators, including fishermen, pirates, and royalty.
She has traveled extensively, studying language and culture, and has earned degrees from several prestigious universities.
When she began writing, she immediately won a poetry prize. Now that she has decided to write the tallest possible tales,
she chose mystery fiction for her career. In fact, she is in the process of writing a crime novel and cannot wait to read
it.

Brendan DuBois is the author of seven novels, one of which,
Resurrection Day
, is planned as a major motion picture. He has produced numerous short stories, three of which have been nominated for Edgar
Allan Poe Awards and two of which have won Shamus Awards. His story “The Dark Snow” was selected for
Best American Mystery Stories of the Century
, edited by Tony Hillerman.

Parnell Hall is the author of the critically acclaimed Stanley Hastings series about an inept and cowardly private eye, and
the Puzzle Lady novels that involve crossword puzzles as clues, voted the Best New Discovery by members of the Mystery Guild.
He has been nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award by the Mystery Writers of America and the Shamus Award by the Private Eye
Writers of America.

Laurie R. King writes stand-alone thrillers, a series about San Francisco homicide inspector Kate Martinelli and, most notably,
a series about Sherlock Holmes and his wife, Mary Russell. Her first novel,
A Grave Talent
, won the Edgar and the John Creasey Awards from the (British) Crime Writers’ Association.
With Child
was nominated for an Edgar.

Mike Lupica is one of the best-known and most accomplished sportswriters in America, a regular on ESPN’s
The Sports Reporters
, as well as the author of fifteen books of fiction, non-fiction,
juvenile and mystery fiction. His first mystery,
Dead Air
, was nominated for an Edgar and was later filmed for CBS as
Money, Power and Murder
. His most recent novel,
Too Far
, was a national best-seller.

Michael Malone has written three mysteries,
Uncivil Seasons, Time’s Witness
, and
First Lady
, as well as several mainstream novels, notably such modern classics as
Dingley Falls, Handling Sin
, and
Foolscap
. He was the head writer for various daytime drama series, including
One Life to Live
. His short story “Red Clay” won the Edgar and was selected for
Best American Mystery Stories of the Century
.

Joan H. Parker is the coauthor, with her husband, Robert B. Parker, of
Three Weeks in Spring
, the moving story of her battle with cancer, and
A Year at the Races
, a pictorial journal of their adventures with horse racing. She and her husband also collaborated on several scripts for
Spenser
, the television series based on the Boston P.I.

Robert B. Parker, acclaimed as the contemporary private eye writer in the pantheon of Hammett, Chandler, and Ross Macdonald,
won an Edgar for
Promised Land
, the fourth in the series of instant classics involving Spenser, the tough, wisecracking Boston P.I. who was the basis for
a network television series in the 1990s. Parker was recently named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.

George Pelecanos, one of the most critically acclaimed crime writers in America, is the author of a dozen novels with several
different series characters, most notably Nick Stefanos and the team of Derek Strange and Terry Quinn.
Hell to Pay
won the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and
The Big Blowdown
won the International Crime Novel of the Year Award in
France, Germany, and Japan. He is currently a writer and producer of the HBO series
The Wire
.

R. D. Rosen has written for
Saturday Night Live
and several CBS news shows, but he claims that his novels about Harvey Blissberg, a professional baseball player turned private
eye, are closest to his heart. His first book,
Strike Three, You’re Dead
, won the Edgar in 1984 and was recently named “one of the hundred favorite mysteries of the century” by the Independent Booksellers
Association.

S. J. Rozan is one of the most honored mystery writers of recent years, winning two Edgars (for Best Short Story and Best
Novel), as well as a Shamus, Macavity, Nero, and Anthony. Her series characters are Lydia Chin, a young American-born Chinese
private eye whose cases originate mainly in New York’s Chinese community, and Chin’s partner, Bill Smith, an older, more experienced
sleuth who lives above a bar in Tribeca.