“He thinks you’d have won the Cup years ago if someone in the organization weren’t working against you from the inside.”
Plenty of teams didn’t win the Cup for decades at a time.It was one of the hardest championships to win in professional sports.Phil accepted that he would probably retire without a Cup ring.He would fight for the opposite, but he also had to be able to live with it never happening.Lots of great players never won.Winning the Stanley Cup required the perfect storm of a solid team both offensively and defensively, not too old and not too young, a regular season with little to no injury among the team’s core, and the luck of the draw that whoever you were up against in the playoffs had missed out on some part of the same combination.
The idea of Pulvermacher being so invested in their playoff losses that he had a journalist infiltrate the coaching staff was so unexpected Phil couldn’t parse the information for long moments.The Sea Lions had only existed for fifteen years.Vancouver hadn’t won a cup in thirty.No one needed to conspire to make a team lose at hockey.And even if they had…
“Why did he hireyou?”Belatedly, Phil realized the question might sound insulting.He had no idea what kind of journalist Ben was.“I mean, there’s Player Safety.Or the NHL commissioner’s office.Or—”
“That’s not really how Martin does things.”
“Martin.”
“Yeah.Martin Pulvermacher.The Sea Lions’ GM.Also known as my uncle’s brother-in-law.”
A useless sense of satisfaction at having been right settled over Phil.“Right.He’s a Mormon too.So the GM calls in a favor, and you, what, drop everything to go investigate a hockey team for corruption?Without using any of the proper channels?”
“Pretty much.”
“Why?”
Ben sighed and raked a hand through his hair.He kept it combed down at the rink, all professional, but at home it was usually some flavor of messy and now stuck up at strange angles.With the low bathroom light throwing odd shadows, the parts sticking up reflected gold while the rest shone in a light bronze.
“Martin called me up in June after you guys lost the Western Conference Finals.”
Phil grimaced.The reminder stung.It was the closest they’d come to a Stanley Cup since he’d been here.
“He said he got the impression the team owner, Van Giesing, wished you’d gone out in the second round already.He also thought Van Giesing was trying to get rid of him.”
“In the second round?Why on earth would the team’s owner want us to lose—”
“If he’s betting against you using insider information, he wants you to lose.”
The bottom of Phil’s stomach dropped out.His mouth fell open.“He wouldn’t.”He wished he believed it.
The look Ben gave him was almost pitying.“Of course he would.He’s a venture capitalist.All they care about are profits.”
“Did they—but—how can you even know?”
Ben rested his hands on the side of the tub and examined them carefully.“When your knee got reinjured, I saw Trout on an illegal betting site.I’m pretty sure he put money on you being out for the season.A lot of money.”
Phil tried to take a deep breath and found he couldn’t.The air tasted thick with eucalyptus, and the sharp steam in his lungs matched the anger climbing up from the pit of his stomach.He’d known for a while now that chances were whatever Ben was keeping secret would be bad, but he’d never envisioned it this bad.
His life, his career, his health, all in the hands of people who cared more about what lined their pockets than who was on their payroll.
That settled it.Phil would retire.He couldn’t go into a new round of contract negotiations.Not with these people.They didn’t deserve it.
“I’m sorry.”Ben’s wretched voice jarred Phil from his thoughts.
“You didn’t do it.”
“I didn’t stop it.”
Briefly, Phil envisioned a world in which Ben had stopped it, a magical place where he had somehow fired Trout and stopped Tom from getting into a dumb hockey fight Phil had to intervene in and hadtold Phil all of this earlier.He would have been on the road with the team in Canada, could have maybe stopped the terrible 5–1 loss in Toronto, could have intervened when Hayes started spouting off in the locker room… But then, if he had been there, Luca Mazetti would still be in the AHL, and Hayes would have had no reason to complain.No one would know what kind of person Hayes was underneath it all, and Breezy would have had no reason to put forward the charity idea.That would have been a shame.
“You couldn’t have known my knee would blow out.It might have happened at any game anyway.”
“Yeah, but I’ve been trying to figure Trout out—and giving him free rein over the D-men.I knew he was meeting with Van Giesing, but I couldn’t figure out why, and I still don’t have any hard evidence.”
Phil leaned forward, hugging his knees to his chest in the warm bath.“I guess you’re not there to represent our interests.You’re there to represent the GM’s interests.”
