If you've found this page via Inspector Krieg, you're probably wondering what's going on! Click on the links above to read each installment of the murder mystery!

Enjoy!

Grown men aren’t supposed to show emotions. Especially grown sportsmen. It’s all part of the rules of keeping it controlled, staying cool under fire, never losing the grip. But this was a room filled with shocked and confused men. They were flailing around, looking everywhere but not knowing where to look. Rick Mirer would have been right at home.

Holmgren finally dragged some reluctant words from somewhere. “You’re mad. You can’t prove any of this. I won’t be insulted by this nonsense any longer.” He was starting to find some fire, but he still couldn’t quite find the swagger that had given him control over those men. He looked completely unconvincing as an outraged man.

“Stay there,” I ordered. “You’ll have plenty more to be insulted by soon enough. If I could introduce my associate, Mr Krieg?”

Dave came through the door right on cue. Hass was with him, as well as Mrs Holmgren, in handcuffs and flanked by two police officers.

“Mr Krieg is an expert in finding the information that people want to keep well hidden. Information such as fingerprints on wine glasses.” Holmgren slumped again.

“We have several genuine Holmgren fingerprints,” said Dave, “This gentleman is a mismatch. And the lady’s a fake too.” I thought Allen would fall off his chair. “Their clothes sizes are wrong, their handwriting’s a fair copy at best, and the voiceprints from the TV interviews are just short of matching. Plus they both have surgical scars around the face and neck. These are very good copies, but not the real thing.”

The silence fell heavily in the room. Finally, Ray Rhodes spoke softly. “So who are they? What are they doing here?”

“I’ll assume that our false coach isn’t about to answer that,” I said as the large man sat hunched in his chair. “So let’s put this together ourselves.

“Somewhere between 2002 and 2004, the real Mike Holmgren disappeared, along with his wife. Replaced by an impostor coach who ground through a disappointing season, only to lose in the first playoff.

“I thought about whether this guy was just a star-struck wannabe, but who would put together a scam this big just to be a pretend coach? Anyone that crazy could buy their own team and coach it into the ground. No, this runs deeper. And I realised where it came from when Hass told me about protecting history. The same thing this guy told me on my first day here.

“If you keep Seattle unsuccessful, whose history gets protected? Who gains when the Seahawks fail? Maybe plenty of people. But once you put those suspects together, who among them has the power and money to pull it off?

“Any thoughts about that, Mr Behring?”