Chapter 28

I fiddled with this chapter for a long time, so it took much longer to post than I was expecting. I will not quite finish by tomorrow, but it will be this week. CHAPTER 28 The starting lineup for the Warriors consisted of Mills (Page), Bernard, Hobbs, Stan, and Ford. Kate watched as Stan tipped the ball over to Hobbs and the game began. Hobbs dribbled quickly down the court and passed it Bernard. Bernard passed it back to Hobbs and Hobbs popped it immediately back to Bernard who turned toward the basket and shot the ball for an easy 2 points. Number 16 got the ball and passed it in from the sidelines to Jersey Number 27. 27 stopped at half court and waited for his team to get on their side of the court. He then slowly started his approach. He took 4 steps and then handed the ball to his teammate, number 16 again (Kate could now see that his name Mackay), who took the ball and ran to the corner of the court and jumped up for a 3 point shot. The shot bounced off of the rim and Stan got the rebound. He threw it straight down the court to where Bernard was waiting who casually tossed up another 2 points. The game was now into its second minute but the ball had not even gotten close to Jon or Junior. Kate was watching carefully and the two of them were running around the court and keeping their eyes on the ball, but the ball handlers never even looked their way. However, Junior was now at half court while none of the other players were even near, so Junior and Mills trotted down so that Junior could throw in the ball. Even though Junior was close to 2 inches taller than him, Jon stayed in Junior’s face as he tried to pass the ball in. Junior opted to go above Jon and this time it was Biglane who, as his name suggested, was even taller than Junior. Biglane snatched the ball from the air and started driving hard toward the basket. He pulled up quickly at the foul line and tossed it over to Gonzalez, who then passed it right back to Mackay who went in for a layup and got the first two points on the board for Cottonwood. Ford got to in bound the ball this time and he finally passed it to Jon. Jon could feel Jason directly behind him so he started dribbling and slowly kept backing up. Stan rushed by. “Here!” he whisper-shouted at Jon who passed the ball off. Both Jon and Kate gave a huge sigh of relief- Jon had made it through his first possession of the ball with no issues. Granted, he had only had it for a total of 4 seconds, but that was saying something at least. Stan took the ball down the court to the half court mark, passed it to Bernard, who sent it to Ford who came up from behind him, who then passed it to Hobbs, who sent it back to Bernard who drilled through the middle for another layup and two more points, making the score now 6-2. Mackay passed the ball in to Gonzalez who drove all the way to the basket and made another 2 points. Stan passed the ball in to Jon who looked like a deer in headlights. Stan nodded at Jon who passed it back to him. As Stan passed by Jon, he said, “You’re okay. Take it easy. Breathe. You did fine.” With that, he dribbled past Jon. “What did he mean, you did fine?” Jason asked. “He’s a good friend of mine and he trained me to take over for one of the teammates who got killed earlier this week.” “I heard about that. Sorry, man. Did you know him?” “A bit.” Hobbs put another 2 points on the board. “Well, you did a good job as I was trying to pass the ball in.” “Coming from you, I take that as a compliment,” Jon nodded as the ball was passed back in and he and Jason turned their attention back to the game. “Aleisha!” a voice called from the stands. She jumped as she was in her own world in the files. Aleisha quickly closed Ford’s file. Mandy Jensen was standing next to her. “Mandy, how are you?” “Doing very well! Why are you here? I didn’t think you liked sports much.” “I’m here to support friends and, besides, you can’t miss the event of the season.” “How true! Are you going to support the cheerleading squad by buying pizza at the tables outside?” “Hadn’t thought much about it, actually.” “I will be working the tables until halftime. Make sure you come out and see me! Toodles!” Mandy blew a kiss toward Aleisha. Aleisha turned to Greg. “What an airheaded bitch!” Mackay passed the ball in but Hobbs intercepted the pass and went up for another quick two points, the layup was missed, which was met by a loud ‘Awww’ from the crowd, Mackay got the rebound and was finally able to get it passed to his player who took it past Jon. As Hobbs trotted past Jon, Mills spoke up. “What was that?” Jon asked. “What was what?” Hobbs asked in return. “The missed shot? You had that! How could you miss it?” Bernard yelled at the dueling duo, “Hey! We’re playing here!” Jon backed off. “Sorry!” Kate watched as Hobbs missed the basket. “Did you see that?” she asked to her two companions. “See what?” Both Aleisha and Greg looked up from their files and asked the same question at the same time. “I think Hobbs is throwing the game.” Greg looked at Kate with his head tilted slightly. “What makes you think that?” “He just missed that layup.” Greg blinked twice. “He missed a shot and you think he’s throwing the game?” “Yes.” Kate noticed Jon and Bernard talking on the court and her attention diverted. “So, if Jon misses a shot, is he part of the enemy as well?” Aleisha asked. “No,” Kate’s attention came back to the conversation. “ I mean-“ “Kate, “Greg started, “I have played many, many games of basketball just screwing around with Stan. Even when you “know” the shot will go in, sometimes the slightest bits of physics make it so that the shot rolls out, or bounces off. Sports are never something where you know that one outcome will always occur if the same thing is done each time- that’s where the competitiveness comes in.” Kate was silent and watched a play where Cottonwood got a basket of their own before Ford threw the ball into the Warriors. She shook her head. “I guess you’re right. That’s how games open up, isn’t it? One team gets several points in a row and the other team doesn’t.” “Exactly!” Aleisha agreed. Kate thought and bit her lip. “Maybe Cottonwood is throwing the game…” At the end of the first quarter, the score sat at Taylorsville 26, Cottonwood 20. “It has been a rather disappointing first half, Dan, “ Natalie spoke into the camera. “Junior Grissom has only had the ball a few times and his guard, Neal Page, has also done very little so far. At times, it almost seems like there are only 4 players on the court.” Kate could tell, a little camaraderie was developing in their quick bursts of dialogue whenever one of them did get to touch the ball. Kate stood up from her seat. “Nothing yet?” she asked. Greg and Aleisha both shook their heads, but at differing speeds. “Not yet, Kate,” Greg admitted. “If it’s here, we’re not seeing it.” “Keep looking- I’m going to connect up with the rest of the team.” Kate inched her way through the mass of people crowding every available open space and made it to the gym door, leading to the hallway in the school. Greg heaved a huge sigh and dug back into the files. “If it is there in Tanis, then it was something that man was not meant to disturb,” he muttered. “What?” Aleisha asked, puzzled. “Sorry. It’s a quote. Raiders of the Lost Ark? Sallah?” Greg’s voice deepened into a horrible impression of John Rhys Davies, “Indy, there is something that troubles me. If the Ark is there at Tanis, then it is something that man was not meant to disturb.” He shook his head at Aleisha’s blank stare. “No? Really? Wow! We have to get you to see that!” Kate walked into the mass of people which was, rumor had it, one time a hallway in the school. She searched for Bender’s graying hairstyle in the mass of exodus to the restrooms or the snack counters that had been set up on the sides of the hallways which corralled the large group into an even more confined space when she ran into the man in front of her, swinging her elbow into his as she craned around, searching. “Ow!” he yelled. “What in the name of- “ the man turned around, “Kate!” She was surprised to see Chad Peterson turn around. “Sorry! I was looking for Bender. I thought that you were not going to be inside the school.” “Since we’re all kind’ve flying blind, they have requested all hands on deck.” “Come here,” Kate grabbed Chad by the other elbow and ever so slowly maneuvered him to the doorways which led to the main hallway of the school. Reaching the doors, they were, not too surprisingly locked, but Kate slipped a long, thin metal tool out of her jacket and smoothly jimmied the door open. She slipped the tool back into her jacket and she and Chad slipped through a small opening that she made and then quickly shut it behind them so they were alone in the hall. “You guys don’t have anything yet?” Kate asked Chad. “Nothing.” “I had a thought from a shot early on in the game where Hobbs missed a shot and it almost looked deliberate. Is it possible that either team is throwing the game?” “Why would they? It wouldn’t make any sense. There would be nothing in it for anyone. This is a high school game so no money changes hands in Vegas, it is the first time for national TV exposure for either team, so not winning will not look good for either of them, throwing the game is a lose-lose. Did you ever think that it was just the way the ball bounced, literally?” Kate smiled. “I got schooled in the ways of basketball already by Greg. If it’s not about throwing the game, that takes out gambling. Junior hasn’t had the ball much yet, so my guess is that he’s not as good as he’s made out to be-“ “Or he’s better,” Chad interrupted. “Or he’s better,” Kate agreed. “But at this time, we can’t assume that, so that takes out anything against Junior.” They looked at each other while Kate bit her lip again. “Chad, what the hell is going on here?” Coach Malone was in the middle of a profanity laced tirade against his players. “We should be up by a hell of a lot more than those 6 points! We need to really show the world what we have, dammit! This team should be the best of the best, but we are only up by a measly 6 points! What do you have to say for yourselves?” The team was silent. Except for Jon. “So, what you’re saying is that we are a huge disappointment even though we are winning?” “Don’t even start with me, Mr. Mills…” Jon held up his index finger. “Page. Remember?” he thought he saw Coach’s eye twitch. The buzzer sounded and the team returned to the court. Coach grabbed Hobbs by the shoulder. Mustache walked into the gym from behind the curtains of the TSC Sports team. He maneuvered his way around the court. He stood by the Taylorsville team’s water table as Coach Malone gave his rousing speech.. He took a cup of water from the table, drank it, and as he went to set the empty cup down on the table, slipped a piece of paper into it. He then went and found an empty seat in the bleachers. Bender whistled at Peterson from the balcony hallway overlooking the madness of the gym hallway. Chad looked up. Walter pointed to a stairway at the end of a hallway behind the snack tables. Peterson moved to the edge of the snack tables and waited for the cheerleader employees of the snack bar to have their backs turned and he slid his way through the space between the edge of the table and the end of a wall and went up the stairwell. He found Walter waiting for him. “Anything yet?” “Nada, “ Chad confirmed. “Come on, Jon & Kate, it’s got to be there.” Grissom came back out to the court and met Jon in the middle. “Another slow quarter for us?” Junior Grissom asked. “I’m actually hoping to see a bit of excitement, “Jon countered. The ball was thrown in and Stan tossed it Jon’s way. Grissom went to reach for it and deflected the ball, but Jon took a step to his left, stretched and reached and got control of the ball. “There you go!” Grissom grinned. Jon faked going to the left. Grissom countered. Jon stepped to the right and Grissom went to get ahead of him while Jon ended up feigning the move to the right and actually ended up going left. He was able to get two steps on Grissom. Stan had gotten ahead of Jon so Jon passed the ball back to him. Stan nodded. “Ready?” Jon looked at his surroundings and nodded. Stan passed the ball back to Jon, who stopped in his tracks, squared up to the basket and made a shot. The ball hit the front of the rim, spun slightly off to the right, circled the hoop, touched the backboard as it circled around and, wobbling, dropped through the hoop. Stan pumped his fist. “Yeah!” Jon whooped. Natalie clapped her approval. Kate was just walking back into the gym and missed everything except the actual shot. She beamed her approval and started clapping. “Way to go!” she yelled. Aleisha had noticed when Stan passed in the ball to Jon and had made sure that Greg was watching. They both looked up from their files and watched Jon make his basket. They stomped their feet, clapped and hollered their approval as well. Jon’s eyes watched as his two points got added to the board and a sly grin crept onto his face. Everyone’s eyes were on Jon. Nobody saw Hobbs. The grin was only on Jon’s face for a moment before Jason Hobbs collided with Jon, sending Mills sprawling to the floor. Hobbs had been watching the ball being rebounded and ran full speed into Jon as he was backing up. Again, Jon’s lungs exploded as the wind was knocked out of him. His vision dimmed as he tried to get air into his lungs. In what seemed like another world, he could hear whistles blowing in the gym as the referees stopped the game. His body pulled into a fetal position. Kate stopped where she was on the sidelines. “That was a cheap shot, ref!” Aleisha and Greg stopped their clapping and winced as they watched Jon hit the floor. The sly grin moved from Jon’s face to Coach Malone’s and Mustache’s faces. Stan knelt by Jon. “Can you hear me?” Although he was facing the opposite way, Jon nodded slowly as he attempted to straighten out his body. “I’m going to get you to the bench. Let me know when you’re ready.” Jon nodded again. Jason Grissom Junior came and knelt by Stan as well. “I’ll help you out.” Jon’s head was still ringing as he finally fully straightened out. He gave a big stretch to his muscles, turned over, and, while his eyes were still closed, gave his hand to Stan. Stan braced him and, with Grissom’s help on the other side, lifted Jon to his feet. “How sweet. Thank you, Mr. Grissom, our team could not have handled that!” Coach Malone called from the sidelines. “What a dick,” Grissom muttered. “You don’t know the half of it,” Stan replied. Jon took slow, long, breaths as he got his wind back. The referee came over and walked alongside the trio. “You okay, son?” “I will be.” Jon acknowledged. Grissom and Stan went to take him to the bench, but Jon waved them off. “Actually, can you take me into the locker room for a minute?” Grissom looked at Stan. “Are we allowed to?” “I don’t see why not.” They started moving him toward the locker room entrance. “Hey!” Malone yelled. “He can’t go in there!” “That’s where he wants to go,” Stan yelled back. “Not him!” Malone was motioning to the trio, ‘him!” It finally dawned on them that they were talking about Grissom. Grissom nodded and let Jon’s left side down. “No worries,” Grissom said. He looked at Jon. “You going to be okay?” “Yeah. I’ll be okay. Just give me a second.” “Get back soon, okay? I want to see you back here before the half.” Grissom backed off and headed back to the court. Jon looked at Stan. “Take me to my locker, please.” A tall, older, white haired man showed up at Stan’s side. “I’m an off duty ref. Can I take him into the locker room?” Stan looked at Coach who was flabbergasted at all of the people wanting to help Jon. “Sure.” Stan handed off Jon’s right side to the man who helped Jon into the locker room while Stan went back to the court. Kate was making her way to the locker room entrance when Coach Malone stepped in front of her. “Not this time, sweetheart. He wants to play, let him play.” Kate glared at him and went back to the hallway to find Chad or Walter. Jon could hear that the game had started again. “You okay, Mr. Page?” the referee asked. Jon felt his ribs tenderly, testing the strength of the touch. He winced at a few points, but he could tell it was just tender and not broken. “Yes. Yes. I’m okay.” The older gentleman placed his hand on Jon’s back. “If you’re okay, I’m going to go back out and watch the game. “ “Please. Yes, it’s okay. I’ll be fine. I just need to get some ibuprofen out of my locker. I’ll take it, wait a few minutes, and be right back out.” The man patted Jon’s back softly. “Hurry back. You’re doing fine out there.” Jon closed his eyes until he could not hear the man’s footsteps anymore. “What the hell am I doing-?” Jon asked the air. It only took a few seconds to dislodge all of Jon’s confidence that he had built up. Jon took some slow, long breaths and slowly let them out. He progressively let the breaths get deeper and deeper until it felt like he was breathing normally again. He reached into his locker and realized that the ibuprofen was actually in his bag. “Shit, what else can happen?” He slumped back onto the bench. Jon noticed that Nick’s locker was actually still not fully closed. He reopened it and saw Nick’s medallion still hanging on the hook. Jon put his hand under the medallion and watched it shimmer in the light. He heard some cheers and some groans in the crowd outside. “I hope you don’t mind, wherever you are.” Jon took the medallion in his hand and raised it up so that it came off of the hook. He then unclasped the back and put it around his neck. “You’re going to finish this with me, Nick.” Jon tucked the medallion under his jersey, stood up and closed the locker. It was then that he noticed the piece of paper on the floor in front of the locker. He was sure it hadn’t been there previously. Had the man dropped it? Had it come loose when he was kicking the locker before the game? Did he dislodge it while he was getting the necklace? He didn’t know, but he knew it hadn’t been there long. He bent to pick it up. His head still throbbed. Greg’s eyes froze when he spotted the discrepancy. “It couldn’t be that easy, could it?” He flipped from Ford’s file to Hobbs’ and then to Bernard’s. Aleisha stopped her scanning. “What did you find?” Kate heard a whistle as she wandered the halls. She spotted Walter as he was coming down the staircase behind the snack tables. Walter saw her and motioned her to follow him. “What’s the latest?” he asked. “Jon made a basket and then clobbered by Hobbs. Stan & Grissom helped him to the locker room, but Coach cut me off.” “No closer on what’s going on?” “Nothing. I have Aleisha and Greg helping look through the files since Nick said it was there, but we have yet to find it.” They reached the upper hallway. “We are on a very limited time table here. Minutes are skipping away.” Kate turned on him. “Don’t you think I know that? I have been turning this over and over in my head, but I can’t find one damn other thing about the case! Unless Junior is going to be killed, but we have no evidence of that. Gambling was a possibility, but there’s no evidence of that. The best we have is that this could make everybody’s stock go up who is involved in this!” They came to the upper hallway which ran parallel to the crowded lower hallway by the gym. Kate walked to the opposite side and leaned against the wall which came up to her upper thighs. “I have nothing else, Bender. We are stuck!” “I know that, Kate, but we can’t find anything on our side, either. We must be missing something!” Kate closed her eyes and bent her neck back, hearing several cracks as she did so. “I know. I know.” Just as she did so, a stream of water hit her in the back of the head. “What the hell?” she turned around and looked down. Three kids, about 12 years old, were running down the hallway below her, which ran perpendicular to the hallway she and Walter were talking on. “Hey!” she yelled. “It’s a very good thing-“ she stopped her sentence sharply. And looked down. “Oh, no.” “By my estimation-“ Walter started. “Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no-“ Kate repeated as she looked down, back to where she and Walter were standing and back below. Walter continued, “- we only have until either halftime or right after the game-“ “no, no, no, no, no-“Kate continued muttering. “ until whatever is going to happen is going to happen.” Walter finished. Kate unholstered her gun. “Or not even that long.” The fire alarm started sounding through the hallways and almost immediately, spectators started pouring out of the gymnasium. “Oh, shit.” Kate started running for the gym.