by Gregg Stutts
“Coach, it’s time to wrap this up,” Donnie said. “It’s after 1:30 now. And I don’t mean to be disrespectful to Ms. Jones here, but Jack Murphy isn’t here to defend himself.”
Coach Patterson looked at Donnie and with the firmness of a head football coach said, “Sit down. We’ll hear what Ms. Jones has to say.”
“And so we moved to Lakeside after Dante finished up his sophomore year. And he played football last year for Coach Henry here.”
“Ms. Jones, tell us what happened to Dante,” Max said.
“Dante started getting letters,” she said.
“You mean recruiting letters?” Max said.
“Yes sir,” she said. “Like Alabama and LSU and Florida and Arkansas. He probably got two-dozen letters. They just kept coming.”
“What happened then?” Max said.
“Then the phone calls started. Those coaches started calling the house and asking to speak to Dante,” she said. “And pretty soon, Dante said he wanted to visit some of them schools.”
“That must have been exciting,” Max said.
“Except Mr. Murphy said that because we got the house and I got the job, Dante had to go to Northern Arkansas State,” she said.
“Then what?” Max said.
“Well, then Mr. Murphy warned Dante that he couldn’t do that. He said a man had to honor his word.”
“How did Dante take that?” Max asked.
“Well, he told Mr. Murphy he was gonna make it to the NFL one day and he’d pay him back for the house,” she said.
Max felt like he was playing district attorney. He hoped the pseudo-jury of Lakeside residents and media were buying his case.
“Ms. Jones, to the best of your knowledge, was there anything wrong with Dante’s car?” Max asked. “What I mean is, the police investigation concluded the brakes failed on Dante’s car and he hit a tree.”
“That was a brand, new car,” Ms. Jones said. “Mr. Murphy bought it for Dante. There wasn’t nothin’ wrong with the brakes.”
Max looked at Donnie and said, “You wouldn’t happen to have any knowledge of Dante’s wreck, would you?”
Donnie came out of his seat and yelled, “I’ve had enough! I already told you I know nothing about that! This meeting is over!”
The room suddenly got loud as people stood and started shouting questions. It looked like the meeting really was over. Max could see Terry Cook headed toward him now. He just hoped he’d raised enough questions to get the media to dig into what had happened.
Then the one person in the room who could bring order, did. Coach Patterson stepped up to the microphone, leaned in close and said in the raspy, commanding voice of a football coach, “Sit down and be quiet.”
And everyone did as they were told.
Chapter 97
Coach Patterson didn’t need to say it twice. Even the chief of police sat back down. Once they were all seated again, Coach Patterson cleared his throat and said, “I’d like to hear the answer to that last question.” And then he looked down from the stage at Donnie Black and said, “Donnie, do you know anything about the accident that caused that boy’s death?”
Someone in the back of the room stood up and shouted, “Don’t answer that, Donnie!” Max didn’t know his name but recognized him as a local attorney.
Coach Patterson looked at the attorney and said, “I told you to be quiet.” When he continued to shout, several former players who were seated nearby stood up. The attorney reluctantly, but wisely, sat back down and stopped talking.
“If you want to know about Dante’s accident or Jack Murphy’s death, ask those two guys,” Donnie said as he pointed to the two men at the back of the room.
Every head in the room turned to look. They looked at each other and then the door, but they could see they had nowhere to go. Terry Cook, who just a minute earlier had been moving toward Max and Donnie, was now making his way to the back of the room toward Alex Martin and his partner.
“Oh no!” Alex shouted. “I’m not going down for this. Mike and I only did what Donnie told us to do.” Max was glad to see the television camera was now pointed at Alex.
Coach Patterson interrupted. “Terry, before you get in a rush to arrest these two boys, why don’t you tell us why your department ruled Dante’s accident was due to brake failure when Max has this picture here that shows skid marks and damage to the rear end?”
Terry stopped where he was. “Coach, I have every reason to believe Max Henry was involved in all this and is trying to point the finger at others to save himself. We have evidence that Max had a fight with Jack Murphy and threatened him. We also have video evidence clearly showing Jack leaving the field house on Saturday and Max leaving right after him. Thirty minutes later, we found Jack Murphy dead.”
Now all eyes were back on Max. And then from the corner of the room, someone said, “Max Henry didn’t follow Jack to the place he was found killed. Those two guys right there did. I saw them stop behind Jack’s car and get out.” It was Willy, and he’d just pointed to Alex and Mike. “My wife, Rose, was with me, too.” Then Willy said, “So don’t add to the corruption in your police department by accusing an innocent man, Terry.”
As Terry sat back down, Max saw Coach Patterson pull out a cell phone and make a call.
He hated to do it, but Max looked at Bill Jackson, who was trying to sink down in his seat as far as he could, but he just couldn’t sink far enough. “Are you going to say anything, Bill?” Max said. He’d given Bill a chance to do the right thing in his office. It was too late now.
“I didn’t want anything to do with this,” Bill said. “Jack got himself in too far and came to me for help. He said Donnie wanted to scare Dante, but things had gotten out of hand.”
Donnie was now taking the attorney’s advice and not saying a word, but if looks could kill, Max knew he’d already be dead.
Coach Patterson finished his phone call and looked out over the room. Max knew he had to feel devastated by what he’d just heard. “I’m going to suggest we all remain here,” Coach said. “I know some of you have to get back to work or to other meetings, but I think you’ll agree it would be best to stay.” And after a moment, he added, “I called a friend, Steve Kessinger, he’s a captain with the Arkansas State Police. He’s on his way with some of his men.”
The truth was out now. Life in Lakeside had been forever altered. The fallout would change the lives and fortunes of a lot of people in town and at the university.
Chapter 98
Thursday, October 3
By the next day, all the national networks and ESPN had picked up the story. For the most part, they were getting the story straight, which looked bad for just about everyone involved. Some speculated about Max’s involvement—what he knew and when he knew it—but generally speaking, he was portrayed as the courageous whistle blower.
As expected, there’d been major fallout for all the key players. The state police were handling the investigation. Donnie, Alex and Mike had already been arrested in connection with the deaths of Dante Jones and Jack Murphy. Terry Cook, the chief of police, and several of his officers were arrested on corruption charges. And the state attorney general was assuming control of the Lakeside Police Department.
Within twenty-four hours of the Touchdown Club meeting, the NCAA announced an investigation into the football program at Northern Arkansas State. While it appeared that Joe Patterson had no prior knowledge of Donnie Black’s activities at the Pioneers Foundation, he was in a no-win situation. An hour after the NCAA investigation was made public, Coach Patterson called a press conference and announced he’d just met with the university president who’d accepted his resignation as head football coach effective immediately.
Max was sorry for the way he’d made the charges public and had caught Coach Patterson off guard, but he had no other choice. As much as he respected Joe Patterson, his and Michelle’s safety were more important.
The Lakeside Board of Education held a special
meeting on Thursday night and terminated Bill Jackson’s employment. Criminal charges against him were pending. Max couldn’t help thinking it would have gone much better for him had he only cooperated when Max had given him the chance. The board voted to keep Max on as football coach pending the outcome of the state police investigation.
Chapter 99
Friday, October 4
Max opened the newspaper on Friday morning. The lead story was Coach Henry Keeps Job at Lakeside. Max skimmed the article. No real surprises, which was nice. The biggest question was whether or not the university would receive the death penalty—the complete shut-down of the football program. That wouldn’t be known for some time.
Since the issues surrounding the program seemed to be confined to the foundation and not the actual athletic department, the death penalty seemed unlikely. Still though, it would take years for the football program to recover. What Joe Patterson had spent almost four decades building was being torn down in a matter of days.
It was eight o’clock when Max finished reading the paper. Kick-off against Fort Smith Northside was in eleven hours. He took a sip of coffee and was grateful to still have his job, unlike Donnie Black, who would probably spend the rest of his life in prison.
Dave Turner had coached the team all week in preparation for Northside. Max had a meeting with him at 9:00 to be brought up to speed on the game plan and how the week of practices had gone. If Lakeside was going to finish above .500 and make the playoffs, tonight’s game was a must-win.
After the last five weeks though, the term “must-win” had taken on a different meaning. Donnie Black and Jack Murphy had gotten carried away by a must-win mentality, and it had cost people their lives.
If there was a must-win for Max, it was with Michelle. He’d lost all sight of that but didn’t plan to make that mistake again. He was looking forward to Michelle meeting Willy and Rose. If they needed more help than what Willy and Rose could offer, then Max was ready to see a counselor also. He vowed to never again let anything come between Michelle and him.
And he couldn’t imagine anything that would.
Chapter 100
Three weeks later…
Friday, October 25
Max called timeout with three seconds remaining in the game. Lakeside was down 21-20 but had moved the ball to the Van Buren 27-yard line. They had a chance to tie the game late in the third quarter after a touchdown, but the extra point was wide right. Now Max needed the same kicker who missed the extra point to hit a game-winning field goal from forty-four yards.
He took his kicker aside to try and calm him down. The kid already felt terrible for missing the extra point. He knew how important it was to win the game. For most of the fourth quarter, he’d assumed he’d cost the team the game and the season, but a fumble by Van Buren with just three minutes left had given Lakeside new life.
Max looked at Tommy Edwards, whose helmet seemed a size too big. “How ya feelin’, Tommy?”
“Okay, coach,” Tommy said in a garbled voice while nervously chewing on his mouthpiece.
“Your mom and dad here tonight?” Max said.
Tommy nodded. His eyes were as wide as saucers.
“I’ve seen you hit from this distance in practice,” Max said. “You’ve got this.”
Tommy kept nodding.
“Can I tell you something?” Max said. “Football is a great game, but it’s just a game. I forgot that. So did a lot of other people.” Max paused. “But it’s just a game. And games should be fun. So have fun with this, Tommy.”
The official blew the whistle and called both teams onto the field. They lined up and the official started the play clock. Van Buren players were moving around trying to create confusion for Lakeside.
Lakeside’s center snapped the ball and Van Buren rushed hard right up the middle. The snap was slightly high, but Lakeside’s holder reached up and pulled it down. Tommy was stepping toward the ball just as the holder got the ball in place.
The Van Buren defenders jumped and extended as much as they could. Tommy’s foot connected with the ball, which just barely cleared the outstretched hands of two linemen. Tommy hit it well. It would have the distance. The ball was starting to hook and there was just enough of a breeze that it was pushing the ball left. Tommy had been afraid to miss it to the right again and had overcompensated.
The ball sailed into the bleachers beyond the end zone where the Lakeside band sat. And then the Lakeside band threw their hands in the air and screamed. The officials positioned underneath the goal posts looked at each other, took two steps forward and put their hands in the air indicating the kick was good.
From Max’s angle, the kick had looked wide left, but Tommy had snuck it inside the goal post by inches. Lakeside players ran onto the field to celebrate a much needed come-from-behind victory. While the team celebrated on the field, Max turned to find Michelle in her usual spot in the stands at the fifty-yard line two rows below the press box.
But she wasn’t there.
Chapter 101
Saturday, October 26
Max was up early on Saturday morning feeling good about the win the night before. Their record now stood at 5-4 with just one game remaining against Bentonville. A win meant a definite playoff berth. A loss wouldn’t automatically knock them out, but they’d be depending on someone else to lose also. With everything that had gone on in the past couple months, he was very pleased to be in a situation where the playoffs were still on the table.
He made a pot of coffee, poured a mug for himself and one for Michelle, and brought hers to the bedroom and left it on her nightstand. She rolled over, looked at it and said, “I don’t think I can do coffee this morning. Still feeling a little sick.” She hadn’t felt good the previous night and had left the game early.
“Do you think you’ll be well enough to meet with Willy and Rose?” he asked.
“I think so,” Michelle said. “Let me see how I feel when I get up.”
He had wanted to introduce Michelle to Willy and Rose sooner, but October had flown by. Willy and Rose had traveled to visit some of their children and grandchildren. Then, between football and Michelle’s schedule at school, there just hadn’t been time. It was hard to believe it was already the end of October.
By the time they needed to leave, Michelle was feeling a little better, so they were able to keep their appointment at nine. Willy greeted them at the door and gave Michelle a long hug and kiss on the cheek. Rose was just as excited to finally meet her.
The mornings were cooler now, so Rose had set the breakfast table inside. Over the next hour, they ate breakfast while Willy and Rose asked Michelle about her family, her job, her dreams and then her feelings about how she and Max were doing. Fortunately, he didn’t hear Michelle share anything that surprised him. Eventually, the conversation shifted to everything that had happened a month earlier, including Willy’s covering Max’s flight to New Jersey.
“I don’t know how I could ever thank you enough for all you did. If Max hadn’t come to New Jersey, I’m not sure where we’d be today,” Michelle said.
Max then walked them through the time in New Jersey, the drive home and being chased by Alex and Mike, the two guys from the Pioneers Foundation.
Michelle then shared more of her feelings that had led her to leave Lakeside and go to New Jersey in the first place. As she shared about the time she spent in Seaside Park, Max was hearing a few things for the first time, especially a few things about Chris. She didn’t go into great detail, so Max’s imagination began to fill in the blanks.
After Michelle finished her story, Willy and Rose opened up about some of their struggles earlier in their marriage. They assured Max and Michelle that greater joys and deeper intimacy awaited them, if they were willing to persevere through the valleys.
Later in the morning, Max was getting ready to watch game film from the Van Buren game at home rather than going to his office. Michelle still wasn’t feeling well, so he wanted to be close by in
case she needed him.
She went to the bedroom to lie down while Max got settled at the table with his laptop and yellow legal pad. As he was pulling up the Van Buren video, he remembered something Willy had said once said to him.
“Don’t be surprised by trials and difficulties. They’ll come when you least expect them.”
Chapter 102
Monday, October 28
On his drive home Monday evening, Max found himself thinking about the breakfast with Willy and Rose on Saturday and how it was becoming harder to not ask for more details about Michelle’s time with Chris. He couldn’t press too hard. She needed room to share things when she was ready, but it wasn’t easy. She needed her space, but he had a right to know.
