Page 14 of Who's Saving You
“Why would they keep the press from the players? A rivalry game would do well to drum up attention for the school.”
I can still hear the hesitation, but like a robot, she just repeats the same thing. “There was a press lock. That’s all I know.”
I check the drive time to the University. Nine hours. I close the laptop, ditch the rest of my coffee, and tell my editor I’ll be away for most of tomorrow.
~~
I went straight home, napped for a few hours, then got up and drove through the night, which brings me to Zeiders University by ten in the morning, and by half past, I’m in anold records room. The lighting is bad, and it smells like an old basement. It’s clear no one has been in here in quite some time. I pull a box off the shelf and settle into what could be a long day of nothing. But I have to try.
I pick through page after page, staring at memos that were posted to satisfy angry fans but never meant to be looked at again. It was a quick cover-up, and then the next season was pushed so hard that there was little time to focus on the missed game. Only talks of the next big win, the bright Friday Night Lights, and the banners that were promised to follow.
I continue searching, and one email catches my eye. It’s heavily redacted; half the page is black lines. But whatisvisible?
“ZU vs. Central State - Containment. Limit press access. Address in internal review only. Ensure Papas is unavailable until Monday, position as medical. Avoid mention of Raines. Do not involve Daniels.”
I pull up my notes from earlier, quickly scanning the team roster, and see the name Trevor Raines. Nik’s backup.
And Daniels? All I see with that name is the team’s statistician, Rhett Daniels. I throw both their names into the search finder on my phone. Rhett’s known aliases pop up, a few addresses, and some local relatives right there in Mistletoe Falls. As for Trevor, he actually lives in South Carolina, too, about 35 miles outside of Mistletoe Falls.
Weird, they all ended up in the same state.
There are no names of who wrote the email; it’s all just blurred out. But I can damn sure read the tone, and this screams crisis mode. Papas and medical in the same sentence have to be the “stomach bug” that was put out in the press. The timing of it is too perfect. But it doesn't make sense. He was at practice all week. I sawthe archived pictures and videos that the team posted leading up to the game.
From what I know about professional-bound athletes, you don’t just wake up on the biggest game of the season and give in to a stomach virus. I snap a photo of the document, lean back in the squeaky chair, and stare at the ceiling.
Nik Papas didn’t get sick. It seems to me that someone tried to end his big shot before it was even offered to him. And by the way he acts when that season is brought up? Nik knows who.
THREE WISE WOMEN (SOMETIMES)
Sloane: Where my girls at?
Olivia: Check in!
Olivia: I also know you’re not asking me
Sloane: I’m always asking for Noelle. She just disappears
Olivia: She loves her job more than us
Sloane: Proof of life, bitch!
Me: *pic of my middle finger with a sour rope wrapped around it*
Olivia: That's my classy big sister
Sloane: How’s the superstar?
Me: Too good to be true
Sloane: Sounds like every guy until you get to know them
Me: My thoughts exactly. This one’s hidingsomething
Olivia: How do you know?
Me: I just know.
Olivia: Writer’s intuition.
