AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She nodded slowly. “He was a good man. A man of integrity. And he said he’d be doing a disservice to the students and everyone in this community if he didn’t build the team back up before he left. He thought it would take him another two to three years.”
“I thought he had a good team,” Jack said. “What was going on?”
She sighed and looked toward the door. “It’s not easy to talk about. And it’s really put a strain on our friendship with the Ables since their son is part of it. Steve has had a talented group of players the past couple of years. But there’s something about this generation…lots of attitude and entitlement. They think they can skip practices or their teachers will pass them just because they play football. Steve sat all his starters for a game last fall because they all skipped out on an evening practice to go to some party. Parents and his coaches gave him hell, but he didn’t care and the principal backed him up. Steve has always said he cares more about raising up good men then winners.
“And several of them have grade issues too. I know for a fact Derek and Eli are both failing and will probably have to do summer school and make up credits next fall. Which means they won’t get to play football unless they could convince Steve to keep them on the team. And you can imagine the snowball effect that’s having. Both of those boys have been scouted since their freshman year and have already had offers to commit to D1 colleges. But Steve wasn’t going to play them. He has a strict no-pass, no-play rule.”
“So that’s why he needs to rebuild the team,” Jack said, understanding. “That’s a hard spot to be in. There aren’t a lot of men who would hold the line with that kind of integrity.”
Her smile trembled. “Well, there weren’t a lot of men like Steve. He’d already talked to the school board and the superintendent. Steve told them it was time to wipe the slate clean, and it was a privilege to be part of a winning organization like ours. He’s had problems with this batch the last couple of years. Archie Hill undermining him at every turn, causing division and disloyalty among the coaches, and playing favorites to the kids Steve keeps having to discipline. Those kids are more disrespectful every time they walk into class. It was just a bad situation all around.
“So Steve told them he wants to hire a whole new coaching staff next year, and he’s going to cut any player who isn’t academically meeting the marks, but also any player who needs an attitude adjustment in general. There’s a good crop of freshman coming up, and he said he could build a team out of anyone who worked hard and really wanted to be there.”
“And Derek Able is one of those kids?” Jack asked. “That must have been very hard.”
“You have no idea,” she said. “Joe and Lydia haven’t spoken to us for the last couple of weeks. But we’ve been friends a long time, so I was glad to see them yesterday.”
“Did Steve and Joe have a confrontation?” Jack asked.
“Boy, did they,” Lydia said. “Right in the backyard. It was right after Steve had met with his administration and told them what he wanted to do. Those meetings are closed door and supposed to be private, but someone spilled the beans, and it wasn’t long before we were getting phone calls from the newspaper and meeting requests with angry parents. Steve sent an email out to all his players and the parents talking about rumors and distractions and that when there was information to give they’d hear directly from him about it. That calmed most of them down, but Joe came over while Steve was barbecuing out back one evening. It was a Sunday so our daughter and her family were here, and we’d invited Don and Lynnell Wilkes from down the street. They’d had to put their dog down and it seemed like they needed the company.”
“What did Joe want?” Jack asked, trying to get her to focus back on the question.
She checked the door again to make sure we were alone. “He came over all smiles at first. Like usual. But then he started talking about what he’d heard from one of the administrators at school. Joe is a broker, and I guess he’s been doing some investing for some of the higher paid employees of the district without taking a fee, so they felt comfortable coming to him when they saw things were about to be shaken up.
“Joe asked Steve point-blank if the rumors were true, and Steve being Steve told him that changes had to be made for the greater good. That’s when Joe started yelling about how Steve wasn’t going to screw up Derek’s chances of getting into the school of his choice, and then Steve yelled back that if Derek couldn’t pass eleventh grade, why would he want him to go off and fail college. Derek is a smart kid, mind you, and Joe and Ada are both well educated. But Derek expects things handed to him on a silver platter. He has a terrible work ethic and he’s not the most respectful kid. Joe and Ada both laugh it off as teenage years and hormones, but it’s more than that. They bought him a brand-new Jeep when he got his license and he wrecked it the first week he had it. He’d been drinking and went into a ditch.”
“I didn’t hear about that,” Jack said. “No report was filed.”
“That’s because Joe took care of it. There wasn’t damage to anything but the Jeep, and it was on his own property where the accident happened. The cops weren’t called, the Jeep got towed, and Derek got a free pass. They bought him a Hummer a few weeks later. I guess that was their way of trying to keep him safe.”
“Sounds like they’re not doing him any favors,” I said.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I love Joe and Lydia like family, but they’ve done that boy a great disservice. And Eli is a follower. He’ll do anything that Derek is doing.”
“Did the argument get physical?” I asked.
“I thought it would,” she said. “We all heard the yelling so we were watching at the back window. But all of a sudden Joe seemed to get control of himself and he walked back over to his house. That was two weeks ago, and he didn’t approach Steve again. Not even when the school board had their meeting Wednesday night for contract renewals and Steve’s entire coaching staff wasn’t renewed.”
“Tell us about the shotgun,” Jack said. “Where did he usually keep it?”
Her lips pressed tight together at the mention of the gun and her fingers clamped together. “The top shelf of my kitchen pantry,” she said. “He wanted to keep it out of the way of the grandkids, but he wanted it handy. One of Steve’s few hobbies was feeding the birds and cataloguing the different ones that came to visit in the backyard. I always made fun of him and asked if he could have picked any more of an old man hobby.”
She chuckled to herself, lost in a memory we would never know. “But when Steve put the food out the squirrels saw that as an open invitation. He had all kinds of contraptions out there. He’d greased the poles and bought some machine off the internet that would fling the squirrels across the yard. But every time he tried something new they’d eventually figure out how to get past it. So that’s when he started using the shotgun. Thank God we live in a neighborhood where everyone has some land and space between their houses. The only neighbors who can really hear the gunshots are Ada and Joe.”
“How many people knew where Steve kept the gun?”
“Oh, gosh,” she said. “Everyone knew. It was rare for any company to come over where Steve didn’t talk about those stupid squirrels and then show everyone how he dealt with them.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Hargrove,” Jack said. “We won’t take up any more of your time.”
“Time is all I’ve got,” she said, getting to her feet and walking us to the door. “I’m not sure what to do next. I want to be in my home, but at the same time I don’t want to be there. But I know I can’t stay here too much longer.”
“We’ve done almost everything we can do over there,” Jack said. “I’m thinking I can have a cleaning crew come over tomorrow and put everything back to rights for you. And then you can do whatever is best for you.”
Jack’s hand was on the doorknob when Mrs. Hargrove put her hand on Jack’s shoulder. “I want to thank both of you.” Her eyes misted with tears and I had to blink back my own. “I know what the easy choice would have been after walking in on the scene you did yesterday. And I know you fought for him. None of this is easy, but knowing you fought for him helps. I just wanted to tell you that.”
I’m not the most affectionate person, but I pulled her into a hug and held her fragile body close to mine. Holding back tears wasn’t going to happen, and I felt them drip slowly down my cheeks.
