Chapter 2

After the call with Tina’s father, Coach O’Dell returned to the waiting room to talk to the team members that were gathered there. There were several police officers and a few others present. Things seemed tense.

“Hey, hey, calm down everyone. Kids take a seat.”

“Who are you?” Coach was being addressed by a man in a suit.

“I am Coach Paul O’Dell, coach of the State swim team. These are some of my swimmers and Tina is one of my recruits. May I ask for your identification, please.”

“I am Detective Roger Reeley.” He showed his badge and credentials as he introduced himself.

“I need to talk to all of these kids. In my mind they are primary suspects.”

“What? That is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. My kids are not the kind of people to do anything this filthy. We are all stunned by it.”

“Well, be that as it may, the victim was in your care. She was staying with your people and she was found on your doorstep, by one of your people. I would like to get DNA samples from all of your people.”

“Why is that?”

“This is a rape. There will be DNA evidence.”

“No there is not. Dr. Fielding says that the attackers must have used condoms because they found no DNA evidence of any kind, anywhere.”

“I wasn’t told that. Excuse me. I need to talk to the doctor.”

The detective seemed angry when he left the waiting area and asked the nurse at the desk to get the doctor. Dr. Fielding came out a few minutes later and the two men had a discussion. The detective became a bit animated towards the end of the discussion. He threw his arms in the air and turned to walk back to the waiting area.

“Coach O’Dell, the doctor confirms your story. I really hate to say this to you, but with no DNA evidence, unless that girl can present proof of who attacked her, we are at a dead end as far as finding the perps.”

“Tina mentioned one particular guy that brought her a drink before she blacked out. But when we spoke, she could not remember much. The doctor thought that her memory could be affected by the drugs. He thought that her memory could come back after a bit of time.”

“Great. Would you come with me while I talk with her?”

“Detective, if you can wait until tomorrow, Tina’s dad will be here. I think that she may still be knocked out from the strain of her heart attack.”

“Heart attack!?”

“Yes. When the doctor told her that she had been raped her heart stopped. She was a virgin. I guess the shock was too much. They brought her back but have her sedated.”

“This is going to be a tough one if her memory of last night is faulty. I’ll have the hospital call me when her father arrives.”

“I hope they call me too. We consider her to be a member of our Family.”

The team and coach all walked out of the ER.

“Kids, obviously, no practice today. Stay in the house and don’t go looking for anyone. I don’t need Carls throwing someone through a window; including you, Paul. I’ll let you know what’s going on as soon as I know anything.”

The kids went to the big van they used to get to practice and the coach to his car. As he drove to his home out in the country, he began to consider his options. As he ran things through his brain it became very clear that the police would be able to do nothing. The Campus Police would be worse. Tina’s attackers were going to get away scot-free.

There was only one thing to do to protect the Family. He had to depend on ‘them’. They had never let him down before. He seldom called them because they were so good at keeping up with things and one of them called him each week to check on the team, the facilities, his health, his wife and kid’s health.

They were more than alumni. They had connections and they could bring pressure to the schools administration at the highest level. They were also top-notch fund raisers and were loyal to the team Family to the nth degree.

He got home, kissed his wife like a robot and walked into his den.

“Paul, what’s wrong?”

“I have a problem. The little girl from Ohio that we brought here to recruit was drugged and raped last night. There is no DNA evidence and it doesn’t look like this case is going to go anywhere. She is such a sweet kid and we really wanted her to come here. But more than that, she was a virgin and she was under our care. The swimmers had already considered her to be a member of the Family.”

“Would you like something to eat or drink? A little scotch, maybe?”

“Sure. Then I have to make a phone call.”

“A phone call?”

“Yes, dear.”

His wife reappeared a few minutes later with two fingers of his favorite scotch in a glass, neat. She left it on his desk since he was deep in thought. She knew what he was struggling with. He was a man who believed in the Family and in the protection of it. The Coach picked up the phone and pushed the number pads and waited for the call to be answered.

“Hello Coach! I’d say that it’s nice to hear from you but you never call this number unless it’s an emergency. So what’s going on?”

“I have a problem.”

I proceeded to tell the tale with as much detail as I could remember, while sipping on the scotch. The smoky, peaty flavor of the Laphroaig seemed to fit my dark mood.

“Tomorrow I’m to meet with Tina’s dad when he flies in. Then I’ll see what the police have to say. From what the detective told me; he doesn’t expect a good outcome. No DNA from the attackers and the girl was unconscious.”

“Got it. Let us look into it and I’ll call you back.” The line went dead and Coach set the phone on the desktop.

Now the wheels were set into motion. He walked out of the den and into the kitchen where he dropped off his empty glass, then went to the family room. His wife patted the couch next to her with one hand and held out a cup of tea with the other. He sat next to her and leaned against her shoulder. She often said that Coach was the strongest man she knew, but to see him like this was going to affect the entire family.

Our daughter came into the room and saw us. She immediately walked over and just stood in front of me and smiled.

“What are you doing, Pookie?” He asked her.

“I’m giving you some of my happiness. I love you, daddy.”

Her 11 yr old face was glowing. He leaned forward, gave her a hug and returned to his previous position, but this time with a smile on his face.

“Deb, have I ever thanked you for giving me two wonderful kids? I don’t think there is a luckier man in the world than me.”

They sat on the couch listening to the sounds of his family until lunch. They ate and he went out on his deck t sit in the sun. Deb brought him a glass of iced tea and left him to his thoughts. The rest of the day progressed like that, broken only by happy children expressing their concern and sharing their love with him. About 10 PM, the kids went to their beds, and Coach and his wife went to theirs. Deb O’Dell tried to take away the worries of the day as they joined together.

In the morning the Coach rose and dressed. It was Sunday so there was no practice. He normally slept late and then went to church with his wife and children. At the breakfast table he was quiet to the point that the kids noticed.

“Dad, are you OK?”

He looked at his son and daughter and wife.

“Yes son. We had a bad incident with the team yesterday and it is bothering me.”

“Is the Family coming together? Can I help?”

Coach looked at his 13 yr old son and smiled.

“I don’t know if I tell you enough how much I love you, Ben, and how proud I am of the young man you are. Yes, the Family is coming together, and you help every time you show your caring nature.”

They washed and dried the dishes, by hand, and went to church. The sermon that morning was about relying on God but acting for you. The point being that man has free will and should use it to act and to affect the people and places around him, but still believe that God has a plan and be aware of how our choices fit into our understanding of the plan. A pretty simple concept; one he often spoke to his team about.

He set the teams visions and values. They were that the Team cannot make goals happen without each member ultimately reaching their individual goals. Their individual goals will only be reached by each person acting to reach their goals. Each person’s goals will not be reached by sitting back and riding the coat tails of those who are actively pursuing their own goals. That is how a family works together. That is how a team becomes Family.

After church there was a quick stop for some of the best greasy burgers in the world. The place they always went after church had a huge grill that ran the length of the counter. There was a slight tilt to the grill surface from right to left. The burgers, steaks, chick breasts and thighs were grilled to the left. You see at the right side of the grill was a little slice of heaven.

On the right side of the grill is where a mix of sweet onions and roasted garlic were being grilled in butter. Yes, in butter! Yes, in real butter! The combined garlic, onion and butter mix ran down to the left side of the grill where they mixed into the other little slice of heaven, the various meats that were cooking at the other end of the grill.

The juicy, oniony, garlicy, buttery mix was collected and returned to the right side of the grill and was used to sauté more of the onions and garlic before they were placed on the burgers. A little further to the left, at the very end of the grill was the spot where the jalapenos cooked if they were needed. With Coach’s family, they were always needed.

When they got home, Coach checked his email and found that Tina’s father would be arriving at the airport at 2:30 PM. He called Carla and asked if she and Paul would let the Sports Council know about the attack. He told her when he would pick up Tina’s father and be at the hospital. He asked his Captains to meet him at the hospital. Of course, his two captains were more than happy to help, they were Family.

Carla and Paul had met during their recruiting trip to State. Carla was from northern California and Paul was from Florida. They had a lot in common, in that they swam the same events, they both were graduating with honors in math and they both wanted to get their masters and PhDs in math and then work in the space program. Carla grew up swimming and hanging around with the kids of families that works at the Jet Propulsion Lab and Paul hung around with the kids whose parents worked for NASA.

As their freshman year progressed, they became closer and began to show their growing leadership skills among the freshman class. After the end of the season picnic that the team held every year at Coach’s home, Carla gave Paul her virginity during their first night in the swimmer house. During the spring break of their sophomore year, Paul took Carla home to meet his family and then they flew to NorCal to meet hers. Both families immediately fell in love their child’s choice of a potential mate.

With Carla being six feet tall and Paul being six feet six inches tall they always stood out in a crowd. Both were funny and outgoing and never met a stranger that they could not talk to. They were as close as two people could be and they were still going strong in their senior year.

The only thing that seemed to be different between then was their temperament when it came to family. They were immediately taken in by the others family, but they also were at the strong, solid core of the sports family at State. The captains of the various clubs formed a council to discuss issues having to do with athletics and being student athletes. Carla and Paul were the two biggest proponents and organizers of the group.

Team is Family was their motto, stolen from the Coach, and they used their positions and their charisma to bond all of the sports teams together. If the captain of the football team had a problem he could not figure out, he could call the captain of the tennis team or the wrestling team or the swimming team; to get help with it.

So, when word got out that something had happened to a potential swim team member, the entire sports family at State was affected and responded. The women captains of every team came to Tina’s hospital room between Saturday night and Sunday noon. They brought cards signed by the members of their teams and small gifts. They all expressed the same sentiment. We are a Family and we will find who did this and they WILL pay. We want you to come to school here and we want you to know that an incident like this will NEVER happen to you again.

Carla and Paul had not orchestrated any of this except in that they HAD orchestrated the Team is Family concept amongst all of the groups on campus. The other teams did it because it was the right thing to do. It was a constant source of pride among the athletic administration and earned the Coach and his kids a special place in their hearts and minds.

Therefore, it came as no surprise that when Walter Workowski arrived at the hospital, the captains of several women’s and men’s teams greeted him and assured him that they would do all they could to make this right. The Greek community and the Jock community usually got along well at State. By Sunday morning the word went out that a recruit had been drugged and raped at a frat house party and the narrowing down process had begun.