Chapter 14 Another Missing Link
Brooks woke up and felt no better. His head still hurt, it seemed like he had been thinking all night, even in his sleep. He knew he had to have some real results this week. If he didn't he'd have to tell Coach Vitrano. This football season was rapidly getting away from him and if he didn't do something soon the entire thing would be lost. Knowing that he could make a difference and that he was not getting any results was eating him up inside. He felt that since he'd figured out there was that camera in Coach Vitrano's office he was an accomplice.
Brooks picked up his phone. He had a text message from Brad that contained two pictures.
The first picture was of a bald man standing around a fire pit smoking a cigarette. The other was a picture of a cigarette butt on the ground – the red, black and gold bands clearly identified the butt as that of a Turkish Supreme cigarette. The words under the last picture were - "I guess that's why he told us to call him Smokey."
Brooks clicked his phone off and flipped on his computer. He looked online for the number for State Smokes. He dialed the number. "Hello," he said to the man that answered it, "I'm interested in getting a carton of Turkish Supreme cigarettes, do you stock them?" The man at the smoke shop said, "Is this for Coach Russell?" "No, um, no it's not,” replied Brooks, stammering a little bit as he was taken aback that the man asked about the Coach.
"In that case, I'll have to order them for you, it'll take about three weeks. Coach Smokey is the only guy that ever buys them so I keep a carton for him. But I only order one a month." Brooks heart was pounding as he heard the shopkeeper’s response. He realized they were that much closer to solving the case. "No thanks, I'll keep looking," said Brooks. "OK, well we're the only store in the state that can get 'em so if you want to order them, let me know." "Thanks," said Brooks as he hung up.
He walked over to the blackboard wall. He wrote: PRIME SUSPECT and underneath wrote SMOKEY RUSSELL. He thought for a few minutes and wrote underneath it COACH THOMAS RUSSELL, the former Kenosha coach and new State College coach. It was clear that Smokey at least had in his possession the CD's with the video on it that showed the inside of Coach Vitrano's office. Then Brooks remembered back to that meeting between Smokey and his dad. "His dad was so upset with Smokey. Why? Maybe he knew that he had those tapes and didn't approve of it. Or maybe he didn't want to be seen with his son and those tapes. But Smokey had his disguise on." There was still a lot of confusion over what the Kenosha coach's role in this was.
Brooks erased his name from the PRIME SUSPECT list and put him on the SUSPECT LIST. “Still not enough evidence,” thought Brooks.
He headed downstairs to get breakfast. His dad threw him the sports page. "Check this out," said his dad. The headline was unmistakable. MARC ILLE THROWS 3 TD PASSES, SCHOLARSHIP TO THE UNIVERSITY.
He continued to read the body of the article. Tosa West had won big again last night and to make matters worse, the article said that Marc had gotten a scholarship to the University and would attend there in the fall. There would be a press conference on Monday after school to formally announce it.
A smaller headline on the lower part of the page read: EAST WOES CONTINUE, FALLS TO WEST ALLIS CENTRAL 70-21. KOPISH THROWS 2 PICKS.
"Do you believe that?" asked his dad. "I knew that Jeff was in danger of losing that scholarship, but I guess this finalizes it,” Brooks responded. His dad said, "It's really too bad, Jeff had put together a good high school career up until this year. I wonder if that means he's going to end up at State."
Brooks got a glass of orange juice and went back to his room. He turned his computer monitor back on. This news really spurred him on to get to the bottom of what was going on. He remembered the second game of the season. "That was the first time he had remembered seeing Smokey as he was handed the packet by the other team's coach. But why did the coach hand something back to Smokey? Although, why would Smokey be giving him the video after the game? The coach must have been giving it back to Smokey. So he had it before the game and could have prepared his team for it." What team was that? He looked back at his Tosa East Football poster to see the schedule. He always wrote down the score on the schedule so he could remember the outcome of the games.
The second game was against Brown Deer. Smokey had exchanged something with the Brown Deer football coach. Brooks assumed it was CD's with video of the plays they were going to be using secretly taped.
Brooks decided to take a chance. He flipped on his computer and decided to get a new email account. He logged into gmail. "What name to use?" he asked himself. He decided to use a name that was given to him by the local paper when he had helped the police department track down the mailbox bombers. He checked to see if the name was available. It was. "Perfect.
[email protected] time for you to go to work." He went to the school district website and found out the name and email of the head coach or Brown Deer High School.
Dear Coach Thomas,
I have some information that could potentially embarrass your football program and damage your career. I know that you received video of Tosa East's game plan prior to your game with them. I plan on going to the school district and local news media next Friday and presenting them with the facts if you don't come forward on your own and make the admission publicly.
A Concerned Citizen and Sports Fan
Brooks hit the send button. It was a bluff of course. Brooks had no hard evidence, only suspicions. But, it was really perfect he thought. If it wasn't true the coach would just dismiss it and Brooks would have to do more investigation. If the coach came forward, the entire scheme would start crumbling down.
Brooks sat back in his chair. He almost hoped that the coach didn't respond and that this would just go away. He'd always believed that sports were pure and the outcomes were based on who was better on a particular day. Who had trained harder and strategized better. It would be really disappointing for him if he found out that people were cheating - especially at high school sports.
The next few days seemed to drag on. Tosa West had a big press conference on Monday after school, where the formal announcement was made that their quarterback Marc Ille got a scholarship to go to the University.
Then on Wednesday another big announcement came. Jeff Kopish was going to State College on a scholarship. "What a waste," thought Brooks, when he saw the news on TV. There was a big press conference at Tosa East that afternoon and as Brooks watched, he got a sinking feeling in his stomach. Coach Vitrano looked visibly upset, but tried to keep a good light on the moment. Nobody at the press conference looked very happy happy. "Of course, I would have rather gone to the University, but I look forward to helping State College build their program," said Jeff. Coach Vitrano thanked Jeff for his efforts and helping Tosa East over the past few years. He said he wished that Jeff’s high school years would have ended better for him, but said the rest of his career was up to him to build.
Brooks sat quietly watching the conference on TV knowing that he might have been able to change things had he spoken up sooner. He was torn; part of him knew he was doing the right thing because if he would have blown the whistle on the camera earlier, the case might have been ruined and they never would have found out who was behind this. On the other hand, he might have ruined the football chances for Jeff Kopish and the football season for Tosa East.
The
[email protected] address had been dormant all week. Brooks was starting to have his doubts about whether it was going to work at all. He sat down in front of his computer and flipped it on. He went to his gmail account and saw he had one new message! His heart skipped a beat. A reply from Coach Thomas was in his inbox.
He opened it and read. "I don't know who you are or where you found your information. I regret having watched that video. I'm resigning on my own tomorrow. You don't have to go public with this. I'll take care of it. I'm sorr
y. Coach John Thomas."
Brooks was beaming. He had confirmation that the other coaches in the school district were getting the videos. At last, he could put some heat on the people responsible for this. Just then another email came in. He didn't recognize the email address, but the subject line said FOR BOYSLEUTH. He opened it.
BOYSLEUTH-
I HAVE SOME INFORMATION FOR YOU. MEET ME AT THE TOSA EAST SCOREBOARD AT 9PM THURSDAY.
Brooks was stunned. He instant messaged Brad who was online.
BROOKS: Brad! just got 2 emails - Coach Thomas is resigning tomorrow and is going to admit having that information before playing Tosa East!
BRAD: holy cow! That’s’ huge! What was the 2nd?
BROOKS: somebody wants me to meet them tomorrow at 9pm at the tosa east scoreboard. he says he has some more information for me.
BRAD: i'm going with you!
BROOKS: i wouldn't have it any other way. see you tomorrow at school
Brooks sat on his bed. He was excited about getting more information tomorrow. He was glad Brad was going. Brad was a pretty strong kid who could be a big help if things didn't work out as planned. He was curious how someone had gotten that email address. Was it Coach Thomas? If so, why hadn't he just used his regular email address? Maybe he didn't want it going through the school district email servers that could track it back to him.
Either way, Brooks went to bed and had a hard time sleeping. Brad met Brooks at school. "Are we still on for tonight?" Brad asked. "We are. Don't forget to have my back,” said Brooks. "Always," countered Brad. After school Brooks headed home. He was going to meet Brad at his house later in the day.
Brooks flipped on the TV and turned to the local news channel that was covering Coach Thomas’ press conference live. A bleary eyed Coach Thomas sat in a black golf shirt behind a table with a few microphones atop it.
He started, "I did accept and watch footage of Tosa East the week before we were going to play them. I knew all the plays they were going to run and what defensive plays they were going to use. I got the information from a stranger who handed me a package filled with computers CD's. I had no idea who the person was, I had never seen them before and I have never seen him since. I watched the CD's, and they contained video footage of practices and private sessions inside the coach's office. I am sorry I didn't report getting this information immediately to the Athletic Department and I let my competitive nature get the best of me. Effective immediately, I am resigning my coaching position and wish to apologize to my players, to the school district and to everyone effected by my actions." He got up from the table and walked off.
"So that is that," thought Brooks. Brooks assumed that other coaches would be questioned and might even admit to having the information. "It will be interesting to see how this plays out," thought Brooks.
At 8:30 Brad rang Brooks' doorbell. Brooks answered it and left the house. He'd told his mom that he was going to the library to study for an hour with Brad. It was a small lie and Brooks felt badly about it. But he knew that his mom could worry too much. This meeting was too important; he had a feeling that it was going to be a big break in the case.
Brooks and Brad pulled up to the scoreboard, their LED bike lights illuminating it in a bright bluish white. The fall air was chilly and Brooks pulled up the collar on his jacket. It was foggy and a bit creepy. Brad must have felt the same and he expressed his concern, "I don't like this at all," he said. On the door of the scoreboard was a sign. It was written on white paper in a red felt tip pen and it read: COME IN AND SHUT THE DOOR.
"Should I wait out here?" asked Brad. Brooks didn't know what to tell him. He had a really bad feeling about this, but he needed to see what was going on. "No, come in with me," he said, "I don't want to be in there alone." The boys opened the door and Brooks pulled a small combination lock out of his pocket. He put the lock in the latch and clicked it shut; it blocked the door from shutting all the way and also guaranteed that nobody could lock him in this time. "Good thinking!" said Brad. Brooks had told him about his previous episode of being locked in and they both vowed to be prepared this time.
They climbed the ladder up to the first level - as Brooks' head poked above the first level; he saw a flashlight on the far end of the catwalk. He and Brad reached the top of the ladder and walked down the narrow passage reaching the flashlight after a few seconds.
Despite the fact that the parking lot was deserted when they got there, Brooks heard voices from outside. He stopped walking and put his finger to his lips indicating to Brad not to talk. He couldn't make out what they were saying but they sounded as if they were excited about something. "Let's get out of here and see who it is!" whispered Brad. "Wait," urged Brooks.
The boys froze and heard a car door open. They hadn't heard the car pull up; it must have arrived as they were climbing the ladder – the metal ladder was a bit loud as the boys had been climbing it.
The car door slammed shut and just as suddenly, there was a loud clank as the door at the bottom of the scoreboard leg slammed shut!
"They can't lock us in," said Brooks. As he was declaring a victory over not being locked in he heard the loud sound of tape being pulled off a roll. Both boys recognized it from the sports camps they had participated in and volunteered at - it was medical tape.
"HEY!" Brad yelled as he started barreling down the narrow passageway towards the door. It only took the boys a few seconds to get back to the door, but as they arrived at the bottom of the ladder they were dismayed to see it closed as tightly as it could given the fact that the lock that Brooks had put in the door prevented it from closing all the way and secured with what they assumed to be medical tape used by trainers to tape up injuries and support weak tendons and ligaments.
Brad pushed on the door as hard as he could, but it had been wrapped with several layers thick in the strong white tape. It hardly gave at all. "Shoot!!! They got us!" he yelled.
A voice from outside said loudly - "Yes we did get you little creeps. Think you can just meddle anywhere you want? You boys need to learn how to mind your own business. Now just sit back as we teach you!"
Laughter erupted from at least 2 people outside the scoreboard. Brad continued to pound at the taped door. Brooks was forced to about 5 rungs up from Brad's head as the narrow scoreboard leg only had room for the ladder and one person to climb up at a time.
After a few minutes Brad stopped pounding and joined Brooks upstairs on the first level's walkway. "What are we going to do now?" asked Brad. "Just wait for them to leave, I got out once, we can get out again, it's not a big deal, but we need them to leave first."
There was still a lot of shuffling and muted talking outside. There was a slight hissing sound that barely caught Brooks’ attention. It was hardly noticeable. The air started smelling mildly sweet. "What's going on?" asked Brad.
"What.. talking.. you..about?" Brooks mumbled almost incoherently. Brooks heard the words he'd just said and realized they didn't make any sense. Slowly his mind started grinding...hissing noise, sweet smell, gas. The alarm sounded in Brooks' hazy head. "Brad," he yelled as he grabbed his friend’s shoulder to get his attention. "We are being gassed, we have to get out of here - we have to get to the 3rd level so we can climb out the panel - grab 4 computer cables on the way up, I'll grab the wrench!!"
They stood up and immediately sagged against the wall. The gas was working well and they didn't have any time to spare if they wanted to get out of the scoreboard before passing out. Brooks regained a little strength and took off down the passage - he got to the end of it where the toolbox had been. It wasn't there, and when he looked up for the ladder leading to the next level, it didn't really matter, the ladder had been pulled up and was out of reach and there was no other way up. Brooks told Brad was going on when he reached the end of the hallway with the cables. Both boys sat down and passed o
ut within 30 seconds, their bodies going limp and collapsing on the narrow passage way.