The Lakeside Conspiracy (23 page)

CHAPTER 96

“Ms. Jones, would you join me up here, please?” Max said.

Ms. Jones and Michelle walked slowly to the front of the room. Michelle had learned that slow was the only speed Ms. Jones had, so there was no sense in rushing her.

As they made their way toward the stage, Alex Martin and his buddy came into the room through the same door Michelle and Ms. Jones had just entered. Much like the last time he’d seen him, Alex Martin was covered in blood.

“Coach Patterson, I want to introduce you to Ms. Jones,” Max said. “That’s her son’s car you see there in the picture. He died at the scene.”

Max could see Coach Patterson wasn’t yet sure what was happening. He felt bad, but this was the only way Max could think of to confront the guilty parties. He needed Coach Patterson and the media to be present to have a chance of this working.

“Ms. Jones, would you mind telling everyone how you found your way to Lakeside?” Max said.

She started to speak and then a reporter yelled, “Give her the mic.”

Coach Patterson took a step back from the podium. Donnie Black stood up and took a step toward the stage. Coach Patterson looked at him and waved him off. Maybe the coach was beginning to understand. Donnie reluctantly sat down and looked toward Terry Cook for help again. Terry gave none.

Ms. Jones stepped up to the mic, looked at the room and then at Max. He nodded and she said. “Mr. Murphy came to my house after Dante was picked the best sophomore football player in Alabama a couple years ago,” she said.

“Is that Jack Murphy, ma’am?” the writer for the paper asked.

“Yes, sir,” she said. “Mr. Murphy came to see us. He said we could have a nice house and a good job for me if we moved to Lakeside.” She hesitated for a moment. “We didn’t have too much. We lived in a trailer, ya know.”

Other than some clanking glasses in the kitchen, the room was silent.

“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 said simply, “Sit down. We’ll hear what Ms. Jones has to say.”

“And so we moved to Lakeside after Dante finished up his sophomore year,” Ms. Jones said. “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.

“Oh, 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 the job, Dante had to go to Northern Arkansas State,” she said.

“Then what?” Max said.

“Mr. Murphy warned Dante that he couldn’t do that. He said a man had to honor his word,” she said.

“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! This meeting is over!”

The room suddenly got loud as people stood up 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 head football coach, “Sit down.”

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 sit down.” When he didn’t immediately do as he’d been told, several former players who were seated nearby stood up and the attorney reluctantly, but wisely sat back down.

Donnie looked to the back of the room where Alex and Mike were standing. “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 and Mike.

“Oh no!” Alex shouted. “I’m not going down for this. We only did what Donnie told us to do.” Max was glad to see the television camera was now pointed at Alex.

And then 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 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 had gotten 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 surveyed the room. Max knew he had to feel devastated by what he’d heard over the last fifteen minutes. “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. Max looked across the room. 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

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 those involved. 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 had announced an investigation into the football program at Northern Arkansas State. While it appeared to Max 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 after thirty-seven years as head coach.

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

Max opened the newspaper on Friday morning. The lead headline 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 8:00 a.m. when Max finished reading the paper. Kick-off against Ft. Smith Northside was in eleven hours. Max 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 a different meaning to Max. 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 with Willy and Rose. If they needed more help, 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.