Senior Year Box Set

When Pontiac came up for their at-bat, someone played the Rocky theme. I sure hoped we weren’t about to witness a storybook comeback for the win. I could imagine the pitcher calling out to his girlfriend like Rocky had when he finished the first fight. In the first Rocky, he’d lost.

Moose sent Phil out to pitch in the bottom of the ninth. Phil must have wanted there to be drama because he walked the first two batters. Then Pontiac’s pitcher came up to bat. Phil seemed to get his act together as he threw the first two pitches for strikes. On the next pitch, Phil tried to throw a third strike by him. When I heard the crack of the bat, I had already started backpedaling.

“Fence!” Don Crown called out in warning.

I reached out with my right hand to help give me some warning as I watched the ball rapidly come to me. When I touched the fence, I knew I’d run out of real estate. I timed my leap and used my right leg to push off the fence to get high enough to snag the ball, robbing their pitcher of his comeback moment.

I came down throwing to Brock, who’d come out to be my cutoff man. He whirled and cut down the runner who’d tagged up at second and was on his way to third. We worked it precisely as Coach Haskins had drilled us to.

That took the wind out of the crowd. Instead of the game being tied with no outs, we’d gotten a double play, and they were still down by three.

Moose had seen enough of Phil and called me in to finish the game. I smoked three straight fastballs past the poor kid I faced, and we won.

We had lined up to shake hands when Cassidy’s voice suddenly cut through the noise.

“David!”

She had her phone held up, and I saw flashing red. Someone had hit their panic button.

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Chapter 18 – Killed by Death Saturday April 8

Cassidy hurried towards the middle school parking lot while I ran to the fence and vaulted over it. Thankfully, the crowd parted like the Red Sea, so I didn’t have to slow down. Paul pulled up in the Ford Hennessey VelociRaptor SUV. Tami sat in the front seat, so Cassidy and I got into the back. As soon as the door closed, Paul took off.

“Who is it?” I asked.

“Tracy,” Paul said.

“Bill Rogers showed up at her lake house with two men. She snuck out the back and is hiding in the woods,” Tami said to both terrify and calm me.

At least he didn’t have her. A chill ran up my spine at the thought of what he would do to Tracy if he caught her.

“Who’s Bill Rogers?” Paul asked.

“When we were in middle school, he was the class bully and local drug dealer. He and David had a few run-ins before he was sent away to juvie. I thought he wouldn’t get out anytime soon,” Tami said.

“That’s what I understood as well,” I agreed as we rapidly left town.

“Did you call the police?” I asked.

“Fritz is on it,” Paul said.

We’d originally planned to go to Tracy’s lake house after the game, so Paul knew where he was going.

“Tell us more about this guy. What kind of threat is he?” Paul asked.

“What I’m about to tell you really isn’t my story to tell. Tracy has depression issues because of what he did to her,” I hesitated.

“They need to understand what they’re getting into, and we have time,” Tami said, making way too much sense.

“Okay, fine,” I said and paused. “Where should I start?”

“The beginning always seems to work,” Cassidy said.

“All right, then. When I was in middle school, a high schooler named ‘Tiny’ Dickson ran the school drug trade. Bill worked for him, selling at our school, and I think Bill imagined himself a gangbanger in training. He had a group of boys around him who had terrible attitudes and enjoyed picking on kids.

“Tracy was a high school freshman my last year of middle school. She dated and then dumped Mike Herndon’s older brother, Luke. She apparently dated him to gain status because Luke was the starting tailback on the football team. When Tracy earned the spot as head JV cheerleader, she decided she no longer needed him. Instead, she decided to go for a bad boy and started dating Tiny.

“From what I heard, Bill wanted Tracy in the worst way. The guy had to be crazy to think she would ever consider dating a middle schooler, but that didn’t stop Bill. It all came to a head at a get-together at a warehouse. At the party, Tiny finally made it known that he and Tracy were a couple.

“Tracy said that Bill came up to her and declared his interest. She told him there was no way that would ever happen. Even as a middle schooler, Bill was a sick bastard. Instead of taking the rejection in stride, he dosed Tracy’s and Tiny’s drinks.

“Everyone simply assumed Tracy and Tiny were stoned or drunk. Bill took Tiny’s car to take them home. Tracy had passed out in the back seat, and when she came to, she discovered that Bill had raped her. Enraged, she attacked him, which caused him to crash the car.