The Case of the Lecherous Linebacker: Episode 4
"You look…" Landry shakes his head. "Exactly the same."
Only, more like a woman. She's wearing red and white running pants and a matching shirt. The Seahawks' colors. She's got a cap on, but her hair's not in a ponytail. It's long, curly, like she's gotten it permed, and its spilling out over her shoulders. It's beautiful. And she's still Coach Meriwether. Not Coach Howard. Or Coach Somebody Else.
"Not you," she says. "When did you start dying your hair?"
"I didn't. I don't. It just…got that way." It's browning a little. Not at the roots. "How'd you end up an assistant coach for the Hawkins Seahawks?"
"I knew the head coach," she says, smirking.
Landry tilts his head. Back and forth. "Well, yeah, obviously. So you just called him up? Said, hire me?"
"Actually, I worked with him at Pemberton for a year first. He convinced me to move out here with him, and, since I had a boyfriend in Oregon - "
"- Oregon? How do you go about getting a boyfriend in Oregon?"
"Through the usual channels. Mail order catalog, you know."
He snort-laughs. "So internet dating service, then?"
Like he's one to talk. He tried it two years ago. LoveFit. They matched him up with this chick - seven points of commonality, they said. She sounded kind of sexy and funny when they chatted online. He told her he "worked for the government." She didn't send her picture, and her first name was common enough that he didn't think anything of it. But when he showed up to meet her at the restaurant, it was a woman he'd just interrogated a week ago. He had her in the room with the glass and everything. Broke her down into tears. She wasn't the suspect, but she knew the suspect. She took one look at him as he approached the table, stood, and ran. He didn't chase her.
"I met him at a football game. But I didn't really move for him, and we aren't together anymore. I moved for Coach."
"He makes sure you get paid enough as an assistant coach to live here?"
"I have another job. So. You're a detective in Seattle, and you want to talk to me? Am I allowed to ask why?"
"Let's sit." Landry takes Coach's chair. She takes what he guesses is her chair when she's conferring with Coach. He pulls out his pad and puts the pen point to it. "Martin Haverty is dead. He was murdered."
"Pity."
He looks up. "Strange response. Not a fan?"
"That kid is bad news."
He notices she says kid is bad news, not was bad news. If she'd known of his death early, she might have had more time to process it and default into talking about him in the past tense. She probably also would have had time to come up with a better response than "pity." This is likely the first time she's learning of it.
"I thought he used to be bad news," Landry said, "but Coach Taylor pulled a Vince Howard on him. Turned him around. Inspired him not to join a gang."
"Oh, he never joined the gang, but that doesn't mean he didn't have his own way of scamming."
"He ever try to scam you?" She looks away. "Jess, I'm a detective. This is my job. And if you want to make sure you don't end up on the suspect list, especially after that little pity comment, then the best thing for you to do is to be honest with me. Because if you clam up…" He shakes his head. "That sends you right to the top of my radar."
She puts her arms on the chair and levels her gaze at him. The Jess-is-ticked gaze. "At the end of last season, Coach Taylor decided to cut him from the team for reasons of character."
"What reasons?"
"He kept coming on to other player's girlfriends. It was causing a problem on the team. So Coach called him into his office and told him he was off the team. Martin came to me and said I had to talk Coach Taylor into keeping him. Coach listens to me. He trusts me. So Martin thought if I pulled some strings, he could stay on. I refused. He said if I didn't pull strings with Coach, he'd tell."
"Tell what?"
"That's personal. But he had some information on me."
"That you're gay?"
"What?" She laughs. "You think I'm gay? You think maybe you turned me?"
Landry shakes his head. "No…I just…. What was it then?"
"None of your damn business is what it was. It was something he thought I didn't want Coach to know. But Coach already knew, and he wasn't about to fire me over it."
"What's your other job?" Maybe she's working for an escort service. Or at a strip club. He smiles at the idea. Not Jess. No way. But it would be something to blackmail her for.
"Hawkins High Athletic Director."
"Then what's Coach Taylor's title?" Landry knows they have to give Coach some half fake job if he's going to get paid enough. A stipend alone won't cut it. But he also needs a job that doesn't require him to put in a lot of hours. At Dillon he was a "full-time teacher." Yet he only had two classes - - health classes in which he showed videos all semester long while he read the Sports section and occasionally barked at his students to quiet down. At East Dillon, he had to actually do a little something on occasion as Athletic Director, and they also made him teach at least one real class. History. Landry wasn't in it, but he knew about it, because whenever Coach Taylor thought a player was wasting his time, he told the kid, "I can't be here all day. I have papers to grade and a wife to love." Yeah, we know, Tinker would mutter so as Coach couldn't hear him. We all know you have a hot wife. You don't have to brag about it every damn chance you get.
"Coach," she says. "His title is Coach. He's part-time now. Just the coaching. And Athletic Director isn't a fake title, if that's what you think. I'm in charge of all the athletic programs here, girls and boys. There's a lot of administrative work involved."
Enough of the small talk. Landry has to get back to business. "Did Coach Taylor know Martin Haverty was trying to blackmail you?"
"He knew. I told him. "
"So why didn't Coach cut Haverty after all? To protect you? To keep the information from getting out?"
Jess doesn't answer.
"It must have been to protect you. Why else would he have refused to cut him?"
"Maybe he just wanted another chance to turn him around."
"And did he turn him around?" Landry asks, even though he already knows the answer.
"I think that kid only turns one way."
"Like a bad penny."
Jess shakes her head. "So are you into horrible hard boiled metaphors now that you're a detective?"
He chuckles. "Uh…you always did have a deep, abiding respect for me."
"I respected you, Landry."
"Yeah. Not so much as you respected Vince though. I guess I was on the wrong side of the law."
Jess rolls her eyes.
Of course, Landry's one to talk. There was that small matter of that man he'd killed. Justifiable homicide. The incident came up again when he first interviewed for police work. Just because you've been cleared and your record sealed doesn't mean you get to lie on the pre-employment lie detector test.
Landry has often wondered why that rapist wasn't caught sooner. Why he'd of gone on raping and trying to rape if Landry hadn't killed him. Because if he had been caught earlier, that would have spared not only Tyra, but Landry. Of course, if it weren't for the bonding over the body, he's not sure Tyra ever would have been his girlfriend. But the attempted rape of a someone you already love and a black mark on your conscience that keeps you up at night and still haunts your dreams is probably not equal in value to the chance to screw a girl who is just going to break your heart when it's all over. I mean, Jess got to break his heart without any of that wholly unnecessary build-up.
On the other hand, if it weren't for that whole experience with the rapist, he probably never would have thought to enter law enforcement like his old man. Imagine what his life would be like, if he hadn't had a cop to read the situation right, to step up for him, to make sure he wasn't ruined. The way he's trying to read the situation now, to make sure no one goes to jail, or even loses a job, if they don't deserve to.
"So what did you do?" Landry asks, studying her face. "What was Martin blackmailing you with?"
"I told you. None of your damn business."
"Jess, I'm a detective, and - "
"- You can ask me through my lawyer then." She stands up. "I plead the fifth." She lets the door slam behind herself.