Ash began her countdown in a loud voice, “Sixty, fifty-nine, fifty-eight—”
Bouguereau stepped out onto the balcony, grabbed her by the shoulders and said, “Miss Richardson? Miss Richardson, look at me—”
“Fifty-seven, fifty-six, fifty-five.” Ash would not look at him. No matter which way he would turn her, she would only look at the lake. “Fifty-four, fifty-three, fifty-two.”
Tisha strolled out onto the balcony, crossed her arms across her chest, shivered and said, “Br-r-r, getting cooler out here. That lake water must be lower than seventy degrees now. That would definitely cause hypothermia.”
“Mademoiselle Brady, what have you done to this poor girl? I demand to know!”
“Forty-nine, forty-eight, forty-seven.”
“Oh, Boogs, stop with the melodrama. It’s just a simple form of hypnosis. Anyone can do it, even you!”
Hypnosis! Tony was right, Bouguereau thought.
Tisha backed over to the other side of the balcony. Keeping her eyes peeled on Bouguereau, she bent down and picked up a coil of boat rope. “Hmm, this should work nicely to tie you up and keep you out of our way.”
“Thirty-six, thirty-five, thirty-four.”
Searching for any opening into Tisha’s conscience, Bouguereau said, “This is madness. I cannot believe that you would intentionally cause harm to an innocent child. How can you be so ruthless?”
Tisha placed her right hand over her heart, clicked her tongue and said, “Ruthless? Moi? You’re the one sending Ash into the lake, not me! All you have to do is obey my commands. My first command is to throw your gun into the lake. Now!”
“Twenty-nine, twenty-eight, twenty-seven.”
Using both hands to open his tweed overcoat, he said, “As you see, I am unarmed. I do not carry a service revolver, I never have and I never will.” Bouguereau closed his overcoat, rested his walking cane on the floor and gingerly fingered the side of his cane handle. Even though he never carried a police sidearm, he was not without a weapon. His custom-made walking cane concealed a razor-sharp eighteen-inch sword within its hollow shaft. Bouguereau pressed the release mechanism on the side of his cane handle, silently releasing the blade, but kept it sheathed until she answered one last question.
“Mademoiselle Brady, what is preventing me from picking you up and throwing you in the cold lake water?”
“Seventeen, sixteen, fifteen.”
Tisha threw her head back, laughed and replied, “Well, beside the fact that I’m twenty-two, in great shape and you’re—oh, what’s a kind word— dumpy? Pleasantly plump? Sure, you could toss me over this railing, but then what? Are you athletic enough to chase Ash down the slide, swim after her in cold water, catch her and then swim back? Give me a break! Boogs, you are definitely over the hill, like, way-y-y over the hill, you can’t even think straight, old man! In ten seconds, because of your stupidity and stubbornness, Ash is going to throw herself down that slide, splash into that cold lake and attempt to swim to the far side. And guess what? There is nothing, nothing, you can do to stop her. Only I can stop her, me, moi! No one else knows how to bring her out of the hypnosis.”
“Eight, seven, six.”
I must play her game until an opportunity presents itself, Bouguereau thought. He sighed, glared at Tisha and said, “Very well, I concede. You are victorious this time. Please stop Miss Richardson from entering the lake. I shall do whatever you command.” He pushed the blade back into his cane until the mechanism locked.
“Three, two, one. Time for a swim! Last one in is a rotten egg!” Ash threw her arms up into the air and bounded up the slide stairs.
Chapter 24- The Third One
Running off the field toward the Bobcats’ sideline, Tony’s mind raced with possibilities for the last play of the game. What haven’t the Lions seen today? They are definitely keying on Judd, no doubt about that. They are double and sometimes triple-teaming him wherever he goes. How can we turn that to our advantage? What hasn’t Judd done today? He’s run the ball, he’s caught the ball, he’s—Tony’s eyes lit up in excitement. That’s it! I gotta tell Coach Tiny!
Tony ran straight to a grim-faced Coach Tiny who was also deep in thought about the next play and shouted, “Coach, I’ve got an idea!” Coach Tiny bent down to hear Tony’s explanation. He thought about it for a second and asked, “Are you sure?”
“Coach, have I been wrong about what Judd can do so far?” Tony replied with a grin.
Coach Tiny shook his head, put his hand on Tony’s shoulder pads and said, “You’ve got me there. Okay, we’ll go with that play.” Turning toward the rest of the offense, Coach Tiny shouted, “Gather ‘round. Here’s the play we’re gonna run to score a touchdown!” He knelt on the grass, put his dry-erase board on his knee and diagrammed the play. He explained the X’s and O’s to his players as fast as he could.
The referee yelled to both sidelines that the timeout was over and to take their positions on the field or risk a delay of game penalty.
As Tony jogged back onto the field, he looked over his shoulder and saw Coach Tiny with both arms draped over Judd’s shoulder pads, staring intently at him and giving him some last-second instructions. Satisfied that he made his point with Judd, Coach Tiny slapped him on the back and sent him onto the field.
In the huddle, Tony knelt on one knee and said, “Everybody clear on their assignments? This is probably our last play of the game. We gotta score a touchdown no matter what! Hike on two! Hike on two! Break!”
Nick Miller ran to the right-side wide receiver position and Judd lined up in the tailback slot just to the right of Tony. Before Tony called his signals, he studied the Lions’ defensive formation. He noticed they were in their regular 3-4 defense and not a prevent defense. Must be worried about a pass or a run from Judd, he thought before crouching to take the snap from Drew Morgan.
“Ready! Set! Hut! Hut!”
Tony reverse pivoted and with his left hand stuck the football into Judd’s midsection. Judd cradled the ball and began to trot laterally, in an effort to fool the Lions’ defenders into thinking he was running a sweep. Most of the them were tricked and came up to the line of scrimmage to stop the run, except for Matt Bishop who covered Nick. He matched him stride-for- stride.
Eleven seconds left in the game.
Running closer to the sideline and out of room, Judd knew Nick wasn’t going to shake Matt enough to catch his pass and he saw his secondary receiver, Jay Evans, sprawled on the field from an accidental trip at the line of scrimmage. Making an instinctive decision, Judd dug his cleats into the grass, stopped and reversed his direction. Hoping beyond hope that he could make something out of nothing.
Uh-oh, Tony thought, Judd’s in trouble. Is he gonna run or what? Tony looked upfield searching for a Lion to block, but there was no one there, all the defenders had followed Judd toward the sideline, leaving Tony’s side of the field wide open.
Seven seconds left in the game.
Judd circled back, chased by several defenders, he looked downfield for an open receiver in the end zone. Seeing Tony standing by himself on the twelve-yard line, Judd locked eyes with him and waved to him to go deeper. Now at his own twenty-yard line and being fenced in by the Lions and the opposite sideline, Judd realized he’ll have to throw across his body and that would lessen the velocity of his pass. Waiting as long as he could before running out of room, Judd planted his foot and threw a pass with as much touch as he could muster before being clobbered by several pass rushers.
The Lions’ fans stood and cheered for their defense. The pep band stopped playing and waited in anticipation. The Bobcats’ fans rose to their feet, cheered and held on to each other as their eyes tracked the flight of the football.
Four seconds left in the game.
Tony, at the five-yard line when Judd released his pass, looked up, saw that the high arc of the football was going to carry well into the end zone and pumped his legs harder to catch up with it. Matt Bishop saw Judd wave to Tony an
d he sprinted from the opposite side of the end zone in hopes of intercepting the pass.
Entering the end zone, Tony kept his eyes peeled on the descending football, raising both arms in unison, with his fingers outstretched and palms up, he watched the spiraling football land on his fingertips and he closed his hands around it, brought it down to his chest—
THWACK!
Matt Bishop, running full speed, rammed into Tony at shoulder pad level, but luckily with a glancing blow. Tony spun around in mid-air from the contact and landed at the feet of the referee, clutching the football tightly to his chest. The referee bent over and eyeballed him, making sure Tony had caught and controlled the football. Satisfied that Tony did, he stood erect, blew his whistle and signaled for a touchdown.
Zero seconds left in the game.
For a split-second, all the players, all the coaches, all the fans—everyone was silent as they grasped what had taken place on the field before them. And as that moment passed, the Dersee fans roared their approval, the Bobcats celebrated in the end zone, Coach Tiny gave Coach Buck a bear hug, the pep band exuberantly played the fight song, the Bobcats’ cheerleaders screamed and shook their pom-poms up and down. In contrast, the Lions’ fans stood with their mouths open, not believing they had lost the game. The Lions’ players filed off the field with their heads down and some of them noticeably crying. Coach Chuck stood on the sideline, shaking his head back and forth as he rubbed his chin and contemplated what he could have done differently.
“Touchdown! Tony Crowne! On a twenty-yard pass from Judd Judson-n-n!” Smilin’ Bob could hardly contain himself. “Game over! The Dersee Bobcats have defeated the Lakeside Lions by a score of 22 to 21! How about that!” Smilin’ Bob reached down and flicked off the microphone, turned to Dunwoody and said, “You still owe me some food. C’mon, let’s go to Tiny’s Restaurant. I can eat and you can interview Tiny and write your story there.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Dunwoody was deep in thought. “You know, that rhymes.”
“What rhymes?”
“What you said at the end of the game.” Dunwoody’s voice trailed off at the end of his sentence.
“What are you blabbering about? Let’s go and get a table. Tiny’s place will be a madhouse.” Smilin’ Bob stood up and wrestled his plaid sport coat on.
Dunwoody’s eyes lit up. “That’s it! That’s my headline!” He jabbed the air with his hand and emphasized each word as he said, “Touchdown Tony Crowne Saves The Day.”
Chapter 25- The Split Up
“I don’t believe it! You scored three touchdowns? Wow!” A visibly proud Anthony Crowne Jr. smiled at Tony as they stood outside the front entrance of the Dersee Elementary School. “Did you hear that Mark? Three touchdowns! That’s my boy! Wow! I wish I would have seen the game. Well, at least your mother saw you—”
Tony shook his head and said, “No, Grandpa said Mom left with Detective Bouguereau after my first score and never came back. Didn’t she call you?”
“No, I haven’t talked to her since we found Ash’s pom-pom here on the school grounds. Well, isn’t that strange.” Anthony Jr. rubbed his brow and looked worried. “What could she be doing? I’m going to call her.” He walked a few steps away and pressed her number on his cell phone.
Tony turned to Officer Mark London and asked, “Sir, do know where Detective Bouguereau could be?”
“I’m sorry son, I don’t. We’ve been so busy searching the school for your friend that I haven’t checked in with headquarters for a while. Hang loose for a second while I call in and get his location.” Officer London spoke into his shoulder microphone, “London, here. Do you have a current 10-20 on Bouguereau? Over.”
“Negative on Detective Bouguereau. Last known 10-20 was Dersee High School football field at 1400 hours. Over.”
“10-4, thank you.” Officer London looked up from his shoulder microphone and said, “Hmm, it’s 1630 hours now, that’s unusual for him. He normally checks in every hour on the hour and I mean right on the dot. Something’s not right. Let’s try his cell phone.” He flipped through his contact window, found Bouguereau’s number and pressed it to dial. He listened for a few moments, shook his head and said, “Went straight to voice mail… J.B, please contact me at your earliest convenience. Thanks.”
Walking back up to them, Anthony Jr. said, “This is not like your mother, Tony. She normally answers calls from me no matter what she is doing.”
Getting antsy about finding Ash, Judd nudged Tony and said, “Tell’em.”
“Tell us what, Tony?” A concerned Officer London asked. “We don’t have a lot to go on here, so anything you may provide could help us in our investigation.”
“Well…” Tony looked down at the sidewalk, jammed his hands into his front pockets and moved a pebble back and forth with his shoe. “In a nutshell, I told Detective Bouguereau I had a hunch that Tisha Brady hypnotized Ash and told her not to go to the game—”
“What?” Officer London interrupted with a scrunched up face. “You mean that pretty counselor here at the school hypnotized a student so she wouldn’t go to a pee wee football game? That borders on being ludicrous!” He took off his hat, closed his eyes tightly and ran his fingers through his hair several times.
Shifting into his defense attorney mode, Anthony Jr. stuck his hand up and said, “Now wait a minute, Mark. I admit that’s a bit far-fetched, but let’s hear Tony out. Go ahead, son.”
“Like I told Detective Bouguereau, there are several things that bothered me about Tisha Brady which if you looked at them separately they don’t mean much, but, when you add them all up, they become much more incriminating.” Tony explained as he looked at his father and at the Officer London.
“Uh-huh. Go on, we’re listening,” his father said.
“Number one: When Judd and I were in her office the other day, I noticed a framed certificate of hypnosis therapy hanging on her wall. No big deal, right? Yet, on Friday, Ash had an hour-long meeting with Tisha Brady after school, but when I asked her what they talked about, she had absolutely no idea. She never remembered anything about the meeting. That’s fishy. Number two: She also had a picture on her desk of her getting all mushy with Felicity Whittaker’s divorced father. Everybody knows Felicity won’t let her father re-marry just anyone, they have to be approved by Felicity or she’ll never forgive her father. Felicity’s big dream is to be a cheerleader and Tisha just happens to be the cheerleading coach. That’s also fishy. Number three: Judd, Ash and I ran into Felicity and her toadies, um, I mean her friends, before the cheerleader tryouts and guess what? Felicity was already wearing the official cheerleading uniform. You’re not supposed to do that until after you’re selected. Real fishy. Number four: Felicity is not very coordinated, she’s kind of a klutz when it comes to doing something athletic like cheerleading. Ash is heads and tails better than she is, but during the tryouts they tied and they had to be re-evaluated. Tied? How does that happen? Super fishy, especially when the head coach is dating the father of one of the candidates.”
“Stop.” Officer London, held up his hand, looked at Anthony Jr. with a knitted brow and asked, “Your kid is in the fifth grade? I can’t get mine to clean his bedroom, let alone talk in complete sentences and he’s in the eighth grade.”
Shrugging, smiling and rubbing Tony’s head, Anthony Jr. answered, “That’s my boy!”
“Okay, but this is all very circumstantial. Granted, this is fishy, as you say, but it doesn’t prove anything. Do you have any hard evidence that Tisha Brady is involved in Ash’s disappearance? Anything we can go on right now?”
“Grandpa told me he was watching Detective Bouguereau interview Miss Brady. When he was done with her he interviewed Felicity and the other cheerleaders as well as Felicity’s friends. Then Dad called Mom about the pom-pom here at the school and she went chasing after him. Grandpa said he saw them talking outside the gate and then all of a sudden he pointed at something and Mom took off through the parking lot. Grandpa said he saw Mis
s Brady walk out of the gate at about the same time and he said it looked as though Detective Bouguereau was following her.”
“Hmm, sounds like Bouguereau had a good reason to follow her.”
Judd held up his hand like he was in school. “Excuse me, officer sir, excuse me!”
Officer London glanced at Judd and asked, “You’re new here in town aren’t you? What grade are you in? Eighth or ninth?”
Anthony Jr. and Tony exchanged a knowing look at each other and Anthony Jr. said, “Would you believe Judd is in the fifth grade? He was very instrumental in defeating the Lions today. He’s a very smart and gifted athlete for his age.”
Officer London’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, “Holy moly! They sure do grow’em big wherever you came from! What do you need, Judd?”
“I don’t mean to be rude or anythin’, officer sir, but we’re wastin’ a whole chunk of time. We gotta find Ash now! We gotta do somethin’ quick!” Judd looked down at Curly and rubbed his head. “I bet Curly could find Ash. He’d sniff her out fast!”
“Dad! That’s it! Curly can find Ash! I know he can! Ash and I used to play hide and seek with Curly all the time. We’d play in the park and Ash would hide in the weirdest places and Curly would find her every time!”
“Now, wait a minute, son. I don’t know. It’s one thing to follow an official K-9 dog, but it’s quite another to follow an unproven dog. A dog that I don’t personally know will do the job,” Officer London pointed out in his deep, gravelly voice. He rubbed his chin and added, “A park is fairly small compared to a whole town. Her scent was fresh in the park, but now, she’s been gone most of the day. I just don’t want to stake our efforts solely on your dog.”
“Mark, I have a suggestion,” Anthony Jr. Said. “Why don’t we split up? Let the boys use Curly to possibly track Ash down and, in the meantime, we can visit Tisha Brady’s residence and have a talk with her. What do you think?”
Touchdown Tony Crowne and the Mystery of the Missing Cheerleader Page 11