Team Manager 2: SPRINT!
Chapter 11
“WE BELIEVE he is still in the State,” Moran said in the task force meeting. “The sheriff’s car showed up yesterday, abandoned in Cedar Rapids. It was in a residential district and locals indicated it had been there for only a day. We’re still gathering fingerprints, but expect we’ll find Perkins had been driving it. We also have a twenty-year-old from Guthrie Center in custody. He turned himself in, saying he was a dealer, and asked for protective custody. DCI is questioning him.”
“Cedar Rapids is on a straight shot route to Ames,” Brisco mused. “He had a dealer there, too. I think he might be coming back to Bartley.”
“What’s so important in Bartley?” FBI Agent Oren James asked.
“The Bartley dealer is being released to his parents today. We were unable to convince the judge he’s a flight risk because he’s confined to a wheelchair.”
“Why would Perkins go back to him?”
“We have three good reasons, any one of which would be satisfactory. First, Unger could have a stash of some sort Perkins wants to get his hands on. Of course, it’s possible that he just wants a traveling companion, but he doesn’t seem that altruistic. Second, he may want to get rid of another link that could tell us something damaging about his network. In that case, Unger is a dead man,” Brisco said.
“And third?”
“Unger plotted to rape and kidnap his younger sister. Perkins may be coming to finish that job as the sister indicates Unger threatened.”
“She’s that important?”
“I don’t doubt that she’d bring a good price on the slave market,” Brisco said, “but she’s the one who supplied the intel that got us there in the first place. Unger knows that she ratted him out. The crash has been so colossal, the motive may be nothing more than revenge.”
“She’s in danger any time she’s alone,” Moran said. “That means her boyfriend is also still in danger. If Perkins can raise an army out of his dealers, they might think they can take her girlfriend, too.”
“Boyfriend and girlfriend?” James asked.
“There may be more. The boy is very popular among some of the girls at his school and manages the girls’ sports teams,” Moran said. “I interviewed the coach and she said that during the time when what they call the Gang of Three were free and roaming around, they’d made explicit threats against the Enders boy and he was always escorted home by two or more girls from the team. They often spent the night at his house.”
“He’s fucking an entire basketball team?” James asked in disbelief.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Brisco said. “The Unger girl indicated the prize her brother wanted was popping her cherry. Several of the girls are only fifteen or sixteen. They might be technically virgins.”
“I’ve had a few opportunities to interview Dennis Enders. Each time he’s had a different girlfriend or two with him,” Moran said.
“It seems to me that we have the makings for a trap,” Brisco said. “Amy Unger and maybe her girlfriends and boyfriend are the bait. Jerry Unger is the link to Tom Perkins. I think we should figure out how to stake out his home as soon as he’s released.”
“It’s going to take more than one person at a time to stake it out,” Moran said. “I’m thinking of your agent in Ames. This bastard is bloodthirsty and vicious.”
“Minimum of three at a time,” James said.
“We’ve got one problem with that,” Brisco said, “not including manpower. Bartley is a town of just over a thousand people. Strangers are noticed.”
“Ms. White, thank you for visiting with me,” Dot said. “I’m in over my head and I don’t know where to turn. Dr. Nelson said I could trust you.” The two women sat at the kitchen table. Will was in the living room with the TV going. Peg was in the back yard ‘practicing her shots.’ Dennis, of course, was still at school and wouldn’t be home from track practice until nearly five.
“That is an opinion that I highly value and will do my best to help you,” Rhonda White, the social worker, said. “First, we need to make a list of your resources. You do not need to include your home or car on your list of assets, but cash in the bank and your income are necessary. Then, we’ll look at the need and list those expenses. We’ll include anything you owe on your home and car with monthly payments. Any other debt and expenses you have. I’ll go over the doctor’s assessment and the Occupational Center’s assessment of the capabilities of your husband and daughter.”
“I hate to depend on them for income. Peg doesn’t earn that much at the Occupational Center,” Dot said.
“I’m not as interested in their earning power as in their available time commitment. You are stymied right now. You take your daughter to the OC, but you still have your husband at home and you can’t leave him unsupervised. That means you can’t work. What I want to find out is whether both can be engaged in some activity that enables you to continue working. There is, of course, adult daycare, but it is often more expensive than your earning power for the same time. We don’t want to get you in a negative cash flow situation.”
They began the tedious process of itemization of assets, income, liabilities, and expenses. Rhonda spent most of the afternoon looking at possibilities and counseling Dot. For her part, Dot was thankful that she could simply talk about these things with an adult who could give her advice. The mothers of Dennis’s girlfriends had been a great help to her, but they also had lives and couldn’t put together a solution or proposal. She didn’t know if she was closer at the end of the afternoon, but she felt better.
“What’s the purpose of this exercise, Dennis?” Tori asked as she pumped her arms against the machine.
“Keep your elbows in,” he reminded her, touching an elbow that had flared away from her body. “Your arms are as important in running as your legs. You have great endurance and can keep the same pace up for the full 400 meters. But if you get your arms working with your legs instead of against them, we can cut a good five seconds off your time. You’ll come down from your current best to about fifty-five seconds through the efficient use of your arms.”
“You’re kidding! I swing my arms when I run,” she said.
“That’s the problem I saw in the race Saturday—swinging your arms instead of pumping them. When your elbow flares outward, your hand comes across your body. That’s motion that is contrary to the direction you want to go. We want to get your arms moving in the same direction you are—pumping straight ahead to propel your body instead of obstructing it.”
“Is that going to be the same for all of us runners?” Brenda asked.
“Absolutely. Some of you are doing a pretty good job with your arms. But exercising them and becoming conscious of how they are affecting you will help. You can’t expect to cut five seconds off your hundred-meter time, Brenda. You’re already down to about fourteen seconds. I’m sure we can cut a full second and your continued sprinting practice can take off another. That gets you in the twelve second range. The state record is only a little under eleven seconds. You’ll be in contention against anyone you compete with.”
“I love you, Dennis,” Brenda said as she attacked the weights.
“Me, too,” Tori said. Half a dozen sprinters echoed the sentiment. Dennis’s face got hot and he busied himself helping other runners with their leg exercises.
“I love that it’s getting warmer out,” Laura said as she worked her arms with a pair of wrist weights as she jogged on the treadmill. “Granted it’s raining today and we’re working inside, but this weekend I got a couple of great runs in out in the country.”
“We need to have a picnic party this weekend if the weather’s decent,” Leah said. “We could do it after the meet, right? We’re home this weekend.”
“The meet should be over by two-thirty,” Dennis said. “You should have plenty of time.”
“Hey, what’s the ‘you’ stuff, Team Manager?” Tori asked. “With the possible exception of the showers, where the team goes, you go.”
“And I’m not too sure about the exception,” Debbie laughed. “Seems like the basketball babes had a lot more fun in the locker room than we’re having.”
“Whatever fun the basketball babes had, everyone consented to,” Brenda said. “And I’m not saying what fun that was. But there’s thirty track babes and any fun we have, everyone has to consent to. Ain’t gonna happen and we don’t pressure anyone.”
“Well, the picnic invitation still includes Dennis,” Laura said. “I didn’t realize how much a member of the team he was during basketball season. I understand now.”
The practice came to an end with a set of wind sprints in the gym. Boys would run with the girls right after. As soon as the girls reached the end of the gym, the boys took off again. After twenty of them, the exhausted teams headed for the showers.
Dennis managed his shower in the coaches’ locker room in record time and was standing outside the locker room door with the laundry bag to collect the towels. He had to stop one girl who had tossed a T-shirt in the bag.
“Towels don’t get washed here at school. They go out to a laundry service,” he said. “If you toss any personal items in the laundry bag, consider them gone forever.”
“Oh, crap! I didn’t even think of that,” Corrine said, snatching her shirt back out of the bag. “Thanks, Team Manager.” She gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Seeing her example, the rest of the girls all gave him a quick kiss on the cheek as they dumped their towels.
“I get to take you home tonight,” Diane said. “We can’t stay to cook tonight, but we can get real kisses at the door.”
“Hey, how do the rest of us get on the transportation rotation?” Laura said.
“We try to make sure everyone gets a ride home or is walking in a group,” Brenda said to her classmate. “There’s still too much weird stuff going on in this town for people to go around alone. We should make a list of who drives and how many people they can take in their car. Everybody should have a ride home.”
“Is there really so much weird stuff still going on?” Tori asked. “I appreciate the lift, but aren’t all the traffickers gone now?”
“Some of us are still getting visits by agents,” Amy said. “My brother is coming home today. I’m not even going home if there aren’t other people in the house.”
“I heard the State Police have an arrest warrant for Tom Perkins, Carol’s boyfriend,” Dennis said. “I really don’t want to pick up any more girls off the street.”
“Ugh!”
“Let’s just everyone take care and hope we don’t see any more trouble,” Brenda said. “There are plenty of us with cars to get everyone home.”
“Why won’t you believe me?” Amy demanded. Her parents let out a weary sigh in unison. “I’m the one he’s been threatening. I saw him making drug deals. But you think he’s your poor precious injured baby. I wish they’d killed him.” The slap her mother gave her echoed in the kitchen. They’d turned the dining room into a bedroom for Jerry so he didn’t need to be carried upstairs.
“If you’re afraid of your brother, just stay upstairs in your room, young lady. I’ve had quite enough of your whining and lying. I don’t know why you turned against your family and I’m not interested in knowing,” her mother said. “Consider yourself confined to your room until your attitude improves.”
“Gladly. Just understand this. If you ever leave the two of us alone in this house one will be dead when you return. And I don’t plan on it being me.” Amy turned and stormed off to her room, slamming the door behind her.
“I just don’t understand why she hates me so much,” Jerry whined. “All I’ve ever done is be her protector and big brother. Then all of a sudden, she started making threats against me. I just want my little sister back.” There were almost tears in his eyes.
“Sometimes it’s just impossible to know why a family member turns bad,” his father said. “It’s certainly nothing she was ever taught in this family. Let’s get your nightly routine taken care of and get you into bed. We put a new TV in there where you can sit up and see it. It has all your gaming software and cable connected.”
“Gee, thanks, Dad. You’re the best parents in the world. Don’t let Amy ruin your life.” Jerry scooted his wheelchair to the bathroom they’d had refurbished for him with all the handicapped grab bars and lowered counters. They didn’t see him glance up the stairs and snarl.
“Child Protective Services. This is Rachel Hardin. How may I help you?” It was Tuesday morning and she was still nursing her quad tall latte. It was barely seven-thirty in the morning.
“Hi. Um… this is Amy Unger of Bartley, Iowa. I’m fifteen years old and I think I need protection. Can you help me?”
“Amy, are you being beaten or sexually abused.”
“I’m being threatened with rape, kidnapping, and death by my older brother.”
“This threat, do you think he might be playing a trick on you?”
“No. He was arrested for drug trafficking on evidence I provided the DEA. I overheard him making plans to drug me, rape me, and sell me to traffickers. When they came for me, I hid and they masturbated on my pillow. He is serious about wanting me gone so I can’t testify against him.” Amy laid it all on the line and Rachel took careful notes. This sounded familiar and she needed to go back through notes she’d made a few months ago.
“You say he was arrested. Is he in jail?”
“No. He was shot during the drug bust and is paralyzed from the waist down. He was released on bail and my parents brought him home yesterday.”
“Did you tell your parents about the threats?”
“Yes. They don’t care. They don’t believe he’s guilty and they don’t believe he made any threats against me. I’m scared and they’ve confined me to my room.”
“Amy is there some reason you want to get back at your brother for something?” Rachel asked.
“You mean a reason other than he threatened to have his friends come in and finish the job in front of him? What more reasons do I need?” Amy cried.
“Have you told anyone else about this?” Rachel pressed. She needed all the information she could get if she was going to get anything together on this.
“Agent Brisco of the DEA. I told him all about it. They made a drug bust the night I was supposed to be kidnapped. They found four other kids in the van. And I think my coach knows,” Amy said. That rang the bell for Rachel. A coach had called her asking her to intervene on behalf of two teens, but there was no event that had happened which fell under the terms of child abuse she had to work within. But a parent ignoring a child’s plea for safety from an older sibling did fall within that definition.
“Amy, are you able to go to school?”
“I’m at school now. I didn’t ask or say anything to my parents. I just got dressed and left.”
“And you are a student at Bartley High School? What year?”
“I’m a freshman. I played basketball and now I run track.”
“Okay, Amy. I will see you at school this afternoon. What is your Coach’s name?”
“Ardith Graves.”
“We’ll get you help.”
Rachel recalled the conversation she’d had with the coach last fall. Unfortunately, the call had gone unrecorded. The coach had admitted that an investigation could make matters worse rather than better. But this child was clearly afraid. Since the brother had been arrested, it lent credence to her accusation. She would simply visit the school and ask to see the girls’ basketball coach. Then she would start digging in deeper.
First, she had another call to make. She looked up the number and reached the DEA in Des Moines. She was patched through immediately.
“Agent Brisco.”
“Agent, this is Rachel White from Child Protective Services in Des Moines. I understand that you know an Amy Unger in Bartley.”
“What’s your interest?” Brisco demanded.
“She called me this morning wanting to know if I could protect her from her brother. I understand you arrested him a few months ago. I need to know if the threat to her is credible.”
“Absolutely. In fact, we have her home under twenty-four-hour surveillance since Jerry Unger was released to his parents’ custody yesterday. Is there something that has developed?”
“Amy believes a friend or friends of her brother will come to the house to rape and kidnap her. Her parents reportedly refuse to believe her and have grounded her. She claims to have been confined to her room, but she has gone to school. Do you believe she is in danger?”
“Absolutely. That’s why we have people watching her house. I’d like to work with you if you are planning an intervention.”
“I plan to visit the school this afternoon. I would be happy to have your company.”
Amy sat next to Dennis at lunch, trying to be small and inconspicuous. She didn’t think her parents would try to pull her out of school, but she didn’t want to risk it. If the CPS worker went to her parents, they might retaliate and try to interfere in ways other than grounding her.
“Hey, honey,” Dennis whispered to her. “You’re awfully upset. What’s going on?”
“My brother came home while I was at your house yesterday. My parents grounded me for wishing he was dead. I’m scared to go home tonight,” Amy said. Dennis put an arm around her and squeezed her shoulders.
“You know you can come to my house. It’s a little weird with Dad home from the hospital, but Mom will still welcome you.”
“I’d like that, but I called Child Protective Services in Des Moines. They might come and take me away. Why did I do that? I’m sure they’ll only make it worse.”
“Don’t be sure about that. Mom had a social worker visit yesterday and she says they are doing their best to help her. I’m sure they’ll do their best for you, too.”
“If I have to go home tonight, I might kill my brother.”
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