Touchdown Tony Crowne and the Mystery of the Missing Cheerleader (9 page)

“I’ll be okay, Coach.”

“Let’s get you up and over to the sidelines, Tony. Can you walk?” Doc Claiborne asked.

“Yeah.” Tony said a little weakly.

“Coach, I’m going to keep him out for the rest of the half and make sure he’s okay before I release him to play,” Doc Claiborne explained as they helped Tony back to the Bobcats’ sideline and sat him on the bench.

“Absolutely, Doc. Whatever you say, you’re the boss in these matters.”

Coach Tiny smiled, patted Tony once on the shoulder pads and once on the helmet, turned, yelled for Casey O’Toole to take Tony’s place on the point after attempt and returned to his usual spot on the sidelines.

“Doc?” Maria Crowne had wended her way down from the bleachers, stood behind Tony with one hand to her mouth in concern and her other arm draped over his shoulders.

“I think he’ll be just fine, Maria. I’m going to perform a few more tests to rule out concussion or other injuries, but I’m of the opinion he just had the wind knocked out of him.”

“I’m all right, Mom.” Tony looked up at her, then twisted his head to her other side and asked, “Where’s Dad?”

“He went with the Richardson’s to search for Ash. They said she left early to meet with the other cheerleaders, but she never arrived. They didn’t know she had disappeared until they came to the game and saw Felicity in her spot. It’s all so strange. She’s never done anything like this before!”

Tony took his helmet off, rubbed his forehead and asked, “Are the police involved?”

“Yes, they take it very seriously when a child has disappeared. As a matter of fact, Detective Bouguereau is here now speaking to people.”

“Ask the detective to talk to me, I’ve got something to tell him—”

A roar went up from the visitor’s section as the Lions’ placekicker drilled the extra-point attempt even though Nick Miller had come very close to getting a hand on it. The Lions double-teamed Judd and that left a hole for Nick to run through, but the ball angled past his outstretched hands. Smilin’ Bob’s voice crackled through the air, “The extra point is good and the Lions lead the Bobcats, 7-0.”

“What?” Maria bent down next to Tony, “I couldn’t hear you.”

“Ask Detective Bou—”

“That’s enough, young fella,” interrupted Doc. “Let me finish giving you some more tests and if you pass, then you can talk all you want.” Doc glanced at Maria, grinned and said, “Go on back to your seat, I’ll let you know the results as soon as I can.”

“Thank you, Doc.” Maria ran her hand through Tony’s hair, smiled nervously and climbed back up to her seat next to the Judge.

Nick Miller drifted back to the thirty yard line to await the Lions kickoff, running in place a little, working the kinks out of his neck, making sure he’s thoroughly warmed up for his run back. The Lions head coach, Charles “Chuck” Washington, well aware of Nick’s running and cutting ability, threw two fingers into the air and shouted at his kickoff team as they were lining up on the field, “Kickoff Two! Kickoff Two!”

The Lions place kicker nodded at Coach Chuck’s instruction and re-arranged the ball slightly on the tee, backed up, put his hand in the air and waited for the go ahead to kickoff. The referee whistled for play to start and the Lions kicker, instead of booting the ball into the air, squib kicked it down the middle of the field.

The football began as a line drive past the first row of blockers, dovetailed down, hit the ground, flipped end over end, bounced twice and on the third bounce the tip of the football caught the turf and careened into the air. The last bounce took Nick entirely by surprise, he was expecting the football to stay low, but it went high and the football ricocheted off his shoulder pads and caromed down to the fifteen-yard line.

Nick was now in a footrace with two Lions to grab the live ball, all three pushing and shoving to get there first. At the eighteen-yard line, Nick and one of the Lions dove to recover the football, but they only succeeded in punching it further down the field and it dribbled into the end zone. The other Lions player who didn’t dive for the football easily recovered it in the end zone before any of the Bobcats could make a play on it.

Coach Tiny, with his arms draped over his head, could only look on in disbelief as the Lions scored their second touchdown in a matter of seconds. “Touchdown! Number 47, Nathan Marley. 13 to 0.” Smilin’ Bob glanced at Hunter Dunwoody, mouthed a noiseless “Uh-oh” and watched the extra-point kick sail through the uprights. He updated the crowd with an echoing, “14 to 0, Lakeside Lions.”

Walking up and down the sideline, clapping his hands and speaking in an upbeat tone Coach Tiny tried to infuse morale into his players with some words of wisdom, “Let’s go! Let’s go! Down 14 to zip. We’ve been here before and come back. No big deal. We’re gonna to stick to our plan. Keep your head in the game. Okay, return squad! Out on the field! Let’s go, let’s go!”

Coach Chuck held up two fingers and, again the Lions squib kicked the football down the field to nullify Nick’s run back ability. This time Nick lined up deeper and easily fielded the bouncing football at the twenty-yard line. He sidestepped the first tackler, looked downfield, saw a crease on the right side and headed that direction. With two Lions racing to cut him off at the sideline, Nick stutter-stepped, pulled up slightly, broke the opposite way and left the two defenders grasping at air. Now, slicing back to the middle of the field, Nick broke one feeble tackle attempt, spun out of another arm tackle and was set to be gang tackled by three Lions when Judd flew in and blocked the first one into the second tackler’s path causing him to fall down. Nick juked the third tackler onto his knees, but that Lion reached out and grabbed Nick’s jersey, held on until help arrived and Nick was brought down at his own forty-one-yard line.

The pep band, bolstered by a good play, burst out into the opening bars of the fight song, but stopped suddenly when Smilin’ Bob announced a penalty flag had been thrown, “Clipping penalty on the Bobcats. The Bobcats will control the ball on their own twenty-six-yard line.” The hometown fans all groaned at the same time and Coach Tiny threw his arms up in disgust.

Sticking to his game plan, Coach Tiny probed the Lions defense by calling two consecutive running plays to the right side, both were stopped for no gain and the Bobcats were looking at a third and ten situation.

Nick looked to the sideline for the next play and Coach Tiny signaled for a square-out pass to the tight end, Jay Evans. The Lions front line normally played soft against a runner like Nick Miller, but in a third-and-ten situation the Lions defensive coach let them rush full bore with a linebacker blitzing on each side. In a shotgun formation, Nick could see the linebackers creeping up to the line and knew he’d have to get the pass off quickly for the play to be successful.

The shotgun snap to Nick was unusually low and threw his timing off. The left side of the offensive line anchored by Judd, easily kept the Lions defenders at bay. The right side of the offensive line, however, had a minor breakdown and the Lions left defensive end slid through his blocker and was churning directly toward Nick. Jay Evans had run a perfect route and his defender was lagging behind him, all he needed was the football. Nick dropped back two steps, planted his right foot, saw his open receiver and flung the football as hard as he could. The ball sailed directly into the Lions defensive end’s outstretched hand, caromed off and fluttered high into the air toward the defensive secondary. The Lions safety on that side saw the play develop, cheated up somewhat to the line and was rewarded with the football dropping down to him like a wounded duck. He intercepted the ball on a dead run at the thirty-two-yard line and waltzed into the end zone untouched.

“What did I tell you?” a smug Hunter Dunwoody growled out of the side of his mouth as he chewed on a toothpick, leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head.

Smilin’ Bob watched the extra point split the uprights and announced, “The Lakeside Lions lead the Dersee Bobcats, 21 to 0.” He turned to Dunwoody and said, "Un-buh-lievable!"

Chapter 15- The Detective and the Chocolate Sprinkles

“Oh, no!” Doc said as he watched the Lions score a touchdown. The Lions’ fans erupted in raucous cheers while the Bobcats’ fans sat in unnatural silence.

“What happened, Doc? What happened?” Tony jumped up from his sitting position, but could not see what happened other than the referee signaling a touchdown.

Doc turned to Tony, grabbed him by the shoulder pads and sat him back down on the bench. “The Lions intercepted and ran it back for a td.”

“This is getting out of hand! I gotta talk to Coach Tiny!” Tony sprang back up, but Doc caught him again and forced him to sit down.

“Nope, you’re not going anywhere until I’m satisfied that you’re okay. I’m going to re-evaluate you at halftime. Until then, stay here. Understand?" Doc said with a serious look as well as with a serious tone to his voice.

“Yeah, but—”

“No buts, young man.”

Sighing, Tony slumped on the bench and muttered in a resigned voice, “Yes, sir.”

“Good, I’ll back in a little while. In the meantime, drink plenty of water.” Doc handed him a water bottle and walked back to his usual spot on the sideline in case he was needed again.

Tony, alone on the bench and with plenty of time on his hands, thought about Ash’s disappearance and the possibilities of what could have happened to her. What could Felicity have possibly done to her? Ash was ten times more athletic than Felicity. So, if Felicity had done anything she would have needed help. The toads! Are the toads here? Tony swiveled his head from side to side scanning the Dersee crowd. No, no, I don’t see them—wait! There. They’re at the concession stand, talking and laughing with another girl. I suppose it’s possible Felicity and the toads could have kidnapped her, tied her up and then come to the game. Hmm, Felicity and the toads don’t seem very nervous. I know I’d be nervous and edgy if I just committed a crime. Of course, not all people react the same way, do they?

Sipping on his water bottle, Tony’s eyes lit up, he stood, turned and waved frantically at his mother to come down to him. When Maria arrived, he asked her, “I need to speak to Detective Boo—, Detective Boog— is he still at the game?”

“Bouguereau? You pronounce it like, Boo-gah-roo. Why? Do you know something about Ash?”

Tony silently pronounced the name Bouguereau several times before saying, “No, but I’ve got a hunch that Detective Bouguereau might find useful.”

“Right, well, he was at the ticket gate a few minutes ago. He shouldn’t be too hard to find, not the way he’s dressed.” Maria searched the crowd for a man in a wide-brimmed black hat, tweed overcoat, walking cane, bushy moustache, reading glasses pushed down onto the tip of his nose and the ever-present unlit cigar clamped between his fingers. “Ah, there he is, I’ll be right back with him.” Maria knew Detective Jean-Baptiste Bouguereau well from her days in the District Attorney’s office, but Tony only knew him from his school lecture.

“J.B., this is my lovely son, Tony.” Maria smiled as she introduced the two.

“Oh, yes. I thought you looked familiar when I gave my speech at the elementary school. You asked many intriguing questions about my profession that day. “Jean-Baptiste Bouguereau grinned, shook his hand and looked Tony directly in the eye for a long time. “Now, I have a very serious situation occurring with your friend, Miss Richardson, very serious situation, indeed.” Detective Bouguereau thought for a moment, turned to his mother and asked, “Maria, would you be so kind as to bring me a hot cocoa with marshmallows and chocolate sprinkles? Thank you.”

“What?”

“Now, now, Tony and I have important things to discuss and I think better when I have my hot cocoa. Please, Maria, for me? Oh, and heavy on the sprinkles. Thank you.”

“Oh, J.B., this is a pee wee football game! They won’t have chocolate sprinkles and I guarantee they won’t have marshmallows. You’ll be lucky if the water they use is hot!” Maria said with a touch of annoyance in her voice as she strode off toward the concession stand.

Detective Bouguereau put his arm around Tony, leaned in and explained, “Because of the way you asked those questions in school, I know you have a distinct interest in police work. Remember, young people talk with—how shall I say— more ease, if their parents are not in the same room with them. So, use whatever means necessary to separate the parents from their children, even if it means hot cocoa, marshmallows and chocolate sprinkles!”

Grinning, Tony nodded and began to tell Detective Bouguereau his hunch about Ash’s disappearance, who he thought was involved and how to catch them.

Chapter 16- The Halftime

Judd easily shed the block of the first lineman and was working to get around the second lineman’s double-team block when he saw his middle linebacker, David Scott, tear through on a blitz and sack the Lions’ quarterback for another huge loss. Judd high-fived David and offered his hand to the quarterback for help up. The quarterback, Rod Keegan, smacked his hand away and shouted, “I don’t need your stinkin’ help to get up.”

“Suit yourself. Just bein’ friendly. I noticed you’ve been spendin’ a lot time on your back lately and thought ya might be gettin’ tired.”

“We’re up by 21, I’m not getting tired.” Rod grunted as he rolled over and then grimaced as he gingerly stood up. The scoreboard clock ticked down the last seconds of the first half.