15. Chapter 15
Chapter 15
Dylan
“ Y ou belong here, you know,” I whispered to Elise as we approached the Del Ray stadium after a long day of college classes.
“No, I really don’t.”
Stiff shoulders, folded arms, gaze jumping nervously from place to place, it didn’t take an expert to see that she was nervous.
“You really do.” I reached for her hand, but when she didn’t grasp my fingers, I pretended to have accidentally brushed her while smoothing my hair out of my face. “Your Dad ran here. You’re fast enough to beat most, if not all the girls on the team. You could jump into our practice and kick everyone’s butts right now, even in your street clothes.”
Elise shook her head and kept walking mechanically toward the stadium’s entrance. “I’m just here to talk to Pete, and since I don’t know his schedule and you insist on being part of the conversation, it made sense for us to do this now.”
“Come on, Elise; you’re amazing. Besides, didn’t I prove to you last night that I make a great teammate?”
That earned me an eye roll. Unsurprising, considering our grannies had slaughtered us last night, and she hadn’t been too happy about it. Oh, and let’s not forget the journal incident.
When we got out to the track, three of the four girls Pete had recruited from our former high school team frowned or glowered at Elise. Of course, one of them was Sophie, Pete’s daughter who had purposely taken Elise down last year.
“Ignore them,” I whispered.
I considered announcing that she was here to kick each and every one of their tushes, which she definitely could have done, but decided not to. For whatever reason, Elise was keeping her training a secret, and it wasn’t my business to blab it.
“Well, what a surprise.” Pete approached us, one hand holding a clipboard, the other gripping an orange and a small case with flower patterned fabric. “Hang on just a sec.” Patting Elise on the shoulder, he brushed past us and headed for the clump of whispering girls.
His daughter broke from the group and jogged over to meet him. The whole time Pete talked to her, she stood glaring at Elise.
That little pampered diva needed to grow up. She’s the one that ruined Elise’s life, not the other way around.
After taking the orange and case, Sophie gave Elise one more dirty look, then returned to her catty friends.
Pete joined us back in the bleachers. “Sorry about that. Sophie forgot her insulin again, and the wife would have my head if I didn’t get her taken care of.”
“Wait, I didn’t know she used insulin. Doesn’t that mean she’s diabetic?” I asked.
“Yep, type one diabetic, to be specific. Had it since she was ten,” he answered.
“Then what’s the orange for?” I pointed to Sophie who stood peeling the fruit.
“Helps her boost her blood sugar when it gets too low. She’s gonna need all the help she can get if she wants to survive today’s workout.” Pete gave me a wink.
“Anywho, good to see you here, Elise. Change your mind about runnin’ for the team?” He thumped her on the back.
“I can’t; remember my injury?”
Why did Elise insist on lying when she was good enough to be a superstar?
“We came to ask you some questions. Your answers may help us to figure out how Dad died.”
Pete checked his watch. “I’ve got another twenty minutes before practice starts. Fire away.”
The three of us sat on the nearest bench, and Elise pulled a notebook, followed by a pen, out of her backpack. I caught a glimpse of the dark blue notebook that was once again in her bag, along with the rest of her schoolbooks and folders, though that wasn’t the one she used now.
“What was your college coach like, the one who trained you and Dad?” Elise asked, her pen hovering just above the blank page.
Pete folded his arms across his wide belly, and his face puckered. “Well, that’s an odd thing to ask. I’m pretty sure your dad hasn’t seen him in years. Guy lives up in L.A. now.”
“I know it may not seem important, but I’m just following any leads I find to see if they go anywhere.”
Pete thumbed his nose. “Alright, well, to be honest, he wasn’t the most friendly guy. Kind of a nose to the grindstone kind of coach. He came to work hard, and he expected us to do the same. Anytime he saw us givin’ less than one-hundred and ten percent, he’d let us know we better toe the line.”
Elise asked her next question while still scribbling his answer in her notebook. “How exactly did he let you know you better ‘toe the line?”
Wincing, Pete answered, “He wasn’t nice, and that’s an understatement. He’d get all red-faced, yellin’ at us if we had a bad race, or even a bad practice, but that wasn’t the worst of it. Coach Carter liked to keep all of our scholarships on a semester-by-semester basis. He reminded us regularly that if we weren’t up to snuff, he’d yank them.”
“Yikes. Makes me glad I’m running for you and not him,” I said.
“Well thank you, Dylan.” Pete gave my back a good thwack, and I tried not to cough. “I do my best to learn from the past and make this team a place where everyone can thrive, both on the racin’ course and off.”
“This seems so weird to me,” Elise muttered, chewing at her pen. “I’ve seen the pictures and medals. You guys were among the top in the nation all the years Dad was here.”
“That’s right. We boys took nationals our senior year, and the girls took it our junior year.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” she said. “I’ve been around coaching my whole life, and I’ve seen what it takes to help a team do well. Pushing them until they break isn’t a long-term solution. To be honest, I’m surprised a bunch of you didn’t quit or go somewhere else.”
“It’s a tough environment for sure, but it’s also hard to leave a team that has a chance of snaggin’ a national title.”
Elise shook her head, still looking baffled.
“Do you remember what happened to Kelly Harper?” I asked.
Narrowing his eyes, Pete stared out across the stadium. “Girl died,” he eventually said. “Collapsed after she crossed the finish line. Had a heart attack, if I remember right.”
“Wait a minute.” Pete returned his focus to Elise and me. “Your last name’s Harper. You two related somehow? She couldn’t’ve been your mom.”
I shook my head. “No, she was my aunt. I wasn’t born when she died, but I’ve heard a lot about it from my dad.”
Pete groaned. “Your dad Derek Harper?”
I wriggled in my seat. “Yes.”
“Aha.” Pete slapped a hand to his knee. “Now it all makes sense. ‘Why would a boy rather run for a school for free than have a paid scholarship?’ I kept askin’ myself. Guess your dad’s as fearsome to his family as he is to a bunch of college kids he thinks killed his sister.”
I winced. “What did he do to you guys?”
Chuckling, Pete leaned back and rested his elbows on the bench behind him. “Nothin’ much, just went around campus tellin’ everyone who would listen that we were murderers. He even showed up at a few of our races just to heckle. Oh, and he tried to get Coach Carter fired, of course. Unfortunately, a couple people at the local newspaper took Derek’s stories seriously and published an article about the whole debacle. Made the front page. I tell you, Carter was fit to be tied when that came out. I still remember the workout he gave us that day. Closest thing to a whippin’ I’d had since leavin’ home.”
“That sounds like Dad.” I gave a nervous laugh. “I’m super sorry he did that to you guys. He can be really determined when he wants or expects something.”
Thwack. Pete’s large hand landed on my back. “I wouldn’t be sorry. Sounds like you’ve had your fair share of run-ins with the man too.”
I nodded, studying my slightly faded orange shoes to avoid seeing the look of hurt or anger in Elise’s eyes. Would she hate me now that she knew my dad had probably made life miserable for hers?
“Let’s say, just hypothetically, that someone had wanted to hurt Kelly Harper. Who do you think might have had a motive? Were there any teammates she didn’t get along with?” Elise asked.
I lifted my head to watch her. Leaning over her notes, she studied Pete’s eyes, her expression calm. Was she really not angry with me?
“Well now, that’s a strange question, since her death was clearly an accident.” Pete scratched at his chin, looking out at the runners beginning to stretch alongside the track. “I guess I’d have to say she wasn’t super close with the other girls. Kind of a tomboy, you know? Hung out more with us guys. That and she moved up the ranks pretty fast. She was only a sophomore and was beatin’ most of our seniors. That’s a tough pill to swallow for some.”
“So, you’re saying the other girls didn’t like her?” I cut in.
“You might say that. It’s hard to bust your butt for years, then have someone with much less experience swoop in and take your spot.”
Watching Elise writing furiously, Pete’s eyes narrowed. “Now I’m not sayin’ that’s a motive for murder. Heck, I’m not sayin’ there was a murder.”
“Were there any people Kelly didn’t get along with in particular?” Elise asked, ignoring Pete’s last comment.
Pete scratched at his silvery hair. “Hard to say what went on in the girl’s locker room, seein’ as how I was never in there. From what I remember, the whole girls' varsity squad weren’t fans of her. Saw her as an interloper. And it was no secret that Carla, the girl whose spot she took in the varsity lineup, hated her guts. Again, motive doesn’t mean murder.”
“Of course,” Elise said without looking up from her notes. “Anyone else?”
After a few seconds of silence, we both turned to Pete.
He cleared his throat. “Now don’t go makin’ more out of this than it really is.” Pete didn’t continue until we had both nodded. “Back in the day, Kelly and Clive had a fling that ended badly.”
“You’re kidding,” Elise said. Why wasn’t she writing this response down?
“Who’s Clive?” I asked.
“Only the best mid-distance runner Rancho Invitado has ever known,” Pete answered.
“I thought that was you,” I said. “At least that’s what you’re always telling us.”
“Alright then, the second best. Dave, Clive and I go way back. Why, we started racin’ each other when we were still in diapers.”
Elise cocked a brow at that.
“Okay, maybe not quite that long, but definitely since at least grade school. Clive stayed with me all the way to the ‘96 Olympics. Not like Elise’s dad, Dave, who fell for the siren song of a pretty woman and ditched us.”
Now Elise rolled her eyes. “He just had different priorities. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not easy to provide for a family on an artist’s income, especially in California. He had to work two jobs just to pay the bills.”
“Ah, but you can’t tell me that being an Olympic runner wouldn’t’ve been great publicity for his studio. I bet he would’ve sold a lot more paintings if he’d stuck with us. Could’ve handed out business cards all around Atlanta.”
Smiling, she just shook her head. “About that breakup, what happened?”
“Can’t say for sure. Clive’s a pretty private guy. Never did tell who decided to break things off. All’s I know is after that, those two couldn’t stand to be in the same room with each other.”
Pete wagged a finger at both of us. “Now get this straight, the only reason I even said anythin’ ‘bout any of this is ‘cause you’re bound to find out about it if you go diggin’, and I don’t want to make it seem more suspicious because I didn’t tell you. Clive would never hurt a fly, much less Kelly, and especially not Dave.
“If you’re even thinkin’ of puttin’ Clive on your suspect list, I’m tellin’ you right now to cross him off. He took Kelly’s death hard, and near as I can tell, is takin’ Dave’s even harder. The last thing he needs is someone showin’ up and pokin’ at things best left in the past.”
Should I tell him the police were probably going to do that anyway? Considering that he hadn’t yet announced the workout for the day and could cause me all kinds of pain if he wanted, it probably wasn’t a good idea. Besides, I wasn’t about to agree to leave Clive alone. Not if there was any chance he had some information about Aunt Kelly’s death, or Coach Dave’s, and especially not if he could possibly be a killer. I didn’t want to be on Pete’s bad side any more than I had to be.
Arms folded, he was giving us both a hard stare. Interestingly, Elise wasn’t caving to his demands either. Did she think Clive might be a murderer too?