Bev had been put into a no-win situation. Did she come out and condemn the officer loudly, early, and often to save her job, or did she let the process work? I respected Bev for not offering the officer up as a sacrificial lamb for her political ambitions, even though she knew he was guilty. Bev acted as the professional she was. In the end, the process worked. The internal investigation found him responsible, and he was charged.
My only concern had been the timing of the charges. If they’d had enough evidence before, Bev should have charged him earlier. I suspect that the judge had forced her hand. Charging the officer the day before the release of the video just didn’t feel right to me, even though I understood the public safety issues involved.
Today the people would get to express their feelings, and I was afraid Bev would be disappointed. From what everyone said, she was good at her job. Sometimes things happened, though. I was sure she would be fine if she lost the primary. Maybe she would work with Ms. Dixon. It would be good to have a pit bull of an attorney the next time I got myself into trouble. The sad part was, I had a bad feeling I just might have to have her help someday.
◊◊◊
In PE, Wolf and I were lifting together. Tim was in the same room, but working a different set of muscles. Wolf noticed me looking over at Tim, bemused.
“Did you know you and I were the only two people who kept coming to see him regularly after the initial fuss died down?” he asked.
Tim had told me that after he injured his knee, no one else came to visit more than once, except us. I shook my head slowly in disgust. I thought his teammates would’ve shown more support. Guess I was wrong.
“It meant a lot to him,” Wolf said. “He won’t say anything to you, because he doesn’t want to seem like a suck-up, but he appreciated you taking the time.”
“He’s been working hard to get back on the field. Well, we’ll have to make sure he knows we have his back,” I said with a grin.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t do it right then, though. I was here for another reason. Connor Fletcher, the outside training consultant, was here for the next couple of days to monitor our progress. Connor came and got us.
“I need to weigh and measure you,” he said.
Jim and Johan also joined us for our cattle call. Jill and Becky were ready with clipboards and cloth tape measures, and I was sent to Jill.
“Should I strip?” I asked.
Becky giggled as Jill blushed. Connor looked at me curiously, and I looked back at Connor.
“I didn’t know if you wanted
“That explains it. I wondered why they had hair on their palms,” Johan said.
We all looked at him, and I broke out laughing. He was the most straitlaced kid I knew, and it was so unexpected I couldn’t help myself.
“You two keep acting like that, and you won’t get invited to the baseball party Saturday night,” Jim threatened.
“Meh,” I said and shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal.
“I called Tami like you suggested, and she had me call Kevin Goode. He has an apartment with Magic, and Mike’s brother Luke is across the hall. They’ve agreed to have a party for the baseball team,” Jim informed us.
I just shook my head. If Moose found out, we were all dead. He had a zero-tolerance drinking policy. I would enjoy seeing my former teammates who now played football at State. Well, except for Luke.
“You better be careful of who you talk to about it,” I said as my head nodded towards the trainers.
Jim caught my meaning and looked worried as Jill and Becky grinned at him. He was screwed.
“We’ve been wanting to reorganize the storage room. If only there were a volunteer …” Jill suggested.
“Yes, I wonder who would do that for us?” Becky asked.
“I could just have David get naked,” Jim offered.
“Eh, we’ve seen that too many times,” Becky said.
“Speak for yourself,” Jill teased.
“I think we need to get back to work,” Connor said, ruining their fun.
Jim did ‘volunteer’ to help. I was surprised when Johan and Wolf stepped up and said they would, too. I just pulled down my shorts so they got a glimpse of my left butt cheek.
In three and a half months, Connor had made some serious progress with my three friends. Jim was up to 285 pounds. From looking at him, it was mostly muscle. His goal was to put on ten to fifteen more pounds before he left for Alabama this summer. He’d enrolled in summer school so he could get acclimated to college life and take a couple of classes. He would also start working out with his new teammates.
