Swim Again (13 page)

I made sure to case the scene as we parked in front of Coach’s house.  The birds chirped, a neighbor was mowing the lawn, and Ms. Zee was sitting on her porch.  Business as usual.  I waved to Mrs. Zee on the way in.  For security purposes, well, more like in case she needed to be a witness.  I wiggled around, waiting for Mark to open the door.  Letting him see my nerves wasn’t the best course of action.

“Hey,” Mark said and welcomed us in.  “Don’t tell me you two are going on vacation.  Kaz I’m expecting you to work through the weekend.  We’re so close.”

“No,” I said.  “Um, we came to talk to you.”

“Shoot,” he said.  That was not my favorite choice for a word. 

“Well, this is about the attacks,” I said.

“Did they find the suspect?” Mark asked.  “They haven’t told me anything yet.  I hope you don’t need to go into some sort of protection.  We have an Olympic dream to maintain here.”  Mark invited us to have a seat, but we declined.

“No, there’s no new information, so we’re trying to figure out what happened,” I said.  “I can’t have this on my mind as I’m trying to swim.”

“You don’t have to explain, Kaz,” Mark said.  “I understand.  That’s why we’ve been working so hard.  To get this tragedy out of your mind.  I don’t want you to fear another attack as you’re swimming.”

Is he trying to tell us something?

“We came to ask what you knew about it,” I said.

“I know what you know,” Mark said.  “I’m sure there’s no missing info there.”

“But there is,” I said.  “There’s no polite way to say this, but Dakota.  You still live with her.”

“Did she try and sleep with you again?!”  Mark’s demeanor flipped.  He huffed and jumped out of his chair.  “She’s just.  I’m sorry Kaz.”  He blinked a few times and shook his head.  I hoped Mauri wasn’t gifted with the fortune telling I joked with her about earlier.  This wasn’t Mark.  Not the guy I knew.

“Has she done anything out of the ordinary?” Mauri said.

“Other than increasing the time she spends with Brayden after you broke up with him Mauri?”  Mark appeared to realize something.

“What?” I said.

“No, I can’t,” Mark said.

“Can you tell us why?” Mauri said.

Mark shook his head and walked to the end of the room to stare out of the window. 

“Look Mark,” I said.  “We
need
this information.  My life depends on it.  If you know something…”

“I can’t,” Mark said.

“I know it’s hard,” Mauri said as she stepped toward him.  “We don’t want you to have to relive the moments, but if we don’t find out what happened, there won’t be an Olympic dream.  Kaz could be potentially hurt.  I know you care for Kaz.  You’ve known him half of his life.  I know you’d do anything you can to help.”

“But I have to admit to something…” Mark said and turned around.

I was ready to grab Marui and run.  Mark never acted this way.  He seemed as though he was going to say goodbye.  Admit to his wrongdoing.  Admit to trying to kill me.  If there was a gun in his back pocket, that would be the time to use it.  And the thing was, he wouldn’t even run after.  He’d call 911 himself.

“I’m so sorry for not telling you Kaz,” he began.  “But I didn’t think anything of it.  I must have tried to forget.  It was such a long time in between…  When we had that meeting, when I told Brayden I was done with him and his family, Brayden was hurt, but his father was livid.  He took time to curse me out, stating that
you
were the reason for my and my wife’s break up. 

“He said I was sick to want to win so bad that I’d choose someone who slept with my wife over his son.  I don’t know where he got that idea from.  I assumed Brayden.  He went on to call you every kind of name under the sun.  He said he hated that you were born.  What kind of parents did you have?  He said all of these things and when the police asked if I knew anyone who’d attack you, I said nothing. 

“I only told them about the fight—that I chose Kaz over Brayden.  I left out the details about what he said and why it happened in the first place.  I didn’t want them digging into my marriage and ruining my career.  I was selfish.”

“Wow,” slipped out of Mauri’s mouth.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  I thought Coach would have done anything for me, but I understood.  Although he was upset, angry over how his wife manipulated me.  He once thought she would do no wrong, at least not to us.  Then he caught me making out with her.  Then he caught Brayden.  And he wasn’t going to admit that his wife cheated on him with us as soon as she could, after we were grown.

“But there was no way of knowing,” I said.  “I could see anyone saying these things when they’re angry.  To him, you quitting was as if you ripped Brayden’s Olympic dream away.  And he waited around a year to attack.”

Mark shook his head.  “But he was more than angry.  He was furious.  And he waited and waited until he had the right time to attack you.”

“They did check him out as a suspect,” I said.

“They had a good lie put together,” Mauri said.  “His wife covered for him or didn’t know.”

“If I would have said more, told them about how furious Vincent was,” Mark said.  “Told them how passionate about winning he was.  Maybe they would have looked into it further.”

“OK,” Mauri said.  “So what’s his reasoning for attacking again?  Why now?  Why not later, closer to the finals?”

“Something made him blow,” Mark said.  “A trigger.”

“His wife,” I said. 

“Did she hit on you?” Mark said.

“Other than telling me to call her Abby, no,” I said.  “But we were talking and her husband appeared.  He wasn’t excited to see me.  That was around the same time when Dakota prepositioned me again.”

“I knew that…
woman
,” Mark said.

Mauri sighed.  “That’s what that meant.”

“What are you talking about Mauri?” I said.

She turned to me.  “When Brayden and I broke up, I accused him of cheating.  He was livid.  He yelled that he would
never
do that.  He wasn’t like her.”

“His mom,” Mark said. 

“I’m guessing his father fed him lies,” Mauri said.  “Half-truths.”

“And now that we’re telling everything, I saw that she was nice to you, Kaz,” Mark said.  “When you were younger, she was nicer to you than she was with the other kids.  It was as if she took a special interest in you.  But that might have been her being selective of whom she liked, not cheating.  She didn’t like Mauri at first, and from what Dakota said, she loved you Mauri while you dated Brayden.”

“And if you saw it Mark, her husband saw it too,” Mauri said.

“And her son,” I said.  “So how do we know which one did it?  Brayden or Vincent?”

“How do we know Mrs. Reed didn’t do it?” Mauri said.  “She never got what she wanted, Brayden to win, so she’d ruin your career.  Maybe being nice to you was a strategy.”

“She didn’t hurt you though Mauri,” I said. 

“I wasn’t a threat,” Mauri said.  “I was the pawn.  She whispered in your ear then lured me away from you with Brayden.  Their whole family had my life planned out with him.  If I married Brayden that would have hurt you.”

“And freed me up.  In case we’re going with the flirting theory.”

“And,” Mark said, “she wouldn’t have a problem hiring someone to do the dirty work.”

“But I can’t stop thinking about how Charles worked for Vincent,” I said.  “She didn’t like Charles at all.”

“Well, there’s only one thing left to do,” Mark said.

“What?” Mauri said.

“Smoke ‘em out,” I said.

“One of the most interesting stories of the Olympics is the story about friendship, loss, adversary, and never giving up,” the announcer said.  “You may be familiar with the story.  In the small town of Staden, a mecca for athletes of all kinds, Kaz Nelson and Brayden ‘Hometown’ Reed grew up as best friends. 

“They’d later become Olympic champions, fueling the breakup of their friendship and beginning of their opposition.  But the turns that lie beyond the corner were unimaginable.  We’ll continue their path to redemption after the break.”

At the Olympic Trials, I was more jittery than ever before.  I had to prove that I was able, prove that I still would win, and we had to confront Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Reed and child.  I didn’t want to put the pressure on myself, and Mark and Mauri argued against confronting, but that couldn’t wait. 

Who knew if Vincent, Abby, or Brayden had something more for me, especially when they’d see that I was back up to par?  I wasn’t going to take that chance.  But the matter would have to wait.  I had four final races to make it to and win first.  Messing up wasn’t an option; I couldn’t fall below second place.  I wouldn’t leave my dream to chance.

I danced around, getting ready in the back room, which was not my style.  The first race I tried to be loose and not think too much.  Mark, Mauri, and I had put in a lot of work.  I was prepared for it.

“Set.”

The bell went off, and I was back in the water.   The first turn was great.  But I had to hurry up.  There were only fifty meters left.  I went as fast as I could, but wasn’t first.  I turned around to check the board.  Brayden was.  I blinked.  I barely came in second.  I was upset when I got out.  I happened to see Mauri, who pushed her hands down, a signal for me to chill out.  Then she mouthed, “You got this.”

She was right.  I
did
have those races.  I came back from a horrible nightmare that nearly ended my career.  Being there
was
enough.  The next races, over the next days, I didn’t remember how they went in the water.  All I remembered was checking that board, and making it through to the games in the end.  On the last glance, I was nothing but smiles.  I’d be in at least four races. 

When the media pulled Brayden and me to the side, I remembered I kept saying I was just glad to be there, glad to be back.  Then they reminded me how much the fans had missed me and were happy to see that I was back.  My mouth dropped open and I smiled.  Brayden patted me on the shoulder. 

Before we had to go backstage, Brayden and I took the opportunity to wave at our fans, coaches, family, and Mauri.  Vincent appeared to already be agitated.  Something about his demeanor was off.  I made sure to wave and say hi to his wife first then to him, smiling the whole way.  Mrs. Reed waved back.  He stared at me, took a break to glance over to his joyful wife, then glared at me again.  We had him where I wanted him.

Our coaches and family were waiting outside of the arena along with some undercover police.  During the weeks leading up to the trials, we were able to talk to them, along with Mark, explaining the situation and what we found. 

They said they would look into it and we shouldn’t worry too much about the trials.  Due to the assault, they were working with the other department, and undercover police would be assigned to cover the trials.  In addition, they planned to send some of their officers as regular citizens. 

On the way out of the arena, to meet up with our crews, Brayden and I were talking and joking around as planned.  Vincent wasn’t upset, he was fuming.

“Brayden!” Vincent yelled.  “Let’s go.  Now!”

The mood of the crowd shifted from cheerful to worried.

“Brayden!” Vincent said.

“Dad?” Brayden said.  “What’s going on?”

“Mr. Reed,” I said.  “Are you alright?”

Vincent growled.  “Don’t you talk to me!  Don’t think about saying hi to my wife, and step away from my son!” 

“What do you mean?” Brayden said.  “We’re friends, Dad.  Chill out.  You’re scaring us.”

Mrs. Reed backed away from Vincent.  “Honey,” she said.  Their kids backed away with her.

“I’m scaring you?!” Vincent said and chuckled.  “He should be scaring you!  He took your coach!  He took your gold!  He took your chance to win!  But you know what?  I fixed it for you.  He was gone.  Nada.  No more swimming for him.  No more champion.  No money.  But now he’s come back, and took your girlfriend in the process.  I taught you better than that.”  He paused to laugh. 

“He’s going to take all of your opportunities to win, to make money, and you, Brayden, you let him make us all look like a
fool!
  You come out of here jovial, smiling, laughing, saying you’re friends.  He took
everything
that you’ve worked for in your entire life, everything
I’ve worked
for your entire life, and you’re going to stand there and hold hands and dance with him.”

As he spoke, the undercover police had surrounded him.  Before they could arrest him, he charged at me and yelled.  I punched him in the stomach, hit him in the face with an open hand, and my mom, not wanting to miss out on the action, swept him to his feet. 

My dad ran in to grab my mom to stop her from jumping on top of him.  Mauri ran to drag me away, so I wouldn’t get in any trouble.  And Brayden stood there, staring vacantly at his dad.

The police arrested Vincent as his wife, other kids, and the rest of the small crowd watched in horror. 

“I’m sorry,” Brayden said, still frozen.  “I didn’t know.”

“It’s not your fault,” I said.

“I should have known.”

“There was no way you could.”

“But he’s my Dad.”

“Brayden,” Mauri said.  “Look at me.  This is not your fault.  You are not him.  You’re not responsible for what he did.”

Mauri and I looked at each other, wondering if Brayden would be able to make it.  Little did Vincent know that his actions had a greater chance at causing his own son’s demise instead.