The Perk by Mark Gimenez Page A

further Slade's
career."
    "I'd rather pick grapes at J.B.'s
winery."
    "See, that's the thing, Beck, you always
had options. Me, I only know coaching, so I gotta put up with Slade."
    "Bench him."
    Aubrey laughed. "You mean quit coaching?
'Cause if I benched Slade, that's what I'd be doing. Been twenty-five years
since this town had a state championship, Beck, and people here, they want it
bad. And Slade's the ticket." He spat. "Easier to find another
head coach than another quarterback like him."
    "Maybe he'll flunk out."
    "Of what? P.E.? He's a fifth-year senior.
Turns nineteen September three, so he's still eligible and he's taking one P.E.
class to stay eligible."
    "He's two months from nineteen?"
    "Yep. Quentin held him back in kindergarten
and again in seventh grade so he'd have two extra years to get bigger. He
did. Lots of dads do that now. Soon as the season's over, he's enrolling at
UT."
    "In the middle of his senior year?"
    He spat. "All the big football factories get
their quarterback recruits enrolled for the spring semester, so they'll be
there for spring training. Get a jump on next season."
    "What about being a kid—senior class trip, prom?"
    "Don't mean squat when you're on the fast
track to the NFL."
    "Doesn't sound like much fun."
    "It ain't supposed to be. Slade goes first
in the draft, he'll get sixty million with a ten-million signing bonus. How'd you
like to be twenty-one with ten million bucks in your pocket? Football ain't
about having fun. It's about making money."
    Beck shook his head. "High school football
is more complicated these days."
    "You don't know the half of it." Aubrey
stared out at the field where the boys were now running sprints the length of
the field; Slade was out in front by twenty yards. Aubrey spat. "But if
we do win state, I might quit anyway. Figure I might could trade up for a
college job, maybe ride Slade to an assistant spot with UT. Better pay, might
be able to get Randi back."
    "Randi Barnes?"
    Beck and Mary Jo and Aubrey and Randi had double-dated
all through high school. Randi was two years younger.
    Aubrey nodded. "We dated till she
graduated, got married that summer. But you know Randi, she always wanted more.
Left me a few years back, moved to Austin. Ain't seen her since."
    "Do y'all have kids?"
    Aubrey recoiled almost as if Beck had hit him.
    "J.B. didn't tell you?"
    "Tell me what?"
    Aubrey's eyes dropped and he stared down, as if
searching for an answer in the brown puddle of tobacco juice. He spat.
    "We had a girl. She died … four years,
six months, five days ago today. On New Year's Eve. She was only sixteen."
    "Jesus, Aubrey, I'm sorry."
    Aubrey's jaw muscles flexed like he was chewing
on the past. He spat.
    "She was murdered, Beck."
    " Murdered? By whom?"
    "Don't know. He gave her cocaine, she
OD'd."
    "How do you know he gave it to her?"
    "She didn't do drugs, Beck. She was a good
girl."
    "No, I mean, how do you know she was with a
guy?"
    "They got his DNA."
    "From what?"
    Aubrey looked like he might cry. "Semen."
    "Was she raped?"
    "Same difference, drugging her like that.
She couldn't have known what she was doing or she wouldn't have done it. But
it don't matter—she was sixteen and that ain't legal." Aubrey stiffened
up. "We got his DNA, Beck, we just don't got him. And we've only got
five months and twenty-six days to get him. I keep a calendar."
    "What do you mean?"
    "I mark off each day since she died—"
    "No. The 'five months and twenty-six days'?"
    "Oh. Five-year statute of limitations on
statutory rape. Runs out midnight New Year's Eve."
    "Aubrey, I'm not a criminal lawyer, but if
he gave cocaine to a minor and she died, that's got to be murder, or at least
manslaughter. And there's no statute of limitations on murder or
manslaughter."
    Aubrey was shaking his head. "That's the
problem—gotta prove he gave it to her. He'll just deny it and who's to say
otherwise? D.A. says no way he could get a conviction on murder