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55

Two days later I was in San Diego, about an hour and a half south froton Beach

It was 10:00 a alone in a leather sofa in an ornate office overlooking the lush playing field at Qualcoh the massive as eraphs of past personnel and players I recognized almost all of them, since football was my life Not to mention, I had taken a particularly keen interest in the San Diego Chargers since their last offer

I was dressed to the nines in khakis and cordovan loafers and a blue silk shirt that accentuated my blue eyes At least that&039;s what I&039;m told

A door opened and a little bald htly, andspeed Of course, it shouldn&039;t be too surprising, Aaron Larkin had been free safety for the Chargers for most of his career in the seventies In the seventies, he had not been bald

"My God, Knighthorse, you are a big boy," he said, pu my hand

"Oh, really? I hadn&039;t noticed"

He laughed and gestured for me to sit He moved behind his black lacquer desk and took a seat Larkin leaned forward eagerly and laced his fingers together before hinarled and so after a full career in football Between high school, college and the pros, fingers were bound to get broken

"We are very excited to hear froood I aiven up on you Such a tragedy about your leg But my God you have kept yourself fit And we need someone like you badly Hell, who doesn&039;t need a fullback nowadays?"

"Outside of football, few people"

He laughed "We want to give you a private workout in teeks If we like e see we&039;ll invite you to training cahthorse My God you were an unholy terror on the playing field Your services could be very, very valuable to us So how is the leg?" he asked, and his voice was filled with genuine concern, and for that I liked the guy immensely

"It has healed completely" I lied It hurt like a motherfucker

"An utterdown the hall There&039;s no limp to speak of"

The hallways had been e h tech surveillance to ait

"Well, I&039;m a hell of a specimen"

"Around here, they all are"

We set a date for my mini-workout, and when I left his office, I waved to the little camera situated in the upper corner of the hallway

56

"Where the hell is he?" asked Sanchez

I shrugged

"Did you just shrug?" he asked "Because it&039;s too dark to tell I mean there&039;s a hundred reasons why I&039; in the dark ain&039;t one of thelish"

"Hell you&039;re lucky I&039; of Latino descent, and this being Southern California"

"This is America, you know"

"Unfortunately there ain&039;t no such thing as speaking American"

"Too bad"

"And last tilish"

We aiting outside of Huntington High inIt was past 7:00 pm, and Bryan Dawson, or Pencil Dick, was still in his office We had been waiting here for the past four hours Students were long gone, including most of the faculty We had watched the sun set over the Pacific

"I&039;ry," said Sanchez

"There&039;s a Wendy&039;s around the corner Why don&039;t you go get us soiveto eat"

"When was the last ti?" I asked

"The last tiave hier and friesPencil Dick for four straight days So far there was no evidence of any extracurricular activities on the part of the band director, other than his fondness for frozen yogurt

Sanchez ca of food We ate silently and quickly, drinking from two plastic buckets that were passed off as ju noises finally stopped altogether, when the debris had been collected back into the bags, I saw a fah a side hall, turning into the faculty parking lot, was a handso a briefcase, and looked far too important to be just a band director Or at least that was the iot into a red Jetta

"Let&039;s roll," I said

57

Bryan Dawson lived in a condo about ain the opposite direction

"He&039;s not heading home," said Sanchez

"Astute," I said

I was three cars behind the Huntington band director, so back to four or five To date, he hadfollowed

"You&039;re following too close"

"No, I&039; toto ht you how to tail"

"But I&039;ot all the tail"