Strangely enough, nothing much happened for the next two days. After all the activity recently, that seemed unnatural. But between the time the Medieval England study group broke up on Wednesday around six, and lunch time on Friday, everything was so normal it was almost eerie. Classes met. Meals were consumed. Students talked and laughed.
Bryce told Caroline about the Hallowe’en party at Sigma Alpha Tau, which would prevent him from attending the concert put on by some music students. She gave him a disgusted look, and told him he was no fun.
On Thursday, there was a very slight turnout for the French study group, consisting primarily of those who had walked out last week. It was later discovered that the rival group was meeting separately.
On Friday, Bryce and Damon cut short their lunch period, merely grabbing a couple of energy bars, and made their way to the fraternity house to help with the decorating for the Hallowe’en party that evening. As they walked into the front door, Roland Lyle said, “There they are,” and from that moment the period of ordinariness came to an end.
Roland approached Bryce and Damon accompanied by a nervous Tyler Rollins. “Tyler has some information, and will spill it only to you two,” Roland said.
“Okay, we’re here. What’s up?” Bryce asked the restless pledge.
“Not here,” Tyler said, glancing around. “Some place private.”
Wondering what was going on, Bryce and Damon led Tyler into one of the offices, that pertaining to the financial affairs of the fraternity under the direction of Treasurer Keith Hamilton. Keith was just leaving.
“This is important, Keith. We need a private meeting space. Your office available?” Bryce asked.
Keith knew Bryce pretty well. He had been Bryce’s second mentor last fall during the pledging process, and so, while he wondered, he had confidence that Bryce would not abuse the situation. He left, with the three guys in possession.
“Okay, Tyler. We’re private now. What’s so important?” Bryce asked.
Tyler was sweating, licking his lips, and rubbing his hands on his jeans. There was no doubt about his condition, even if the cause was by no means clear. “I came across some information this morning,” Tyler began. Then he hesitated. “I hate to do this. Even though Sean and I don’t get along, he’s still my brother.” Tyler paused, leaving Bryce and Damon no wiser as to the cause of his distress.
Bryce moved over to the desk, and opened a lower drawer. He knew Keith kept a bottle of Bourbon there, just for special occasions. He looked around, and located a none-too-clean glass on a nearby table. Using his shirttail to clean the glass some, he poured an inch of Bourbon and handed it to Tyler. He just looked at the glass for a moment. Then he threw back the Bourbon in one quick motion. He shuddered, then sat heavily on the chair in front of a computer. That seemed to do it.
“I was in a chair just like this this morning,” Tyler resumed his story. “I had to go by Sean’s place. He owed me some money, and I needed it for the party tonight. I was in a chair just like this,” he repeated. Taking a deep breath, Tyler continued. “I don’t want to get Sean in trouble, but some things are just not right, you know?”
“You haven’t given us much to go on so far, Tyler,” Damon reminded him.
Tyler looked confused for a moment, then pulled himself together. “Okay. Sean went into the bedroom to get the money. I was sitting at his computer, where he had been reading his e-mail. I glanced at the screen, and the name Greg Lenihan caught my attention, so I read more.” He paused and took a deep breath. “The e-mail was addressed to the members of that group of Sean’s that calls itself a Gau. What I read said the same ones who took care of Boyington would take care of Lenihan tonight. With all the costumes, going around in disguise would be easy. Then ... then it said they would break both his legs.”
Tyler more or less collapsed at that. He broke down crying. “I just could not let that go without telling someone, even if it does get Sean in trouble. Some things are just not right,” he repeated.
Bryce and Damon were stunned. Plotting to break the legs of the man who was the campus hero for salvaging the Homecoming game was just so incredible it took a minute or two for the seriousness of this threat to sink in.
“Tyler, you did the right thing. I don’t suppose you still have access to that e-mail, but could you write out a summary so we can contact others?” Bryce urged.
“In fact, I do have the original. I heard Sean returning, and had not finished reading, so I sent a copy to myself. Here, it’s on my phone,” Tyler surprised them by announcing.
“Okay, send that to me now,” Bryce said. “Then you go back to your dorm, and take something to make you sleep, and rest up. You’re a mess. We won’t ask you to be directly involved in any confrontation with Sean. But you be sure to be here during the entire evening. Be where others see you, so you have an iron clad alibi in case some of the bad guys get suspicious as to how their plans became known. We’ll take it from here.”
“I ... I ... Okay ... I guess.” Tyler was breaking up.
“Damon, you take this,” Bryce said, handing him the Bourbon from Keith’s desk, “and take Tyler back to his dorm. Or, wait. Tyler, who’s your SAT mentor?”
“Kyle Grainger,” Tyler replied.
“I saw him as we came in,” Damon said. “I’ll get him.” He slipped out of the office.
“Am I in trouble?” Tyler asked.
“No way. But you may be in danger,” Bryce replied.
Damon returned with the other brother.
“Kyle, I know this is very unusual, but we have to ask your help. Your pledge, Tyler, may be in danger. He needs an escort back to his dorm and someone to keep him company until this evening, when he can be in the crowd here at the party. How about it?” Bryce put it to him.
Kyle looked at Bryce closely, and decided he was serious. “You always seem to be involved in strange things, Winslow. But I trust you, so I’ll go along with this. But I want a full explanation later.”
“Okay. Take this,” Damon said, handing Kyle the Bourbon. “If you’re going with Tyler, I won’t need it. But seriously, stay with him. Try to get him to sleep.”
“Will do. He’s too valuable a pledge to lose him,” Kyle agreed. “Come on, Tyler. This is not a normal part of the mentor/pledge relationship, but circumstances seem to warrant unusual tactics.”
A still very nervous Tyler departed with Kyle’s arm over his shoulder.
As soon as Tyler stood to leave, Bryce was on his phone. He called John Zoeller first, then the close student allies in the effort to solve the campus mysteries. The gist of his calls in each case was: Mayday! First class problem! Skip class if necessary. Meet at our apartment right away for strategy session.
By the time Kyle and Tyler were out of the building, Bryce and Damon were collecting Roland and John Luke, and heading for the apartment. Along the way, they collected John Zoeller.
“I’m not supposed to operate off campus,” he objected.
“Special circumstances. When I get a chance to explain, you’ll agree,” Bryce promised him.
Nate and David were in class, with their phones turned to vibrate, but both were sufficiently impressed with Bryce’s call that they excused themselves and left. Scott was in a physics lab, but he, too, left immediately for the Caldwell house. By shortly before one o’clock, in addition to Bryce and Damon, the apartment contained John Zoeller, Curtis Manning, Mike Sandoval, Josh Young, Marc Rimbault, Jason Todd, Nate Hagan, Roland Lyle, John Luke Lansing, David Simpson, and Scott Huong.
Bryce downloaded the e-mail Tyler had sent to his account, and distributed copies to everyone. It was pretty much as Tyler had described it. The message was directed to ‘Members of the Clifton Gau,’ and came from ‘The Leader.’ There was a lot of verbiage, much of it ungrammatical. Then it got down to specifics. The campus reception of Greg Lenihan’s story in Wednesday’s Clifton Courier seems to have really ticked off the author of the message, and evidently others in his group as well. Rather than revulsion and rejection, as they thought fit, Greg remained the campus hero, and was accepted. In fact, he was admired for the courage it took to come out to the team. For this reason, the author of the message commented that it would be fitting to make an example of him. The best example would be to break both his legs, so he could never run the ball down the field again. “We’ve got to show these effeet [sic] types and lovers of cock suckers that there are consequences for abandoning the standards of the Aryan ruling class.”
The message went on to state that “as your Leader” (capitalized) the author had decided there needed to be a “demonstration” that very evening. With parties at many places around campus, there would be people in odd get-ups all over the place, so going about in disguise should be no problem. The same three comrades who had carried out the attack on “that Boyington queer” would redeem themselves for having flubbed that job by carrying out this operation. They would have the added support of “their usual partner.” Then the message ended with “stand by to help if needed. Stand up for the superiority of the white race! Aryans Forever!”
Instinctively, those gathered in the Watson-Winslow apartment knew Greg would not agree to hide out for the evening. He would see that as cowardice. But John Zoeller agreed to speak with him, and warn him of the planned attack. Unfortunately, the entire campus security force could not be mobilized, John said. There were a couple of officers who would sympathize with the neo-Nazi types. But he would also speak to those officers whom he thought could be trusted, and have them on special alert for the evening. Zoeller departed to carry out his part of the response to this crisis.
Some of the others would attempt to attach themselves to Lenihan without being too obvious, while others would attempt to keep track of Campbell, the Lomaxes, and Cuttlesworth, assuming they were the team designated for carrying out the attack. Roland and John Luke were assigned to follow Buck Lomax and Ed Cuttlesworth, as they knew them from high school. Jason and Nate would shadow Campbell and Bick Lomax, as Jason knew them from SAT last year. Mike and David would keep an eye on Rollins and Miller in case there were contacts between them and the other group. Scott would check with the ROTC headquarters in case there was activity there, and to see whether more equipment was missing. Bryce and Damon would shadow Greg. Curtis would return to the fraternity, and try to make certain all seemed as normal as possible, but would first contact Lenihan and give him a personal invitation to the SAT party, then try to keep him there as long as possible. It was necessary to be discrete. If the bad guys caught on, they might abort the operation, and the chance to catch them in the act would be lost. This did seem like an opportunity to get definite proof, and not just the speculation they had thus far. The discussions and planning at the apartment took several hours, but as long as it was light out, they assumed Greg would be safe.
While what they were calling the Rescue Team was still making final plans, Bryce received an update from John Zoeller. Dr. Burnett, the Vice-President for Student Affairs, had just issued a low key announcement that the matter of the ‘Aryans Forever’ blog had been turned over to the Clifton police at noon that day, as the authors of the blog seemed to have admitted committing a crime in that they attacked others with the intent to inflict bodily harm. “Wonder where he got that idea,” Bryce commented.
As the meeting broke up and people were leaving the Caldwell house, three police cars converged on the carriage house. Two officers came up to the guys who were leaving, and asked to see their identifications. Evidently, they were not the people being sought, but were told to move on and not be a problem. The officer in charge had gone inside, and emerged with Dr. Caldwell. They shook hands, and the officer joined his men at the carriage house.
Dr. Caldwell approached Bryce and Damon and the remaining other guys. “Lieutenant Brown asked permission to search the carriage house,” he said. “I’m not sure of the legalities involved, as it’s rented to Mr. Miller and Mr. Rollins, but he did have a search warrant, and I gave him my keys, so at least the doors should not be damaged,” the retired professor commented.
“I don’t know what’s happening either, but I think it has to do with all the violence on campus lately,” Bryce said.
“The sooner that’s cleared up, the better,” Dr. Caldwell stated, as they watched.
In only a short time, police officers re-emerged. One was carrying a computer, and another had an armload of books and papers. Two other offices had Sean Rollins between them. He was handcuffed, so presumably he had resisted the search. Everything and everyone was stuffed into the three patrol cars, and left.
Still wondering at all that, the students said good-bye to Dr. Caldwell and returned to campus. They wanted to find out where the persons they were supposed to watch were as early as possible. Roland and John Luke set out for the fraternity house where the Lomaxes, Campbell, and Cuttlesworth were members. Bryce and Damon reasoned that Greg would probably be having dinner soon, and most likely in the cafeteria, where the football team seemed to have a section where they congregated.
As they approached the Union, Bryce was a little embarrassed to encounter Dr. Dickinson. He had skipped the Medieval England class that afternoon, but the Professor seemed oblivious to that. He was fuming about something else.
“Didn’t you say your father and the other lawyers gave President Rodes until tomorrow to do something before going to the Governor?” he demanded.
“Yes, that’s right,” Bryce said. “Has something happened?”
“I think this might be called a non-event,” Dr. Dickinson continued to fume. “Just a few minutes ago, at a time calculated to get lost in the end of the week activities, an announcement was made by the President’s office that a special committee had been formed to look into the recent incidents of violence on campus.”
“Isn’t that good, even if the timing was not?” Bryce asked.
“It’s a boondoggle. Mere window dressing. The composition of the committee is such as to inspire no confidence at all. Some of the most obsequious sycophants on campus are included, and some of the others are so thoroughly dilatory and pedantic, it will be Christmas before they even decide who will be the chairman, and when their first meeting will be,” Dr. Dickinson said in disgust.
“I will be sure to pass your comments on to my father and the others,” Bryce promised, “but right now, we have to locate Greg Lenihan and stick with him.” Bryce then informed the Professor of the gist of their afternoon activities.
Leaving Dr. Dickinson and passing into the Union, Bryce and Damon entered the cafeteria. They were correct, in that they easily espied Greg seated with other members of the football team in their usual corner of the cafeteria. Greg and the others did not seem upset. There was the same amount of raucous laughter and shouting coming from that area as on other occasions.
Bryce and Damon staked out a table from which they could keep an eye on Greg. Then, they went one at a time to get something to eat. While Damon was in the serving line, Bryce saw Wayne Diebold approaching the football section. He hailed Wayne, who swerved to come by the table where Bryce sat.
“Hey, Bryce,” Wayne greeted him.
“Hey, yourself. Have you heard anything about an attack on Greg?” Bryce got directly to the point.
“An attack on Greg? So that’s what’s up,” Wayne said. “I heard something important is going down tonight, but nothing specific.”
“Well, it’s pretty definite. Just stick close to him, okay? He might need your help,” Bryce suggested.
“Sure. We don’t want to lose our new team captain. Pete Gruber was the team captain, and was the leading player, but he was one of the guys who tried to screw up Greg last Saturday, so Coach kind of fired him, and the team elected Greg as the new captain, even if he is only a junior. Pete was so ticked off, he resigned from the team,” Wayne informed his listeners. Plural, as Damon had returned by that time.
Wayne went on to join his teammates, but promised to stick close to Greg and be on the lookout for problems.
Bryce and Damon ate their supper while being constantly on the alert to possible danger signals, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. By the time Greg was ready to move on, it was after seven o’clock, and dark out. With a handful of others, including Wayne, Greg made his way to the SAT house. He was responding to Curtis’s invitation by stopping there first, just to make certain the invitation was genuine. Damon got close enough to hear Curtis repeat the invitation to join the party as the guest of the fraternity. Greg agreed to return later in the evening, and in costume.
While this was going on Bryce caught the attention of Kurt Bordenkircher. Kurt was a large linebacker, and hard to miss. Bryce asked whether he was aware of any special protections afforded Greg, as it was rumored he would be attacked that evening. Kurt grinned.
“Me,” he said.
“You?” Bryce asked.
“Yeah. From now until Greg goes to bed, I’ll be right beside him. Curtis told me to do it, so someone else will have to be at the doors tonight,” Kurt elaborated.
“Good. With you on the job, I’m sure Greg will be safer,” Bryce declared. He added Kurt’s phone to his list of emergency contacts for the night.
For most of the evening, Bryce and Damon shadowed Greg. They did take time off, one at a time, to return to the apartment and don their own costumes for the evening, and then return to the stake out. They even paid entrance fees at other fraternities when Greg went from place to place during the evening. At the SAT house, Bryce spoke with Tyler Rollins. He had taken a sedative and spent most of the afternoon out of it. His mentor, Kyle, had stayed with him, even while he was asleep, playing some games on his computer and doing a bit of class work. But Tyler had been contacted by the police late in the afternoon. He was at first afraid Sean had discovered that he had copied the e-mail that morning and that was somehow involved with the police wanting him now. It turned out, however, that the police were acting entirely on the materials turned over to them by the University administration, which was the blog and the analysis of it by ‘Electronic Investigations.’ All the police wanted with Tyler was confirmation of Sean’s identity and any information he might have about the whereabouts of Barry Miller (which was none). Tyler promised to remain at the house, and in full sight, for the entire evening.
Bryce and Damon were pleased when Greg spent more time at SAT than any of the other places, but the evening still involved a lot of moving about in relatively dark areas. Just how closely they should follow was an issue. They did not want to be too obvious. Of course, they did not want anything untoward to happen to Greg, either, but there was a thrill of the chase involved, and they hoped something would happen to provide definite evidence of someone’s guilt, and thus at least begin resolving the safety issues on campus.
About eleven o’clock, Greg, Kurt, Wayne, and two other guys left the Sigma Alpha Tau house and started for another party. Bryce and Damon followed. Along the way, Greg announced, “I’m going to duck behind this building for a minute. I need to take a leak.”
“I’ll go with you,” Kurt said.
“I don’t need anyone watching me piss,” Greg objected. “I’ll just be a minute.”
So the others waited on the sidewalk as Greg ducked behind an older classroom building called Barlow Hall. Bryce and Damon were not restrained by Greg’s order, though, and so also slipped back there, keeping to the shadows. They arrived just in time to see several figures, shrouded in shadow, grab Greg. There was barely enough light to make out what was going on. Evidently, something was stuffed in Greg’s mouth to keep him from calling out. He was struggling, but there were four of his attackers. He was thrown onto the ground.
“Hold him still so I can jump on him,” one voice said.
That set Bryce and Damon into action. Bryce called into his phone, “Situation Red, behind Barlow Hall,” even as he ran to help.
Damon did not even hesitate a minute. He threw himself into the fray, knocking off balance the guy who was poised to jump on Greg, and falling to the ground with him. There was a lot of shouting and some fists flying about, but the system devised that afternoon worked. Those who were following the Lomaxes and their allies were close by, and responded to the call for help, as did those on the street who had been with Greg a few minutes before. While they were still struggling with the four attackers, campus security arrived, led by John Zoeller, who had also been keeping close to Greg, and had received Bryce’s call for help.
With campus security also came some bright lights. With the numbers now reversed, and many more defenders than attackers there, the four culprits were held down and turned over to campus security. They were wearing ski masks, which was against University regulations, but they figured they could get away with it on this night. Unmasked, to no one’s surprise Mack Campbell, Bick Lomax, Buck Lomax, and Ed Cuttlesworth were revealed. Ed was already threatening the campus security force with being sued, but there was little doubt about what had almost happened. Statements would be taken, and the four would be turned over to the city police, charged with assault with the intention of inflicting grievous bodily harm. Not only Greg, but Bryce and Damon heard the intent to jump on Greg. The e-mail message would be introduced in evidence at the proper time, to indicate exactly what that involved. And the perpetrators were captured in flagrante, so to speak.
It was an exciting night, and one which was not over until about two o’clock, when Bryce, Damon, and the other members of the Rescue Team got home to bed.