Daniel Powell - The Long Road Home

[djp73]

Kellen felt sick to his stomach as he approached the crime scene, knowing that in all likelihood he would see something he had hoped he never would.

“You think it’s him?” He asked Nick Elwell as he walked past.

Elwell simply nodded slowly.

“Bad?”

“It ain’t good.” Nick deadpanned.

Kellen shook his head and knelt down next to the cloth covering the body. He reached into his pocket for a glove and slowly pulled back the cloth. As soon as he saw the victim’s hair and forehead he knew. He quickly recovered the body and swiftly walked away behind a nearby tree just as he lost his breakfast. He stayed bent over for a minute, waiting for his stomach to settle and regaining his composure.

He had seen bodies before, lord knows he’d seen bodies. You don’t make it long on this beat without seeing one. This was different. He had hopes for Omar. He really felt like he had helped him out. A stream of guilt and discomfort rushed over him as the realization that Omar was likely killed because of the arrest of Antuan Rochester, who was bagged last week thanks to a tip from Omar.

“Clark!” Lieutenant Daniels shouted, motioning Kellen back over toward the crime scene.

“One second.” Kellen mouthed, holding up one finger. Daniels nodded. He was fine with cutting Kellen some slack as he knew it would be hitting him hard. Kellen eventually made his way over.

“Look, listen to me.” Daniels said, resting a hand on Kellen’s shoulder.

Kellen raised his eyes to meet Daniels’.

“Back in ’79 I had a deal just like this. I was 23, 24 at the time. I was working with this kid, a C.I., thought I had turned him around. I had to press him for info…” Daniels trailed off.

“Just…” Daniels cleared his throat. “This ain’t on you Kellen. It’s all in the game.”

Kellen nodded, he wished Daniels’ words helped but at the time they didn’t change his feelings in the least.

“The best thing you can do now for Omar is to find out who did this. Clean yourself up and do what you do.” Daniels held out his handkerchief.

Kellen took the handkerchief and dabbed his mouth. “Thanks.” He replied meekly, holding up the handkerchief.

Daniels waved him off. “Hang onto that. Go get a handle on your crime scene.”

Kellen nodded and walked back to the crime scene, surveying the area.

“Who was first on scene?” He asked with authority.

“I was sir.” A young beat cop stepped forward.

“Walk me through it.”

“Well I heard the call on the box and I was just up the block so I took it. I approached on foot and I saw the body. Didn’t need to check vitals so I called it in and just kept people back. Didn’t touch anything.”

“What did you see?”

“I…” She trailed off. “This is my first 419. I didn’t look as close as I should have.” She looked down at the pavement.

“That’s o.k.” Kellen replied, sympathizing with the young officer.

“Sorry.”

“It’s alright, we’ve got to work the scene now though. You good?”

She nodded. “Y-yes sir.”

“Alright. Let’s go…” Kellen looked at her nametag. “Officer Parks.”

Kellen looked around the scene for a few minutes in silence. Watching Parks at the same time. After he was satisfied with his initial look over he turned to Parks.

“Well…what do you see?”

“Uhh…”

“Focus. You’ve trained for this.”

“Yeah. Uh, I don’t see much blood here.”

“What’s that tell you?”

“Probably a dump?”

“Definitely.”

“Seems like they wanted us to find the body. Out in the open like this.”

“Yes. That’s for us and them.” Kellen replied, nodding toward the residents that had gathered beyond the police tape.

“Why for them?”

“Lot’s of dirt gets done around here. These people can’t help but see it. This is a reminder to keep what they see to themselves. That’s why they cut his tongue out.”

“How do you know that.”

Kellen cleared his throat. “He was my C.I. He gave me some info to take down a pretty big dealer last week. This had to be them.”

Parks turned back toward the body then looked back at Kellen with a sorrowful look in her eyes. “Sorry…”

Kellen stopped her by holding up his hand. “It’s all in the game.”

Parks nodded.

“What else do you see?”

Parks surveyed the scene for a few seconds. “Nothing, just, nothing.”

“They were careful. They made sure there wasn’t anything to leave behind. No clothes, no blood, nothing.”

“They’ve done this before.”

“Yes.” Kellen nodded.

“Hey! Look over there.” Parks shouted, pointing toward a package store across the street.

“What?” Kellen asked, not sure what she was excited about.

“Isn’t that a camera?”

Kellen squinted. “Yeah… yeah I think it is. Let’s go.”

Kellen jogged across the street with Parks in tow. He looked up at the security camera and tried to judge what it may have seen.

“Looks like it wouldn’t have gotten the actual dump but maybe picked up a car or something. You’re on this, get the tape.”

“I’m on it.” Parks nodded confidently.

“Meet me back at the precinct in an hour, this is your case now too.”

---

Kellen and Officer Parks sat alone in the A/V room reviewing the tape from the package store, without knowing exactly when the body was dumped they had to watch roughly 13 hours of footage. Due to the small area of the camera’s view that may provide any information they decided to watch it in real time.

Kellen crushed his paper coffee cup and tossed it in the general direction of the trash can. He stood up, rubbed his eyes and stretched.

“I’m gonna stretch my legs. You want anything?” He asked, pointing to Parks’ collection of empty Redbull cans and Fritos bags.

Parks paused the video and leaned back in her chair. “Where from?”

“Just going to the store on the corner.”

“Let me get another Redbull, some more Fritos and a slice.” She said, standing up and reaching into her pocket.

“I got it.” Kellen said, motioning for her to put her money away. “How do you stay looking so good when you eat like that?”

Parks let out a nervous laugh and looked toward her feet. “Dunno.” She mumbled.

“I mean… You know what I mean.” Kellen said, embarrassed by his slip up.

“Yeah, I got you.”

“Cheese or pepperoni?”

“Pepperoni.” Parks replied as she turned back to the monitor and hit play.

[djp73]

Sports

Powell’s Late-Game Heroics Seal Fourth Straight National Title for NDSU

Frisco, Texas - North Dakota State trailed 27-14 at the start of the fourth quarter. Daniel Powell was knocked out of the game just before halftime with what would later be revealed as a broken non throwing hand. The injury occurred when Powell took a hard hit from an Illinois State defensive linesman and his hand was caught between the two helmets.

Illinois State scored a pair of touchdowns in the third quarter and the Bison offense was ineffective. Powell begged his way back into the game early in the fourth quarter.

“Daniel was in my ear quite a bit in the third.” NDSU head coach Chris Klieman explained after the game. “I was pretty hesitant but the medical staff gave us the o.k. He deserved a shot at it.”

Powell led the team up the field on their first possession of the fourth quarter, standing tall in the pocket and taking a big hit while delivering a perfect touchdown strike to Luke Albers for a score. Powell ran in the two point conversion to make it 27-22 with just under seven minutes to play.

Illinois State put together a decent drive but was forced to punt. The Bison punted back a few plays later before getting the ball back on a three and out. Illinois State’s C.J. Laros put the punt out of bounds at the NUSU 12 yard line.

Powell and the Bison offense had two and a half minutes to go 88 yards for a score.

“Just told everyone to relax. Do your job and trust your brothers.” Powell answered when asked what he said in the huddle.

Powell connected with R.J Urzendowski for a 33 yard gain on first down. Powell delivered a perfect ball that split two defenders and landed right in Urzendowski’s outstretched arms in stride. After a pair of runs put them at the 50 with a third and five Powell hit Carey Woods on a slant for a gain of eight. NDSU called their second timeout with exactly one minute to play.

“Nothing, I knew I didn’t have to say anything special, we just called the play.” Coach Klieman replied matter of factly when asked what he told Powell during the timeout.

Powell hit Zach Vraa for six yards then connected with Trevor Gebhart for a gain of eleven yards down to the 25 yard line with 30 seconds to play. After a stuffed draw play NDSU called their last timeout with 24 seconds left.

Powell hit tight end Kevin Vaadeland on an out route that he took down to the seven yard line before stepping out of bounds, stopping the clock with ten seconds to play.

Powell and the offense broke the huddle and came to the line. Powell shouted instructions to his teammates, changing the play. He looked up at the play clock and barked out the cadence, taking the snap out of the shotgun. He looked for a receiver to his right but coverage was tight. He slid slightly to his left to avoid a pass rusher. He saw a seam in front of him and pulled down the ball to run. He took to the air as he was met by an Illinois State linebacker at the three yard line. He did two flips in the air and landed hard on his head.

“I think I went out for a minute honestly.” Powell said after the game. “I don’t really remember the end of the play but the next thing was (center) Jesse (Hinz) and (tackle) Joe (Haeg) grabbing me up and pounding on my chest and helmet. I didn’t really know what happened but I threw my hands up.”

Powell had in fact landed in the endzone and replays showed him seemingly losing consciousness momentarily. Hinz and Haeg scooped him up and began celebrating the win.

“It was as gutsy a performance as I’ve ever seen.” Illinois State head coach Brock Spack commented after the crushing loss. “Lots of respect for that young man.”

Several reporters asked Powell if he planned to return for another year at NDSU. “Man I’m not thinking about that now. I’m going to enjoy this with my teammates for like a week or so then I’ll think about that stuff.” He replied with a big smile.

[djp73]

"Jameer, you got to really dig that plant foot in then push off hard. Make sure you drive it hard into the ground then explode out of that cut."

"Okay. Got it." Jameer said, nodding his head.

"You gotta clean up the technique. You ain't gonna get by just on talent like you have been.” Coach Evans explained, shaking his head to emphasize. “Let’s run it again!"

Jameer nodded, Evans had been hard on him since they'd been working together but he knew it was only going to help.

Coach White got the defenders set up for the next play. Coach Evans called the offensive play.

Jameer clapped his hands as they broke the huddle and jogged to his spot, getting set in his stance.

"Down!" Evans shouted.

Jameer tensed up. He noted that the defender was playing off about three yards. Perfect for this route.

"Set!”

He stared straight ahead.

“Hut!"

Jameer exploded off the line, pumping his arms and driving his legs as he stared through the defender covering him. At seven yards he planted his left foot hard into the turf and made a perfect ninety degree cut, getting a few yards of separation and hauling in a perfect pass from Evans. He turned up field and ran a few more strides before pulling up and heading back toward Evans.

“Perfect. ****ing perfect!” Evans shouted, holding up his hand for a high five from Jameer. “Every rep needs to be just like that one.”

Jameer slapped Evans five and nodded.

---

“Great session today, see you tomorrow.” Evans said as he finished stretching Jameer. “Your shake and tonight’s dinner is in the cooler.” He said, pointing.

“Thanks coach.” Jameer replied, getting to his feet.

Jameer grabbed the cooler and pulled out his shake and unscrewed the cap. He closed his left eye and peered into the bottle. He placed his nose over the opening and took a deep sniff.

“That papaya or some ****?” He asked himself.

He looked back into the cooler and pulled out a large container with his name on it. Working with Evans had been great, everything was laid out. Workouts, meals, supplements, sleep schedule. Everything. No thinking required. No food discipline required. It had been working too. Evans had helped Jameer to improve his explosiveness, strength and stamina. Perhaps most importantly of all he had improved his technique and knowledge of the game.

At Houston the coaches basically just asked him to use his speed and size to beat defenders. He didn’t have to rely on technique very often so he didn’t work on it very much. At six foot six and with great speed it had been pretty easy for him. During his sophomore season he caught 76 passes for 1,362 yards and 11 touchdowns. He was a Heisman candidate coming into 2014 but a change at quarterback limited his production.

Carl Murphy, who replaced Daniel Powell after he was kicked off the team, lacked the arm strength to get the ball deep downfield to him. His 2014 stat line dropped significantly, with just 56 receptions for 787 yards and seven scores. Despite the drop in production Jameer still elected to declare draft eligible and was projected by most experts as a second or third round pick in the upcoming draft.

As soon as the season ended in Houston he signed with Mark Rodgers of Frontline Athlete Management, who represents Russell Wilson and several baseball players. Rodgers set Jameer up with wide receiver guru Carter Evans immediately and they had been working together since early January. Now, roughly six weeks later, with the combine just a few days away, his confidence was at an all-time high.

Of course there had been a couple moments of doubt since he had declared for the draft. Now things were different, Carter and his team had all but eliminated those. Their praise and excitement over his improvement had him walking tall. Well, that and his dominance at the Shrine Game. Now he was full of confidence and ready for whatever would come next.

He stared at himself in the mirror, admiring his new definition. He couldn’t help but flex his biceps and grin. Before working with Evans he had mostly gotten by on natural strength and hadn’t spent much time in the weight room. He came to camp with very little muscle mass and not much definition, now he had both.

“Shoulda hit them weights years ago.” He said to himself with a chuckle.

“Yo good **** out there today man.” One of the other clients said on his way through.

“You too man.” Jameer replied with a nod, not actually knowing who he was.

---

Jameer grabbed his phone out of his locker and noticed he had a new text. He opened it up.

”Hey man good luck at the combine, tear it up.”

“No ****, Danny P.” Jameer said to himself, grinning.

”yo thanks bro, see you in the league” He replied.

Jameer spent a couple minutes thinking back on some of the big plays he and Danny had cooked up together. He wondered if they might connect again someday. His daydream was cut short by another incoming text.

”Maybe we’ll cross paths again someday.”

Jameer chuckled then tucked his phone away and headed for the door.

[djp73]

I looked around at all the competition, guys like Winston and Mariota who had been grabbing headlines for years. Grayson, Mannion. All the guys you’d heard about. There’s Bryce Petty and Brett Hundley.

I let my mind wander as the thought of actually getting out there tomorrow and showcasing my abilities sunk in. I had spent the past few days getting poked and prodded by what seemed like 1,000 team doctors and other medical staff. I spent almost three hours in the back of a semi truck because I twitched a few times during the MRI. They asked me about injuries I barely remembered. A sprained ankle in high school, a pulled hammy in Houston, stuff I didn’t even think they knew about.

We had also gone through the measurements, things I couldn’t change. I was one of the tallest and I had the biggest hands. Nothing there would hold me back.

I was interrogated over and over again about being kicked off the team at Houston and my involvement with drug dealers and gangsters. Out of all of the interviews I couldn’t remember more than three questions about football. This morning in the NFLPA meeting it took all my energy to stay awake as all the different speakers dragged on and on. Cris Carter said something about finding a fall guy that drew some sideways glances, I didn’t catch all of it.

After three sixteen or seventeen hour days, up at 4:00 and going ‘til 10:00 or 11:00, I was ready to do something physical.

I let out a sigh. These three days had been exhausting, more so than anything on the field could be.

I looked down at the ground and shook my head.

“Powell, you’re up.” One of the coaches barked.

What I was up for was the bench press portion of the combine. Finally, the first actual workout of the whole process, I was more than ready for it. When they called my name it caught me off guard as apparently I was the only QB participating in the bench portion.

I walked to the bench and took my position. I took a deep breath, held it in for a second, and then exhaled as I set my hands.

I picked the bar off the stands and let it down to my chest. The first ten reps were easy. After the fourteenth I was starting to get tired.

“Come on!” I said to myself under my breath.

“Fifteen!”

“Two more.” I said. “Two more.”

“Sixteen!”

“You got this!” I said, louder than before.

“Seventeen!”

I set the bar back on the stands and sat up, shaking my arms. I smirked as I stood up, I came into the day shooting for fifteen reps and the adrenaline had helped me lock out those last two.

“Good stuff.” I said to myself as I walked out of the room.

---

I took one last long stride and immediately turned my focus to the board as I slowed myself down.

4.68

“Yes!” I said to myself as I slapped my hands together, happy with the time. I knew I wasn’t going to top a guy like Mariota or Hundley but I was happy with the time.

[djp73]

[djp73]

Shay took a deep breath, looked around one last time and stepped onto the bus. She smiled and handed her ticket to the driver, who barely looked up as he waved her past. She scanned the seats, looking for an inviting opening. About halfway back she spotted an older woman with an empty window seat next to her.

"Is this seat open?" She asked with a smile.

"All yours dear." The lady replied, patting the open seat and smiling back.

Shay settled in and stared out her window, taking one last look at the only home she'd ever known. She leaned her forehead against the window and let out a deep sigh.

"Here we go..." She said under her breath as the bus started rolling.

After a few miles of staring aimlessly out the window Shay pulled out her headphones, found some music on her phone and leaned back in her seat, closing her eyes in hopes of making up for the sleepless night before.

Eventually the bus came to a jarring stop. Shay pulled out her headphones to listen to the driver.

“Dallas Fort Worth.” He announced in a gruff, monotone voice. Several people got off the bus and several more got on. The lady next to Shay stayed put.

She adjusted herself in her seat, put her headphones back in and closed her eyes again as the bus got rolling again.

Shay passed the time by sleeping, playing on her phone and making small talk with her seat mate. Finally the driver mumbled the words she had been waiting to hear.

“Kansas City.”

She looked out the window while she waited for the first wave of passengers to get off the bus, not wanting to fight the crowd. She smiled when she saw a familiar face and sprung from her seat, headed for the door as quickly as she could manage.

She grabbed her bags from the pile outside the bus and all but sprinted toward that familiar face, trying her best not to run over any of the several elderly people in her way.

Shay dropped her bags and held her arms out.

“Heeeeeeyyyyyyy!!!!”

---

[djp73]

Raymond tapped Lamar on the shoulder and pointed down the block.

"Look here man, that gotta be a customer."

"Yeah?"

"****, just look at him."

The shoddy looking middle aged man stumbled up to them.

"Where Casper at?" He asked in a demanding tone.

"Casper ain't here no more. This our spot now." Lamar snapped back.

"What you need homie?" Raymond asked.

"I don't trust nobody but Casper. Where he at?"

"He out man! You gotta cop from us or go without!" Lamar shouted, stepping toward the man.

The man rubbed his hands together and looked around nervously.

"Nah." He finally said. "I'm straight."

As he turned to walk away Lamar stepped toward him with a scowl on his face.

"Uh uh homie!" Raymond said sternly, restraining Lamar.

Lamar threw his hands up and stepped back.

"**** you and Casper mutha****a!" Lamar shouted, holding up both middle fingers.

Raymond shook his head and chuckled.

"What?" Lamar asked, obviously annoyed.

"You gotta understand man, these people been dealing with Casper for like five, six years now."

"Well he gone, we here now!"

"It ain't that easy for people to just switch up like that. Casper had a customer base yo."

"Well if they don't wanna cop from us now then **** 'em. Why they like that pale mutha****a so much anyhow?"

"For one he treated 'em right. Like customers. He a business man you know?"

"How you mean?"

"Well it's like with that dude. He trying to get our product and you was dogging him. You gotta treat 'em right. They gonna find somewhere to cop and the ****'s all the same. Price all the same. What gonna make him come see you on payday instead of someone else?"

"I dunno man?"

"You. He gotta feel like you want his business and you gotta make him feel safe you know."

"Yeah like a store or some ****."

"Right. Exactly."

"Why Casper get out the game?"

"Not sure. LT just let him walk. Said he had a legit reason. Dude could sling though. We gonna be hard pressed to hit his numbers."

"How he do it?"

"Just treating people right like I said. He weren't no pushover though. I remember one dude was always trying to get a discount on the ****. Every week he'd be begging. One day Casper sold him a bulk at a discount. Had a hopper follow him home then Casper stole the **** back. Dude came back and Casper told him he lost his privileges."

"Dude didn't cap him?

"No. Everybody knew don't **** with him."

"Damn."

"Casper a legend 'round these parts."

---