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Found a skeleton in someone's closet? Up to $500 paid for your knowledge. Call us today at: 1-800-EXPOSED!
Chapter Twenty-Four
BAD BLOOD
Benny Parilla could use some extra cash – a gambling junket to the casino in Grants had left him a little short. He knew it was a long shot but he had seen the ad inside the cover of Exposé Weekly every issue for as long as he could remember:
News, Gossip, and Hot Leads Wanted
Cash paid for inside information or photos of people in the news, politicians, or public servants. Found a skeleton in someone’s closet? Up to $500 paid for your knowledge. Call us today at: 1-800-EXPOSED!
“Exposé Weekly. How may I direct your call?”
“Hey . . . I’ve got a news story and I wanna talk to someone about the $500 reward,” Benny blurted.
“One moment, Sir. Connecting you to Miss Murphy.”
“Billie Murphy here. What can I do for you?” The hard, clipped voice surprised Benny. The southern belle head shot at the top of each of her columns had him expecting a soft southern accent.
“Uhh . . . I’ve got a news story and I want to see about the reward.”
“And what is your name, Sir?”
“I’m Benny Parilla, from Albuquerque, New Mexico.”
“All right, Mr. Parilla, what do you have for us?”
“I’m not going to say anything until you tell me about the reward,” Benny persisted. It was going to take some dough to loosen his tongue. What he knew was worth some bucks.
“Your information might be worthless, Sir,” Billie Murphy said coldly. “What or who is this about?”
Benny remained recalcitrant. “This is about an Olympic athlete. I know something only a few people could possibly know.”
The Olympics were hot news and would be until the Games were over in August.
“We’re interested, Mr. Parilla. If your information leads to a featured article, we’ll pay up to $500. Please tell me the nature of your information.”
Wary of being cheated, Benny dragged his feet. “What’s it worth if a national champion turns out to be someone she isn’t?”
Murphy’s interest was piqued but she remained patient and waited for more.
Benny obliged her. “I work at a blood bank. I know someone can’t be who she says she is.”
“Now explain that one to me, please,” Murphy snapped.
“I gotta have some money,” Benny whined. “I need to be sure you’ll pay me or I’ll tell someone else what I know.”
It was an agonizing conversation but not an unfamiliar scenario for the savvy tabloid journalist. In five minutes, she had assured Benny that a check would be sent his way the same day with the promise to pay the full five hundred if the story was a headliner.
Benny got his $500 check in two days.
* * * * *
AMERICA’S TOP OLYMPIC HURDLER NOT AN INDIAN
Masquerade Revealed On Eve of Olympic Trials
By Billie Murphy
An unnamed blood bank worker told Exposé Weekly last Friday that Tia Wapiti, America’s gold medal hope in the upcoming Olympics, is not who she claims to be.
Miss Wapiti, who smashed the U.S. record en route to victory in the 400-meter hurdles at the
NCAA Division II Championships last month, claims to be the daughter of Clarence and Maria Wapiti of the Havatura Pueblo Indian Reservation in central New Mexico.
“That’s impossible,” said the blood bank worker who lives in Albuquerque.
“Every Indian in that tribe has Type B blood. They all have been for generations. The genotype is actually BB, homozygous for the trait,” explained our source. “All their kids are B’s.”
“Tia is type A. That proves neither parent is actually her biological mother or father.”
A records check revealed to EW that both Clarence and Maria Wapiti are indeed regular blood donors and both are B-positive. The Havatura Indians have traditionally donated blood since World War II, when a large number of their tribe enlisted to serve in the Army in 1941.
Tia Wapiti, who just completed her sophomore year at Rio Grande State College, donated blood in December, following her cross-country season. Her blood type is A-positive.
The U. S. Olympic Trials will be held later this summer in Knoxville, Tennessee. Miss Wapiti is an odds-on favorite to win the 400-meter hurdles there, and go on to the Olympics. She could not be reached for comment before our press deadline.
* * * * *
“Armando!” It was Hector Gomez, his lifelong friend, walking over to join him, carrying a newspaper and his breakfast burrito.
The early morning folks were slowly filling the booths and tables at Emma’s Campus Cafe.
“Buenos Dias, Hector,” smiled Coach Animas. “Que pasa?”
“Bad luck for that girl hurdler, Armando!”
“What are you talking about, amigo?” asked the unflappable coach. “Sit down here with me. Tell me what has you upset.”
“My wife showed me this last night, my friend.” Hector slapped the already-dog eared issue of Exposé Weekly on the table, the article about Tia circled in blue crayon. “What do you make of this?”
Armando read every word, sipping his coffee, while Hector munched his way through the huge burrito.
“There is nothing here, amigo,” said Animas. “She may not be their child but she is their daughter.”
Animas grabbed his cell phone and punched up Tia’s number at the dormitory. “I’ll give her a call.”
“Hell, Armando,” chided Hector Gomez. “You gonna wake her up to ask her this thing at seven o’clock in the morning?”
“She may not be back from her morning training run,” the coach replied, “but she most definitely is up by now.”
“Tia! Good morning! This is Coach Animas. Have you eaten breakfast?”
He smiled at Hector and nodded.
“Then come down here to Emma’s and I’ll buy your breakfast. Don’t hurry. I’ll wait for you. How was your workout?”
He smiled again, winked at Hector, and said good-bye.
“She ran the four-mile loop in twenty-two minutes this morning, a damn good time,” he told his friend. “She is going to do some damage at the Olympics, I tell you.”
The confident co-ed entered Emma’s, smiled a hello to the waiter, a fellow track athlete, and slid into the booth beside her beloved coach.
“Good morning, Señor Gomez,” she said. How are Señora Gomez’s chili plants coming along?”
Hector stared blankly at the engaging nineteen-year-old, worried about the next two minutes and not his wife’s garden.
“Tia, what would you like for breakfast?” Animas asked.
“Oatmeal with raisins and two tortillas, please, Coach. Oh, and a glass of orange juice. and a glass of water, please.”
Animas walked to the counter and placed the order. Tia’s eyes sparkled with fitness; her hair was still wet from her morning shower.
Animas returned and slid across the booth, next to Tia.
“Hector here has an article in a tabloid newspaper. It’s about you and it’s quite personal. Would you like to read it now? It can wait until later.”
Tia shrugged, curious. “Sure, Coach. I’ll look at it right now. Now is always the best time to do things, as you’ve always said.”
Hector stared, open-mouthed, at the young woman, half his size and one-fourth his age, and marveled at her composure as she read the upsetting words. He could see a trace of a smile cross her face.
“This is nothing, Coach. I’ve known I was adopted since I was old enough to talk. The Havatura are my family; I am one of them. Love makes a family, not blood.”
“See, Hector?” smiled Armando. “Love makes a family. I knew this was nothing for you to worry about, but it shows your concern for this young woman. It shows you care. For that, we are both grateful, amigo.”
Another non-story in another non-publication, thought Animas. Who are these destructors who wish to harm other people through rumors and innuendo? Surely, they are the excreta of the planet.
* * * * *
Athletics Gazette–July 1
The Olympic Trials have finally arrived. The number of athletes reached a total of 446 men and women at the close of the qualification window on June 24.
Twenty-four entrants are standard in all Trials events. Preliminaries, semifinals, and finals will pare to three, the number who will represent the United States in the upcoming Olympic Games which begin in mid-August.
Tia Wapiti is favored to win the women’s 400-meter hurdles: her brother, Kivato Wapiti, owns the fastest 10,000-meters performance among U.S. athletes going in. If both make the team, they would become the youngest brother-sister Olympians in U.S. track and field history.
The sprint races are up for grabs with the disqualification of eleven American athletes who tested positive for THG, a so-called designer steroid. Two-year bans were doled out by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency following June meets in California and Paris.
“We are cleaning up the sport,” said Dr. Winston Niehardt, the czar of the government-funded agency. Criminal and civil lawsuits are forthcoming.”
At least three chemists, three coaches, and one drug manufacturer will be charged, according to Niehardt.
The top field event contests at the Trials are likely to be the men’s javelin throw and the women’s long jump. Four men have bettered 280 feet in the javelin; seven women have long-jumped over 22 feet.
“The field in the men’s 5,000 is the best I’ve ever seen,” said Armando Animas, named the team’s distance coach for the third straight Olympics. “Likewise, the women’s 1500-meter event is likely to yield an American presence at the Games that could threaten to win two or more medals.”