Junior Year Box Set

That was when Cora had become my PA and shortly thereafter ran off with Devin.

“I went to the restroom and came back to find a fraternity guy hitting on Pam. She just sat there and allowed him to put his hands on her. Even when I walked up, she didn’t say anything to the guy who was pawing her. I thought she’d invited his advances. Later, Lacy, Pam’s mom, told me that Pam freezes up when she’s confronted. The only explanation I can think of is that Cal has scared her into doing it,” I said.

I received a text.

“Frank’s here,” I said, and got up and then found him in reception.

I introduced him to Tom. Kendal had met him at the Range Sports shoot.

“I talked to one of the press who was at the police station. They were fed the story. She, of course, played it coy as to who had given out the information. It didn’t seem to come from the police. That leaves two possibilities. It either came from the state’s attorney’s office or someone from Pam’s camp. They’re the only ones who would have anything to gain from this,” Frank said.

“What should we do?” Dad asked.

“Get out in front of this. Right now, the press has very little to go on and will start digging. By this time tomorrow, we might have a full-blown crisis on our hands. I can’t stress enough how serious this is. If we let them set the narrative, David’s future might be in jeopardy.”

“Seriously?” I asked.

“David’s the ideal target for something like this, as far as the media is concerned. He’s a high-profile athlete who’s also a model and actor. This plays right into a scenario some in the media love to exploit. A rape allegation against him highlights gender/class/power/jock issues, in a small town where those issues may tend to be covered up. Combine that with someone spoon-feeding them information, and it’s the perfect story. They don’t even have to work to figure it out.

“This story writes itself, and the press has no interest in whether it’s true or not. What we have to do is make so much noise they’ll look like idiots if they don’t at least show some balance. Believe me, it makes a much better story to expose the All-American boy who has a secret dark side.

“I’m getting way ahead of myself, but if we play this right, it might be the best thing to happen to you. I just described the man that women will throw their panties at. It’s a hard balance to pull off, the good-slash-bad boy. It’s all too easy to slip too far to the bad-boy side, and then it becomes a liability,” Frank said.

Kendal waggled her eyebrows at me, which made me smile.

“Sorry, I got off track and time is limited, so I’ll get to the point,” Frank said. “When we have a new agent, we teach them about two cases that directly pertain to what you’re going through. The first is the University of Colorado rape story. This happened back in 2001. Two women claimed to have been gang-raped by football players and recruits at a party. In that instance, the media was given information by a PR firm that had been hired by the two women. This caused the case to explode in the eyes of the public, which ultimately had the university settle for nearly three million dollars.

“When the dust finally settled, the university was only found to have done one thing wrong: an assistant coach had made a phone call to the escort service on a university-supplied cell phone. Nevertheless, because of the work of the PR firm, those facts never came out. In the end, what sunk the university was a comment the head coach made. If you listened to the full comment, it made perfect sense and was well-thought-out. The problem was the media looks for sound bites. The sound bite, out of context, sunk them. In the end, the football coach lost his job. The Colorado legislature got involved, and the university president resigned. As a side note, the coach never found a job after that, and all because a sound bite was twisted to fit the narrative the PR firm had pushed,” Frank said.

“Did anyone get convicted of rape?” Dad asked.

“You know, I don’t know. The point I make to my new agents is that if we can control the story, we can satisfy our client’s needs. In this case, the two women, who were also students at the university, earned a nearly three million dollar payday,” Frank said.

“But I don’t want to make any money off of anyone,” I said.

“This isn’t about you making money right now. If we find the state’s attorney leaked the information about your questioning and the nature of it, we might go after him, but that’s the small picture. I would think you’d be more worried about your future income and visitation rights.”

“Why wouldn’t I be able to see my child?” I asked, suddenly concerned.

“If her father is as mad as I suspect he is, he would have no problem blocking access to the child. Pam may also use the baby as a bargaining chip as far as child support goes.”

I could see the wheels grinding in my mom’s mind. Cal would regret it if he tried to keep her away from her grandbaby. She wouldn’t give a damn what any court said.