New Approaches

     After Nebraska finished up and left Idaho State's money on the bedside table, we didn't learn much.
     Fine, we learned a couple of things. Rex's knee looks pretty good and I am willing to bet that if he hadn't gotten hurt, he'd be at the forefront of the Heisman race, and he might just have been able to pull the game out against UCLA.
     The other thing we learned is that when the ball is flipped forward on an end-around, it counts as a pass. Good to know, especially when your flipping the ball forward to the dude with the most awesome hair on the team.
     Lloyd and I stashed the lads in a nice, cheap, dive hotel. They had to leave the room to get ice, and the roaches were armed, but not considered dangerous.
     We started piecing together the bits of info we obtained about Susan. Mickey in La-La Land had said that she was headed for a flyover state and the lads had mentioned Chicago, in addition to gigs in Ohio, Michigan and Iowa.
     "I have an Idea," Lloyd said. "What if she had scheduled gigs to follow the Huskers?"
     "Go on," I told him.
     "Look at it. There is no other reason to get a band all the way to L.A. and then come back. That's where you go when you want to go big time. I don't know if an '80's cover band could ever break through, but you don't leave if you want your own under assistant west coast promotions man."
     "Good point. She hasn't been seen in Lincoln since she vanished, as far as we know. If your theory holds, "Groping in the Dark" should have four more gigs in Lincoln, plus the four in the places the Huskers travel to."
     "Yep."
     "So, where do we go to find out? The lads are no real help, since their U.S. geographic knowledge is only slightly better than your average high school senior."
     "Good, old-fashioned, leg-work. We need to get the word out and see who knows what. I'm going to go see Preacherman, see if he has heard anything. You start collating the info we gather and see if a picture emerges. Talk to the lads, again, it's a long shot, but maybe one of them remembers a tiny snippet that could be a thread."
     I found Preacherman at his office, well, outside the building that he claimed as his office. It had a for sale or lease sign in the window for ages, now, and I think he was essentially a squatter, but I still knew where to find him. "Preacherman, what so you know?" I asked.
     "Well, look who we have, here," he said, smiling and bro-hugging me, even though he knew I wasn't armed. "To what do we owe the esteemed pleasure?"
     "Just a couple of questions, favors to ask, really."
     "Ask and ye shall receive...as long as it's reasonable," he chuckled deeply in the back of his throat.
     "First, how do you think this hybrid 3-4 is going to work in the Big 10. Second, can I get your crew to help locate a missing person?"
     Preacherman smiled a wide smile, which I usually took to mean that he knew more than he was letting on. "The 3-4 will be great against teams that want to throw the ball. It works really well in generating extra pass rush off the edges, and allows you to bring blitzers from all sorts of different angles. It can be really good against the run, if you have the defensive front that can tie up blockers and allow the linebackers to make the plays."
     "Do the Huskers have the players that can do that?"
     "They have been able to against lesser quality opponents. Whether it will work against even opponents who are dedicated to the run will be seen, soon."
     "How about the second question?" I asked.
     Preacherman smiled and nodded. "I know exactly who you need to talk to. There is a dude that seems to know what time it is at all times." Preach took out a business card and wrote an address on the back. "Go talk to this guy, if he doesn't have a lead for you, you might as well pack in the case."
     I read the name on the card. "Why do they call him 'Non-Stop' John?" I asked.
     Preacherman sat back, looked me right in the eye and said, "It's a secret."
     Husk-husk and on the qb.