Murder at First Pitch

by Nicole Asselin

  Madeline was struck by another thought and leaned forward. “I told you about the steroids, right? That’s got to be a big motive. No team likes to be involved in that kind of thing. I got the sense that Billy was holding back a few swear words as he told me about it earlier.”

  “Yes, Madeline,” he said sighing. “We are looking into that. We have found only one team outside of your family’s that was approached by Mr. Dailey regarding a scheme of that nature. Drew Smith from the Foxboro team pointed us in the right direction. Now, before you get excited, that wasn’t the team that was approached. We’re going to investigate as we see fit.” The detective stood up, grabbed the two bags off the table, and made for the front door.

  After promising Madeline and Davis to let them know if they found anything, he sauntered back to his car. Davis followed closely behind, but only after reminding Madeline to lock up and get the alarm on. Her vicious watch cats wouldn’t be enough to keep out any intruders.

  Chapter Twelve

  After a fitful night of sleep where Madeline kept dreaming of breaking windows and baseball bat wielding attackers, she woke up before the sunrise and decided to get an early jump on her day. The ballpark was still her favorite place to collect her thoughts, even with all the drama swirling around it.

  Davis, Detective Stephenson, and Madeline had discussed precautions the night before. The police added a few extra patrols to her neighborhood and even beefed up some security at the ballpark as well, due to the suspicious behavior. She felt a little guilty about taking up so much time from the police; she was sure they had more important things to do. Then again, she was unnerved that someone threatened her and knew where she lived.

  Even though that note threatened her, she was wasn’t going to cower in her house all day. She had work to do. After a quick shower, she changed into her work uniform of a black jersey mid-length skirt and blue team polo. There was no game scheduled for that particular day. Early afternoon games were mostly held on weekends. Like most major league teams, there were night games during the week, but most of those were out of town for the Abington team. The town was very strict about having the ballpark lights on at night, so the team tried to schedule most night games later in the week. The team would be heading to Brockton later in the evening for a game, but there was a baseball camp scheduled to visit the park that day so some of the players would be around in the early afternoon to help with the campers. At the start of the season, she let the social media followers of the team know about camping opportunities on the field, behind the scenes ballpark tours, and even batting practice opportunities with the players.

  Even with the murder happening fairly recently, she thought they seemed to get through unscathed. It didn’t seem to affect people’s desire to attend the ballpark, and it didn’t seem to bother the day campers and their families either. The week the day campers were scheduled, the team was playing in Barnstable. Since it was an away game, practices were limited to earlier in the day due to the travel between the two ballparks. It also gave the campers an opportunity to meet more of the players.

  Heading into the front office, Madeline saw Eliza already on the phone rolling her eyes at whoever was on the other end of the line.

  “No, no, we don’t have any comment and would ask that you please direct your questions to the proper authorities. Thank you! Have a nice day!” she said with forced cheerfulness as she hung up the phone without waiting for more of a response. Waving Madeline over, she heaved an exasperated sigh and give her a look.

  “Girl, that was your friend, the reporter. She’s trying to pump us for more information about Ben and Chris Dailey’s relationship. I made sure not to tell her anything, but she was awfully persistent. I hope she doesn’t try to cause any trouble to you or the family.” Eliza shook her head.

  Madeline sighed and closed her eyes. “Thanks for the heads up, Eliza. If she calls again, just send her to my phone. I want to find out what she’s digging for.” Madeline wanted to know why Jennifer Roberts was so involved with the case. She understood it was the reporter’s job to be a journalist and look for a story, but Madeline thought she was focused in the wrong direction. Her brother was already cleared according to Davis anyway, so what else was the reporter looking for?

  Madeline set her purse down in the office, quickly checked her email, and looked to see if she had any voicemails. The first was from the day camp that was arriving that day making sure they had the correct start time. The second was from an unidentified number with no talking, just heavy breathing. Normally, she would just chalk that up to an errant butt dial, but after all the weirdness with the murder, she was instantly suspicious. Checking her watch, she realized she only had ten minutes before the campers arrived for their day at the field. She wanted to make sure Davis knew about the voicemail though, just in case it was something nefarious.

  She dashed down the hallway to Davis’ office. For the first time since she could remember he wasn’t sitting at his desk before she went into his office. He was always the first person in the office, almost as if he slept there sometimes. She scoured his desk for some paper and a pen. Madeline quickly scribbled a note about the weird call and stuck it to his computer monitor with a piece of tape. Hopefully he would be able to trace the call or something to figure out if the call was just creepy or threatening.

  Rushing down the ramp to the field, she found the team meeting in their home dugout, probably getting a quick pep talk about the next game. Not wanting to interrupt, she backtracked up the ramp to the front entrance to the park. She shielded her eyes from the sun as she looked over the parking lot. The school bus carrying the kids from the camp pulled up at the front door and began unloading about twenty kids and four adults. Luckily this group was pretty small since it was an elite summer baseball camp, so the numbers weren’t excessive. That meant all the kids could bat and play catch on the field with minimum disruption.

  Madeline hoped they were well-behaved kids. Aged about 10–13, they should know how to act, but one never knew when it came to pre-teen kids. As much as she didn’t love kids, seeing them experience the ballpark for the first time was special to her. She could remember the feelings she had when her Grandpa took her to Fenway Park the first time and she hoped that these kids would feel the same.

  She greeted the four adults at the front entrance and shook their hands. Introducing herself as the team representative, she gave them a rundown of the camper’s schedule for the day. She ushered the group into the box office area.

  Madeline took a look at the group of kids in their baseball uniforms holding well-worn gloves. “Who here is a Red Sox fan?”

  A majority of the kids raised their hands. The only two hold outs stood in the back with their arms crossed and wearing New York Yankee hats. So, mostly Red Sox fans, just a few fans of the evil empire. “Well, even those that aren’t, this is where most baseball careers begin and end. How many of you have been to a game here at the stadium before?” Every kid and adult raised their hands. “Great! Today is going to be super special then. To start, we’re going to take you behind the scenes through the owner’s area, the press area, food prep areas, visitors’ locker room, and finally the home team locker room. Once down there, we’ll be meeting with several members of the coaching team who will show you scouting videos of our players and explain the mechanics of what they do. After lunch, we’ll take the field and you get to show us what you got! How does that sound?”

  The kids let out a raucous cheer and jumped up and down smacking their gloves. This group was going to be fun. Madeline led the group down the concourse to the family group of offices. Eliza gave the kids a big wave and then buzzed Ben to come out and greet them. Ben came out of his office in similar team attire to Madeline and gave the kids a big hello.

  One of the kids in the Yankees hat looked supremely unimpressed at this. Before her brother could lead the kids out on the next part of the tour, the young girl’s hand shot into the air.

  “Yes, yo
ung lady?” Ben asked.

  “Are you the guy that killed the other guy on the field? My mom said you got away with it because you’re rich.” The kid smugly crossed her arms as she finished her question.

  Madeline froze and looked towards her brother with horror in her eyes. The coach of the kid’s team, who until that time had not much to do, quickly grabbed the girl’s hand and pulled her back to a quiet corner of the concourse.

  Ben seemed to take the question in stride and quickly changed the subject with the kids.

  “Okay, how about we start heading out on the tour now!” Ben started walking out on the concourse towards the press area. The young lady and coach seemed to reach some sort of agreement and followed the group. Madeline pulled one of the other parents to the side as they made their way to the small press door.

  “Hey, who is that young lady?”

  The father shook his head. “Ya know that reporter lady? Blonde, short skirts, ya know? She’s been telling all the other parents how Ben is a murderer and she was going to prove it or something. That’s her daughter. But don’t worry, none of us believe her. If we did, we wouldn’t be here now, would we?” He kept walking, following the team through the door into the press room.

  Madeline stopped where she was to process the information. Now things were getting weird. That reporter, Jennifer Roberts, was telling lies and spreading falsehoods about the family, and Madeline was not too happy about that. She needed to call her and get this straightened out sooner rather than later. Plus, Davis needed to know about this girl and her mother. It had been at least 45 minutes since she had left the note on his desk and he still hadn’t responded. He knew he could find her anywhere in the park. She hoped nothing serious had happened to him. She resolved to try and ferret him out if she didn’t hear from him by lunch time. Maybe he just decided to take the day off. Even security personnel were allowed those days.

  Madeline caught up with her brother and the kids in the limited press box. There was one intern for the local paper there working on updating stats, and usually there was only one or two other guys there doing the games themselves. They led the kids down through the concession areas. Since there wasn’t a home game that upcoming weekend, everything was empty and cleaned. The visitor’s locker room was the same. When the visiting team departed after the game, the team had a crack cleaning team that got it into ship shape before the next morning. The home team locker room was a different story.

  Separated into two parts, the first part of the room was the film area. Set up with folding chairs and benches, this was where the players came during practice, before games, and after games to watch tape of previous performances or scout out the next team they would face. This was also the room that interviews after games tended to happen in. The team didn’t let anyone into the main locker room for privacy’s sake. The second half of the room was behind two more double doors and the kids were led there first.

  The locker room proper was where the players had their little cubbies with uniforms and personal products. The players were still out on the field for practice and meetings, so the kids were told they would come back after lunch so they could meet some of the players. They were visibly excited about the prospect, except for the reporter’s daughter. She still stood with her arms crossed and a sour look on her face.

  Madeline rolled her eyes and ushered everyone back into the video room and had them take seats. She went back to the coach’s office and asked the bench coach, Jason, to come out and give the kids an overview of the scouting process. He introduced himself to the kids and began his speech. Madeline left the kids and Ben in Jason’s capable hands and made her way back to the field.

  Watching from the sidelines, she found the team finishing up some stretching drills. She waved the manager over and gave him a quick update on what the kids were doing and how the schedule would unfold the rest of the day.

  “Everything going okay today? The kids are with Jason now going over some game DVD’s. After that, we’re going to bring lunch to them in the conference room by the press box. About twelve-thirty, we’ll bring them down here to meet the guys for some team drills. Does that work with your schedule today?”

  “That sounds great, Maddie.” Billy said. “The guys are really excited to work with the kids on drills this afternoon. I’ll tell them to take a break now to make sure they’re back around twelve to start.”

  Madeline agreed and quickly headed back to the front offices in hopes that she could catch Davis. She waved at Eliza, who was on the phone, and checked in his office again. His office was empty, and her note was still taped to the screen.

  As she moved back into her office, she sank down heavily in her guest chair and shut her eyes. The past few weeks had been a blur of activity. Losing her job, starting a job here, and of course, the murder. Oh, and the baseball season starting in earnest. She needed a few weeks to catch up on her sleep. It didn’t seem like it was going to happen anytime soon, especially with that reporter breathing down her family’s neck. She hoped the murderer would be caught soon so that she could go back to normal busy things.

  She sat back and focused on her emails. Before she knew it, it was time to head back down to lead the kids to lunch in the fancy conference room overlooking the field. It was really just a glorified break room with about thirty chairs and some vending machines. She made her way down towards the locker room and heard a voice from across the concourse. It was coming from one of the little janitorial rooms near the locker area. Part of her wanted to keep walking, but the other, more curious side of her won out as she crept closer to the door. She could only hear one side of the conversation, but it didn’t sound pleasant.

  “I know! I’ll get the money as soon as I can.” She heard a man’s voice speaking urgently into what she assumed was a phone.

  After a beat of silence, she heard the guy continue. “Look, Chris’ death was an unforeseen mishap. Give me twenty-four hours and we’ll get things back on track.”

  Another pause.

  “Yeah, you too. Bye.”

  Madeline scampered away from the door and hid in one of the other doorways near the locker room. She heard the janitor close the door and she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. She didn’t want the person to see her, so she turned the phone’s camera to selfie mode and tried to see who came out of the door. She pretended to take a picture of herself, even though she hoped the guy didn’t notice her at all. She clicked the camera and hoped the guy would be in the background of her selfie.

  From the distance she was at, she could only tell it was a tall guy with dark brown hair. He was wearing workout clothes, so maybe even a player? She was annoyed that she couldn’t see anything else as the guy walked further away from her hiding place. Just in case, she made sure to snap a picture of his retreating back.

  Saving the photo in her phone, she continued into the video part of the locker room. The kids were still listening with rapt attention to Jason as he demonstrated how the pitcher throws a knuckleball. Not many pitchers in the modern game threw the difficult pitch, and catchers definitely don’t love to try and catch the wily pitch. Jason caught her eye and gave a little nod. He looked back at the kids and clapped his hands.

  “Okay, guys, it looks like you’re going to be heading to lunch now. I’ll see you guys on the field in about an hour to get some drills in.” Jason waved and went back towards his office.

  Madeline guided the kids and adults back upstairs to the concourse and finally the conference room. There the team had put out a spread of hot dogs, hamburgers, and sandwiches. Most of the kids went immediately for the hot dogs, so Madeline grabbed a cold sandwich and Diet Coke. Heading towards the field view windows, Madeline sat down with the coaches and parents who were chaperoning the field trip. They were all fairly young, most in their late forties/early fifties, so she felt comfortable talking with them even though she didn’t have children.

  The father she was talking to earlier leaned over. “Ya, I have a q
uestion for you.” He smiled and continued. “My son is just starting out with this baseball thing and would love to learn more about the inside of the baseball business, not just the athletic part. He’s big into the fantasy sports and thinks that by learning the business of the game he might get better at determining his fantasy roster. Do you offer classes or internships for when they’re older that might help guide him?”

  Madeline looked over at the other parents who obviously overheard the question and were nodding in agreement. “Well, to be honest, we’ve never really thought about it before, but it sounds like a great idea for the kids and adults alike. Fantasy is such a big thing now, maybe it would be beneficial to get tips from scouts and front office people. Thanks for the suggestion. Make sure you leave me your information at the front before you leave and I’ll keep you posted on what we decide.”

  He nodded at her and turned back to the other parents. They were all talking about how excited the kids were doing this field trip. “You know, in the summer, it’s hard to get them to work on baseball practice. Bringing them here made them that much more excited about the sport. Meeting the players they watch on the field is exciting. I know they’ll be talking about this trip for a while.” The coach smiled at the players scarfing hot dogs down.

  Madeline smiled. “I’m glad. I’ve been a fan since I was a kid, and I know coming out here to the ballpark and being on the field is a special experience. I’m glad we’ve started this program again with the day camps and baseball groups. It’s nice to have the kids on the field with the players. I know the players like it too. They’ve been talking about it all week!”

  The parents nodded and continued their lunch. Some of them asked questions about the upcoming season, and she tried to answer them as best she could. Since the season had just started, not everything was set in stone schedule wise. The team was lucky to play in a pretty competitive independent league, so the playoffs were never a forgone conclusion. That made every game important.