Murder at First Pitch

by Nicole Asselin

  The kids boarded their bus and yelled a big thank you to Madeline and the staff hanging around. The staff all waved until the bus was out of sight and Madeline checked her watch. Only 4 p.m. She still had time to do a quick walk around the ballpark before meeting Davis at the restaurant. The next game wasn’t until the next weekend, so everything was pretty closed up for the day. The concession people wouldn’t come in until two days before the game to set up all their necessary equipment. On game day, they showed up about six hours early to make sure things were prepared. Gates opened two hours before game time, and that’s when most people got their snacks, drinks, and souvenirs.

  She made her way back to the field and saw the team having one more meeting before Billy dismissed them for the day. She decided to head to the restaurant and wait for Davis there. On the way back to the office to grab her purse, she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. Pulling it out, she found a text message from Tom. Short, sweet, and to the point, it said “Meet me at Centerfields at 6. I’m free then and we can chat.”

  Putting the phone back in her pocket, she stopped before grabbing her purse. She wondered if she was using Tom for just his scouting knowledge or if it was going to be something like a date tonight. He was cute, and she would like to go out with him, but she wasn’t sure where his head was at. Plus, there was Davis to think about, too. Well, hopefully she could get some good information out of him that night and they could see where they would go from there.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Madeline walked into the restaurant and her stomach tightened anxiously. It was just going to be her and Davis having drinks together. Alone. Like a date. She told herself it was strictly professional. He’s just meeting with her as head of security for the team. Trying to solve a murder, talking gambling and steroids. Not exactly hot first date talk. Even still, she took a moment at the front door to tuck her hair behind her ears and smooth down the front of her shirt. She wanted to make sure everything looked put together before she saw Davis.

  She let her eyes adjust to the darkness of the sports bar and scanned the crowd to see if Davis had made it yet. She looked around and noticed William Chase at the bar, talking to Ashley, the victim’s girlfriend. They had their heads bent close together, and there were several empty glasses in front of them. They appeared to be having a heated conversation and had probably been at the bar for several hours. To quote Lewis Carroll, “curiouser and curiouser.”

  Madeline turned as she heard her name called from behind her. At the sound of her name, both William and Ashley looked up and caught her staring at them. She gave them a jaunty wave and a big smile so they wouldn’t think she was staring at them but just being friendly. They looked at each other and then waved back nervously before scooting away from each other at the bar. Ashley picked up her beer glass and headed towards the pool tables. Madeline wondered why they were pretending not to be friends since they had looked so close before.

  Madeline turned around and found Davis entering the restaurant behind her. He had changed from the suit she had seen him in earlier to a more casual outfit of khaki shorts and a blue button-down shirt. She looked down at her work outfit and cringed. She should’ve taken the time to change into something a bit more presentable. Of course, he looked good and she looked a mess. They let the hostess lead them to a table in the back where it was less crowded and they could talk without screaming at each other.

  She gave him a quick rundown of seeing William and Ashley at the bar. She didn’t even know that they had known each other, but I guess Chris was the common ground between the two of them. She still didn’t know how William knew and vouched for Dailey, but she was determined to find out. Davis seemed intrigued by the idea of the Chris connection between the two, but if he had formulated any ideas, he was not making her privy to his thoughts. Instead he just nodded his head and tried to look over to the bar to catch a glimpse of the two of them.

  The waitress appeared shortly after that and Madeline remembered that she was meeting Tom that night, too. “Davis! I forgot to tell you. Tom’s coming at six and I want to make sure I asked about the connection between Dailey and Chase. It’s definitely something interesting now that I saw Chase talking to Dailey’s girlfriend in such a compromising situation.” She sat back satisfied.

  Davis smiled, not giving away any of his feelings about her meeting Tom. “Only you, Maddie. They were hardly in a compromising position. They were sitting at a bar talking. It’s a little bit loud up front there, maybe he just leaned in to hear her better. You always look for the drama in everything.”

  Before Madeline could respond, the waitress plopped two plates of burgers and fries in front of them. Madeline contented herself with rolling her eyes at Davis and instead turned her focus to her delicious burger. She hadn’t eaten since lunch with the kids and she was starving. The whole investigation thing was making her hungrier than normal. She wasn’t one of those of girls who watched what they ate in front of cute guys, and she had a tendency to eat her feelings when stressed. In fact, if she was more stressed out than normal she could eat her weight in french fries. And her waistline was proof of that.

  Chewing in silence for a little while, she broke the quiet by almost choking on a piece of french fry. Coughing, she discreetly pointed at the front door. Davis turned his head. Walking in the restaurant was Jennifer, the news reporter that had been hounding her family for the past two weeks. Madeline tried ducking behind the drinks on the table, but apparently it didn’t work. She heard a set of high heels clacking across the floor and stopping in front of their table.

  “Well, well, well. Isn’t this cozy?” Jennifer said, tapping her foot at the end of the table. “I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for a comment and here you are schmoozing with the head of security. That’s interesting.”

  Madeline rolled her eyes. “Jennifer, I’m hardly schmoozing as you so eloquently put it. I’m having dinner with a co-worker before heading home for the night. And you’re right. I have gotten your messages, but we just don’t have any comment regarding the murder. You need to talk to the police. I told you that last time you bothered me.”

  Jennifer huffed a loud sigh and folded her arms across her chest. “Whatever. I’m just trying to give the public what they want. If you don’t give me info, I’ll have to go somewhere else then to get the scoop.” She flounced away. Madeline couldn’t think of a better way to describe it. Jennifer’s ponytail swished behind her as the heels tapped a staccato rhythm across the floor.

  “What do you think she means by that?” Madeline said to Davis, grimacing. “Wait, she’s now talking to William!”

  Jennifer stopped at William’s bar stool and started talking in a very animated fashion to the man sitting there. She was flailing her arms and pointed back at the table Davis and Madeline were sitting at.

  “That can’t be good,” Madeline said.

  Before she could get up and confront the two and see what was going on, William slammed his hand down on the bar counter, stood up, threw a bunch of money down, and stormed out while Jennifer looked on in astonishment. The woman didn’t seem to know what to do and Jennifer just turned and walked out the door behind him.

  At that exact moment, Tom walked in the door of the restaurant. Madeline quickly wiped her face to make sure all the ketchup evidence was taken care of and grabbed her purse. Davis shook his head, also noticing Tom come in.

  “I got it this time, Maddie. Just make sure you remember to tell me everything you find out.”

  Thanking him, she got up and greeted Tom at the door. He looked like he just got out of a business meeting, wearing a suit and tie.

  “Ah, you didn’t have to get dressed up for this,” she teased.

  Tom sort of blushed and looked down at his clothes. “I know it’s not the most appropriate attire for a sports bar, but I had a meeting that ran long this afternoon at the club and didn’t have time to change.”

  In addition to being a scout for local baseball te
ams, Tom was also a successful health club owner on the South Shore. He had two gyms in the local area and she had heard he was looking to expand as far as Boston. Madeline liked that he had multiple interests and seemed to be comfortable in his life.

  “Do you want to get a drink?”

  He guided Madeline to the bar with his hand on her lower back. They moved to the opposite side of the bar from Ashley and the men at the pool tables. Madeline noticed Ashley taking sneaky looks as the two of them sat down. As Madeline made eye contact with her, she quickly turned away and rummaged around in her purse. She threw some money down and hightailed it out of the bar.

  Madeline looked back at Tom as they got settled on the bar stools, but he didn’t seem to notice Ashley at all. Maybe he’d never met her before. It sure seemed like she had her eyes on Tom from the moment he entered the bar, but then again maybe that’s because he’s so good looking. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and bring her mind back to the task at hand. This was about the murder. Not the cute guy.

  “Thanks for coming to meet me tonight, Tom. I know it sort of came from out of the blue.” She smiled at him.

  He smiled back. “No problem. What is it you wanted to ask me? Is it about Chris Dailey’s murder?”

  “Wait, how did you know?” Madeline sat up straight.

  He waved his hands in a calm down gesture. “Whoa, I’ve just heard rumors that you’re looking into it.”

  Madeline sagged in her seat. “Oh, it’s just been a weird time and I wasn’t sure who knew what. I wasn’t only asking you out to talk about murder. I mean, not that this is a date. I mean, it could be, but it’s also professional. Ah, you know what I mean.”

  Tom laughed and put Madeline at ease right away. “This doesn’t have to be a date. That can come later. For now, we can talk about murder.”

  Madeline put her head in her hand in embarrassment. “Oh, okay. Technically I don’t want to talk about the murder. I want to know about the person. I heard he wasn’t too savory of a character and was possibly into illegal drugs and stuff like that. I thought maybe you’d have some background on him from being involved in the scouting world.” She leaned closer to him in order to hear his answer over the noise of the bar.

  He thought for a minute, tapping his fingers on the bar counter. “You know, I didn’t know him all that well. I’ve heard the rumors too, of course. I think it was something mainly going on with the Barnstable team. You know they had a couple of guys kicked out of the league for dealing drugs, right?”

  Madeline shook her head. It seemed she was just scratching the surface with these guys and the steroid epidemic. She was worried it was more than just the Barnstable team. She didn’t know how many other teams in the league were involved. Steroids are usually thought of as a major league problem, not so much in the lower leagues. Of course, it was probably a problem anywhere there were athletes looking for any advantage they could.

  Tom shook his head, interrupting Madeline’s thoughts. “It’s pretty bad actually in the lower leagues. You get a bunch of guys who may have had a shot, but for whatever reasons don’t make it to the bigger stage. They want to get bigger, stronger, faster, and hope that they can make it out to a big squad eventually. You tend to find it in the players who were injured during their career, or someone who is a bit older than the other guys. The college kids tend to be less of steroid fans, but that changes sometimes if they get injured. They just want to keep playing.”

  “That’s terrible. And sad.” Madeline said. “How do they get the drugs in this area? Was Chris known as a supplier to the teams? How exactly did he get into the baseball business after his prison stint? It doesn’t seem he was well liked by anyone around here.”

  Tom spread his arms out. “Honestly, I don’t know. I just know that one day I went out to the Barnstable field to check out some recruits I had scouted when Dailey came up and introduced himself. He said he was another scout hired by William Chase to check out some recruits from outside the district. I thought it was a little weird that William hired him personally. Most of us scouts are independent of teams for a reason. That way there is no favoritism played to certain owners and teams.”

  Nodding, Madeline said, “That makes sense. So, I wonder why William did that. Not only did he hire a former felon, he hired one that had no scouting experience, and from what I hear, no baseball experience at all.”

  Tom agreed. “You’re right, it’s totally weird. Now, I don’t know the actual reason he was hired, but I can tell you one of the rumors going around. The rumor is that William Chase got into some kind of trouble that Chris Dailey was blackmailing him for. I never heard what kind of trouble it was, but if Chris was involved it would make sense that the problem could be gambling. I don’t know William all that well, and he hasn’t really cultivated a relationship with any other scouts, so he’s a bit hard to read.”

  “Blackmail though?” She said. “That seems so weird. That doesn’t happen to normal people, does it? Of course, I thought murder didn’t happen to normal people either. Yet, here we are, or here my family is, stuck in this mess.” Madeline sighed and sipped her glass of Pinot Gris.

  “Well, I don’t know about it happening to normal people, but it definitely happens to people with a reputation like Chris Dailey.” Tom patted her hand in a comforting way. “I don’t think you and your family should worry about this too much. You guys weren’t even connected to Dailey.”

  She grimaced. “Well, unfortunately we kind of were connected. I know you heard about Ben being considered a suspect. I mean, he had an argument with the guy the night before he got murdered. And now, this reporter lady I knew from high school is trying to drag the family back into the murder investigation even though Ben has been cleared!” Madeline realized he had raised her voice and saw a few bar patrons turn their heads towards her.

  She lowered her voice and continued. “I know our team doesn’t have a connection to Dailey, but from what you told me, it sounds like there is a major connection between him and the Barnstable owner. Have you told the police about this?”

  “Of course. When they found out he was styling himself as a local scout, they got in touch with a bunch of us to inquire about his life. Not a lot of us had contributed, but I did tell them about the connection that I heard about with William Chase.” Tom checked his watch and motioned to the bartender for the check. “I have to get going. There is this kid I need to check out at the college in Milton. Hopefully we can do this again, but next time without all the murder.”

  He winked at her and put a twenty down to pay the bill. She offered to pay her share, but he waved her off. So that was nice. She got a free dinner and free drinks. She could get used to that. Checking the time, she found it was only seven o’clock. The Red Sox game was just coming on and she sent a quick text to Davis to see if he wanted to discuss what she had found out. After she waited a few minutes with no response, she finished off her drink and made her way to the parking lot.

  As she unlocked her car, she decided to just reconnect with him the next day. She made the short drive back to her house thinking about everything Tom had told her. She wondered if the police thought William Chase was a serious suspect. And why was Jennifer so set on blaming her family? All questions she decided could wait until the morning. Putting the game on in the living room, she contented herself to snuggle with the cats and catch the Red Sox in hopefully another win.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The next morning, she woke up at her usual time for a workday. Her internal clock always woke her up before the sunrise. Of course, her cats also contributed to the early wake up calls. They were never content to let her sleep in. The only difference that day was that she didn’t have to be in the office until after lunch. Since there were no camps over the weekend, and the game wasn’t until later, she could take the morning off before spending the rest of the day at the park.

  Her three cats looked at her while she puttered around the living room picking things up. The
cats weren’t used to seeing her in the middle of the day, and she felt like she was cutting into their all-important nap time. Her family liked to tease her about her three cats, but she felt a sense of responsibility after rescuing them and giving them a good home. If it made her a crazy cat lady, so be it. Remy, Dewey, and Pedey were named after some of her favorite Red Sox players ever. Her grandfather had a soft spot for those guys, and she grew up with a soft spot for them, too.

  After a shower and quick breakfast, she turned on the TV to catch the end of the morning news before flipping over to ESPN to catch the baseball highlights. Groaning, she caught the image of Jennifer Roberts standing in front of the Abington Armadillos ballpark holding a microphone and staring into the camera.

  “And now we go live to Jennifer Roberts standing outside the Abington ballpark with more information.”

  “Thank you, Steve. I’m standing here out front of the ballpark where just three weeks ago, a man was murdered in the visitor’s dugout in a vicious manner. Christopher Dailey, a local scout affiliated with the Barnstable Barnstormers was found beaten to death with a baseball bat after being seen arguing with the son of the Boucher family, owners of the Abington team. While the police haven’t made any arrests, through diligent investigative work I have found several members of the Abington team were known associates of Mr. Dailey and might have been part of a crime ring involving steroids with the victim. As always, I will keep ahead of this story and bring you news as it breaks. Jennifer Roberts, Channel 5 news, back to you, Steve.”

  Madeline threw the remote at the TV, missing it by an inch. That woman was infuriating! What kind of information was she getting and from whom? This was the first time Madeline had heard about any of the Abington players being on the wrong side of the law, and the police sure as heck hadn’t said anything yet.