David Murphy looked at his dad incredulously. “Dad? Is this true? Have you been spreading the rumors about the steroids?”
Richard Murphy looked down at his shoes and sighed. “Yes, it’s true. I thought I was doing what’s best for you. I wanted you to get money on the open market. I thought by making the team look bad, other teams would want to get you and Abington would let you go. I just talked to that Jennifer Roberts lady once!” He spread his hands out in a pleading gesture to his son. “I didn’t think it would go this far. Chris Dailey gave me the idea a few weeks before he died. He told me this was a good way to get out of David’s contract. It just seemed easy.”
David looked at his father with widening eyes. He shook his head in disbelief. “Dad, I can’t believe this. Why would I want to go somewhere else? Abington has been great to me, and let’s be honest; I’m only one or two years away from retirement anyway. Why should I leave here now?”
Richard looked down at his hands again, and then spoke. “Son, it’s been a bad couple of years. You don’t know this, but my construction business is going through a lean time. I was hoping by getting you a bigger contract, I could stay afloat a little bit longer. I know what I did was wrong and I can’t apologize enough.” He looked over at Madeline. “Madeline, your family has been great to David and me, and after the first time I talked to Jennifer Roberts, I felt so guilty that I never contacted her again. The first rumor might have been from me, but I haven’t talked to her in two weeks. I don’t know where the newest report came from, but it wasn’t from me.”
Madeline looked at him with pity in her eyes. She believed him. He seemed like a good guy in a desperate situation. She knew money problems sometimes made people do crazy things. “Richard, I believe you. Unfortunately, there has to be some consequences for your actions. We can’t have people affiliated with the team, even in a tenuous way, gossiping to reporters. I’ll talk to my family this afternoon, but I’m thinking a week-long suspension from the team facilities would be sufficient. You seem remorseful, and I’m sure something like this wouldn’t happen again.”
Richard seemed relieved, letting out a breath. “Thank you so much, Madeline. I definitely learned my lesson. I’m not going to be doing anything like this again, and I can’t apologize enough for your family. I know you guys had nothing to do with Chris Dailey, and I’m grateful for your support of my son.”
Richard and Madeline shook hands, and the two left him and his son to work out their issues. David did not seem pleased with his father. They both sat back down in the video room and it looked they were going to be embarking on a pretty heavy conversation. Davis and Madeline made their way back to the hallway to the front office area. She still felt like something was missing. They had found out who was responsible for the rumors, but still couldn’t account for the person breaking into the offices or the other news stories either. Richard made sure they understood that he had only spoken to Roberts once. Could they still be running with the same story without any other corroboration? And who planted the drugs in the office in the first place? She had to talk to Jennifer Roberts. There had to be a reason she was so intent on destroying the Abington Armadillos.
Chapter Twenty
After the discussion with Richard, Madeline settled down the rest of the day at her computer and worked through several camp requests. All the local kids teams wanted to spend some time on the field with the players and learn how to hit and field like the almost pros. She was glad to see that the team was still being supported by the local community. It definitely helped ease her mind that the murder didn’t cause too much strain on the team events.
She found one email sent to her but addressed to her brother. She found herself reading it before she even noticed it wasn’t hers. It seemed to be some sort of apology letter.
Madeline clicked through the email to see who it was from, but there was no signature at the bottom. Looking back at the body of the email, the gist was that the person was sorry Ben got caught up in the murder investigation, and that the person knew he was innocent the whole time. Weird. The email address also looked weird. It was just a bunch of letters and numbers jumbled together with a Gmail address. Hm. Well, she wasn’t going to worry about it now. She clicked forward and sent the email on to her brother’s email. She knew he would be checking it even if he wasn’t at the park.
There was a quick knock on the door. Madeline looked up to see her mom hovering in the doorway with an apprehensive look on her face. “Hey, Mom, do you need me for something?”
Looking over her shoulder to see if anyone was eavesdropping, she ventured into the office and shut the door behind her. Uh-oh, this could be serious. She took a seat across from Madeline’s desk.
“Maddie, I wanted to talk to you privately. I realized with all the craziness of Opening Day, the murder, and the false news reports about the team, we haven’t gotten to sit down and actually talk about the job you’re doing here. Other than all that other stuff, are you settling in well?” She smiled.
Madeline leaned back in her chair and smiled back at her mom. Of course, she would be concerned about her daughter. They had gotten closer in the years after college, probably because she learned to appreciate her mother so much more as an adult. Of course, Madeline had gone through a few rebellious teen years and they had fought like cats and dogs back then. Now, they had a deeper relationship than most mothers and daughters. They could tell each other anything.
“I think on the business side, everything is going really well. I’m really enjoying the camp events and the team itself is doing great, too.” She gave her mom a wink. “It doesn’t hurt that the Red Sox are having a good season, too. It makes the summer more enjoyable. Plus, it reminds me of when Grandpa was still around.”
Her mother got a wistful look on her face. “We all miss Grandpa Boucher. I married into that family, but I had known your father’s parents for many years before. I even lived at their house during high school so that I wouldn’t have to change schools when my family moved out of the district. He was a special guy, and he loved two things most of all. The Red Sox and family. That’s why we’re going to see the team through this rough patch and come out better than ever on the other side.” She looked down at her hands as if collecting her thoughts. “Which brings me to the other reason I came to see you today.”
Madeline sat up quickly. What else could there possibly be? Did they not like the job that she was doing? Did she mess up an interview request or something? Did it have to do with the guy canceling the first pitch ceremony? Madeline had a tendency to not think too clearly when her anxiety ramped up. It wasn’t probably that serious, but she could make anything seem like the end of the world if given time.
“So, as you know, Ben had an interview with the Red Sox the day of the murder.” Marie said. “I know he doesn’t think he’s going to get the job, but you never know. Once this whole murder thing gets cleared up, they might want to talk to him again. He’d be perfect for the job. If that’s the case, your father and I wanted to approach the future of the team with you.”
Madeline took a deep breath. Was she really asking her to help run the team full time? She just got back here! She hadn’t had really any time to think about her future with the team before all the murder madness kicked up.
Marie continued. “I know you just came back to the team, but just think about if you’d like to take on a larger role with the front office. You’ve done a great job so far with the community outreach, so now would be a good time to introduce you to the business side of the team. Your father and I want to be able to retire eventually, and we would like the team to stay in the family. And we definitely don’t want to leave it to your cousins. I don’t think they’d love the team like we do.”
Madeline must have had a shocked look on her face, because Marie just smiled at her and, “I can see I surprised you. Just take a week or so to think about it. Plus, who knows, maybe your brother will stick around and you can work side by side on t
he team.” With that parting sentiment, she opened the door and left Madeline’s office.
Wow. She never thought about staying with the team forever. Although it made sense. She wasn’t really sure what to expect when she came back. The past month had been great, outside of the murder of course. The first game back and giving that kid an opportunity to meet his hero was super gratifying. She didn’t remember feeling like that when she was a teenager working at the field. Now that she was older, it was more gratifying to work for a job with a tangible effect on the community. While government work was great, sometimes it felt so abstract. She never saw the end product. At the field, she saw the product every day, and frankly, it made her happy. She thought her decision might have already been made before she even started back at the field. This was the place she was meant to be. Now, to clear up the murder and get back on track this season.
Looking at the clock, she saw it was about 5 p.m., so her day could officially be over. She decided to use the time to do a bit more investigating into the people she thought were most responsible for Dailey’s murder.
Starting with the people she knew, she put William Chase’s name into the search bar. Up came about fifty articles about his purchase of the team and the work he was doing with the stadium to make it a state-of-the-art location. For an independent league team, he sure was spending a lot of money on upgrades. Usually teams did little things here and there to raise their profiles. Like the Abington team upgrading concessions. William Chase was planning to tear down his current stadium and try to make a mini Fenway Park on Cape Cod. She snorted. The locals must love that idea. Cape Cod was not exactly known for being a progressive place.
There didn’t seem to be anything too shady about him online. He was a business guy which created some enemies, but she couldn’t find any evidence of a criminal background. The next person she decided to check on was Richard Murphy. Even though she believed his feelings of remorse, it wouldn’t hurt to check out his online footprint just in case. All the stories that came up were about his son and how devoted they were to each other. It confirmed what she initially thought of the Murphy family. She skipped the rest of the articles. After his apology that morning, she didn’t think that Richard was involved in some grand scheme to frame her brother for murder. He seemed genuinely upset about everything that happened, and she knew that David was giving him the business about it now.
Leaning back in her char, her eye caught on the piece of paper that she picked up the other night from Dailey’s girlfriend. She had some more of the names crossed off the list today, and she didn’t want to revisit those names. The only other name she was really not sure about was Brittany Marks. Walter Lawson was some guy who wrote articles about the local teams. Nothing too serious there. Brittany was the mystery.
She wasn’t someone Madeline knew, but obviously Ashley must have known who she was. Madeline plugged her name into the search bar and was surprised to not get any hits. Like any at all. There were a few articles about an older woman named Brittany Marche who lived in France. That obviously wasn’t the one Ashley was worried about because this woman was at least eighty years old and had lived in France apparently for the past fifty years. She had no connection with Massachusetts or baseball at all.
She saw Davis enter her office out of the corner of her eye. He sat down across from her. “You looked deep in thought a minute ago. I hope it doesn’t have anything to do with investigating Dailey’s murder. Your brother is finally cleared, the rumors will start dying down, and it’s time to let it go.”
Sighing, she said. “I know I should probably let it go. But now it’s just curiosity. This whole thing has had such a major effect on my family and the team I want to make sure there are no more surprises. And on that note, I did find another interesting thing. I was looking through the names on this list that Dailey’s girlfriend dropped and found a name that I can’t find any information about. Brittany Marks. The only thing that came back on the internet was some old lady in France. Don’t you find that odd?” She looked at Davis hoping he would see the weirdness of her situation and pointed at her computer screen as she turned it towards him.
He sort of rolled his eyes and leaned forward to see what she pulled up. “Maddie, that is weird, but we don’t know why his girlfriend had that list. Maybe it was a list of people to invite to a party and just happened to include people who might have murdered her boyfriend. It is weird that there would be an eighty-year-old French woman on the list, but not completely out of the realm of possibility.
“Okay, well fine. I still think it’s weird. The guy was a bad dude, and all the names on this list have some sort of connection with him that should be looked at closely. Has Detective Stephenson even talked to any of these people? And if I couldn’t find a local Brittany Marks, would he find the right person?” Madeline pondered.
Davis chuckled as he got up out of his seat. “Well, he is actually trained for this kind of work, so I’m sure he has taken all the information you so luckily found and put it through the investigation wringer. This isn’t your fight anymore, Maddie.” Pausing at the door, he turned one more time. “Oh, we’re on our way over to Centerfields for Happy Hour. You in?”
Madeline nodded and started to shut down her computer system. “I’ll meet you guys over there in about ten minutes. I want to finish up some paperwork before I leave.” He flicked his fingers in acknowledgment. After she saw he left the office towards the restaurant, she grabbed at the suspect list and shoved it into her purse. She was definitely going to get to the bottom of the mystery person. It had to have something to do with the murder. There wasn’t any other logical explanation.
Chapter Twenty-One
It was only 6 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon, but Centerfields was hopping. Unfortunately, bars in Massachusetts weren’t technically allowed to have “happy hour” specials due to some blue laws, but many bars got around that by offering all day specials. For being such a progressive state, there were still puritanical laws on the books that for some reason, never got repealed. They also had decently priced glasses of wine, which was Madeline’s sweet spot.
Spotting the security group, Davis among them, she wound her way through the crush of people near the bar. The Red Sox game was scheduled for that night on the national channel, and it looked like a lot of people had gotten to the bar early to stake out a seat to watch the game. She saw that the security team was in a corner of the bar with a TV set up right next to the table. They definitely wouldn’t be missing the game that night. Walking up to the team, she waved at Esther who was talking to one of the guys who worked parking lot security on game days. She excused herself from the conversation and made her way over to Madeline.
“Hey, Maddie! I’m so glad you came tonight. Davis told me all about your investigations of the murder in order to clear your brother. You must be glad he finally got released from the police.” Hugging Madeline, she pulled her towards one of the bar stools they had reserved. Madeline waved at the waitress, who was the usual one and she nodded. She already knew Madeline’s order before she even had to say anything.
“I don’t know if he’s fully clear yet, just that the police have realized they don’t have much to hold him on now. Especially since Ben finally came clean about his alibi.” Madeline wasn’t sure if he wanted everyone to know about the job interview, so she left it at that, and Esther didn’t pry.
Madeline sat at the bar and turned to face Esther. “And well, I wouldn’t say I’m done looking into it. I found a name that I’m curious about and wondering how it fits into this whole mess. Davis isn’t too happy that I’m still looking into it, but I just can’t let it go. It’s my family. It’s my team.” She looked around and saw Davis looking at her huddled with Esther. Esther followed her eyes and saw Davis looking over. She gave him a wave and turned back towards Madeline.
“You know, Maddie, it might not be my place, but I think he really likes you. He’s talking about your safety in some of our security brief
ing meetings in the mornings. Since the investigation is ongoing, he wants to make sure you’re safe since the murder and the break-in. I can’t say I blame him either. I mean, two very dramatic things have happened to you in the past few weeks, not even counting the murder.” Esther looked at her and patted Madeline’s arm. “We all just want to keep you and your family safe.”
The waitress returned at that moment with Madeline’s glass of wine and a beer for Esther. They decided to order some nachos and head over for a quick game of pool. The Red Sox were warming up with batting practice on TV, and the security team was ready to let loose after a crazy baseball week. Esther and Madeline teamed up against some of the security guys, including Davis. Madeline knew she had an ace up her sleeve; Esther was a crack pool shark. She hustled guys in college for extra beer money by going to various pool halls and playing the young innocent college students. Some nights she left with over $100 of winnings. Madeline wasn’t sure if the security guys knew, but they were about to lose and lose bad.
After two quick games of pool, Madeline excused herself to the bathroom. The impromptu happy hour was turning into a super fun event. The whole security team was cool, and no one really treated her like the bosses’ daughter, which she was worried about when she came back. Taking her phone with her so she could check her text messages, she pushed open the door and took one of the unoccupied stalls. Before she could leave the stall, the door opened to the bathroom and two women walked in talking fast and furiously.
“What do you mean they’re still investigating? I thought you said you took care of it?” one high-pitched voice hissed angrily.
“I did. It’s not my fault that this family is like Teflon. Nothing seems to stick to them. The drug thing worked for a bit. I just need to get more dirt and then I can do something.” The other voice was low and sounded like the person was trying to calm the other one down.
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