She pointed at her digital recorder. “I’m just working on a project for a friend. I’m not a real reporter, but I am taking notes. It’s a top secret project.” Kate shrugged and smiled at him, hoping he wouldn’t ask anything else.
“Well, would you mind working on it in someone else’s seat?” He crossed his arms at his chest and gave her a stern look. “My wife is running late, but when she gets here, she’ll want her seat. She’ll be mad if I give it to a pip-squeak like you.”
What is it with everyone thinking I’m so small? Kate wanted to say, but didn’t. Instead, she sighed and muttered, “I’m sorry I bothered you. I’ll move.”
She started to stand, but all of a sudden the man’s mean look faded and a crooked smile took its place. He gave her a sympathetic nod. “Aw, never mind, kid. It’ll be awhile before Margaret gets here. She’s visiting with the grandkids. So just sit there until she does. And take good notes—for whatever it is you’re working on. I’ll just sit here and pretend you’re some big-name reporter doing a story on the local news or something. You’ve intrigued me with that top secret stuff.”
“Oh, thank you!” Kate could hardly keep from squealing. “Thanks so much.” She looked down at the field, noticing Tony as he caught a ball in his glove. “My friend thanks you.”
“Mm-hmm.” He turned his attention back to the game, but Kate had other things to do. She focused on the mirrors in her glasses and watched in awe as the man behind her punched the buttons on the MP3 player in his hand.
“It’s definitely attached to something,” she whispered into the digital recorder. “But what? And why?” After a few more minutes of glancing downward, she realized it was a cord of some sort. And it ran all the way down below the seats.
“No way!” He was surely up to something! But in order to know for sure, she’d have to take a closer look.
Kate pulled out her digital camera. How could she take a picture of his MP3 player without him knowing it? And yet she must! She’d never be able to look up that particular model on the internet unless she got a closer look.
An idea occurred to her quite suddenly. She turned around and looked up three rows to where Sydney sat with Mrs. Smith and Andrew. With a bright smile on her face, she stood to her feet and gave them a big wave, as if she were greeting old friends she hadn’t seen in years. The man with the MP3 player looked at her curiously but didn’t say anything. Thankfully, Andrew and Sydney waved back, though Mrs. Smith looked a little confused.
Kate lifted her cell phone and pretended to take a picture of them. Just for effect, she hollered out, “Say cheese, Sydney!” then snapped a shot—not of Sydney, but of that very interesting-looking MP3 player in the man’s hand.
She caught another shot of the man’s face. Then she took a picture of Sydney and Andrew, just for fun. The man leaned forward and for the first time Kate could clearly see the cord that ran from the MP3 player underneath the seats. His earphones? Hmm. She’d never seen a cord that long for earphones. Something very suspicious is going on! But what? And why?
Just then, the man leaned in her direction and his cap came tumbling off. Yikes! Kate used the opportunity to reach down to the ground and snatch it. As she did, she took a good look at the cord. She gasped as she realized it led all the way to the dugout! No, the cord certainly wasn’t for earphones. But what in the world was this fellow up to? Why would an ordinary fan do something like this? Goose bumps covered her arms.
“Hey, kid. What are you doing?” an angry voice rang out.
She turned to look at the man in the Phillies shirt, her heart thump-thumping in her chest. “I, um…” She held up the cap and smiled innocently. “I thought you might want your cap back. You dropped it.” She handed it to him with another big smile.
“Oh.” He shoved it on his head and glared at her. “Well, thanks. Now pay attention to the game. You’re making me nervous.”
She wanted to say, “No, you’re making me nervous,” but didn’t. No point in making him suspicious.
Kate had just started to breathe a relieved sigh when a shrill voice startled her.
“Excuse me!” Kate looked up to find the owner of the seat staring at her. The older woman had white curls, thin lips, and a mean look on her face. “I think you’ve got my seat, little lady. Scoot on out of it and go back where you belong.”
“Yes, I, well…” She swallowed hard then nodded her head. “Your husband said I could…Oh, never mind. You’re right. So sorry. Have a nice day.” As she scooted past the older couple, she hollered out, “Go, Phillies!” then darted back to her seat.
Sydney grabbed her hand as she took her real seat once again. “Oh, I saw the whole thing through the binoculars! Good save! I’m so proud of you. But I was a nervous wreck, Kate. I was praying the whole time.”
“Thanks.” Kate sighed. “I needed it, trust me. Oh, but, Sydney, I got a couple of great photos. I want to look up the MP3 player on the internet. I think I know what he’s doing with it, but I want to be sure.”
“You go, Inspector Gadget!” Sydney giggled. “So what are you thinking? Is it a regular MP3 player that just plays music, or one that you can record with?”
“I’m not sure. I think it does both.” She opened the phone and looked at the picture a little more closely. “I’ll figure this out; don’t worry.”
She reached over to turn on her smartwatch. Unfortunately, she couldn’t connect with the Wi-Fi.
“They must not have wireless access here,” she said with a sigh. “I’ll have to wait and check it out on our computer at home.”
“Aw, don’t worry!” Sydney said. “You’ll figure it out. I know you will.”
“Yeah, but my birthday is Wednesday, and I want to get this case behind me before then,” Kate explained. “I don’t want to be thinking about solving this mystery on my big day! I want to have fun.”
“Oh, we will…even if we’re still on the case,” Sydney said.
“Did I tell you where we’re going?” Kate asked. When Sydney shook her head, she continued. “My parents are taking us to the coolest ‘50s-style soda shop for burgers, fries, and ice cream. Oh, it’s the best place in town. The waiters and waitresses are dressed up in ‘50s costumes and they sing and dance every hour on the hour. We’re going to have a blast—but only if I’m not thinking about who’s trying to frame Tony Smith. So I don’t want to waste even a minute!”
The crowd roared and Sydney rose to her feet, hollering at the top of her lungs. “Woo-hoo! We’re not wasting any time at all, Kate. Don’t you see? We’re at a baseball game in one of the coolest stadiums in the world. Put away those gadgets and enjoy the game. There will be plenty of time for crime solving later!”
With a smile, Kate decided to do just that! She put away her gizmos and turned her attention to the game.
Clues, Clues, and More Clues!
On Monday morning, Kate received a call from Bailey.
“I have a lot of information for your blog site, Kate,” Bailey said gleefully. “Hope you’re ready for this. I’ve been working extra hard!”
“Am I ever!” Kate said. “And thanks! Let me get to the computer so I can write all of this down!” She dashed downstairs with Sydney on her heels. Opening a blank screen, she said, “Go ahead, Bailey. I’m ready!”
“Great. Well, let’s get started. I wrote down a lot of notes since I went to the library. Hmm, let’s see…” She paused a moment. “I’ll start with this information. The team was founded over a hundred years ago.”
“Wow. A hundred years? I didn’t even know there was baseball that long ago,” Kate said. She couldn’t imagine it!
“There was!” Bailey responded. “And Philadelphia had a team! But did you know they weren’t always called the Phillies? They were originally called the Quakers.”
“Wow. The Quakers? That’s interesting. What else?”
“The Phillies are a major league team,” Bailey explained, never missing a beat.
“That’s good?” Ka
te asked.
“Yes, Mystery Queen,” Bailey said. “They’re professionals. And they’re also members of the eastern division of the National League.”
Kate didn’t know what that meant exactly, but typed it anyway. Maybe Sydney could fill her in later. “What else?”
“The Phillies won the World Series championship in 1980,” Bailey continued. “Against Kansas City. They had a video clip of that at the library.”
“Wow, a world championship,” Kate responded, scribbling down the information. “That’s good, right?”
“Yes, my baseball-deprived friend. That’s good.” Bailey laughed. “They also won the National League East Division in 2007. And in 2008 they changed their uniforms.” She went on to explain lots of other things about the team, and before long Kate had tons of information to add to the blog site. Oh, she could hardly wait! It would be the coolest Phillies site ever! One that hundreds—no, thousands—of people would want to visit!
Wow! Kate could hardly believe it! She quickly scribbled down the things Bailey told her. Oh, I hope I’m not missing anything! She’d never typed so quickly.
“Oh Bailey, terrific!” Kate said as they finished. “Thank you, big-time! And…go Phillies!” For the first time, she really meant those words. It felt good to finally be a fan!
She ended the call with a giggle. Then Sydney called Alex, getting even more information! Afterwards, they signed online and Kate plugged in the information, making the site the best it could be. After that, she tweaked the colors a bit and then wrote an upbeat article about Tony Smith, telling what a great player he was and how much he loved the team. She read through it three times just to make sure it was good. For fun, she even uploaded a couple of cool pictures she’d taken with her camera at that first game, pictures of Tony catching a ball. That should get people interested in the site and in Tony! And it should prove that he was still a great player, despite what people thought about him.
Sydney sat at Kate’s side as she worked, offering suggestions and making comments. Finally, Kate added the finishing touches. She sat back in her chair and looked at the blog site one last time. “So what do you think, Sydney?” she asked, staring at it in awe. Her heart thump-thumped with excitement.
“I think it’s a-ma-zing.” Her friend grinned. “I think you’re amazing. You’re not just good with gadgets. You’re good with just about everything. This is the coolest blog site I’ve ever seen, and Phillies fans are going to love it! And I’m pretty sure people from all over the country are going to visit this site and post comments.”
Kate practically beamed with joy. It felt good to hear such kind words from her friend. “Hopefully we’ll catch whoever is doing this to Mr. Smith, then,” she said.
Sydney’s expression changed, and for a moment Kate could see the anxiety in her eyes. “Just be prepared, Kate. In order to catch the bad guys, we’ll probably have to read some not-so-nice stuff about Tony. Mean stuff, even.”
“Yeah, I know.” Kate sighed. “But it’ll be worth it to find out who’s doing this.” As she looked at the photos on the site, she remembered something. “Oh, I forgot to upload that one picture I took of that guy’s MP3 player. I’ve got it on my camera, right here.”
She grabbed her tiny digital camera once again and transferred the photo of the MP3 player onto the computer so she could enlarge it for a closer look. “All I need is the brand name and the model number. Then I’ll be able to track it down. Surely the company that makes them has a website. I’m gonna figure this out.”
It didn’t take long to figure out the MP3 player was called the Audio Wizard by a company called Tekkno-Elekktronix.
“Hmm. Never heard of this brand or model,” Kate said. “Just goes to show you I don’t know about every gadget! I’ll bet my dad’s never even heard of this one! Must be new on the market or he would’ve told me.”
“Well, let’s find their website,” Sydney said. “That would be the best way to get information.”
“Probably.” After a few minutes of browsing the web, Kate located the Tekkno-Elekktronix site with a picture of that same MP3 player. She read all of the information on it then looked over at Sydney, stunned.
“This is different from any other audio players I’ve ever seen,” she said, staring at the site. “It’s got all sorts of cool capabilities. See this cable?” she pointed at a long black cord in the picture.
Sydney nodded. “What about it?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure it’s the same one the man at the game was using. I thought maybe it was an earphone cable at first, but that’s not it at all. Look at the end of the cable.” She grew more animated with each word. “That’s a tiny microphone.”
“No way.” Sydney leaned closer and gasped. “Oh, you’re right! Looks like a clip-on one. Is that what the guy at the game was using? A microphone?”
“Yes.” Kate bounced up and down in her seat. “That has to be it! Sydney! I’m really, really sure I know how Mr. Smith’s voice ended up on the radio. That man at the stadium has been recording Tony’s conversations in the dugout, then using them as voice-overs and pretend interviews for blog sites and radio interviews.”
“But that doesn’t make sense. Tony wouldn’t be saying anything about being unhappy with the team in the dugout.” Sydney gave a little shrug. “Just the opposite, in fact. I’m sure when he’s with the other players, he’s saying nice things.”
“Oh, I know. But words can be twisted, you know. Even good words. And before long, rumors can fly. Let me show you how I think he did it.” Kate closed out the website and opened a software program on the computer. “Check out this software my dad installed. I think you’re going to find this interesting.”
Sydney shrugged. “What about it?”
“It has voice-editing capabilities.”
“Oh?” Sydney still looked confused.
“Yeah, let’s try it out. Why don’t you say something into the computer’s microphone and I’ll record you.”
Sydney leaned into the little microphone and said, “Okay.” After pausing for a minute, she said, “I miss all of my friends from Discovery Lake Camp. Remember when we first met Bailey? A little girl with big ideas! And Alex…she knows everything there is to know about Nancy Drew. Good thing we asked her to help us with this case. And Elizabeth…” Sydney sighed. “I sure miss Elizabeth, don’t you? I don’t know anyone who knows as much about the Bible as she does. And I miss McKenzie. She’s so smart. She always knows just what to do. I didn’t really like all of the food. Some of it was pretty bad too. But the people were fun.”
Kate recorded every word and then played it back. “Okay, sounds great. Now let me try something.” She worked with the recording for a few minutes, cutting out some of the words. Then she played it back.
“I sure don’t miss my friends at Discovery Lake Camp. And I don’t like Bailey. Elizabeth was pretty bad too.”
“Whoa.” Sydney looked at her, stunned. “Well, that’s my voice, all right. But that’s not what I said at all.”
“Exactly.” Kate nodded. “I just took the things you did say and rearranged them to come up with this version.”
“Scary!” Sydney’s eyes widened. “Very scary!”
“Yes, and I’d be willing to bet that’s exactly what the guy at the game did after he recorded Tony Smith’s voice. He altered it; then he started the rumors with twisted-up words.”
“You’re probably right. But it makes me wonder what Tony really said.”
“Probably something completely innocent. You can see how easy it is to twist words.”
“Yes, I can.” Sydney had a worried look on her face. “But why?”
“Good question.” Kate shook her head. “If he’s a Phillies fan, why would he want to sabotage one of their players?”
“Hmm.” Sydney began to pace. “Maybe a news station is paying him to get a juicy story to increase their ratings. You know? Like what happened to Alexis at that nature center with the dinosaurs. The cas
e we called ‘Alexis and the Sacramento Surprise.’ Maybe he’s a reporter or something, just out for a story!”
“Maybe.” Kate sighed. “But that angle doesn’t make a lot of sense. They have too many big stories right now, anyway. Can you think of anything else?”
Sydney’s eyes widened. “Ooh! Maybe he’s mad because Tony’s a shortstop.”
“But why?”
“I dunno.” Sydney shrugged. “Maybe our bad guy played shortstop in high school and hoped to get drafted to the pros someday. Could be he wanted to play for the Phillies, even. You never know. There are probably a lot of bitter wannabe players out there who never got their shot at the pros.”
“Maybe.” Kate stood and began to pace the room. “Or…maybe he’s not a Phillies fan at all. Maybe he’s a spy for another team. Maybe he’s there to bring down the Phillies’ morale so they’ll lose their games. What do you think of that? Makes perfect sense to me. If you can turn team members against each other, they won’t play as well. Before long, they’ll start losing games.”
“Well, I know I don’t perform as well when my spirits are low,” Sydney said. “So that makes sense.”
“Exactly. So maybe this person is really just trying to get everyone worked up…over nothing!”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” Sydney shrugged. “But one thing is for sure—we’re making progress! Before you know it this crime will be solved!”
“Hopefully in time for my birthday,” Kate added with a wink. “It’s on Wednesday, you know.” She wanted to get this case behind them!
“Of course I know!” Sydney laughed. “You’ve only told me 150 times. You were born on the Fourth of July!”
“My mom says I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy,” Kate said with a grin. “And I love the fact that everyone sets off fireworks on my big day. It’s a reminder that God thinks I’m special.”
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