Murder at First Pitch

by Nicole Asselin

  “Hey, man,” she cringed internally at her word choice and tried to mask her discomfort with a big smile. “How’s it going, Davis?”

  He gave her a brief smile. “Hey, Maddie, welcome back. I heard you’re going to be around a lot now, that’s going to be great. I hate to be quick about this, but do you know the guy who your brother was just talking to?

  Madeline started. Davis was watching that whole thing? Why did he seem so concerned?

  “No, he told me it was some guy he met while discussing baseball or something. He was kind of cagey about it.” She shrugged to shake off her unease. She didn’t want Davis to think she was being a worrywart or imagining problems that weren’t there. It was probably nothing anyway.

  “Hm,” he said, scratching his freshly shaved chin. “He didn’t look familiar, and I got a weird vibe from him. Let me know if you hear anything else.” He turned and threaded his way through the partygoers towards to the offices at the front of the stadium.

  Davis was usually much friendlier than that. He must have really been worried about that guy. Well, Madeline thought, she hoped the trouble was over for the night. Her friends came running over with a cheap plastic cup of white wine, her favorite. The quizzing over Davis started immediately and Madeline decided to just let it go and focus on getting the season started.

  * * *

  The rest of the days leading up to Opening Day passed by in a blur. The party was scheduled two weeks before the actual game day, and the rest of the time was spent checking with season ticket holders and making sure the ballpark was ready for guests. As the social media consultant, Madeline was putting the word out everywhere. With only a week left to get everything handled, she and the family were putting extra hours in the ballpark and the community to ramp up interest. Luckily, the team was seeing a spike in season ticket sales, probably because they were so much cheaper than heading into town for a Red Sox game. Plus, the team was a family fun escape for the community. The new concessions were just one part of the Opening Day plan. The team also added a kid’s area where the mascot would hang out between innings, a few interactive pitching and hitting areas, and contests to run during the game that would make people more eager to come out to the ballpark.

  Madeline felt she had settled in quite nicely and decided to take a stroll around the ballpark just to check things out. With the big day fast approaching, she wanted to get one last feel of the place while it was empty. She headed out of the office at the front of the stadium and walked through one of the tunnels to the seats behind home plate. The grounds crew was out doing some final touches on the infield dirt and pitcher’s mound. On the first base side, one of the coaches was playing long toss with the newest pitcher, and out in right field were about ten players going through morning stretches.

  As she continued down the field, she scanned the dugouts out of habit looking for favorite players. Before she turned back to the outfield, something glinted in the corner of her eye from inside the visitors’ dugout. It was a quick flash of light, as if bouncing off something metal on the dugout floor. She tried signaling someone, but everyone was too busy with their daily routines. Dave, the head groundskeeper, was at the pitcher’s mound raking the dirt. He’d been with the family for years and was a stadium staple. He was engrossed in his task so Madeline decided to check things out for herself.

  She turned and made her way to the dugout, knowing she saw something in there. No one was supposed to be around the visitor’s side of the ballpark today as far as she knew. The visiting team wouldn’t show up for three more days at least. She made her way over and slowly walked down the two steps into the visiting bench area.

  The floor was cement covered with a fine layer of dirt, which made her wonder if the grounds crew had a chance to clean the dugout yet. As she made her way down the bench, an overwhelming smell assaulted her nose causing her to choke. It smelled like a dead animal, and she hoped that it wasn’t. It would not be good to have to clean up roadkill in the dugout. She covered her nose with her hand and got closer to the doorway of the visitors’ dugout at the end of the bench. Her eyes watering, she looked into the doorway of the clubhouse and screamed.

  There, sprawled on the ground of the dugout was the guy that her brother had been fighting with the other night. Blood pooled around his head and his eyes stared straight up at her and she slowly backed away from the body. She still didn’t know his name. That was the first thing she thought about. Next to his body was a bat caked in blood laid on the dugout floor. She felt sick to her stomach and hurried to the steps of the dugout.

  At her scream, Dave had run over and met her at the top of the stairs. “Maddie, is everything okay? I heard you scream.”

  She pointed a trembling finger towards the back of the dugout at the man laid across the ground.

  “Oh crap, is he dead?” Dave swept the hat off his head with a worried expression.

  She nodded and took a few steps onto the field. Anything to get away from the gruesome sight. She had read enough mysteries and saw enough TV to know that she shouldn’t touch or move anything, and she knew she had to get out of that space before she embarrassed herself by getting sick.

  Dave followed her to the dirt surrounding the infield and put a hand on her shoulder. She took some deep breaths and tried to steady herself. She knew it wouldn’t do any good to breakdown or freak out. She could do that later.

  She turned to Dave. “Do you have your phone? Call 911. I’m going to get Davis down here to secure everything. We can’t have people walking around willy-nilly with…well, you know.” She waved her hand toward the dugout. He nodded and pulled his phone out of his back pocket and began to dial. Madeline walked towards the front of the field where she could access the offices.

  She ran to the first door she saw and leaned against the wall inside. She took some more deep breaths, shook herself, and began the walk to the offices down the hallway. Her parents weren’t in yet, which she was grateful for, she didn’t want to have to break the news to them right away. She needed to think. Davis, on the other hand, was always the first one in and last one out, so she knew he’d be in his office.

  She tapped on the inside of the open-door frame and leaned her head in. “Davis, we have a problem.” She continued into his office and sat in the guest chair across his desk.

  He looked up at her from behind his laptop workstation. As security lead he had monitors set up on one corner of the desk and assorted radios plugged into outlets along the wall. “I heard. Dave radioed me right after he called the police. Are you okay?” He looked at her intently with his hands folded. She squirmed under his intense gaze.

  “I’m fine. I mean, it’s a little weird finding a dead body. Especially a dead body of someone I just saw alive and well recently. I mean, I’ve read a ton of books with dead people in them, but seeing one in the flesh? That’s a whole other deal.” She could still see the guy’s eyes staring into nothing. She shivered again. Suddenly she jumped up. “Has anyone called my parents? If Dave radioed you, did you call my dad? It’s still early, but they must be on their way here now.”

  Davis’ phone gave off a shrill beep. He glanced down at the text and sighed. “Police are here. I think I saw your dad come in a few minutes ago. We’re going to need to get the family together later today to think of a plan for after this incident. Go grab your dad and meet me down at the field so you can meet with the officers. They’re going to need to take your statement.” He grabbed his light jacket off the back of his seat and took off out of the office.

  Madeline took a minute to collect herself before following him out the door and walking down the short hallway to her father’s office. The door was open and the lights were on. She saw her father looking at some papers and writing notes in the small notebook he always carried with him.

  At her knock, her father looked up and put the papers to the side. “Maddie! I just heard the news. Dave radioed the entire staff to let them know what happened. Are you okay? Do you kno
w who the guy was?” He got up from his desk and took her into a big hug. She couldn’t believe word got around so fast. Dave was really on top of things this morning.

  “I spoke with your Mom and Ben; they are both coming in early now. Let’s get down to the field and get Davis. Hopefully it was a tragic accident and we can move on quickly and get ready for Opening Day.”

  Madeline followed him out the double doors to the field level. She had only been gone for ten minutes, and there were already a bunch of uniformed cops and two plainclothes guys clustered around the visitor’s side of the field. From her many years of watching “Law & Order” reruns, she felt she could reasonably determine that the two guys not in uniforms were the detectives. Davis stood talking to one of the men at the top of the dugout stairs. He waved them over.

  “Robert, Maddie, this is Detective Stevenson. He’s in charge of the investigation.” Davis introduced the two to the tall man standing next to him. He clearly looked like a detective with a face that said he took no nonsense, dark hair, dark eyes, and a trench coat. It looked like he stepped out of a twenties gangster movie. So, it was a bit chilly out, being April in New England, but a trench coat seemed out of place.

  “Mr. Boucher, it’s nice to meet you both. As Davis said, I’ll be heading up the investigation from here on in. The Abington PD will coordinate things here locally, and the DA’s office will handle part of the investigation in conjunction with the local PD and state police. We’re looking at it as a potential homicide for now. Madeline, you’re the one who found the body, correct?”

  She nodded.

  “Did you recognize him at all? Do you know who he is?” The detective peered at Madeline, hand poised over his notebook.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know him by name. He was at the party we had the other night, but we weren’t introduced.”

  The detective nodded and motioned for her to wait. He led her father to the dugout steps to presumably see if he knew the victim. Davis grabbed her elbow and pulled her off to the side.

  “Maddie, we need to talk about your brother. It turns out the guy was killed with the bat found in the dugout. No one had officially confirmed it yet, but it seems the most likely conclusion. There was a bunch of bats in the cubby of the dugout, so I’m going to assume that is where the weapon came from for now. Not many people have access to that area outside of the security team and front office when no visitors are in the stadium. It’s not going to be good for your brother that he was seen fighting with the victim so soon before the murder. And of course, he has access to the park. Still no word on the guy’s name?” Davis looked at her.

  Madeline shook her head trying to think back to if she ever heard the guy’s name before. “No, I haven’t talked to Ben about what happened since that night. He’s on his way now though; hopefully we can get some answers.”

  She stopped talking as the paramedics placed the body bag on the stretcher and leveraged it out of the dugout. She shivered again even though the day was starting to warm up. It was one thing to see all this action on TV and quite another to see it in person. The police had set up crime scene tape and she noticed that they had started dusting the dugout for fingerprints. The fine dust hung in the still air and Madeline wondered if it would do much good. There had been people in and out of the dugout for the week leading up to the game for practice and whatnot.

  Detective Stevenson and her father walked out of the dugout towards the edge of the dugout closest to home plate. Another officer came over to where Davis and Madeline were standing. “You two don’t need to stay here, just don’t leave the park. The detective is going to have to question everyone who was here this morning, and I know that since you found the body, he’ll be coming to see you first.”

  She nodded at the officer and asked if she could wait in her office. The young officer didn’t look much older than some of the interns the family had working in the office during their summer breaks.

  He made sure to remind Madeline again not to leave the park and Madeline made sure Davis knew that she was heading back to the office. She felt a little shaky from the experience; seeing dead bodies was not normal. Her heart was beating faster, and she shuddered at the images stuck in her head. She tried taking a deep calming breath. As she turned back towards the concourse, Davis stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

  “If you need anything, Maddie, let me know. I’m always around if you need to talk about what happened today.” His eyes showed his concern. Before she could respond, the detective waved him over to where he was discussing things with her father.

  She trudged to the front office. She couldn’t decide if what she saw was concern as a friend or something more. Maybe it’s because she was the boss’ daughter, and maybe he was just trying to do a full-service job. He was just so cute. She wanted to read more into his concern. Nothing like a dead body to bring two people closer together.

  Chapter Three

  Madeline thought the hours seemed to stretch along forever. Finally, two detectives appeared at her office for her official statement. They had spent the majority of the morning at the crime scene. She shuddered as she thought of how the dugout was now tainted by the crime. If the team kept it pretty low-key, hopefully the other teams wouldn’t get superstitious and not want to play here. That would be a disaster for the league and the team. Not to mention the pain to her parents and her new job. Baseball was an extremely superstitious sport, and they definitely didn’t need to project a bad-luck image to the players. Just ask the Red Sox and the “Curse of the Bambino” or the Cubs and the “Billy Goat Curse.”

  After introducing his partner, Detective Jefferson, Stephenson sat down and began to ask Madeline about the events leading up to her finding the dead body. The two detectives looked at her closely with pens hovering over their notebooks. Just like old school detectives, they didn’t seem to know that someone could use technology to take better notes. Madeline felt uncomfortable, almost as if they were treating her as a suspect. She felt a drop of sweat bead at the bottom of her back, which could have been just the heat of her un-airconditioned office or a bit of nervousness. Her office let in a ton of sunlight, and when it was as clear as it was out, her office heated up quickly. She hoped that was the reason. Not some sort of panic attack.

  She retold them about her walk to the field on most mornings, how she saw Dave and the grounds crew, and then how she noticed the flash of light from the visitors’ dugout. As she looked back, she realized that it was probably from his watch or something glinting in the morning sunlight. She once again pictured the body, his unseeing eyes, and the pool of blood behind his head. She shuddered.

  “Do you recall seeing the man enter the stadium in the morning?” Detective Jefferson asked while looking down at his notebook. She thought back to when she arrived at the stadium early in the morning. She didn’t remember seeing any cars out of the ordinary in the parking lot. She remembered parking, putting her keys and purse in her office before walking down to the field. She saw only a few other people in the office and concourse, but she knew all those people.

  “Nope. The only people I saw were other employees of the ballpark. I only saw that guy once before, at the concession party the other night, like I told you. I never saw him before that.” She watched as the detectives scribbled in their notebooks. She wondered what they were writing, it didn’t seem like she said all that much. “Did you identify the guy yet?”

  Detective Stephenson looked over at his partner and then back to her. “Does the name Christopher Dailey mean anything to you?” He leaned forward expectantly, as if she could break the case wide open right then and there.

  She thought back through her mental rolodex of names. “No…I don’t think so. Should it?” She was usually good with names, but this name didn’t seem to register.

  He sighed and leaned back into the chair, rubbing his neck. “It’s the victim. He is a local baseball scout, but that’s all we could find out so far. He had an ID with him in hi
s wallet. I thought since you were part of the front office you would know him.”

  “Well, seeing as it has only been a few weeks since I started here, I don’t know that I would be able to name everyone working here. Plus, he’s a scout. That’s not really someone affiliated with the team. I mean, he’s considered an independent contractor I would think. You’d have to talk to my mom. She has all the human resource files on any employees and contractors. As I said, I saw him once before today, and now you just told me who he was.”

  “Well, we’re going to be investigating here for a little while, so we’d appreciate it if you didn’t leave the area or talk to anyone else about this while the investigation is ongoing. Can you do that?” The detective looked at her with a hard stare.

  She nodded her head, and at that the two detectives shut their notebooks, thanked her for her time, and walked slowly out of her office. It was then she noticed Davis standing outside the door. He ushered the two men down the hall to her father’s office. Madeline peeked around the corner of the doorframe and caught a quick glimpse of the back of her brother’s head as the door shut behind the two detectives.

  Madeline hustled back behind her desk and flipped open her laptop screen. “Christopher Dailey,” she said to herself out loud. “What is your story?” She fired up the search engine on her computer and typed his name in. The first couple of stories that popped up were definitely not about the guy from the dugout. They were mostly about some guy in Florida that died in a canoe accident. She scrolled quickly past those links. About halfway down the page she found an entry for Chris Dailey on a local newspaper site. She clicked on the article and drummed her fingers on the desk while it loaded. When an image popped up on her screen, she gasped.