She was in the midst of pulling together a list of attendees for the gala and trying to decide what to include in the “swag bag” when she heard two people arguing from the behind the right field wall. Not one to let a potential drama-filled moment pass, she eased her way closer to the wall to see if she could hear better what was going on. Beyond the right field was a park area where people could congregate before and after the games if they wanted to. At that moment, two men were standing there talking in heated tones and pointing at each other.
Madeline recognized one of the guys as a scout for the team that her brother had pointed out before. A well-respected local guy, he supported local athletes more than anyone else according to her brother. Tall, with fair hair and an athlete’s build, this guy was one of the good ones. She thought she remembered being introduced to him as Tom. The guy he was arguing with on the other hand didn’t look at all familiar to her. He was a bigger guy, with a “dad bod” type of physique: a little round in the middle. He had on a baseball hat and was jabbing his finger into Tom’s chest.
“You need to fix this, Tom. We had a deal. I don’t care if Chris is dead. My son will play for the team if it’s the last thing I do.” With one last jab at Tom’s chest, the other guy turned and started to walk back towards the parking lot.
“Rich, you need to calm down. Call my office and we’ll talk about this later,” Tom said to the man’s retreating back. Shaking his head, he walked off in the opposite direction of the parking lot into one of the side entrances to the ballpark.
Madeline sat back at the table with her chin resting on her hand. That was interesting, she thought. While she was lost in thought, she didn’t notice a person sit down across from her.
“Hey, Maddie, how’s it going?” Davis waved a hand in front of her face. “All set for tomorrow’s game?”
She thought he looked more tired than usual and put it down to probably not getting much sleep while working with the police on this whole thing. She wondered if he ever thought of joining the Abington Police after his baseball career was over. Was he really happy just being the head of security for a local baseball team?
“We’re ready for Opening Day, as you can see.” She swept her arm out across the field. “The team is looking good, and I have all the social media sites primed and ready for a storm of action tomorrow. Any updates on the case?” She leaned forward expectantly. Depending on what he told her now, she would decide if she should let him know about the two pieces of information she had learned that day.
He sighed. “Still no leads as of yet. Your brother turned out to have a pretty solid alibi for the time of the murder, which I guess was about five in the morning the day you found the body. They are now questioning everyone again who had access to the park at that time in the morning to see what they can find out. They’re coming by this afternoon to do some more interviews. Will you be around?’
“Of course!” Madeline said. “Anything to make sure they find the crazy person who did this. Speaking of crazy people, do you know if the police looked into his social media? I found some pages this week and definitely think there are a few people who were angry with Chris Dailey. Any one of them could be his killer!” Madeline continued on, even though Davis was staring at her with wide eyes and his mouth agape. “And just a minute ago, like right before you came out here, there was this guy talking to Tom, the scout, about some secret deal he had going on with Chris. He mentioned his name and that he was dead! How many other dead guys named Chris could he know?” She leaned forward excitedly, hoping Davis would see the value to her snooping. Instead, he leaned back and shook his head.
“Maddie, you have to let the police do their jobs. You running around thinking you’re investigating things only wastes your own time. I’m working with the police now, and they told me they have several leads. I believe them. Maybe you should, too.” Davis got up from the table. “Plus, we have enough to worry about with the start of the season. Let’s just get through the next couple of days, okay?”
She nodded. As he turned to leave, she made a face at his back and gave him a mock salute. “Sir, yes, sir.”
He turned around, caught her face, gave a quick smile, and rolled his eyes. “I know you’re trying to be funny, but please just be careful.”
As he walked away, Madeline looked back down at her computer. “How dare he tell me what to do? It’s not his brother that was accused of a murder he didn’t commit. I’m not interfering with the police; I’m working alongside them. I know they’re busy, so I’m just trying to make sure they don’t miss anything,” she whispered to herself as she pulled open her emails.
Lunch came and went, and when she went back to her office, Detective Stephenson had called to set up an interview time with her that afternoon. They made plans to meet up at the field level seats to discuss the day of the murder even further. She was bursting to tell him the information she had found out but waited until he got settled into his seat and pulled his notebook out. Before she could launch into what she had told Davis earlier, he held up a hand interrupting her.
“Madeline, Davis already filled me in on what you found out. While I appreciate your enthusiasm, I wish you wouldn’t involve yourself in our investigation. This could be a dangerous situation and we don’t want anyone to get hurt. We’re professionals, let us do our job. Now, for the real reason I’m here. Run me through that morning again from the time you arrived at the ballpark until the time you found the body of Mr. Dailey.” He flipped to a blank page in his notebook and looked at her expectantly.
Fine. “I got up around seven in the morning, like usual. Putted around the house for a bit. Fed my cats, showered, changed, and drove into work around eightish. After settling into my office, I decided to take a walk around the field to clear my head. It’s something I’ve done a lot since my Grandpa bought the team. It was probably around eight-thirtyish.” She paused, letting his writing catch up to her. He gestured her to continue.
“I saw Dave, the groundskeeper, working on the infield with some of his guys. We exchanged waves and he went back to his work. As I continued my walk on the third base side of the field, I noticed something shining from the visitors’ dugout.” She thought back to that moment and shuddered. “I wanted to check it out to make sure everything was okay over there.”
The detective interrupted her. “Do you usually check in the dugouts on your morning walks?”
“No, not usually. But that day I saw something out of the ordinary. The dugouts are usually pretty dark places in the morning, nothing should be sparkling or shining.” She rolled her eyes and then caught herself with a stricken expression. Probably not the best idea, because the detective gave her an admonishing look. Right, police. Probably not a good idea to irritate them. “So, when I saw something shining I went into the dugout. That’s when I saw the body and the blood on the floor. I screamed, which was embarrassing, and called Dave over to phone 911. I made sure not to touch anything and ran upstairs to tell Davis what was going on.”
With that, the detective looked up from his notebook and peered at her. “Why did you go to Davis immediately instead of waiting for the police to arrive?”
“Well, since he’s head of security I figured he should know right away. He knows what to do in these weird types of situations. It turns out, Dave had called him over the walkies anyway and he already knew about the situation. After that, he walked me back down to the field and introduced me to you guys. You know the rest.” She leaned back in her seat and looked out towards centerfield. The sun was shining, and some members of the team were still out running drills. She couldn’t believe that all this was happening. It seemed surreal; this didn’t usually happen to normal people.
Detective Stephenson leaned closer to her. “And you’re sure you had never seen this man before?”
“No, I saw him, but I didn’t know him. He was at the concessions party we had a few nights before his murder. He was talking to my brother about something, I don’t k
now what about. I asked both my brother and Davis who the guy was, but they told me not to worry about it. So, I didn’t.” She sighed, looking at her watch. The shiny silver band twinkled in the sunlight and she thought back to what she saw in the dugout that day. “Are we almost done here? I have a lot to do before the park opens tomorrow to the public.”
Detective Stephenson stood up, and Madeline followed his lead. “Okay, I think I have everything I need for now. But try to stay local so if I have any other questions I can reach you. Remember what I said; don’t try to run around investigating this on your own. Leave it to the professionals.” With that final salvo, he walked back towards the entrance to the offices. She assumed he had more people to talk to inside. Madeline decided to stay outside for a few more minutes to corral her racing thoughts.
It seemed to her that the police still didn’t have a viable suspect in mind. She thought the guy was such a bad dude, one would think that there’d be no shortage of suspects who would want him dead. A former criminal con artist probably didn’t make a lot of friends. And if he did have friends, they probably weren’t the goody-two-shoes non-criminal type of people. She was sure there were more sketchy people in his life.
She walked down the aisle to the field level where the players were just heading into the dugout and locker room. It was about two in the afternoon, and she knew that Billy was taking them down to study some tape of the team that was coming in for the game the next day. The Foxboro Fanatics were another local team that boasted a pretty sizable following in the area. They had been the Armadillos Opening Day opponent for the last five years. The owner of that team was a good friend to her family and they mutually attended each other’s events throughout the season. The Fanatics were another unaffiliated team, but they benefitted from being near where the New England Patriots played.
Since the field was empty, she saw Dave and his crew head out with rakes and other tools to get the final preps done on the field for the first game. She wanted to talk to Dave a bit more about that morning, even though the detective and Davis both told her to keep her nose out of this business. She couldn’t help it. It was her family and her team. She wanted to help protect them.
She waved at Dave and beckoned him over to the first base side to talk. He handed his rake over to one of the young high school students who helped out during school breaks and summers. He jogged over and said a quick hello.
“Sorry to interrupt your work, Dave, but the field is looking great. I can’t wait for tomorrow.” Flattery always loosened people up in detective novels and TV shows. “Remember the morning of the murder? Do you recall seeing anything out of the ordinary?”
Dave looked at her with questions in his eyes. “The police already talked to me about that day. Twice actually. Why do you want to know?” He looked around the field and caught the eye of one of his employees who seemed to be slacking off, staring into space. The employee quickly stood up and got back to raking the pitcher’s mound with a fervor not usually associated with high school students. Dave had that effect on the kids. Some of them didn’t have proper parental figures at home, and Dave provided them with a safe space to work and enjoy the outdoors. Plus, it brought more kids to the game of baseball which the family loved. She saw how he interacted with the kids and they really respected him.
“It was just a weird morning, you know. I still can’t believe I found a dead guy. Did you know him at all?” Madeline tried to sound as innocent as she could. Dave got a shifty look in his eyes and scratched his forehead distractedly. She could tell he was hiding something. Body language always gave people away. “Come on, Dave, you’re a good guy. You don’t have to worry about anything. You kind of give the impression that you might have known him.”
He sighed and looked down. “Yeah, I sort of knew of him. I didn’t know him personally. I heard some rumors that he might be in the habit of selling steroids to baseball players. I don’t think it was any of our guys, but I heard from another team that he was caught hanging around their fields looking for players to talk to. I told Billy about it, just to make sure our guys didn’t get caught up in the mess. He said he’d keep an eye on things. The guy was just a bad dude, Maddie.” With that last statement, he turned and walked back to the pitcher’s mound to relieve the kid with the rake.
Madeline’s thoughts came fast and furious now, and she leaned against the home team dugout rail. Now that was interesting. Yes, another piece of the puzzle. He was a bookie, a scouting agent, and a steroid pusher? How many criminal careers could this guy have? And why was he at the field so early in the morning? It didn’t sound like he had any connection to the team at the moment; could someone have been meeting him here to make the team look bad?
She stood straight up. That was an interesting thought. The Abington team was one of the more successful teams in the Northeast Regional Division. Granted, there were only three other teams, but the team consistently brought in the most talent and had the highest attendance. It didn’t hurt that the team was close to the Cape Cod Baseball League and scouted players from those teams every summer. In all the leagues, there were players who would never, for whatever reason, make a big league club. They still loved the game, they loved to play, and this team gave them a chance to continue to live their dreams for a little while longer. She could definitely see a guy like Dailey preying on someone’s dreams to get ahead. Especially if he was as bad a guy as everyone was making him out to be.
Chapter Six
Opening Day was a big deal. First of all, it was a day game held on a Saturday. That meant families could come without having to miss any work time. In early April, the weather could always be iffy. There could even be a snowstorm in April and sometimes even into May. New England was an interesting place.
The team lucked out this time with a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the temperature was supposed to be about 60 degrees at first pitch, and the field was glistening in the early morning sun. Madeline made it a point to be at the field early on her first official Opening Day back with the team. Even when she wasn’t working with the team, she would try to get there early if she could. Her love for the game is what helped her to remain close to the family, and she was excited to start this new season as a full-fledged member of the family business.
That day she arrived at the ballpark bright and early at seven in the morning. There were only a few cars in the parking lot, mostly game day staff managers. The players wouldn’t start to arrive until about nine for the pre-game workouts. First pitch would be around one-thirty. She pulled her bag out of the car and began the short walk to the front office doors. The door was located on the side of one of the main gated entrances of the ballpark. She noticed that one of the gates had a person standing in front of it peering into the empty ballpark. Since it was a small local team, there was never really a rush to buy tickets, or people lining up hours before the games. She looked to see if anyone else was around and started to head towards where the guy was standing.
As she got closer, he turned around, noticed her, and took off to the main road leading out of the stadium. In his haste to get out of there, he dropped a piece of paper on the ground in front of the gates.
“Hey! Are you okay? Did you need help? You dropped something!” she yelled after him. Bending down, she picked up the paper to see what it was. It was a note that said, “Meet me at the Abington Stadium if you want more.”
More what? The note wasn’t signed, and the paper didn’t have any other information on it.
That was weird. The guy looked sort of familiar, too. Like someone she had seen recently. Actually, the more she thought about it, the more the guy sort of looked like the owner of the Barnstable Barnstormers. Last time she saw him was at the concessions party getting super sloppy drunk. He wouldn’t have any reason to be here at the ballpark, especially before a game that his team wasn’t even playing in. She stuffed the note in her pocket and made a mental note to tell Davis about it when she saw him next.
M
adeline shrugged and pulled the door open to the offices. The first person she saw was Eliza, who was another person who loved to be at the field early on game days. She had started a pot of coffee for the office and was busy typing on the computer when she walked in. Eliza’s long red nails tapped out a staccato rhythm that was oddly comforting to Madeline. After all the craziness, it was soothing to have things normal for a bit. She knew Eliza wasn’t working yet, she tended to frequent her favorite TV shows in office downtime. She was an avid commenter on various plot points and even wrote her own fan fiction sometimes.
Madeline gave her a quick wave and scurried into her office and shut the door. Before she got too involved in Eliza’s daily drama, she wanted to make sure everything was in place for the afternoon game. They had a middle school choir coming in to sing the national anthem. A parent of one of the kids was going to surprise them after singing to throw out the first pitch with his son. The parent had been stationed overseas for the past eight months. That kind of reunion was always good for some viral videos, and it made Madeline cry every time. It was going to be great.
About two hours later, more people had come into the office and things were starting to pick up. Madeline’s brother, Ben, poked his head into her door and asked to speak with her. She waved him in with a flick of her hand. He came and shut the door behind him, sinking down into the extra chair in her office. He rubbed a hand over his face and sighed.
Murder at First Pitch Page 4