“Jennifer Roberts? The reporter from the local news?” Her dad asked, placing a plate of hot dogs on the table. “I know that name from somewhere.”
“Yeah, Dad, the news. We watch it all the time.” Ben said.
“No, that’s not it. It’ll come to me. But for now, let’s eat this food before it gets cold. I see Madeline already dug in.” He smiled over at her as she swept a napkin across her face.
The family dug in, and Madeline grabbed a grilled hot dog from the pile. Yes, she had a burger, but there was something about homemade grilled hot dogs that called to her. It might be mystery meat, but fresh off the grill they were delicious in the standard New England split top roll. The meal was rounded out by homemade potato salad, baked beans, and boring salad. Even though she knew she should probably watch her weight, Madeline couldn’t resist the picnic food. She resolved to eat more salad starting the next day. Maybe.
The conversation moved from the murder to how the season was progressing. Only a month in and the team seemed destined for the playoffs for the second straight year. The young guys were fitting in well, and the veterans were providing steady guidance to make the team successful. Plus, Billy, the manager, was an old pro who knew how to guide the team to the winner’s circle.
Before too long, they noticed the night had crept in and it was getting late. There wasn’t a game scheduled for the next day, but it was understood that it was all hands on deck until the murder stuff was solved. She gave her family some hugs and she let Ben know that she would take care of things while he was in seclusion. Luckily, he had kept a bunch of notes about what he did day-to-day to help while she filled in.
Davis walked her out to the car and held the door open for her. “Maddie, any update about the break-in to your brother’s office the night of the gala?”
She looked at him. “No, no one is telling me anything. Why? Did you hear something? I mean, I have my suspicions that it was tied together with the note that was left on my car, but the police won’t confirm that.”
“Well, after talking to Ben and the legal team, I think we can safely assume that the evidence the police found after that anonymous tip was planted. It had to have been planted the night when everyone was out of the office at the gala. Are you sure you don’t remember anything about the person who ran into you? And that the video didn’t jog any memories?”
Madeline thought back to the night two weeks ago. It seemed much longer than that. She shuddered as she remembered the person running out the back door. “No, I mean, they were about my height, average size I would say. They were wearing all black and the lights weren’t on in the office. The video was useless; I couldn’t even tell if the person was the same height. I mean, logic would say they were the same, but who knows.”
She suddenly straightened. “Wait! I do remember something. The person had gloves on, but I saw some skin peeking out from the end of them. The hand had a thin gold bracelet on it. So that must mean it was a lady, right?” She was excited, leaning over the car door looking at Davis.
“Hold on, Maddie. I don’t know, but I’ll pass that information onto Detective Stephenson. He may want to talk to you again though, so if you remember anything else, don’t forget to tell him or me immediately. He is on our side believe it or not. The arrest of your brother was necessary due to the evidence, but I don’t think he believes your brother is guilty. He seems sure the evidence was put there by a third party. Ben being arrested will hopefully cause the real culprit to relax and make a stupid mistake.” He went to shut her door. “Be careful and send me a text when you get home. With all those threats you’ve been getting, I don’t want you to take any chances.”
Madeline nodded at him through the open car window. As she backed out of her parent’s driveway, she gave him a wave. The drive home was filled with thoughts of Davis. He was such a nice guy. It felt good to have someone other than her family care about her well-being. High school Madeline would have never believed that Davis would become so close to her family. She mentally gave her younger self a high five as she pulled into her driveway.
Everything looked the same as it did that morning. It was just about 10 p.m., so there were a few people out walking their dogs for the last time that night. That made her feel a bit safer, seeing other people about. Hopefully, that would deter anyone wishing her harm. So far, she hadn’t felt too physically threatened; even when she had surprised the person in the office, she had never felt in danger physically. She just didn’t like the unsettledness of it. Someone was following her around, leaving her notes, and even knew where she lived. Hopefully now that the investigation was ramping up again, the person would finally realize she didn’t have anything to do with it.
Madeline entered her house and greeted the three cats. She was struck by the absolute silence in the house. After all the craziness of the past few days, it felt nice to come home to a quiet house. She could put her sweatpants on and binge on some old TV. She didn’t drink at her parents’ house, so she poured herself a little glass of wine and moved into the living room. Pedey snuggled up on her legs while the other two cats staked out positions on the other furniture. Popping the TV on, she flipped channels until she saw Jennifer Roberts’ face on the screen. Of course, she was still on the murder beat. Madeline turned the TV up, scaring the cat on her lap. Rubbing the two scratches she now had on her ankle, she turned her attention back to the TV.
“As most of you know, Benjamin Boucher was arrested by police and released for the murder of Christopher Dailey earlier this week. Police are not commenting on the sudden release, but sources say they had found evidence of drug use in Boucher’s offices. Those same sources say the Abington team is desperately trying to cover up any connection with the murdered steroid dealer. There are reports that all players and personnel will be tested tomorrow for performance enhancing drugs as a result of this development. At the ballpark, this is Jennifer Roberts, back to you.”
Madeline let out an aggravated sound, which was effective in scaring the other two cats from the living room. She jumped off the couch and grabbed her phone. She texted her brother to see if he saw it, and then she texted Davis the same. She wanted to know if there was something they could do to stop the rumors from flying around about the team. Her grandfather always said that they were a team of integrity, and they never would’ve permitted any type of drugs, performance or otherwise, on the team.
Her brother texted her back, told her to calm down and not worry about it until the next day. Davis also responded to say he didn’t see the story. He promised they would talk in the morning at the office but he was sure the rumors were unfounded. She put her phone down, not satisfied. She needed to do something.
Madeline decided to make a list of all the people she suspected of being involved in the whole Chris Dailey fiasco. She thought back to that list that his girlfriend dropped outside the restaurant. The names on that list were familiar to her, all except for one. Brittany Marks. She needed to find out who that person was. It was clearly a list of suspects since her brother’s name was on it. The second question was why Ashley had a list of potential murder suspects with her. Did someone give them to her? Was she investigating her boyfriend’s murder? Did she even know what the list was?
She pulled the list out of her purse and laid it across her knees.
Ben Boucher
William Chase
Brittany Marks
Walter Lawson
David Murphy
Richard Murphy
She immediately crossed out Ben’s name. She knew he wasn’t the murderer. David and Richard had a bit too much to lose to commit a crime of that nature in her opinion. That left William Chase, Brittany Marks, and Walter Lawson.
Madeline was making herself crazy with all the questions. Looking at the clock, she saw it hit midnight and she realized how late it really was. Even though there was no game the next day, she wanted to spend most of her time at the ballpark. She needed to get some sleep. Especially because
the next day already looked like it was going to be a cluster of epic proportions dealing with the media, easing fans minds, and working with the team to figure out what was going on. That was a lot of balls in the air and she needed to be able to juggle them. She was determined to take as much stress of her parents as possible.
Chapter Nineteen
The alarm on her phone blared at 6:30 a.m. the next morning and she grappled without looking to turn it off. Opening her eyes, she saw the day had dawned bright and clear. A perfect day for the ballpark. She still couldn’t keep the anxiety from creeping in; she just had a bad feeling about the day. Shaking off her jitters, she checked her phone before climbing out of the covers.
She wanted to check to see if there were any texts or alerts from after she went to bed the night before. She wasn’t expecting any, since she went to bed so late, but it never hurt to check. There was only one text on her phone, and it was from Davis. He just said he had found a connection between the news reports and the Barnstable team. He would tell her more once she got into the office. Now her curiosity was peaked. She took a quick look at the team social media sites, just to make sure nothing crazy was happening there. Madeline knew she had a few hours before everyone would wake up and see the news, and then it would be time for more damage control.
She was glad that Davis had found some sort of connection though. She had no idea what it could be, but it had to be important for Davis to want to tell her about it. Jennifer Roberts seemed to have a personal vendetta against the team and Ben in particular. Madeline wondered why she was adamant that her brother was the murderer when the police had already cleared him and the family of wrongdoing. If she did have some mysterious source, was it a person involved with the team somehow? Did that mean there was a mole in the ballpark? She couldn’t see anyone involved with the team spreading rumors and turning on the family.
By the time she got out of her house at eight, the temperature had seemed to soar to a humid eighty degrees. It was going to be a hot one. She didn’t mind the heat; it was the humidity that got her. Her short bob hair never looked good when it was humid out. Too poufy. She figured she would go as long as she could before she had to put a hat on for the day to tame her tresses. Hopping into her car, she made it to the park in about ten minutes and parked in front of the gates. There were still a few news vans parked outside, but it didn’t seem as hectic as it did the previous few days. She saw her parent’s car parked at the far end of the parking lot. They liked the extra exercise in the morning before they started the day. Davis’ car was in the lot as well, and she was anxious to get inside and see what he had found out.
The ballpark was still quiet at that point in the morning. On the average non-game day, there wasn’t a ton of extra people around. Just the park staff and team. Madeline walked through the front gates with a wave to the security guard at the front. Before heading to her office, she walked through one of the tunnels to the seats. The grounds crew was out on the field watering the infield and pitcher’s mound and raking the base paths. It was so peaceful on that day. She knew that things couldn’t stay that calm, so she took the moment to breathe in the scent of the ballpark. Ah, freshly cut grass, a hint of wet dirt from the infield, and little bit of leather from the dugouts. After she took another quick meditative breath, she turned to head back to the offices.
Madeline entered the front office, waved at Eliza, and immediately hurried down to Davis’ office. He had his head bent over his computer and seemed to be mumbling something to himself as he clicked around his mouse. She rapped the door frame with her knuckles, which caused Davis to snap his head up in surprise.
“Maddie! I’m so glad you’re here!” She smiled at his reaction.
“Wow, must be a good piece of gossip you have to tell me. Did you ever see the news story I told you about yesterday?” She asked as she sat down across from him. “That Jennifer Roberts is out there spreading rumors again. Still alleging that we have a steroid issue here at the park. It’s getting real frustrating to deal with her and these stories.”
“Well, I think I may have found the source of all the rumors. It’s not anyone directly related to the team, so we don’t have to worry about that. But it is a bit of a sticky issue. The person leaking information is tangentially related to the team.” Davis hesitated. “It’s David Murphy’s father, Richard.”
“Richard! David’s dad!?” Madeline exclaimed. “But why would he try to sabotage the team like that? David is such an integral part of the Abington Armadillos identity and its success. He seems so happy here.” Madeline couldn’t believe it.
“I think David is happy here. I found out his father has been shopping him on the market to other teams in the area for a while now. I think he’s hoping to get some more money or a better contract for his son. Not that there is a ton of money in the independent league, but David is a hot commodity. He could probably command a decent price on the open market. If the team suffers due to the murder investigation, he might have a way out of his contract.” Davis said. “I called your mom earlier to ask about his contract to see if there was anything in it that would give him that idea. She is probably on her way over now to discuss it.”
“Did David Murphy know about his father’s involvement in the leaks out there?” she asked.
Davis looked back at his computer screen. “It doesn’t seem like it. I had the manager call over there today before he came in just to make sure he’s still on board with the team 100%. He swore he had no plans to leave the team or that he even wanted to leave the team at all. He promised to talk to his dad about the rumors to find out what went on.”
“That must have been what Richard was fighting about with Tom the other day when I overheard them. I told you about that, right?” Davis nodded. “Good, he mentioned something about a deal and that Chris Dailey was involved. I wonder what his part in this whole scheme was. Maybe that’s why Chris tried to get friendly with my brother. They were in on the scheme together, Chris and Richard!”
“Settle down, Maddie. I’m still in the gathering information phase right now. Richard Murphy might have been just a guy who thought he was doing the best he could for his son. He might not have had any malicious intent.”
“Malicious intent? What do you call impugning the good name of this baseball team and my family in the process? How do we know he wasn’t involved in Chris Dailey’s murder and is now trying to throw suspicion over on my brother? Hmm? What do you have to say about that?” She crossed her arms and glared at Davis across his desk.
“I don’t know, Maddie. But I do know that when he arrives at the park today, I’m going to pull him aside and try to get the real story from him. If he says anything remotely suspicious about Chris Dailey, I’ll direct him to the police and they can handle it from there. You can trust me with this, Maddie.” Davis held his hands out in supplication.
With a jolt, Madeline realized she trusted Davis wholly. Even though they just recently reconnected, he had done nothing but stand by her side during the whole cluster of a situation. She softened her stance. “Okay, that’s fair. But can you call me on the walkie when you take him for a chat? I would like to be there as a representative of the family. Plus, I want to see what he has to say for himself.”
“Fine, just don’t get too angry until we hear what he has to say.” Davis looked down at his watch. “It’s still early, but Richard should be arriving with his son any minute now.” Picking up the phone, he quickly dialed four numbers which meant he was calling someone in the park. “Billy, could you give me a call when you see Richard Murphy? I want to talk to him about something.” He was silent for a moment. “Great, thanks.”
Hanging up the phone, he looked back at Madeline.
“We’re all set. I’ll come get you when Billy calls me back and we’ll go calmly talk to Richard Murphy about what he’s been up to. Key word is calmly, right?” Davis eyed her with wariness.
“Yes. Fine. Calmly.” She said with a roll of her eyes.
Madeline headed back to her office. Plopping down in her desk chair, she swiveled to look outside. Releasing a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding, she knew that Davis would help her figure out how to stop the rumors from affecting the rest of the team and the season. If it was just this one guy, they could probably cut off all this drama now. Then the police could actually find the real murderer, instead of all their focus being on Ben.
She resolved to get some work done while she waited to hear from Davis. Her email was pretty full of people inquiring about the team moving forward and if they were planning anything different with all the news coverage. Outside of that one guy canceling his first pitch the other day, most of the emails were supportive. The season ticket holders were really coming through for the team. She answered a few of the emails and sent out “no comment” emails to all the press requests.
Before too long, Davis was tapping on her door and beckoning her to follow him. She assumed that meant that Richard Murphy was in the building and they were going to confront him. She put a hand on her stomach to try and quell the butterflies that were flying around. Confrontation was not her favorite thing, and this was definitely going to be a confrontational subject. Taking a deep break, she stood up and followed Davis down to the team meeting room.
Entering the room, she saw David and his father standing in the back huddled in conversation. Davis walked over, shook both guys’ hands and gestured for them to take a seat.
“Richard, I’m sure you’ve been listening to all the media reports swirling around the team at this time. Recently, I found out that leak was coming from someone related to the organization.” Richard looked nervously at his son as Davis spoke. “We traced it back to you. We wanted to come find out the real story and ask that you stop talking to the media without coming to see someone at the front office first.” Davis looked at Madeline and she nodded.
Murder at First Pitch Page 15