“What’s that?” she asked.
“I’ll give you the short version,” Kelleher said. “There are so many girls under eighteen in the event that they have a separate locker room that the media isn’t allowed into. Since female reporters are allowed in the men’s locker room, male reporters are allowed into the women’s. But not where there are women under the age of eighteen. It’s been a huge controversy for years because all the players freak out about us being in the locker room. The point is the junior locker room door’s not even marked, and they usually don’t even have a guard on it because they don’t want to call attention to it. If you take your press credential off, you can probably walk in there like you’re a player.”
“How do you know where it is?” Susan Carol said.
“Carillo showed me. Come on, let’s start walking. I’ll show you where it is. Meantime, Stevie, I want you in the players’ lounge. Once you’re past the guard, take your credential off and just walk around and listen. I’m going to the men’s locker room. We’ll meet back here in thirty minutes.”
“What exactly are we listening for?” Stevie asked as they started to walk down the long hallway.
Kelleher shook his head. “I have no idea, Stevie,” he said. “But people will be talking, and someone must know something.”
“And what do I do if I manage to get in?” Susan Carol said. “Won’t the other players know I’m a fraud right away?”
“Sit in front of an empty locker as if it’s yours and listen. There are so many different events going on here at once that no one knows everybody. You never know when you’re going to be in the right place at the right time. If we’re in three different places, our chances are three times as good of hearing something helpful.”
“But what do we think is going on here?” Stevie asked.
“That,” Kelleher said, “is the multimillion-dollar question.”
JOHN FEINSTEIN is the author of many bestselling books, including A Season on the Brink, A Good Walk Spoiled, and Living on the Black. His books for young readers—Last Shot, Vanishing Act, Cover-Up, Change-Up, The Rivalry, Rush for the Gold, and Foul Trouble—offer a winning combination of sports, action, and intrigue, with Last Shot receiving the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best young adult mystery.
He began his career at the Washington Post, where he worked as both a political and sports reporter. He has also written for Sports Illustrated and the National Sports Daily and is currently a contributor to the Washington Post, Golf World, the Golf Channel, and Comcast SportsNet.
John Feinstein lives in Potomac, Maryland, where he is hard at work on a new series: The Triple Threat.
Visit him online at JohnFeinsteinBooks.com.
Last Shot Page 22