Ballpark Mysteries Super Special #3

by David A. Kelly

  “Shhh!” Kate said. “We have to hide and be quiet so we can spot him first! Then I can call my mom.”

  The second Subway Series game was due to start in about an hour. Fans walked through Monument Park, checking out the plaques and special monuments to famous Yankee players, owners, and managers. A little while before, Mike, Kate, and Mrs. Hopkins had taken the number 4 subway line to Yankee Stadium from their hotel near Grand Central Terminal.

  After the first Subway Series game the night before, Mike and Kate had shown Mrs. Hopkins the note and told her their theory about her stolen research. They agreed that Kate and Mike would look for the man at Yankee Stadium before the second game. If they spotted him, Kate would call Mrs. Hopkins in the press box and she’d come down.

  Mike and Kate kept an eye on the fans. They were on the lookout for someone in a Mets jersey and a Yankees hat. Out on the field, the Mets were taking batting practice before the game.

  “Hey, there’s Babe Ruth!” Mike said.

  The last time Mike and Kate had visited Yankee Stadium, they solved the mystery of Babe Ruth’s ghost.

  “That’s not Babe Ruth, or even the ghost of Babe Ruth,” Kate whispered. She looked at a large red granite stone with the Yankee slugger’s name on it. “That’s just his monument!”

  Mike shrugged. “It still counts as Babe Ruth to me,” he said.

  They watched one fan after another enter Monument Park through a door at the far end. But none looked like their thief.

  “Hey, look!” Mike said. He pointed to a man who had just stepped through the door.

  Kate squinted. “That’s not him,” she said. “He’s wearing a Yankees hat and shirt! Plus, he doesn’t have sunglasses. We have to keep looking.”

  “Okay,” Mike said. “If we can’t catch him now, I guess we’ll wait until later. Hey, that reminds me. What did the baseball glove say to the ball?”

  “I don’t know, Mike,” Kate said. “What?”

  “Catch you later!” Mike whispered. He nudged Kate. “Get it? That’s what we’re going to do to the thief!”

  Kate rolled her eyes. “Ha-ha!” she said. “That’s funny. But it’s no joke that we need to get my mom’s notes back! Let’s keep our eyes open!”

  They continued to scan the crowd. Since it was almost game time, it was getting busier.

  Suddenly, Mike ducked down. “There he is!” he said. “That’s got to be him.”

  Kate glanced at the doorway. A man wearing a Yankees hat and a Mets jersey had just entered the park. He had sunglasses on and dark hair. The man seemed to be looking around at the other fans as if he was searching for someone.

  Kate and Mike moved to the far corner of Monument Park and hid behind a group of people.

  “Aren’t you supposed to call your mom?” Mike asked.

  “Let’s wait a little bit longer,” Kate said. “I want to make sure it’s the right person before I call her.”

  Announcements boomed over the loudspeaker, and fans filled up the seats in the stadium. Mike and Kate kept their eye on the thief as he circled the park. They stayed out of his line of sight, hiding behind the wall or monuments as needed. Finally, he stopped near the front wall and looked at his wrist.

  “His watch!” Mike said as he shook Kate’s shoulder. “It’s silver with a blue and white band. Just like the hot-dog vendor said! It’s got to be him!”

  “Wow, you’re right!” Kate said.

  Mike squinted a little. “I can’t really see his face, but he reminds me of someone I’ve seen before….”

  Kate nodded. “I know,” she said. The man took off his sunglasses and rubbed his eyes. They could only see the side of his face, but Kate stopped and stared.

  “It can’t be!” she said. “What’s he doing here?”

  “What do you mean?” Mike asked. “What’s who doing here? It’s the thief! We knew he was going to be here.”

  Kate stood up. “Let’s go!” she said. She started running toward the thief.

  “Are you crazy?” Mike asked. “We promised we’d wait for your mom!”

  But Kate didn’t stop.

  Mike jumped up and ran after her. He was just about to grab Kate when the man turned around.

  His face broke into a big smile. He opened his arms wide.

  Kate sprinted the rest of the way toward the man. At the last second, she flung out her arms and wrapped them around the man in a huge hug. He dropped his sunglasses and hugged her back.

  “Dad!” Kate cried. “I can’t believe you’re here!”

  “¡Hola, papá!” Kate said. “What are you doing here? I thought you couldn’t make it!”

  “Hola, Kate! My schedule changed and I had a few free days, so I decided to fly out from Los Angeles and surprise you!” her dad said.

  “You did!” Kate said. “How did you know we’d be at Monument Park?”

  Mr. Hopkins looked from Mike to Kate. “Is that a trick question?” he asked. “I know you love mysteries, so I was hoping you’d figure out the note yesterday at the Cyclones game! I was there, but I couldn’t stay to watch you bring out the hot dogs, so I wanted to give you a surprise for the second Subway Series game by meeting you here!”

  Kate took a step back. “You bought the hot dogs? And you left that note for us?” she asked. “We thought it was someone else!”

  Mr. Hopkins laughed. “I figured you and Mike would have fun with my riddle. Get it now? I saw you at the Cyclones game, but you didn’t see me.” He looked at the Yankees plaques and memorials around them. “We’re meeting at the monuments, and I just gave you something special—a big hug! And you gave me a special hug, just like I wrote in the note!”

  Mike stepped forward. “We thought you were a thief, Uncle Steve!” he said. “Someone took Aunt Laura’s notes from the Mets’ press box yesterday. The security cameras showed a man with a Yankees hat and Mets jersey, who might have taken them. We thought it was you because that’s what the hot-dog vendor said the man who left our note was wearing!”

  “Yeah, why are you wearing a Yankees hat?” Kate asked. “You always root for the Mets!”

  Mr. Hopkins tilted his hat back. “I do!” he said. “But since your mom loves the Yankees and I was coming for the Subway Series, I figured I ought to support both teams. That’s why I picked the different hat and jersey!”

  Mike looked around at all the fans exploring Monument Park. “But if you didn’t take the notes, who did?” he asked.

  Mr. Hopkins shrugged. “I’m afraid I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe you can figure that out when you’re back at the Mets’ stadium tomorrow. But I do know there’s a big game about to start. Why don’t we get something to eat and then watch the game together?”

  Mike started rubbing his belly. “That would be great!” he said. “I’ve been wanting to try a New York egg cream!” he said.

  Kate made a face. “Yuck!” she said. “What’s an egg cream? Eggs and cream?”

  “Nope. They don’t have eggs or cream! It’s a New York drink. I read about it in the Yankees yearbook,” Mike said. “It’s got soda water, milk, and chocolate syrup! It sounds yummy!”

  Mr. Hopkins laughed. “We’ll see what we can find, Mike,” he said. “But before we eat, I have to stop by the Yankees’ office to drop off a letter.”

  Mike, Kate, and Mr. Hopkins left Monument Park. They wound their way through Yankee Stadium and took a special elevator to the Yankees’ business office. Once there, they had to sign their names in the visitors’ log.

  Kate and Mr. Hopkins signed first. Then Mike stepped up to the desk and signed his name in the book while Mr. Hopkins went to the back to drop off his letter.

  “Look at that!” Mike said. “I’m an official Yankees visitor! Now I can tell people I made it to the Yankees! I’m going to take a picture.” He pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of the vi
sitors’ log. He zoomed in and showed it to Kate.

  Kate studied the names in the logbook picture. “Mm-hmm,” she said. “Very nice! But that doesn’t mean you’re on the team, you know.”

  Mike shrugged. “I know!” he said. “But it’s still cool. Just as cool as an egg cream would be!”

  Mr. Hopkins emerged from dropping off his letter. “Did I hear something about an egg cream?” he asked. “Let’s go get one and watch the game!”

  As they got ready to leave, Mr. Hopkins pointed to his hat and then his shirt. “I’ll be rooting for the Yankees in the first inning and then the Mets in the second inning!”

  Mr. Hopkins’s plan of rooting for the Yankees in the first inning worked well for the team. The Yankees were on fire! The stadium was full, and the Yankees fans went crazy when the second runner scored to make it 2–0, Yankees.

  “I guess they want payback for yesterday’s loss,” Kate said. “I’m rooting for the Mets, but as long as I’m watching the game with you, Dad, I don’t care who wins!”

  “And I’m rooting for the Yankees,” Mike said. He took a big slurp of his drink through a red-and-white-striped straw. “But as long as I have my egg cream, I don’t care who wins!”

  Mr. Hopkins ruffled Mike’s hair. “Then I guess we all win,” he said. “Except for your mother, Kate. What happened to her research?”

  As they watched the game, Mike and Kate told Mr. Hopkins how the press box had been broken into and why they had thought it was connected to Mr. Hopkins’s mystery note. They also filled him in on their idea that Milo did it.

  “I’d bet my plane ticket back to Los Angeles that Milo doesn’t have anything to do with it,” Mr. Hopkins said. “He’s been a friend of your mom’s forever.”

  “Drat!” Kate said to Mike. “If Milo didn’t do it, we’re at a dead end! He was our only real lead. Our other suspect, Rocco Sampson, has an alibi!”

  Even though it wasn’t a good day for catching the thief, it was a good day for the Yankees. The Mets just couldn’t get ahead in the game. They fought back in the fifth and sixth innings and got two runs. But the Yankees scored one more run in the seventh inning to pull ahead by one.

  Nobody scored in the next inning, but the crowd exploded when the Yankees’ best hitter, Scooter Boyd, came up to bat with two outs and one runner on base. Mike jumped to his feet with the rest of the fans and clapped. “Come on, Scoot-er! Come on, Scoot-er!” they yelled.

  Scooter took a few practice swings and dug his back foot into the dirt. The Mets pitcher fired a fastball straight at home plate.

  SWISH!

  Scooter swung and missed. But he connected on the very next pitch.

  WHAP!

  The ball looked like a line drive. As it sailed over the second baseman’s outstretched glove, Scooter ran for first. But the ball kept climbing and Scooter kept running. The ball sailed on! It flew over the right-field fence for a home run.

  Scooter headed for second base. The other Yankees runner crossed home to score. Scooter crossed home plate with his arms stretched up. Another run for the Yankees! They were ahead by three now. The fans cheered and stomped. It looked like it was going to be a good day for Yankees fans.

  Unfortunately for Kate, the Mets didn’t stage a rally. After a groundout and two strikeouts in the ninth, the game was over. The Yankees had won. And the Subway Series was tied at one game each. As fans headed for the exits, the song “New York, New York” drifted out of the stadium’s loudspeaker. Some fans swayed and sang along as they left the ballpark.

  Mike, Kate, and Mr. Hopkins found their way to the subway station. Kate’s mom had to stay in the press box and work after the game, so the kids were going to have dinner with Mr. Hopkins. He’d take them to their hotel later that night.

  After a bit of a wait, they pushed onto a number 4 subway train. It was packed with people returning to Manhattan from the game. As the train rumbled along, Mike stared out the windows as trees and buildings rushed by. Kate started to read a Subway Series program she had bought, but then nudged Mike after a few minutes.

  “Look! There’s Rocco Sampson,” she said. Kate pointed to the far end of the subway car. Standing near the door was the manager of the Mets’ Home Run Apple. Just like yesterday, he was wearing a Yankees hat and a Mets jersey. “What’s he doing here?” Kate asked.

  Mike shrugged. “He’s a Mets fan,” he said. “He went to the game just like we did!”

  Kate studied Rocco. “If he gets off at Grand Central when we do, let’s follow him,” she said.

  A few minutes later, the subway train screeched to a halt at Grand Central, and almost everyone got off. As Mike and Kate stepped onto the platform with Mr. Hopkins, they kept glancing back at Rocco. He had exited the train, too, and was walking behind them in the crowd.

  As they wound their way through Grand Central, Mr. Hopkins stopped at an archway in front of the Oyster Bar & Restaurant. The long arches on either side of the walkway were made of glossy marble and curved along the wide tiled ceiling to pillars on all sides.

  “Are we going to eat right now?” Mike asked. “That’s great! The subway ride made me hungry.”

  “Soon!” Mr. Hopkins said. “We’re going to get takeout and have a picnic dinner in my hotel room. But we can get the food here.”

  Kate glanced over her shoulder. Rocco was still behind them. He had just taken out his phone.

  “Could you get the food, Dad?” she asked. “Mike and I want to hang out here and watch the people.”

  “Okay,” Mr. Hopkins said. “I’ll be right back.”

  Mr. Hopkins headed off to buy dinner. Kate leaned against the glossy marble of one of the archway’s pillars. She pretended to flip through the souvenir program she had bought at Yankee Stadium.

  As she glanced up from her program, Rocco Sampson walked by. He had his phone pressed against his right ear and was talking to someone.

  “There he is!” Mike whispered to Kate. They were just about to follow him when a loud group of girls passed through the hallway.

  Rocco stopped walking and put a hand up to cover his left ear. Then he turned to face the wall on the other side of the archway. As soon as he did, Mike and Kate heard a voice in their ears.

  “Nope, they didn’t suspect anything!” said the voice.

  Mike and Kate looked around, but they couldn’t tell where the voice was coming from. Kate put a finger to her lips to tell Mike to stay quiet.

  “Tomorrow night will be the big game,” the voice continued. “I set up a special surprise before the third inning!”

  Kate stepped out of the archway to get a better look at the people around them. “Did you hear that?” she asked Mike. “Who was talking?”

  “I don’t know,” Mike said. “Maybe that egg cream is giving us superpowers to hear people’s thoughts inside their heads.”

  “Mike! This is serious!” Kate said.

  Far across the passageway, Rocco was still facing the wall and talking into his phone.

  “It’s him!” she said. “We’re hearing what Rocco is saying into his phone!”

  Mike frowned. “He’s too far away,” he said, “and he’s facing the wall. It can’t possibly be his voice!”

  A moment later, the girls finished passing by. Rocco turned back around, slipped the phone into his pocket, and walked up the hallway. The voice stopped.

  Kate watched Rocco leave and studied the archway. She grabbed Mike by the shoulders and turned him around so he was facing the archway pillar.

  “Wait here,” Kate said to Mike. “You can help me test out an idea.”

  “Hey, it feels like I’m in a time-out!” Mike called from over his shoulder. “No fair!”

  Kate ran across the hallway to the other side of the arch. She turned and faced a corner wall of the archway pillar. In a soft voice, she spoke directly into the wall.
/>   “Mike, can you hear me?” she asked.

  Mike’s voice came out of nowhere. “Loud and clear!”

  “That’s good,” Kate’s voice said. “Because I have an idea who took my mom’s notes!”

  Kate ran back to Mike.

  “Who?” Mike asked. “Who took your mom’s notes?”

  “Rocco Sampson!” Kate said.

  “But we already ruled him out!” Mike said. “He has an alibi, remember? He was doing errands with his boss.”

  Kate shook her head and smiled. “Nope, he had an alibi,” she said. “I just figured it out when we heard what he was saying! ‘They didn’t suspect anything!’ It made me think. Then I realized his alibi didn’t fit any longer!”

  “What do you mean?” Mike asked.

  “We thought the thief was the same person who left the note for us at the Cyclones game,” Kate said. “But my dad left the note for us. So the person who stole my mom’s notes didn’t need to be at the Cyclones game!”

  Mike nodded. “So even though Rocco was running errands until two o’clock, he could have been back at the Mets’ stadium in time to break into the press box at three o’clock!” he said.

  “And I think that means we should pay a little visit to the Home Run Apple during tomorrow’s game,” Kate said. “It sounds like Rocco has something planned for the third inning!”

  * * *

  —

  “It’s called the Whispering Gallery,” Mr. Hopkins said the next day. Mike, Kate, and Mr. Hopkins were sitting in front-row seats at the Mets’ stadium for the final Subway Series game. “It’s a Grand Central secret! When you speak into an arch pillar, the sound gets bounced along the top of the arch, and the person on the other side is able to hear what you say. I’m glad you discovered it!”

  “I could use one of those when we’re taking a test in school,” Mike said. “I could turn around and whisper the question, and Kate could whisper the answer back to me!”