A Hopeless Game

by Daniel Carson

  He shook his head. “No, we didn’t.”

  “So maybe the killer wasn’t coming back to clean up forensic evidence.”

  “Then why would he come back?” said Alex.

  “I don’t know, but think about it. The killer made this look like suicide. Wanted us to think it was suicide. It was only after it became clear that you weren’t going to rule it a suicide… that you were at least going to investigate it as a murder… that the killer went back to the Mossbacks. I think it’s time we get one more solid look at that crime scene.”

  Alex insisted that he do all the talking with Susan Mossback this time. I agreed that was probably for the best.

  “Can you promise this will be the last time you go trouncing around my house?”

  “I can’t promise you that. And technically, it’s still a crime scene, so we don’t have to ask your permission to enter. But we’d appreciate your courtesy. And in fact, I’d like to request your help.”

  Getting Susan’s help was a risk. If she was the killer, we would be tipping our hand. But I wasn’t sure we had much choice.

  She led us down to the basement and stood with her hands on her hips. “Not sure what I can help with.”

  Alex shot me a look, then leaned in and whispered, “You’re up. Just watch yourself. I hear she’s got a wicked right hand.”

  I cleared my throat. “Mrs. Mossback, when Coach Duncan was attacked down here, we think it’s because he inadvertently surprised your husband’s killer. It’s possible the killer came back here for something after he found out we were investigating this as a murder.”

  “Why would he return to the scene of the crime?”

  “That’s what we need your help figuring out. I’m wondering if the killer either took something or put something back. Could you look around and tell us if there is anything missing or out of place?”

  She sighed. “If this helps find Randy’s killer, fine. But I’m doing it for the sheriff, not for you.”

  Susan started examining the basement. She looked at the walls, the sofa, the area around the television, the bar. But it was when she was looking at the bookcases that she suddenly stopped. She slipped her hand in between two old yearbooks, then pulled them both out and examined them. Finally she turned to Alex.

  “One of the yearbooks is missing.”

  “How can you be certain?” Alex asked.

  “Because Randy was successful for many reasons. One of which was his insane level of organization. He kept game plans from every game in every season, and he kept every yearbook from every school and every year he ever coached. In order. I saw a gap here, and when I checked, sure enough, we skip from 1990 to 1992. 1991 is missing. Pleasant View High.”

  “Could it just be somewhere else?” Alex asked.

  Susan shook her head. “Randy was a freak about this stuff. Kept everything in its proper place. Everything like this at least. He would never leave this somewhere else. I don’t know why, but somebody took this yearbook.”

  Alex pulled out his phone, searched for a number, dialed, and hit speaker. Three rings later, a machine answered for Pleasant View High School. It said they were closed for the weekend.

  “Shoot,” said Alex, ending the call. “I was hoping to take a look at what’s in that yearbook. Guess we’ll have to wait until Monday.”

  “Maybe not,” I said.

  I pulled out my phone and sent a text to a number back in Portland.

  Hey Darwin. It’s Hope, and I could sure use some help.

  Chapter 29

  Darwin didn’t respond that night, even after I sent him three more sets of texts. I figured it was because I was texting from a new number. But I told him it really was me. I even text flirted with him just so he’d know for certain. And when I woke up Saturday morning, there still was no text from Darwin.

  That was not like him at all.

  I was worried. Initially, I was worried that my teasing of him in the past had gone a little too far. Although it was true that he and I were never going to be boyfriend and girlfriend, I really liked the kid. He was like a little brother to me. A nerdy little genius brother who’d gotten me out of a jam dozens of times in the past few years.

  And now I started to worry that something serious had happened to him.

  I sent him one more text. Darwin, I’m worried. Please let me know that you’re okay.

  It was game day in Hopeless, the first time in school history that Hopeless High would be participating in the state championship game. And so it was that one week after Granny threw a block party to celebrate a semifinal win, she was now preparing for yet another block party, one that she hoped would be the biggest party in town history.

  I found Bess downstairs in the bar getting ready for the big day. She shook her head with a look of dismay and pointed to the door. I went outside, and there was Granny, setting up tables on the street in front of the bar. As usual, she was wearing white sneakers, blue jeans, and her royal-blue sweatshirt. But when she turned around, I understood why Bess had made that face.

  Granny’s face was blue.

  Completely blue.

  “You’re blue!” I cried.

  She gave me her broken old smile. “Isn’t it great? I made Bess do it this morning!”

  “But—but why?”

  “Are you kidding me? I’ve waited my entire life to see Hopeless in the state finals, and now that it’s happening, I’m going to celebrate in style. I even got one of them temporary tattoos.”

  I squinted, wondering if the blue paint was covering up the tattoo. “I can’t see it.”

  “That’s because it’s under my sweatshirt.”

  “You didn’t.”

  “You bet your ascot I did. If they win tonight, I plan on violating ever decency law that Idaho has!”

  With any other human being on earth, I would assume that was a joke. But I knew my Granny, and when she decided to do something, there was no stopping her. And the dumber and more outrageous it was, the more certain it was that she’d follow through with it.

  I wondered if the best thing to do was lock Granny in a closet. For her own sake. And everyone else’s.

  I spent the next few hours helping Granny and Bess get ready for the party. And as much as I didn’t want Granny to go all Grannies Gone Wild after the game, I did hope the home team could somehow pull out a victory. The team and the town had been through so much, and everyone deserved some good news. A victory would be just the thing to help everyone move on.

  Especially if I could figure out who killed Randall Mossback.

  Trucks delivered food and supplies. Cup dropped off desserts. Buck stopped by with appetizers. Stank set up some outdoor tents in case it rained. And then Sheriff Kramer arrived.

  “Heard back from your friend in Portland yet?” he said.

  “No, which is unusual for him.”

  “He’s probably just busy.”

  “That’s the thing,” I said. “Darwin’s never busy.”

  “Stop flirting with local law enforcement, Hope!” Granny hollered as she dragged a keg across the street. “I don’t pay you to stand around doing nothing!”

  “You don’t pay me anything to do anything.”

  “A fair point, granddaughter. Now get your butt on that stepladder and string up some lights.”

  Alex helped me string lights around the beer garden, and he didn’t once question why my octogenarian grandmother looked like Papa Smurf’s mistress. In fact we didn’t talk much at all. We just worked. And it felt good and comfortable. Like we didn’t have to talk. We could just be.

  Occasionally I caught him looking my way—and not the way a sheriff is supposed to look at you. And that made me feel like I was sixteen again. A feeling that both comforted me and terrified me all at the same time.

  We were just finishing up the last string of lights when it looked like he had something on his mind.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “It’s just there’s a rumor
around town that you may or may have not been on a fancy date Thursday night.”

  “A rumor?”

  “A waiter may have mentioned it to the owner who mentioned it to Pastor Leif who might have asked me about it this morning.”

  “That’s a lot of people interested in my love life.”

  That made him choke and his face turned red. “Love life?”

  I stepped closer to him. “Yes, Sheriff Kramer. Love life. I figure since you routinely spend so much time with Special Agent Awesome, that when a handsome firefighter buys me a dress and makes fancy dinner reservations, the polite thing to do is agree to go on a date with him.”

  “So it really was a date? A real date?”

  I leaned in closer and whispered. “Sorry, Sheriff, but that’s personal.”

  It was twenty minutes before kickoff, and Granny, Bess, and I were sharing a beer in the stadium parking lot—along with Fireman Bob and his firefighter buddies, of course. The firefighters loved Granny. Everyone did, but especially them. She beat one guy in an arm wrestling match, showed another guy how to do a figure four leg lock, then offered to show all of them her new tattoo. When I explained to them where the new tattoo was, they agreed that some things are better left to the imagination.

  We had just started our third round of cornhole when my phone buzzed in my pocket. Darwin. I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, answering right away.

  “I’m sorry, Hope.”

  “So you are okay?”

  “Yes. I just was away from my phone.”

  “Thank God. You had me worried.”

  “Are you at a concert or something? It’s noisy there.”

  “I’m at a football game. So why were you away from your phone? You’re never away from your phone.”

  “I, um, well…”

  “Darwin. Tell me what’s going on.”

  “Okay, I lied. I wasn’t away from my phone. I just couldn’t face you after what I did.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Hope, I don’t know how to say this, but… I’ve been seeing someone else.”

  I covered my mouth so he wouldn’t hear me laugh.

  “And by someone else you mean another woman?”

  I could hear him squirming through the phone. “Yes, Hope, a woman. We were on a date when you texted. Our second date, actually. I just didn’t know what to do.”

  “Is it serious?”

  “I don’t know. Is a second date serious?”

  “It could be. I knew after the second time I saw you that you were the only man for me.”

  “I still can’t tell when you’re teasing me.”

  “Relax, Darwin. Maybe seeing someone else is a good thing.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. Maybe I’ll try it too. Maybe it will be good for both of us.”

  “So you’re not mad?”

  “Oh, I’m mad. And jealous. Crazy jealous like you can’t believe.”

  “Is there any way I can make it up to you?”

  I covered my mouth so he couldn’t hear me laugh again. I was probably going to hell for this. Oh well.

  “Actually, there might be.”

  “Name it,” said Darwin.

  “You think high schools keep digital copies of yearbooks online?”

  “Probably depends which high school. But these days, I would think so.”

  “Good. Here’s what I need you to do.” I told Darwin about the missing 1991 Pleasant View yearbook, and I explained exactly what I needed him to look for.

  “Any idea how long something like that might take?” I asked.

  “I would think old yearbooks would be saved as PDFs, and those are much harder to search through those than a text document. So I’d say an hour at least.”

  “There’s one more thing.”

  “Anything.”

  I explained the other favor I needed. Then before I let him go, I said, “Darwin, about this other woman… Is she nice?”

  “I mean… I don’t really know. But I know she went out with me. Twice. So that was nice.”

  “Then Darwin, I’ve very happy for you.”

  A few minutes later, I followed Granny and Bess into the stadium. They both looked around in amazement.

  “I’ve never seen so many people here in all of my life,” Granny said. “Have you, Bess?”

  Bess just shook her head.

  And they weren’t the only people gawking. It’s not every day you see an eighty-year-old woman who looks like a blue popsicle. She got lots of high-fives and fist bumps and even a couple chest bumps. And I had two great hopes for the night. That Hopeless high represented themselves well… and that my Granny kept her clothes on.

  We sat in the stands surrounded by friends. Fireman Bob and his pals from the firehouse, Stank and Cup, Buck, Flo, and Zeke. Katie even showed up with Chris and the kids just before the national anthem.

  “I can’t believe you made it on time,” I said as she and Celia squished into our row.

  “It had to happen eventually,” she said.

  Dominic and Lucy were dressed up in costumes—naturally. “Is Dominic supposed to be Vin Diesel?” I asked.

  “Not Vin Diesel. Dominic Torreto. Fearless street racer, auto mechanic, and ex-convict.”

  “I bet he thinks it’s cool that they share the same first name.”

  “I don’t think he even recognizes that. He just likes the fact that Torreto drives fast cars, steals stuff, and beats people up with a baseball bat.”

  “You know, I’m no parenting expert, and I’m just spitballing here, but maybe try showing him something other than violent action movies that celebrate the thug life?”

  “So getting him a set of lockpicking tools might be a bad idea?”

  “It’s possible.”

  “Dang, I thought I had my Christmas shopping done.”

  Four old men in blue blazers went out to midfield for the ceremonial tossing of the coin. And then the game began.

  On the opening kickoff, Elliot Sunderland hit the returner so hard, the poor guy’s helmet flew in one direction and the ball went in the other direction. Hopeless recovered, and I swear the stands exploded. I really feared Granny might show her tattoo right then and there. I had told Bess that if at any point it looked like Granny might try to disrobe, Bess was to hit her low and I would hit her high. I hoped it didn’t come to that, but if it did, I knew Bess would come through.

  Hopeless scored three plays later, a cannon from the local National Guard unit was fired, and Elliot Sunderland, Mr. Do Everything, kicked the extra point.

  Hopeless High was up seven to nothing in the state championship game.

  “I’ve never been so happy in all my life,” said Granny. She threw her arms around me and hugged me.

  “How about the day I was born?” I asked.

  “Oh, no, honey, this is way better.”

  At least Granny was honest.

  The next four possessions showed what a defensive battle this was going to be. Both teams punted twice. But then Mound City got things figured out on offense, and next thing you know they had driven inside our twenty.

  Elliot came up big on the next two plays and made two terrific stops for practically no gain. But on third down, Mound City threw into the end zone. Two of their guys and two of our guys went up for it.

  And somehow the tight end for Mound City was the one to come down with it.

  Their side of the stadium went nuts, and the cannon went off again.

  Granny looked like she was about to grind her teeth into dust. I had to remind her we were still tied and there was a long way still to go. She nodded and tried to control her breathing.

  That’s when I noticed a commotion in the stands. People were mumbling and pointing. I followed their fingers, and saw what they were pointing at.

  Elliot Sunderland was lying in the end zone. Several players surrounded him. The greatest football player Hopeless had ever had the pleasur
e to see… wasn’t moving.

  Chapter 30

  The entire stadium was silent as Coach Edwards and Coach Williams knelt down beside Elliot. I saw Elliot’s dad slip out of the stands and run to the short chain-link fence that bordered the field. We all held our breath.

  And then Coach Edwards grabbed Elliot’s hand and helped him to his feet.

  I had never before heard an entire stadium of people let out a sigh of relief, but I heard it then. I think even the Mound City side had been scared. The game was important, but no one wanted to see a kid get seriously hurt.

  Elliot put his arm around Coach Williams, and they walked slowly off the field to thunderous applause. He was going to be okay.

  But was he going to be able to play?

  “If Elliot can’t get back out there,” Granny observed, “then you can kiss this game goodbye.”

  Her opinion was confirmed on the next two possessions, as Hopeless went three and out on offense and then gave up a sixty-yard drive on defense. And just like that, Mound City was up 14 to 7 going into halftime.

  Katie shook her head in disgust. “I’ve seen enough.” She and her kids squeezed past me.

  “You’re leaving?”

  “No, we’re getting hot dogs. Hot dogs help settle my nervous stomach.”

  “You wouldn’t say that if you’d seen how they actually make hot dogs.”

  “I’ve watched my children get yanked out of my yoohoo and I still manage to take care of them all right. My yoohoo not so much. Yeast infection, you know. But still, don’t get started with this hot dog nonsense.”

  I was thinking about grabbing a hot dog myself when my phone buzzed.

  “Hey, heartbreaker,” I said to Darwin.

  “Heartbreaker?”

  “On account of the fact that you broke my heart today.”

  “I did?”

  “You did. But enough about me. Let’s talk about how brilliant you are.”

  “I found the yearbook.”

  “I knew you would.”

  “And I did the search you asked for.”

  “Excellent.”

  “It’s actually harder than you probably know. I had to convert the PDF and then grab some city-wide databases to cross-reference…”