Ballpark Mysteries #11: The Tiger Troubles

by David A. Kelly; Illustrated by Mark Meyers

  Mike tapped the counter. “Home run!” he said. “I’ll take a hot dog with onions.”

  “Me too,” Kate said.

  Jane wrote down their orders in a notebook on the counter and used a calculator to figure out the cost. When she was done, she looked up and rolled her eyes. “The cash register’s broken again,” she said. “Now I have to do everything by hand and people have to wait. That’s why this stand always has the longest line!”

  Jane shook her head and then turned around to get the hot dogs. Mike and Kate checked over the stand. Hot dogs, onions, and peppers sizzled on a grill in the back corner. A tall soda machine with racks of red and white cups stood next to the grill. On the other side of the soda machine was a door that opened to the back of the stand. Mike and Kate could just see the field through the crack. Leaning against the frame of the door was a black backpack.

  Mike nudged Kate. “Psst. Do you see what I see?” he whispered. He pointed to the backpack.

  Kate’s eyes grew wide. Just barely sticking out of the top of the backpack was a small tuft of striped fur!

  Before Kate could respond, Jane plunked two hot dogs down on the counter. “Want anything else with that?” she asked.

  “No thanks,” Mike said. He handed over some cash, and Jane gave him his change. Mike tucked it in his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. “Mind if I take a picture for my website?” he asked. “I collect pictures of ballpark food stands.”

  “Sure, no problem,” Jane said. She stood back and smiled.

  Click! Click! Mike snapped a couple of pictures, and then slipped the phone back into his pocket. “Thanks,” he said.

  “But we did have a question,” Kate said as she picked up her hot dog. “I’m looking to buy a stuffed tiger, like the one my friend has. But they don’t sell them anymore. The woman at the souvenir shop told us she sold one to you recently. Do you want to sell it?”

  Jane stopped cleaning up the counter. She paused like she was thinking. “Oh yeah,” she said. “I did buy one a little while ago. But I gave it to my boyfriend. Sorry.”

  Kate smiled and shrugged. “No problem,” she said. “Maybe we’ll buy a panda instead.”

  Mike frowned and shook his head. “It’s the Detroit Tigers, not the Detroit Pandas,” he said. “We need a stuffed tiger.” He picked up his hot dog and took a bite. “Thanks anyway.”

  As they munched on their hot dogs, Kate and Mike walked to a table in the center of the food court. When they were far enough away, Mike whispered to Kate, “Did you hear that? Jane said ‘Three strikes, and you’re out,’ just like in Tony’s note. And that sure looked like a stuffed tiger in the backpack to me.”

  “I think she was lying about the stuffed tiger!” Kate said.

  “Me too,” Mike said. He popped the last bit of hot dog in his mouth. “That’s why I took the pictures.”

  “But how’s a picture going to help?” Kate said.

  “I’ll explain later,” Mike said. “Look, Jane’s stand is getting busy again.” A group of people had just lined up for food. Jane was busy filling more orders for hot dogs. “Follow me,” he said.

  Mike led Kate around to the back of Jane’s stand. The door that they had spotted earlier was still slightly open. Mike put a finger to his lips, tiptoed over to the door, and peeked in. Through the small crack, he could see that Jane was busy preparing hot dogs and waiting on fans.

  Mike inched the door open just a bit more. Jane’s black backpack rested against the door frame. There was definitely a piece of tiger fur poking out from its top. Not wasting any time, Mike reached out and opened the backpack’s zipper partway. He tugged on the tuft of fur and lifted out the head of a stuffed tiger just like the one he and Kate had seen earlier!

  Kate’s hand flew to her mouth. Her eyes widened. She motioned for Mike to get out of there.

  Mike pushed the tiger back down and zipped the backpack up. After he nudged the door closed, he and Kate scurried away from the stand.

  When they were a safe distance away from Jane’s stand, Kate let out a big breath. “Wow, I don’t believe it,” she said. “She’s got the tiger!”

  Mike was so excited he was almost hopping up and down. “I know! I know!” he said. “Jane’s the blackmailer! We’ve got to tell Tony.”

  A Strikeout

  It was the bottom of the seventh inning, and the Tigers were still ahead by one run. The Tigers had just come off the field when Kate and Mike made their way down to the dugout.

  As they approached the dugout, a security guard motioned for them to stop. “Sorry, but fans aren’t allowed near here during games,” she said.

  “We’re friends with Tony,” Mike said. “He said we could ask for him.”

  The security guard studied Mike and Kate. “Okay,” she said. “Wait here and let me check.” She disappeared into the dugout. A few moments later, Tony appeared.

  “Hi, guys,” he said. “I don’t have long. What’s up?”

  “We found out who’s writing those notes!” Mike said.

  Tony’s face lit up. “You did?” he asked. “Is it Roger?”

  “No!” Kate said. “It’s the girl who runs the hot dog stand near the merry-go-round.” She explained how they tracked down the stuffed tiger and found it in Jane’s backpack.

  Tony gave Mike and Kate a high five. “Wow! That’s great!” he growled. “Was the tiger filled with baseballs? Did you see the trophy?”

  Mike scuffed the ground with his shoe. “Um,” he said, “I’m not sure. I was worried about getting caught, so I didn’t have time to check if there were baseballs in the tiger. But it was the same kind of tiger.”

  Tony let out a sigh. “Ohhh…,” he said. “We need more proof. Lots of fans have those tigers. Tell me who you think it is, and I’ll have someone check.”

  Mike pulled out his phone. “Here, look at the picture,” he said. He pointed to the picture of Jane in the hot dog stand. “That’s her. The backpack with the tiger is right here.”

  Tony took Mike’s phone and studied the picture for a minute. He let out a long, low whistle. And then he burst out laughing!

  “You think Jane is blackmailing me?” Tony snorted. He shook his head. “Thanks for trying to help me, but I can promise you that Jane isn’t the one doing it. I think you need to start over again.”

  “But it has to be her,” Kate said. “We saw the stuffed tiger!”

  “You saw a stuffed tiger,” Tony said. “All the fans had them last year. And, more important, Jane’s a great kid. She’s worked for the Tigers for three years. They even put her in charge of the Dr. Tigers program, which helps kids at the children’s hospital. She goes there every weekend to work with sick children.”

  One of the other players tapped Tony on the shoulder. The Mets were jogging off the field. Tony handed the phone to Mike. “Sorry, but I’ve got to get ready to bat,” he said. “I doubt Jane’s blackmailing me, but thanks for trying. Maybe you should start checking out Roger. I still think it might be him.”

  Tony hustled out to the on-deck circle to take some practice swings. Mike and Kate went back to their seats. Kate’s father had filled five pages with notes on different players.

  “I was wondering when you were going to return,” he said. “Find anything out?”

  Kate adjusted her baseball cap. Her brown ponytail stuck out through the hole in the back. “No,” she said. “Not really. Tony thinks it’s Roger, the pitcher. But there’s no way we can check him out during the game.”

  “Sorry,” her dad said. He pointed to the field. The Tigers had a runner on first, and Tony was just stepping up to the plate. “At least it’s a good game. They’ve got a chance to get a run or two here. Tony’s been on a hitting streak lately.”

  The Mets pitcher’s first ball blew right by Tony. He didn’t even try to swing.

  “STRIKE ONE!” called the umpire.

  Tony stepped out of the batter’s box and adjusted his batting gloves. He stared at the pitcher. Then he step
ped back into the box and twisted his right foot in the dirt. Back and forth and back and forth it went. When he finally felt his foot was firmly planted, he held the bat high. The end of the barrel circled above his shoulder like a buzzing bee. Tony looked ready.

  The Detroit fans started to cheer and clap.

  The pitcher threw again.

  POP! The baseball popped into the catcher’s mitt. It was a ball.

  Tony took a few practice swings, then hoisted the bat over his shoulder again. The end of the bat drew small, fast circles in the air. Tony waited for the next pitch. The crowd was on its feet, cheering.

  The pitcher threw the ball. Tony stepped forward with his left leg and dropped his shoulder. The bat swung around close to Tony’s body. At the last second, he snapped his hands forward.

  THWAP!

  The ball launched off Tony’s bat. He dropped the bat and tore toward first base. The runner on first was already halfway to second base.

  Mike and Kate jumped up with the rest of the crowd and cheered. The ball kept climbing. It sailed over the outfield. The runners rounded the bases. The ball dropped into the bull pen behind the outfield fence.

  It was a home run! The Tigers were now ahead by three.

  The crowd went wild. Just as the first runner scored, a thundering GRRROWL came from the top of Detroit’s scoreboard. Kate and Mike looked up just in time to see the eyes of the two tigers perched on top of the scoreboard light up bright red! They glowed as another loud GRRROWL echoed over the ballpark.

  “Wow! That’s so cool,” Mike said. “The tigers growl when the Tigers hit a home run!”

  After Tony crossed home plate, the crowd cheered one more time and sat down. Unfortunately, the next two batters struck out to end the inning. Between innings, Kate leafed through the threatening notes again. Four of the paper scraps looked like they came from the same spiral-bound notebook. Each of them had the little cartoon tiger that Mike had pointed out earlier.

  Kate showed the notes to Mike. “You thought we should look for a stuffed tiger,” she said. “But maybe we should be looking for the notebook with the tigers in it instead. And I think I know where that notebook is!”

  Kate tucked the notes into her pocket. She jumped out of her seat and bounded up the stairs just as Mike had done a few innings earlier. Mike followed as Kate wound her way through the stadium to the hot dog stand. Jane was still serving food. A few fans were waiting in line when Mike and Kate got there.

  Kate took a place at the back of the line. “What are we doing?” Mike asked as he edged up beside her.

  “You’ll see,” she said.

  It didn’t take too long to get to the front of the line. Jane had just finished wiping the counter when she looked up and noticed Mike and Kate. “Still hungry?” she asked. “I’ve got lots more stuff you can try.”

  Kate shook her head. “No thanks,” she said. “I just wanted to see if you had a piece of paper we could have. My cousin Mike wants to keep track of all the baseball players he’s seeing, but he was too shy to ask.”

  Mike blushed.

  Jane shrugged. “Sure,” she said. She pulled the notebook on the counter closer to her and flipped it open to a blank page. Then she ripped out the sheet of paper and handed it to Mike. “Here you go,” she said. “But feel free to come back when you get hungry!”

  “Thanks! We will,” Kate said as she and Mike turned and walked around the corner to the main walkway. Once they were out of sight of the hot dog stand, Kate grabbed Tony’s pile of blackmail notes from her back pocket. She pulled out the notes that were written on notebook paper and placed the piece of paper they got from Jane on top. The new piece of paper had the same cartoon tiger on it that the other notes had.

  “Look! They match exactly,” Kate said. “Jane’s got to be the blackmailer!”

  A Golden Surprise

  Mike took the papers from Kate and examined them. They really looked the same. “So it is her!” Mike said. “Just like we thought!”

  He let out a sigh and handed the notes back to Kate. “But what if Tony still doesn’t believe us? He really doesn’t think Jane would do it.”

  Kate flipped her ponytail to the side of her head and started running her fingers through the strands of hair. “Maybe…,” she said as she thought. After a minute, she gasped and snapped her fingers. “Maybe we don’t need any more evidence to convince Tony!” she said.

  “What do you mean?” Mike asked.

  Kate gave Mike a big smile. “The best way to prove that Jane is the thief is to get her to lead us to the trophy!” she said.

  Mike’s eyes opened wide. “How would we do that?” he asked.

  “Easy,” Kate said. She pulled out a piece of paper and a pen from her pocket. Mike followed her to a table in the food court and watched as Kate wrote something on the paper and folded it in half. On the front Kate wrote JANE—IMPORTANT.

  “What’d you write inside?” Mike asked. He tried to sneak a peek at the note. But Kate pulled it away from him. “You’ll see!” she said. “Help me deliver this to Jane without her knowing.”

  Kate and Mike sneaked around to the other side of the hot dog stand. They stayed just to the side of the stand, out of Jane’s line of sight. They waited until her customers were gone, and then Kate crept closer.

  When Jane turned around to check on the hot dogs, Kate dashed up and slipped the note on the counter. Then she and Mike ran to the other side of the merry-go-round, where they were hidden but could see Jane in the stand. After a minute, she turned around and noticed the note on the counter.

  Jane picked it up and read it. A frown crossed her face, and she looked at the fans passing by like she was searching for someone. She checked her watch and then put a sign on the front counter. BE BACK IN 5 MINUTES, it read.

  Kate pumped her fist. “She’s falling for it!” she said.

  Jane slipped her backpack on, went out the back door of the stand, and started walking down the hallway.

  “Come on, we need to keep up,” Kate said. She darted after Jane, taking care to stay hidden by the crowd so Jane wouldn’t see her.

  Mike dodged fans with hot dogs and sodas as he rushed to catch up to Kate. “Where’s she going?” Mike asked as they trailed Jane.

  Kate smiled. She tapped her head. “I thought the best way to catch a thief would be to act like one,” she said.

  Up ahead, Jane turned and hurried up a set of stairs to the upper level. Mike and Kate followed. At the top, Jane veered to the right.

  “So what did the note say?” Mike asked.

  “It said: Are you missing something? We’ve found the trophy. If you want it back, leave the signed baseballs where the trophy is. Signed, Tony’s Cubs,” Kate said.

  Mike rolled his eyes and held up his hands. “Are you crazy? We. Don’t. Have. The. Trophy!” he said. “How is this going to work?”

  Kate bared her teeth and growled softly at Mike. “Grrrrrrr!” she said. “I’m smart like a tiger. A tiger would know that when Jane read my note, she would get worried that someone was onto her. The first thing she’d do is check to see if the trophy really was missing. And by doing that, she’d lead us straight to it!”

  A broad smile flashed across Mike’s freckled face. “Okay, that’s a great idea,” he admitted. “I knew there was a reason I let you hang around with me….”

  Mike and Kate continued to follow Jane. She made her way to a patio overlooking the main gate of the ballpark. It was filled with empty picnic tables. The area didn’t look like it got a lot of use.

  As Jane started to weave her way through the picnic tables, Mike and Kate ducked behind a trash can to watch. There was no other exit out of the picnic area. The trophy had to be nearby.

  “Maybe she hid it under a picnic table,” Mike said. “Or in that trash can over there.”

  “I don’t know,” Kate said. “I hope it’s not in a trash can!” She studied the patio. A waist-high brick wall ran along the outside, overlooking the street below
. In a front corner were the two giant prowling tiger sculptures they had seen from the street. Each of the tigers had two feet on the brick wall and two feet on black metal posts anchored into the patio floor.

  Mike and Kate peeked around the edge of the trash can. Jane headed straight for the tiger on the left. She slipped behind one of the picnic tables and knelt down by the tiger’s rear feet.

  Jane glanced around to make sure no one was watching, and then reached behind the big metal post that the tiger’s feet were anchored to. A second later, she pulled out a gleaming gold trophy!

  One Last Swipe

  Mike and Kate rushed closer. Mike took out his phone.

  Click! Click! Click! He snapped three pictures of Jane holding the trophy. “Want to hold it up so I can get a picture of that stolen trophy next to your face?” Mike asked.

  Jane swung around. “Wh-wh-what are you doing here?” she asked.

  Click! Click! Mike snapped a few more pictures.

  “This isn’t what it looks like,” Jane said. “Please, I can explain everything.”

  “You can explain it to Tony,” Kate said. “We have all the evidence we need. We’re going to show these pictures to him now. You want to come along and talk to him?”

  Jane’s shoulders slumped. She unzipped the backpack and slipped the trophy in it. “I can talk to Tony, but I’ve got to close the stand first,” she said.

  Mike and Kate followed Jane back to the hot dog stand. As she was closing up, a big roar rose from the crowd. Mike ran over to the railing overlooking the field. The Tigers had just won! The players were giving each other high fives and heading back to the dugout.

  By the time Jane was finished, most of the fans had left. Mike and Kate led the way to the Tigers’ dugout. On the way, they passed Kate’s dad. He was still sitting in his seat making notes. Kate waved for him to come over. He met them at the edge of the dugout and put away his notebook.