The Mystery of the Soccer Snitch

  “Me, too,” said Kayla, standing up.

  Kayla helped Violet fold up her blanket. Just before Kayla turned to go, she said, “Thank you for not saying anything about you-know-what. I am tired of talking about it.”

  “I understand,” Violet said.

  “Even when people are being nice, I don’t like talking about it.”

  “I understand,” Violet said again. And she did. Violet didn’t like to talk much either, particularly to people she didn’t know well.

  When the Aldens were sitting at the dinner table, eating, Violet said, “I saw Kayla in the woods today. She seemed very nice.”

  “What were you doing in the woods?” Henry asked. “What was she doing in the woods?”

  “Drawing. We were both drawing.”

  The Aldens were silent for several minutes. Then Henry said, “Grandfather, there was a big broken window in town on Fifth Street. The store that used to be Gerry’s General Store.”

  “I heard about that,” Mr. Alden said. “I was in town about an hour ago, getting my hair cut, when Mrs. Leob reported the broken window. The police think it was vandalism.”

  “What’s vandalism?” Benny asked.

  “That means someone broke the window on purpose,” Henry said. “Why do the police think it was vandalism?”

  “Because just inside the broken window, on the floor, were several golf balls.”

  “Golf balls!” Jessie exclaimed. She and Henry looked at each other.

  “Very curious,” Henry said.

  “What’s curious about that?” Benny asked.

  Jessie told the family about what had happened at practice, how Danielle tripped Kayla with a golf ball, and how Kayla put the ball in her pocket and carried it home.

  “That is funny!” Benny said. “Usually you never hear anything about golf balls! But suddenly there are golf balls everywhere!”

  “There may be something about the broken window in the evening paper,” Henry said. “Grandfather, may I get your newspaper?”

  “Certainly,” Mr. Alden said.

  Mr. Alden’s newspaper was still folded just inside the front door. Henry picked up the newspaper and returned to the table. He rolled off the rubber band and opened the paper. There, on the Town News page, was a short mention of the broken window, only a few sentences in length. Henry read the sentences to his family:

  “The window of Gerry’s General Store was found broken this afternoon. Golf balls were found on the floor, just inside. The police suspect vandalism.”

  “We didn’t learn anything at all new from that,” Jessie said.

  “Except now we have another mystery to solve!” Benny said.

  CHAPTER 7

  The Mystery of the Golf Balls

  “Did you hear?” Danielle said to Jessie the next day on the black-top.

  The paved area in back of the school where the kids waited for the bell was called the black-top because the pavement was so dark. The only problem with waiting on the blacktop was the asphalt heated up on hot days. It was still early, and already Jessie could feel the heat coming up from the pavement. On hot days, the black-top smelled of tar.

  “Hear what?” Jessie asked.

  “Kayla broke the window of the old General Store,” Danielle said.

  Jessie was so startled, all she could say was, “What?!”

  “A golf ball was found just inside the window. Remember when Kayla left practice? She was mad. And she had a golf ball in her pocket.”

  “She did not break the window,” Jessie said. “She couldn’t have. Henry and I saw her with the golf ball after the window was already broken.”

  “Who else would have done it?” Danielle said. “Don’t you remember how mad she was?”

  “I remember,” Jessie said. “She was mad because you tripped her!”

  “She wasn’t just mad at me,” Danielle said to Jessie. “She was angry in general because now she doesn’t get to be mascot.”

  “We don’t know that for sure,” Jessie said. “Someone wrote a letter and there is an investigation.”

  “I don’t think she will be allowed to be mascot,” Danielle said. “I don’t think Coach Olson likes Kayla very much. I don’t think he likes Kayla’s mother, either. She is very pushy.”

  “Listen,” Jessie said. “Kayla couldn’t have broken the window. I saw Kayla with that golf ball after the window was broken. Besides, the newspaper said several golf balls were found in the store. Kayla only had one.”

  Danielle shrugged. “The newspaper could have accidentally printed ‘golf balls,’ when they meant ‘golf ball.’”

  “I really doubt that,” Jessie said.

  Ashley was standing nearby with a group of girls. “Hey, Ashley!” Danielle called. “Don’t you think Kayla was the one who broke the window?”

  “You’re spreading rumors!” Jessie said to Danielle.

  Danielle ignored Jessie and said, “Hey, Ashley, what do you think? Kayla was the one with a golf ball, right?”

  Ashley gave a quick shrug, but didn’t look directly at either Jessie or Danielle. “Could be,” Ashley said. “She was awfully mad at you.” Ashley turned away.

  Jessie watched Ashley curiously. There was something strange about the way Ashley acted.

  “I did not break that window,” Kayla said adamantly when someone asked her about it during lunch. Jessie was eating her lunch with a few friends at the next table. She hadn’t noticed that Kayla had been sitting not far away, eating her lunch alone.

  “Who else would have done it?” the girl asked.

  “I don’t know!” Kayla said. Ordinarily Kayla was aloof and a bit detached. Now there was deep passion in her voice.

  Jessie felt she had to do something. She excused herself from her friends, and walked to Kayla’s table.

  “I know Kayla didn’t do it,” Jessie said.

  “How do you know?” asked a boy sitting nearby.

  “My brother Henry and I saw Kayla walking home yesterday. She still had the golf ball in her pocket. At the same time, we saw the window already broken. Besides, the police report said there were golf balls found inside the window. Kayla had only one.”

  Kayla looked at Jessie with gratitude and astonishment. The other kids were silent.

  “So I know Kayla didn’t do it,” Jessie said quietly.

  “Who do you think did it, then?” another boy sitting nearby asked Jessie.

  “I don’t know,” Jessie said. “But not Kayla.”

  “Maybe,” suggested one of Jessie’s friends, who had come over to listen better, “whoever wrote the letter also broke the window because they want to make Kayla look bad.”

  “That’s what my parents think,” Kayla said. “They think someone did it and is blaming it on me.” Kayla looked directly at Ashley and Danielle. Once again Ashley got a strange look on her face. She turned red and looked away.

  Yes, there was something very odd in Ashley’s behavior.

  Jessie’s gym period was the last period of the day. Ordinarily she liked having gym class last. She played hard at sports, which meant after gym she was tired and ready for a very long rest. In a heat wave like this one, though, it meant gym class was during the hottest time of the day.

  Jessie’s class was playing soccer. Soccer was a fall sport, so the first unit of the school year was always soccer. Because so many people liked soccer, Coach Olson joked that playing soccer first was a good way to get everyone excited about returning to school.

  Coach Olson watched the class play. He held a clipboard and made notes. After the game, he met with each girl for a few moments and gave pointers to help them improve.

  When it was Jessie’s turn, he said, “I’m pleased with your game. Your dribbling and ball control are particularly good. You need to work on keeping an eye on the whole field so you know where there is an open player.”

  Jessie understood exactly what he meant. Sometimes she was so busy watching the ball, she forgot to keep an eye on the entire fi
eld to keep track of where the players were. It was particularly important for her to keep an eye on the entire field because she was team captain.

  Then Coach Olson startled her by saying, “Jessie, I believe you are the girl who should be an international mascot. You’re a true team player. You are a credit to the game. Mia thinks so, too.”

  “I would love to be the mascot,” Jessie said. “Don’t get me wrong. Going to Brazil! Watching an international tournament! It would all be thrilling. But—” Jessie broke off and looked away. This was the hard part to explain. “I just wouldn’t feel right about taking the honor away from Kayla because of an anonymous letter.”

  “If Kayla doesn’t deserve it,” the coach said, “but you do, you’re not really taking anything away from her.”

  “I know Kayla didn’t break the window. I told you. Henry and I saw her with the golf ball after the window was already broken.”

  “We will find out who broke the window,” the coach said. “Don’t worry about that. The police have ways of figuring these things out.”

  After school that day, Violet went to the glade in the woods to draw. She secretly hoped Kayla would come again.

  After filling two pages of her sketchpad with drawings, she was about to give up and return home when she heard footsteps coming down the trail. Sure enough, Kayla emerged from the path carrying a sketch pad and a beach blanket.

  Violet smiled. Without a word, Kayla spread her blanket near Violet and took out her drawing pencils. The girls drew in silence for a long time. At last, Violet said, “You should sign up for the after school art program. We meet on Mondays and get drawing and painting lessons.”

  “I would like to,” Kayla said. “But I don’t think my parents would like that.”

  “Why not?”

  “This is soccer season. They want me to practice. My sister got on the high school soccer team. They want me to be able to make the high school team, too.”

  “But you will!” Violet said. “You’re so good!”

  “A good player can always get better,” Kayla said. “That’s what my parents say.”

  What startled Violet most was there was sadness in Kayla’s voice.

  “You don’t want to practice soccer?” Violet asked.

  “Not all the time,” Kayla said.

  “Why did you want to be a mascot?”

  “I didn’t. My parents filled out the application for me. I didn’t even know they had done that.”

  The two girls went back to their drawings. After a while, Kayla said, “My parents have high hopes for me. Mom says I’m a natural. Dad says I have real talent for soccer. They think I can be the best soccer player in the family, if I apply myself.”

  “But you don’t want to,” Violet said, deeply astonished. Kayla wasn’t at all the kind of person people thought she was.

  “I used to think all children played soccer,” Kayla said. “I used to think all families spent their weekends playing soccer or watching soccer. I was in third grade before I realized not all families are like mine.”

  “Most people would think you’re lucky,” Violet said, “to have parents who play soccer with you all the time.”

  “I know,” Kayla said. That was all she said. Violet, who understood how it felt to be inward and shy, didn’t push her to say any more.

  CHAPTER 8

  The Clue of the Broken Glass

  Benny was at the kitchen table doing homework when Mrs. McGregor called out to Grandfather, “Would you like some iced coffee before dinner?”

  “I would love some!” he responded. “Thanks!”

  Benny was adding a row of numbers. He was concentrating so hard he hardly noticed the grinding of the coffeemaker, or even the sound of Mrs. McGregor whistling as she worked.

  Suddenly Mrs. McGregor let out a little shriek, then exclaimed, “Oh, no!”

  Benny, startled, dropped his pencil. “What’s the matter?”

  “Oh, fiddlesticks!” she said. “Would you look at that! The glass broke. I put ice into the coffee, and bang! The glass broke!”

  “How?”

  “It was silly of me. The glass was too thin, and got too hot. Then I put in the ice. Oh fiddlesticks!”

  Sure enough, there on the counter, were pieces of broken glass.

  “I’ll help clean it up!” Benny shouted.

  “No, please stay back. I don’t want you to get cut. Stay here. I’ll get the dustpan.”

  Just then the phone rang. “Stay put,” Mrs. McGregor said. “Let your grandfather answer it. There might be glass on the floor. I don’t want you to step on it.”

  Benny heard grandfather’s steps in the hallway. “Hello,” Grandfather said. There were a few moments of silence while Grandfather listened to whoever was talking. Then he said: “Really? Jessie?”

  “That is quite an honor,” Grandfather said, “but I am not sure how Jessie will feel about it. Yes… yes…I will talk to her.”

  “All right, then,” he said. “Goodbye.” He hung up the phone.

  Jessie came into the room. “Grandfather?” she asked. “What is it?”

  “That was Coach Olson,” Mr. Alden said. “He is still working on the investigation. He says the investigation will not be complete until the police figure out who broke the window, but meanwhile, he believes all the things in the letter about Kayla are true. He thinks the honor should go to Jessie, who he says is much nicer and more nurturing of her teammates. So what he wants to do, when the police figure out who broke the window, is suggest to the committee that Jessie should be invited to Brazil as a child mascot instead.”

  Jessie and Benny looked at each other.

  “I told him it was an honor,” Grandfather said quietly.

  “Of course it’s an honor!” Jessie said, recovering from her surprise enough to speak. “Going to Brazil to see the international tournament would be amazing! But I can’t possibly go! I just don’t think it’s fair to Kayla! This will be so humiliating for Kayla. It’s wrong to give it to me instead.”

  “Coach Olson doesn’t think so,” Grandfather said. “He said the committee wants the mascot to be someone who sets a good example for the sport, not just plays well.”

  “It just isn’t right,” Jessie said.

  “If that’s how you feel,” Grandfather said, “We can tell Coach Olson not to nominate you because you don’t want to accept.”

  “I’ll think about it,” Jessie said.

  After the children finished their homework, Jessie called a meeting so they could look at their clues.

  “We have to get to the bottom of this,” she said. “I will not be able to accept the invitation to be mascot as long as it looks like someone has it in for Kayla.”

  “People are wrong about Kayla,” Violet said. “Kayla is a nice person. I know she is. People just don’t understand her. I don’t think she cares that much about soccer. I think she only plays because her parents want her to.”

  “I will tell you what I’m wondering,” Henry said. “I am starting to wonder if Coach Olson is behind this. It’s clear Kayla’s mother and Coach Olson don’t like each other much. It’s also clear Coach Olson doesn’t like Kayla. And Jessie is his favorite. I’ve heard kids say that.”

  “You think Coach Olson wrote the letter?” Jessie asked. “I can’t believe a coach would do that. Anyway, why would he write an anonymous letter? Why wouldn’t he just call the committee and say Kayla should not be mascot because she sets a bad example?”

  “Maybe because he doesn’t want Kayla’s family any madder at him,” Henry said.

  “But why would Coach Olson write a letter from the library computer?” Jessie asked. “Wouldn’t he know about the automatic save function?”

  “Maybe he wants people to think a kid did it,” Henry said.

  “I just can’t believe it was Coach Olson,” Jessie said. “I think it was one of the girls on the red team. Maybe Ashley or Danielle or someone who is staying quiet.”

  “What about that b
roken window?” Benny said. “Probably the same person who wrote the letter also broke the window so Kayla would be blamed, right?”

  “It sort of looks like that,” Henry said.

  “Coach Olson would never break a window,” Jessie said.

  “I agree with that,” Henry said. “So maybe it wasn’t Coach Olson after all.”

  “We need to figure out who broke the window!” Benny said. “Then we might have a clue who wrote the letter!”

  The others nodded in agreement.

  “We don’t have any real clues at all about the broken window,” Henry said. “Do we?”

  “None,” Jessie said. “Maybe fewer clues than who wrote the letter.”

  “What do we know about the window?” Henry asked. “Was there anything at all unusual?”

  They were all silent. “The only thing I can think of,” Jessie said, “is when we went to look at the broken window, the air conditioner was blowing. I guess that means someone was inside and turned it on.”

  “Also it was a very old window,” Henry said. “The wood was splintered and the glass was a murky color.”

  Suddenly Benny said, “Maybe it’s like putting ice in hot coffee!”

  The others looked at Benny, puzzled.

  Seeing their expressions, Benny said, “Putting ice in hot coffee can break glass if the glass is too thin! Just ask Mrs. MacGregor!”

  The children went to find Mrs. MacGregor, who said, “Yes, indeed. That was silly of me. The ice in the hot coffee broke the glass. I should have known that glass was too thin.”

  “I wonder if the same thing can happen with windows,” Henry said. “Remember Beck said something about having to be careful with these old windows in the summer.”

  “After dinner,” Jessie said, “let’s go ask him.”

  After dinner all four children walked the five blocks to Mr. Beck’s house. He lived in the part of town where the houses were mostly painted white, with clapboard sides and picket fences in front. The lawns and flower beds were neatly trimmed. Mr. Beck’s white van was parked in his driveway. Beck Handyman Service was printed in red and blue letters.

  “Looks like he’s here,” Jessie said.