Mystery at the Ballpark by Gertrude Chandler Warner Read Free Book Online Page A

so many things went wrong.” Michael looked serious. “First someone cut the cables to the van, and then the keys were missing.”
    “Plus Chuck got lost a lot out in the country,” Violet reminded him. “I’m surprised we made it there in time.”
    “Do you think it’s just a string of coincidences?” Nicole asked. She took a bite of her sandwich. It seemed hard to believe that someone would really want to sabotage the team.
    “I think it’s more than that,” Henry said. “So many things have happened that it seems like more than just a run of bad luck.”
    “Something else happened at the game,” Michael said suddenly. “I didn’t think of it before, but did anyone notice number thirty-eight on the Pirates team? A short kid with sandy hair?”
    “I think I did,” Benny said. “What about him?”
    “I’ve seen him before.” Michael paused and looked around the table. “All of us have. He was buying a soft drink with Chuck the other day in the store.”
    “That’s right!” Violet burst out. “I knew he looked familiar!”
    “But what does that mean?” Jessie asked. “Do you think Chuck is involved somehow in everything that’s gone wrong?”
    “I hate to think so,” Henry told her.
    Jessie nodded. “He said he hadn’t been in the office when the keys were missing, but he was lying. I saw him walk out of the office a few minutes earlier, and Mr. Jackson was with him.”
    “Wow,” Benny said softly. “Mr. Jackson might be involved, too.”
    “Why do you say that, Benny?” Henry asked.
    Benny told them about Mr. Jackson snooping around his locker that morning.
    “There’s something else you don’t know,” Jessie said. “I heard a really strange conversation between Mr. Jackson and Mrs. Sealy this morning. It sounded like they were planning a surprise for Coach Warren—but not the kind of surprise you’d look forward to,” she said grimly.
    “Mrs. Sealy said she hates baseball, but she’s always around,” Nicole pointed out.
    Violet frowned. “A lot of things about her don’t make sense.” Suddenly she remembered something else. “Remember when we saw her in the store that day and she said she hadn’t been on the playing field? She wasn’t telling us the truth! I know she’d been over here. She had red mud all over her shoes.”
    “You know, she must have been here when the van keys were missing, too,” Nicole added.
    “How do you know that?” Michael asked.
    Nicole leaned forward eagerly. “Because Susan passed around a bag of brownies in the truck. She said her aunt had dropped them off for us that morning.”
    “That’s right!” Jessie said. “So now we have three suspects, Chuck, Mrs. Sealy, and Mr. Jackson.” She paused. “But I still can’t figure out why any one of them would want to hurt the team.”
    “Mr. Jackson doesn’t think girls should play baseball,” Benny piped up.
    “And Mrs. Sealy thinks Susan is wasting her time playing with us,” Nicole offered. “She thinks she could be painting pictures.”
    “What about Chuck?” Benny asked.
    Henry shrugged. “Maybe Chuck is secretly rooting for the other team because he has a friend—that little boy—who plays for them.”
    There was a long silence. “I think we have a long way to go before we solve this mystery,” Jessie said.
    “You’re right,” Violet told her. “But let’s do it before anything else gets stolen.”

CHAPTER 8
Henry Has an Idea
    On Saturday morning, the Aldens trooped into the kitchen for an early breakfast. “I made waffles,” Mrs. McGregor said as they settled around the oak table. “I know you want to get an early start for the fairgrounds.” It was the day of the annual Greenfield flea market, and the children had invited Michael and Nicole to join them.
    “What’s a flea market, anyway?” Benny asked, pouring a tall glass of orange juice.
    “It’s like a giant yard sale,” Jessie told him. “People come from all over town and set up booths to sell