Mike and Kate crowded forward to see the famous treasures. As they stepped up to the glass case, they looked at each other and then back at the case.

  “Um, Oliver?” Kate said.

  “Yes?” Oliver said.

  “It looks like Hank Aaron’s ball and bat are missing!”

  “What?” Oliver said. He bounded over.

  Kate was right. Hank Aaron’s famous 715th home run ball and bat were gone. The case behind the glass panel was empty!

  “Oh no!” Oliver said. He pushed on the glass. It didn’t budge. He checked the special screws around the edges. They were tight.

  “There’s no sign of any damage,” Oliver said. “I don’t know how anyone could have stolen them! I’ve got to call Jamal, our head of security!”

  Oliver pulled his phone out and made a call. When he was done, he slipped the phone back into his pocket. “Jamal used to be a detective with the Atlanta police,” he said. “If anyone can find a thief, he can! And if he can’t, he’ll get the police involved.”

  Kate moved closer to the glass and pushed up on her tiptoes.

  “And what’s that?” she asked. “At the bottom of the case?”

  Mike, Oliver, and Mrs. Hopkins leaned in to see what Kate was talking about.

  “It looks like a note,” Mike said.

  “Let’s wait for Jamal to check it out,” Oliver said. “He’ll be here shortly.”

  As Kate’s mom took a phone call for work, Mike whispered to Kate, “Whoever stole Hank’s bat and ball may have left some clues. Let’s look while we have time!”

  Kate nodded. “Good idea,” she said. She scanned the long room. It was filled with dining tables and chairs. A food-and-drink counter stood in the middle. There were Exit signs above doors at both ends. One whole side of the room was made of plate-glass windows that looked down on the field.

  Kate pointed to a table not far away. There was a popcorn machine on it. “Let’s start there,” she said. “Maybe that’s where the thief put his tools down or left something behind.”

  Mike and Kate raced over to the table. The large glass-walled popcorn machine was empty, so they searched the floor.

  Just then, a man and a woman dressed in blue security shirts entered the room. The man was carrying a black bag.

  “Jamal, Kayla, over here,” Oliver said. “Hank’s ball and bat have been stolen!”

  “This is terrible,” Jamal said. He set the black bag down next to the display case, and Mike, Kate, and Mrs. Hopkins walked over.

  “We’ll dust for prints,” Kayla said as she examined the glass. “How do we open the case?”

  Oliver pointed to a silver keyhole on the bottom. “You need a key,” he said. “It’s kept in the safe in the front office. Only Taylor Turner, the team owner, has the combination to the safe. But since I’m the team historian, I have access to it once a year to make sure the items are okay.”

  Jamal nodded. “We’ll follow up with Mr. Turner to see if anyone else has used the key recently,” he said. “Oliver, can you go get it now so we can dust for prints?”

  “Sure! I’m on my way,” Oliver said as he hustled to the door.

  Jamal and Kayla put rubber gloves on. Then Jamal took out a fluffy brush and a container of black powder.

  Kate nudged Mike. “We’ve never seen anyone dust for fingerprints for real!” she said.

  “Nope, you’re right,” Mike said. “But I read about how Jigsaw Jones did it in the glow-in-the-dark ghost mystery I got from the school library last month. This will be cool!”

  Jamal dipped the brush in the container and swirled it around. Then he started to gently sweep the brush around the edges of the display case glass.

  Not much happened at first. But then something did!

  “Whoa! Look at that!” Mike said. “Fingerprints!”

  Most of the glass was clean, but in a few areas, small black specks of powder had stuck to the glass.

  “Looks like we have three,” Jamal said. “This thief is as good as caught!”

  “Wow, that’s cool!” Kate said. “They look perfect!”

  Kayla picked up a roll of clear tape from the bag. She cut off a few pieces and then pressed the sticky part against the powdered fingerprints. “Got ’em!” she said. She lifted the strips of tape and placed them on small white note cards.

  “Good work!” Jamal said. “We can run them through our security system. We have the fingerprints of everyone who works here on file.”

  As Jamal was finishing up, Oliver returned. He held a long silver key. “Got it!” he said.

  “When’s the last time you took the cover off?” Jamal asked Oliver.

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Oliver replied. “About six months ago. I do it once a year to inspect the items. We do that with all our exhibits.”

  Oliver reached down and slipped the key into the lock at the bottom of the case. The lock made a loud click when he turned it. Then he pulled the glass cover away.

  The case was completely empty except for a small silver baseball holder at the bottom where Hank Aaron’s 715th home run baseball should have been. Instead, there was a folded note on it.

  Jamal quickly dusted the inside of the case for prints. “Zip,” he said. “No fingerprints on the inside of the case.”

  With that, Kayla reached in and pulled the piece of paper out. As she did, a small red gummy fish fell to the floor!

  “What’s that?” Jamal asked.

  Kayla picked up the candy fish.

  “Looks like a Little Red Herring to me!” Mike said. “Next to Gummy Sharks, those are one of my favorite foods!”

  Kayla nodded and dropped the candy into an evidence bag.

  “Now, what about that note?” Jamal asked.

  Kayla unfolded it.

  The note was handwritten in dark blue pen. It read:

  Tommy has had his last tantrum.

  If you don’t throw Tommy out of the game for good, you’ll never see Hank’s ball and bat again!

  “Whoa! Someone wants Tommy gone really badly,” Kate said.

  “Stealing Hank Aaron’s treasures is just wrong,” Jamal said. “They mean so much to the fans!”

  “I know,” Oliver said. “We’ve got to get Hank’s bat and ball back, no matter what!”

  Mike pointed to the note. “Look at the top,” he said. The team logo, a swirly capital A for Atlanta, was printed across the top of the paper. “Maybe someone from the team is the thief!”

  Oliver nodded. “You’re right,” he said. “That’s from one of our standard notepads. Anyone with the team, like a player or even a coach, could have written that!”

  “We’ll definitely check it out!” Kayla said. She dropped the note into an evidence collection bag. “Jamal, let’s head back to the office so we can analyze those fingerprints.”

  “We’ll contact you once we have some information, Oliver,” Jamal said. “You should check on the other artifacts around the stadium to see if anything else is missing. We’ll keep an eye on Tommy.”

  Jamal and Kayla packed up their black bag and left.

  Oliver looked at his watch. “Time for us to go, too,” he said. “The game will start in about an hour. We might as well watch Tommy coach the Braves for the last time.”

  * * *

  —

  A little while later, Mike and Kate were back in the hallway near the Braves Monument Garden. Oliver had set off to check on the other team artifacts, while Mrs. Hopkins had given Mike and Kate some money for dinner and had gone to the pressroom for the game.

  “We’ve got to go to bat for Hank!” Mike said as he and Kate headed down a walkway to the field. “Let’s figure out where his missing stuff is!”

  Kate nodded. “I know,” she said. “I’ve been thinking about the suspects.”

  Mike and Kate emerged from the walkway to an area overlooking the field. Fans streamed by on either side of them.

  “Whoever took Hank’s things had the motive, the means, and the opportunity,” Kate said. On the flight down to Atlanta, she had been reading a book about solving crimes. She loved to read. “The motive is wanting the team to get rid of Tommy. The means is having the key to open the display case.”

  “And the opportunity is the chance to commit the crime!” Mike said. “Whoever did it must have had access to that room before or after games.”

  “Exactly. We’re looking for someone who has a grudge against Tommy, who could get the key, and who could be in the stadium when it’s not busy,” Kate said.

  Mike’s eyes were drawn to some activity down on the field. The grounds crew was raking the infield dirt. Over to the side, the first-base umpire from the previous day’s game was looking at the field.

  Mike stared at him for a moment. Then he nodded slightly and smiled.

  “I think I know someone who had the motive and the opportunity!” he said.

  “Who?” Kate asked.

  Mike pointed to the side of the field. “The umpire!” he said. “The first-base umpire from yesterday is probably tired of being yelled at by Tommy, so he wants to get rid of him!”

  Kate watched the umpire walk from first base to home plate. “Maybe,” she said. “He certainly has a reason, or the motive, to want Tommy gone.”

  “And the opportunity,” Mike said. “Nobody would question him if he were hanging around before or after games. He probably just waited for the stadium to empty out yesterday.”

  “Or he came in early this morning,” Kate added.

  “And then stole the ball and bat somehow,” Mike said. “It fits perfectly!”

  “Since the display case glass wasn’t broken, he’d need a key like the one Oliver has. That’s the means,” Kate said. “Maybe he has a key in the umpire’s room with his stuff. Let’s go see if we can find it!”

  They dashed back into the stadium’s main walkway. It was even more crowded now. There were hundreds of kids hanging around. Some wore brightly colored baseball uniforms. Others were in shorts and T-shirts.

  Mike skidded to a halt as he looked around. “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” Kate said. “It looks like a bunch of Little League baseball teams lined up for something!”

  The line stretched on and on. Just as Mike and Kate were passing a group of players dressed in blue-and-white jerseys, a voice called out from behind them.

  “Mike! Kate!”

  Kate and Mike spun around. A boy in a baseball jersey stepped out of the crowd and waved his hands.

  “It’s Polo!” Kate said. “From the Little League World Series team!”

  Mike and Kate had met Polo when they were in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for the Little League World Series. They had been cheering on the Cooperstown, New York, team but had become friends with some of the players on other teams. Polo was on the Southeast Regional team from Georgia.

  Mike and Kate ran over to Polo. He was a tall, thin boy with dark hair. He gave them each a fist bump.

  “Wow! What are you two doing in Atlanta?” he asked. “This is so cool!”

  “I know!” Mike said. “We’re here with Kate’s mom, watching the game. What are you doing?”

  Polo nodded at the nearby kids with baseball gloves and balls. “I’m here with my team,” he said. “The Braves invite Little League teams to walk around the warning track before home games.”

  “You get to go on the field before the game?” Mike asked. “That’s awesome!”

  Polo gave Mike a high-five. “Yes, it is!” he said. “And I’ve got an idea. How’d you like to come with us?”

  “Really?” Kate asked. “How could we do that?”

  “Simple,” Polo said. “Just hang with me and pretend you’re part of our team. I’ll let Coach Waleed know. He won’t mind.”

  “Sounds great!” Mike said. “Let’s go! We can imagine we’re walking on for a position in tonight’s game!”

  “Or maybe we can keep an eye on the umpire,” Kate whispered to Mike as they blended in with Polo’s team.

  A few minutes later, the long line of kids started moving. Kate, Mike, and Polo followed the groups ahead of them through the stadium and then finally out onto the warning track at the left-field foul pole.

  Mike and Kate looked up at the tens of thousands of fans cheering in the stands. Mike instantly started waving and taking bows as if he were a famous baseball pitcher walking out to save the game. Then he turned to some of the kids on Polo’s team and asked them for the baseballs they were carrying.

  “Hey, Kate, watch this!” Mike said. “I’m the famous baseball juggler!”

  Mike tossed a baseball up into the air. Then he threw a second and third one. The balls continued to fly up and down between Mike’s hands as he walked.

  A moment later, as Mike stepped across home plate, a huge smile crossed his face. “I’m juggling!” he said. “It’s another home run for the baseball juggler!”

  “That’s amazing, Mike,” Kate said. She borrowed a baseball from one of Polo’s teammates. “Here, try one more!”

  “No!” Mike called out. “Not four! I can only juggle three!”

  But it was too late! Kate had already tossed the baseball to Mike. He grabbed it and tossed it up in the air. Polo and his teammates watched as Mike juggled the four baseballs for a few seconds.

  But then Mike sneezed! His whole body shook, and a ball slipped through his fingers and hit the ground. The other balls landed near the Atlanta dugout with three thuds.

  Polo laughed. “I’d call that four passed balls!” he said as he and the team started to walk again.

  Mike pretended to tip his hat and scurried off to the grass in front of the dugout to pick up the balls. A moment later, he was back. “Take a look at that,” Mike said. He pointed to the dugout.

  Smarty Marty, the Braves’ first-base coach, was standing at the railing overlooking the field. He was just a few feet away and close enough for Kate to easily see the yellow candy wrapper in his right hand and the red spots in his left hand.

  Kate looked back at Mike. Her eyes were opened wide.

  “He’s eating…,” Kate said.

  “Little Red Herrings!” Mike said.

  “Maybe Smarty Marty stole Hank’s bat and ball!” Kate said to Mike as they continued down the warning track to a door.

  Mike nodded and clicked off the facts on his fingers. “One, he’s eating the food we found at the crime scene. Two, we know he loves candy. And three, Tommy said that Marty really wants to take his job!”

  “That’s the motive!” Kate said. “And he has the opportunity. No one would suspect him hanging around the stadium while he waited for the perfect time.”

  After passing through a gate in right field, Mike and Kate found themselves standing in a hallway underneath the stands.

  “I’ve got to go with the team to our seats,” Polo said. “But it was great seeing you!”

  “You too!” Kate said. “Thanks for letting us tag along!”

  “Maybe we’ll see you again at the Little League World Series next year,” Mike said.

  Polo smiled. “If I can find my home run groove, you sure will!” he said, and waved goodbye.

  Kate turned around and gave Mike’s shirt a quick tug. “Come on,” she said. “We should tell Oliver what we found out about Smarty Marty! Let’s go to his office first. Maybe he’s there!”

  Mike and Kate raced through the stadium until they were back on the main walkway. They headed for the stairs to the lower level, where a security guard stopped them.

  “Hold up there,” she said. “Where are you two headed in such a hurry?”

  “We’re trying to find Oliver,” Mike said. “We were with him earlier today and have some important information for him. Can you tell us where his office is?”

  The security guard studied Mike and Kate for a moment, and then she turned and spoke into her radio. A moment later, it buzzed and a voice said: “All clear!”

  The guard stepped aside. “Oliver said to send you down to his office,” she said. “Turn left at the bottom of the stairs. Room B-243.”

  Mike and Kate raced down the stairs and through the hallway. They passed food vendors stocking up their trays and workers zooming by on electric carts.

  When they reached Oliver’s office, Kate knocked on the door. A moment later, Oliver opened it.

  “Oh, hi,” he said. “It’s you two. You can stop by anytime. I just got back from checking on the other artifacts. Nothing else is missing, from what I can tell. I can’t believe that Hank’s ball and bat were stolen!”

  Kate nodded. “That’s why we’re here,” she said. “We might have a clue.”

  “Really?” Oliver asked. “Come in!”

  The small room was filled with plaques, trophies, magazine articles, gloves, and other baseball equipment. Giant signed posters of Hank Aaron hitting home run number 715 lined one wall. A large rack filled with cardboard poster tubes stood in front of the wall. They were labeled AUTOGRAPHED BY HANK AARON.

  “Wow!” Mike said. “Are those posters all signed by Hank Aaron?”

  Oliver nodded. “They are,” he said. “And you can both take one if you want. We keep a bunch of extras around to give out to VIPs. Go ahead and choose two from that rack!”

  “Thanks!” Mike and Kate said in unison.

  Mike grabbed the one nearest to him. He picked it up. It was light and long. Mike tossed it to Kate. “Quick, catch!” he said. “It’s a Hank Aaron hit to deep center!”

  Kate didn’t miss a beat. She snagged the poster tube as it flew by. “And it’s caught by Kate Hopkins for an out!” she said. “Better luck next time, Hank!”

 

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