The Mystery of the Soccer Snitch (3 page)

Mrs. Thompson marched to the foot of the platform. “Somebody in this town has written a letter to the mascot committee! A letter filled with horrible lies about Kayla. I just received a phone call from the committee. Now she might not get to be mascot!”

Coach Olson hadn't turned off the microphone, so Mrs. Thompson's voice carried over the entire field.

When Coach Olson flipped off the microphone, there was a screech of static, then more silence.

Jessie and the other girls on the red team turned to look at Kayla.

Kayla held perfectly still for a long moment, then buried her face in her hands.

CHAPTER
2

A Horrible Letter

Mrs. Thompson walked briskly across the field toward the red team. The coach jumped down from the platform and hurried to catch up to her. Upon reaching the girls, Mrs. Thompson touched Kayla's shoulder to comfort her. Mrs. Thompson didn't look at the other girls. Jessie still felt too astonished to speak, or even move.

“Who would do such a thing?” asked the coach, approaching.

“That's just it!” Mrs. Thompson said. “We don't know! Whoever wrote the letter didn't sign it. But now the mascot committee wants Kayla investigated, just to make sure the things in the letter are not true.”

Kayla whirled around and, keeping her face hidden, ran from the soccer field. She ran past her mother, down the street toward her home.

Then everyone, it seemed, started talking at once.

“I wonder what is in the letter!”

“I wonder who wrote it!”

“I wonder what will happen now!”

The coach and Mrs. Thompson stepped aside and whispered together. As they talked, Mrs. Thompson made angry gestures, hitting her fist into her palm and pointing toward the field.

Danielle, standing not far from Jessie but out of Mrs. Thompson's earshot, whispered, “I don't think Kayla deserved to be mascot anyway. The mascot should be someone nice, not someone who just shows off.”

“I am so tired of listening to you talk mean about Kayla,” another girl told Danielle. “You just wish you could play as well as her.”

“If I could play as well as her,” said Danielle, twirling her ponytail, “I'd be nicer about it.” Danielle had a long ponytail reaching to her waist. Her hair was very thick and blond and she was obviously proud of it.

“Maybe you're the one who wrote the letter,” Jennifer said to Danielle.

“I did not,” Danielle said, flipping her pony tail over her shoulder.

A few parents from the bleachers went to join Mrs. Thompson and Coach Olson. The parents and Coach Olson talked for several moments. Then Coach Olson strode back to the podium and turned on his microphone.

“We will continue the fest next Saturday!” he announced. “We will have the games then, and the award ceremony. The older players will practice on Tuesday and Wednesday after school, as usual. The younger players—the Earthquakes and Galaxies—can practice tomorrow at one o'clock. We should have this all sorted out by next Saturday.”

Nobody in the stands moved. A slight breeze moved in the trees. From the distance came the barking of a dog. Otherwise, all was quiet.

Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny looked for each other, and huddled in a group.

“We need to figure out who wrote the letter,” Henry whispered to his sisters and brother.

“Yes,” Jessie said. “This isn't fair at all.”

“I wonder if we can see the letter!” said Benny. “Do you think Mrs. Thompson has it?”

“She said she got a phone call from the mascot committee,” Jessie said. “So the committee probably has it.”

“That's too bad,” said Henry. “If we could see the letter, we could examine the postmark and see how it was written.”

“I wonder who did it,” Jessie said. She was looking toward Danielle.

“Do you think it was Danielle?” Violet asked.

“Actually,” Jessie said, “it could have been any of the girls on the team, not just the ones who speak up and say they don't like Kayla. The problem is, I don't know anyone on the team who would make up lies.”

“Lying is bad,” Benny said.

“Lying in a letter to get someone in trouble is even worse,” Henry said.

Violet looked over the group of girls wearing red. There were at least a dozen of them. “We've never started out with this many suspects before,” she said.

All four of the Alden children stood still for a moment, thinking this over.

“Here comes Grandfather and Mrs. McGregor and Watch!” Benny said. Benny ran toward them. The others followed behind. Watch greeted each of the children with a sniff and wag of his tail. Benny petted Watch's back while Henry scratched the top of Watch's head.

Mr. Alden said, “Well, children, I suppose we should head home.”

“I was hoping to win a cone from Igloo Ice Cream,” Benny said.

“Maybe next week,” Henry said.

They headed down the sidewalk. Mr. Alden took a handkerchief from his pocket and patted his forehead. “It's going to be a hot day today,” he said.

“The forecast is calling for high temperatures all week,” Mrs. McGregor said.

“What are we going to do today?” Benny asked. “We thought we'd be here all day!”

“Mr. Beck is working at the house,” Mrs. McGregor said. “So I suppose we can start by seeing how he's doing.” Mr. Beck was the handyman Mr. Alden hired when they needed work done on the house.

“And,” Mrs. McGregor said, “it looks to me like you children have a mystery to solve.”

Violet sighed deeply. “Poor Kayla. I feel so sorry for her.”

“Me, too,” Henry said. “I don't know which is worse, not getting to be an international child mascot, or knowing someone wrote a mean letter filled with lies.”

“At least it shouldn't be too hard to prove that the letter was filled with the lies,” Jessie said. “Then Kayla can still be the mascot.”

The first thing Violet noticed as they walked up the front walk to their house was the smell of saw dust. She and the others walked around to the side of the house. Mr. Beck was up on a ladder scooping leaves out of the gutter.

“What are you doing?” Benny asked.

“Routine summer stuff,” Mr. Beck said. “I just replaced some rotted boards in the garage. Now I'm cleaning the gutters. Next I'll check the windows. You have to watch out with these old windows in the summer.” He squinted up at the roof line. “And it looks like a few roof tiles are loose. I'd better fix those.”

“Can I help you?” Benny asked. “I can climb the ladder, too!”

“Better not, Benny,” said Mr. Alden. “I think Mr. Beck can manage just fine.”

“All right,” Benny said. “Let's go have a snack! I can solve mysteries better with a full stomach!”

CHAPTER
3

A Not-Quite-So-Horrible Letter

Henry was the first one at the breakfast table the next morning. While waiting for the others, he'd opened the newspaper. Ordinarily Henry read the news on his tablet, but the local Greenfield newspaper had not gone digital yet. Grandfather was happy about that. He said he liked a real newspaper over breakfast and before bed.

“Would you all come look at this?” Henry called. “Amazing!”

Jessie and Violet came running from the kitchen. “What?” Jessie asked.

“Here's a copy of the letter to the Mascot Committee! It says here that the letter was written in the library computer lab. A reporter found a copy in the automatic save file and printed it here!”

“What does the letter say?” Violet asked.

Henry, Violet, and Jessie leaned over the table and read:

Dear Members of the Mascot Committee,

This letter is to tell you all the reasons Kayla Thompson should not be an international mascot. The mascot should be someone who is a team player and who gives soccer a good name. Kayla is not a team player. She hogs the ball. She laughs when other people make mistakes. She shows off. She is not friendly and people don't like her. For all these reasons, she should not be a child mascot.

Yours sincerely,

Concerned citizens of Greenfield, Connecticut.

All three children finished reading at the same time. They lifted their heads and looked at each other.

“But,” Henry said, “some of those things aren't lies.”

“Most of these things aren't lies,” Jessie said, “Everything here is sort of true.”

“But wait,” Violet said, “isn't some of that a matter of opinion? Different people can have different opinions about whether she's friendly.”

“The fact is,” Jessie said, “she's not a team player. She does hog the ball.”

“Does she laugh when people make mistakes?” Henry asked.

“I've never seen her laugh,” Jessie said. “She's usually concentrating on what she's doing, not paying much attention to anyone else.”

Just then, Benny came bounding down the stairs. “What were you hollering about, Henry?”

Before Henry could answer, Grandfather came in from his study and Mrs. McGregor brought a pitcher of fresh milk and a plate of French toast.

“My favorite!” Benny said. “French toast! With syrup!”

“I was just coming to help with breakfast,” Jessie told Mrs. McGregor, “but I got so distracted by the news about Kayla!”

“What news about Kayla?” Mrs. McGregor asked.

“How about if we all sit down and talk about the news over breakfast,” Mr. Alden said.

The children, Mr. Alden, and Mrs. McGregor sat at the table. Mrs. McGregor passed around a plate of French toast. When it was Benny's turn, he carefully selected the largest piece. Then he looked up and said, “Does anyone mind?”

“Go ahead, Benny,” Grandfather said with an indulgent smile.

Henry poured himself a glass of orange juice, then said, “The newspaper ran a copy of the letter someone wrote to the International Mascot Committee about Kayla.”

“What did the letter say?” Benny asked.

“Here,” Henry said, handing him the newspaper. “You can read it yourself.”

Benny squinted at the newspaper. “But I'm eating! Read it aloud. Please!”

“Yes, please do,” Grandfather said. “Then we can all hear it.”

Henry read the letter aloud. When he finished, Grandfather said, “Well, that's very interesting. What do you children think?”

“I think it sounds just like what girls like Danielle are always saying about Kayla,” Jessie said. “And none of those things are really lies.”

“That's why we have so many suspects,” Violet told Mr. Alden. “So many girls don't like Kayla. It could have been any of them.”

“You know,” Henry said. “I don't think writing a letter with things that are true is something a person can get in trouble for.”

“But it wasn't very nice,” Violet said.

“Oh I agree with that,” Henry said. “It wasn't nice. But it isn't what we thought at first. And it isn't what Mrs. Thompson said. Nobody wrote a letter with lies. They wrote a letter with the truth. That's different.”

“I don't think it's fair for an anonymous letter to ruin a person's chance to do something as exciting as being an international mascot,” Jessie said.

“If someone didn't like Kayla,” Benny said, “she should have talked to Kayla or gotten a grown-up to help.”

“Exactly,” Violet said. “Writing that letter was mean. Whoever wrote it should work things out with Kayla and leave the Mascot Committee out of it.”

Tap, tap, tap. Everyone looked up, startled.

“What was that?” Benny asked.

“Sounds like someone is hammering outside!” Jessie said.

“Let's go see!” Benny leapt to his feet and ran to the back door. The others followed.

Outside they found Mr. Beck on the ladder again, tapping at the wood trim around the window with his hammer.

“It's Sunday!” Mrs. McGregor exclaimed. “What on earth are you doing up there?”

“Just finishing up,” he said. “It's going to be so hot this week, I wanted to get the last of the work finished up this morning.”

“It's hard to believe it can get hotter than this,” Henry said, wiping his brow.

“It can,” Mr. Beck said, “and according to the weather report, it will.”

Later that day, Henry told Benny, “Get ready! It almost time for your practice!”

Benny had been playing with toy cars on the living room floor. He jumped up and ran to his room to change clothes. Henry, who helped coach the youngest children, was already ready.

“I'd come with you to watch for clues,” Jessie said, “but it's so hot out there!”

Jessie and Violet were at a table in the living room. Jessie was reading a book, Violet was drawing in her sketchpad.

“No need!” Henry said. “Benny and I will watch for clues.”

Nothing unusual happened during Benny's practice—until the very end, when the players were practicing dribbling down the field. Coach Olson was watching them, shouting out reminders to watch where they were going and touch the ball with the insides of their shoes instead of the tips of their toes. Henry looked over and saw Mrs. Thompson approaching.