Ballpark Mysteries #17 by David A. Kelly

Author:David A. Kelly [Kelly, David A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2021-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

But then it dropped right into the center fielder’s glove!

Marco made contact on each of the next six pitches, but the hits were dribbling grounders that barely rolled past the pitcher.

Kate nudged Mike. “Not a great warm-up,” she said.

Mike shook his head. “It was really bad!” he said. “If he doesn’t hit better than that during the game, the Twins might not make the playoffs!”

“Marco! What’s up?” the Twins manager called out. He had been watching from the dugout. “We need you to do better than that in the game tonight!”

Marco nodded and tipped his hat at the coach. He stood at the plate for a moment and gave it one last look. Then he walked away.

“Here he comes!” Mike whispered.

Marco approached the kids. But then he kept right on walking!

“Hey, Marco!” Kate called out.

But Marco didn’t even look at the kids. Instead, he headed for the dugout.

“I’ll get him,” Polly said. She ran over to Marco and tugged on his jersey. When he stopped, Polly said something to him and pointed at the group. Marco glanced at them, gave a sigh, and walked back with Polly.

“What do you kids want?” Marco asked.

Mike and Kate looked at each other. “Um,” Mike said. “That was a good try up at the plate.”

Marco shook his head. “Not really,” he said. “Well, I gotta go.”

“Wait!” Kate cried. “We know you were at the mall yesterday. And we know why you didn’t admit it!”

Marco’s eyebrows raised up and his jaw tightened. “Wh-what do you mean?” he asked.

Kate leaned closer to him and studied his face for a moment. “We know that Pedro was at the dentist, so that means it was you we saw at the mall, Marco. We think you were buying Pedro a birthday gift and didn’t want to admit it in front of him!”

“Um, yeah, you’re right,” he said. “That’s it! I was buying a gift and didn’t want him to know. So I couldn’t tell you when we talked.”

He glanced one more time at the batters hitting practice balls. “Listen, I have to go,” he said. “I forgot my bat over there.”

“That was weird,” Molly said after Marco left.

Mike nodded. “He seemed distracted or something,” he said.

“What’s even weirder,” Kate said, “is that I don’t know who that was!”

“What do you mean?” Mike asked. “There’s Pedro and Marco. That was Marco.”

“No, it wasn’t!” Kate said. “Did you see me lean in when I was talking to him?”

Polly, Molly, and Mike nodded.

“I was checking out his face,” Kate said. “Something wasn’t right!”

“What do you mean?” Mike asked.

Kate pointed to the twin. He was picking up his bat near the batting cage.

“He’s an imposter!” she said.

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