Off Base by Jake Maddox

Author:Jake Maddox [Maddox, Jake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sabotage; age 8–10; basketball; Capstone; chapter books; competition; evidence; fiction; grade 3–5; investigation; Jake Maddox; mystery stories; revenge; sabotage; school rivalry; sports stories; sportsmanship; teamwork; revenge; school rivalry; sportsmanship; baseball
Publisher: Capstone
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

SUSPECTS

Jayden found Lindsey in the newspaper office. She sat alone, legs crossed, on the floor in the middle of the room. She stopped scribbling in her notebook and looked up when Jayden came in.

“Shouldn’t you be at practice?” Lindsey asked, frowning.

“I was,” Jayden said. “Ms. Renner showed up at practice and said that she could give me a makeup test.”

“That’s good,” Lindsey said. “So, you’ll be able to play tomorrow?”

Jayden shook his head and sat down next to Lindsey. “She can’t give me the test until next week,” he said.

“Oh,” Lindsey said. “So, that’s it? Your season is over?”

Jayden shrugged. “Probably so,” he admitted. “The only way I’ll get to play is if I figure out who stole the test key before tomorrow afternoon.”

Lindsey made a face.

“That’s going to be tough,” she said.

“I know,” Jayden said. “I was hoping you could maybe help me?”

Lindsey grinned and handed Jayden her notebook. He looked at the page and saw it was a list of all the members of the Redtails baseball team. Lindsey had drawn a line through Jayden’s name.

“What is this?” Jayden asked.

“Our suspect list,” Lindsey replied. “I’ve crossed you off for obvious reasons. Is there anyone else we can cross off the list?”

Jayden read through the list and handed the notebook back to Lindsey.

“You can cross off Abel and Cody,” he said. “They’re my best friends. There’s no way they would do this.”

Lindsey’s eyebrows rose slightly. “Are you sure?”

Jayden nodded. “I’m positive.”

Lindsey crossed Abel and Cody off the list.

“Anybody else?” she asked.

Jayden thought for a moment. He shook his head.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I can’t believe anybody on the team did this.”

Lindsey tapped her pencil on the notebook and sighed.

“This is still a long list,” she said. “Maybe we should look at this a different way. Who would benefit from you getting in trouble for cheating?” She circled a name on her list and showed it to Jayden.

“Teddy?” Jayden said. “I don’t think so.”

“How can you be sure?” Lindsey asked. “Why wouldn’t he?”

“Well, because … ,” Jayden trailed off. He didn’t really have a good answer. Teddy was getting to play more without Jayden on the team. Could he really have done this?

“Look,” Lindsey said, “I know these are your teammates, but they can’t all be your best friends, right? And, if what Nick says is true, somebody on your team did this.”

Jayden took the notebook from Lindsey and looked at the list again. He knew she was right. His teammates weren’t all friends. And whoever stole the answer key was probably on that list. He circled two more names and handed the list back to Lindsey.

“Now we’re talking!” Lindsey said. “Why these two?”

“Last week, Malik started complaining that I was getting too much attention for stealing bases when he was winning all the games with his pitching,” Jayden explained.

“What about Wyatt?”

“We used to be really close,” Jayden said. “Then Abel moved here.”

Lindsey waited for him to say more. He didn’t.

“And then?” she prompted.

“He said some things,” Jayden said.

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