Long Shot - Stine Megan. Страница 19

14

Photo Opportunity

Very late that night Jupe, Bob, and Pete sat in the crowded fluorescent-light fantasy of Hank’s 24-Hour One-Stop, one of Rocky Beach’s more unusual hangouts.

Pete was hunched over a soda and Hank’s sandwich of the night. After midnight the sandwich was free with an extra-large soda, but it was made of leftovers from the day shift. Tonight it was a meatloaf and tuna salad combo.

While he ate, Pete told Bob and Jupe about the Wolfford game, Traut’s vicious attacks, and the karate fight in the parking lot. Then he drank all 32 ounces of his soda in one gulp.

“I was parched,” he told Jupe.

“Dehydrated,” Jupe corrected. “You lost a lot of fluid in perspiration during the game. I know how you feel.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right,” Pete said with a laugh. “You were the parrot at the Shoremont game tonight. Did you learn anything new?”

Jupe shook his head glumly.

“Forget the case for a few minutes, okay?” Bob said. “We’re here to celebrate Pete’s big win!”

“This place is definitely beyond weird,” Pete said, looking around Hank’s. “Why is almost everyone wearing black?”

“It’s Wednesday, Pete,” explained Bob. “It’s one of Hank’s deals. Wear black on Wednesday, you get a ten percent discount.”

“How do you know so much about this place?” Pete asked.

“I’ve been here after late-night recording sessions,” Bob said. “That’s when I found out it’s the best place to wait for the first edition of the morning paper. It’ll be here by two in the a.m. Hank guarantees it.”

“You really think there’ll be a story about me in the paper?” asked Pete.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Jupe said, yawning. “It’s a long shot, Pete.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Bob said. “I’m telling you, Pete, if your winning basket was only half as long as you say it was, it will make the papers. It’s too good not to.”

“I think the most notable event of the evening was the note in Pete’s locker,” said Jupe. Bob and Pete groaned.

“Well, the note was interesting to me because it signals that Barry Norman is still trying to scare us off the case,” said Jupe. “He knows we’re closing in on him.”

“Not fast enough,” Pete said, returning with another large soda. “I want to get that guy off the streets.”

“That would be easy with what we know about him already,” Jupe said. “But President Harper wants us to find the man Barry Norman is working for. A task at which we have so far failed.”

“Hey, whatever happened to the old it’s-not-over-till-it’s-over Jupiter Jones?” asked Bob.

Jupe put his head down on the table. “I’ve been jumping around in a parrot costume all night. I’m exhausted! I can’t solve a case with no sleep,” he moaned. “We should be going home, not waiting here for the newspaper.”

“We won’t have to wait much longer,” said Bob, pointing to the door. “The papers are here.”

Bob got up and hurried to join the line at the cash register to buy a newspaper. Bob went because Hank was so weird that he sometimes insisted that people line up alphabetically. Andrews was the best last name among the three of them.

“Hey, Jupe, are you going to eat the other half of your meatloaf-tuna sandwich?” Pete asked.

Jupe pushed his plate over to Pete. “Sometimes I think if I weren’t on a diet, you’d starve.”

“Hey, Pete. They didn’t just write a little story about you,” Bob said, dropping an open newspaper onto the table. “It’s the headline story. ‘Long Shot Wins Game.’ ”

“Wow! Look!” Pete said, grabbing the newspaper away. “It’s even got a photo of me!”

There was a picture across the top of the page taken by a photographer who must have been standing high up in the bleachers. The photo showed the whole court, with Pete standing on the far side of midcourt. Everyone was watching the ball, which had been frozen in midair.

“ ‘For the second game in a row,’ ” Pete said, reading from the article, “ ‘Rocky Beach guard Pete Crenshaw showed that small guys on the court can win big. This time Pete’s game-winning shot came with no time on the clock and about 40 feet between him and the basket.’ ” Pete turned the newspaper around and pointed at the picture. “Pretty cool, huh? Hey, you’re looking at the wrong picture, Jupe.”

Jupe snatched the paper out of Pete’s hands so he could study a photo at the bottom of the page. “Look at this,” he said finally. “See if you recognize anyone.”

Pete folded the newspaper page in half and looked at the smaller photo at the bottom of the page. “It’s a story about the Shoremont basketball team,” he said. “And the picture shows a bunch of Shoremont players on the bench during a game.”

“In the background,” Jupe hinted impatiently.

Bob moved to look at the photo over Pete’s shoulder. But Pete quickly pulled the newspaper away. “Don’t help me,” he told Bob. “I’m going to get this one myself.”

Pete leaned on both elbows and stared closely at the newspaper photo. Finally his eyebrows lifted in recognition. “That’s the woman Barry Norman had lunch with at the country club. And she’s sitting with John Hemingway Powers.”

“Right,” Jupe said, “so now we know that she knows both Barry Norman and John Hemingway Powers. Now here’s an interesting scenario: If she knows both those guys, isn’t it possible that they know each other? That would mean we have a new suspect, a new clue, a new lead.”

Pete scrunched his face. “Powers?”

“Okay, okay,” Jupe said. “I’ll grant you this: It’s another long shot. But maybe there’s a reason why we haven’t found anything that connects Barry Norman with Coach Duggan. Maybe it’s because there isn’t anything. But now we’ve got a real link between Norman and Powers.”

Bob cleared his throat. “Come on, guys. Would you let me in on this? Hand over the newspaper.” Pete passed it to Bob, who took a long look at the photo. “What did you say his name was?”

“John Hemingway Powers,” said Jupe. “He’s the super-bucks alumnus of Shoremont College we told you about a few days ago.”

“And he’s the one who was putting all the pressure on you to nail Duggan?” asked Bob.

“You should have seen him,” Pete said.

“I have seen him,” Bob said, smiling.

“You have? When? Where?” Jupe asked.

“Remember last week when I met you in the Shoremont gym? I was hanging around in Duggan’s office, talking to his secretary. I told you people were in and out of there a lot. Well, he was one of them. I didn’t think it was important at the time, so I just filed it.”

 “What exactly happened?” asked Jupe. “He came in, headed straight for Duggan’s private office, and closed the door. I asked Duggan’s secretary what was going on and she said he does it every week—usually on Thursdays when Duggan’s not in. She said he uses Duggan’s computer to get a printout of the latest statistics from the game. I got the message he’s a real fan — in other words, fanatic about the team.”

“Powers comes in and uses Coach Duggan’s computer?” asked Pete.

“When he’s not there. You got it,” Bob said. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Jupe nodded. “If Powers goes into Duggan’s office for the stats — what’s to stop him from also getting copies of Duggan’s scouting reports? He reads the reports, checks them out to see who Duggan wants for the team — ”

“And then,” finished Pete, “Powers tells Michael Anthony a.k.a. Barry Norman to send out a bribe.”

“That would explain how Powers connected so quickly with Pete,” Jupe added. “He knew Pete was at the top of Duggan’s list, so he sent Michael Anthony to deliver the first envelope. We concluded that Coach Duggan left it because he happened to speak to Pete that same night.”

“But we were wrong,” Pete said.

“We weren’t wrong,” said Jupe, tapping the newspaper. “We were hasty. Do you think Hank would sell me half a black-and-white milk shake?”