Black Cat Weekly #54

Chapter 6

byBooster-club president Nora Barton brushed by a diminutive brunette snapping pictures amidst the swirl of activity around the gym and entered the locker room at Corydon High School. Immediately, she spotted her best friend, Sherry Parks, shaking a bag of ice into a large washtub filled with soft drinks. “Hey, Coach,” she called as she approached the woman who had recently led Corydon’s basketball team to the city championship.

“Nora,” Sherry said, rising and drying her hands on a towel, “we’ve got a big problem.”

“What could possibly be troubling the champs on the night they’ll be presented that beautiful trophy?” Nora said, gesturing toward the huge silver trophy on the table between them.

“It’s the trophy that won’t be presented that’s got me so upset.”

“I don’t understand,” said Nora.

“Not only did we win the championship, but Carrie Grimes was named MVP of the tournament.”

“And?”

“Someone has stolen the trophy she was to receive at tonight’s banquet,” said the coach, shaking her head.

“How long has the trophy been missing?”

“Earlier this afternoon,” said Sherry, “I brought in the trophies and was getting things ready for the banquet. I set both trophies on the table. I decided to run to the convenience store for some ice, and when I returned, the MVP trophy was gone. Carrie worked so hard for that award.”

“Do you have any idea who might have taken it?” Nora asked her friend.

“Carrie’s so popular,” said Sherry. “I can’t imagine anyone wanting to hurt her.” She hesitated. “Now, I don’t want to sound like what the kids call a ‘squealer,’ but a couple of names do come to mind.”

“We don’t have long before the crowd gets here for the banquet,” said Nora, “so we have to work fast.”

“OK,” said Sherry. “It hurts me to say it, but Kate Dexter was awfully upset when Carrie beat her out for MVP. They both had terrific years, and Kate rushed out of the gym in tears when the tournament officials announced the winner.”

“Anyone else?”

“It might seem a bit strange, but Carrie recently broke up with her boyfriend, and Devin didn’t take it well. Said she loved basketball more than him.”

“Is that it?”

“Well, I guess I have to mention Laura Stinson, our team manager. Laura took the job only because her mother thought it would look good on her resume for college. I think Laura sort of resents Carrie’s popularity.”

“Have you seen these three around the gym today?” said Nora.

“Come to think of it, yes,” said Sherry. “They all have some task to get ready for the banquet.”

“I’d better have a chat with those three,” said Nora.

Devin Johnson was setting up tables in the gym. When Nora asked him what he had been doing that afternoon, he informed her that he had just arrived at the gym fifteen minutes earlier after spending all afternoon at baseball tryouts.

Nora had no better luck with Kate and Laura. Kate had buried any disappointment by working that afternoon with some younger teammates to help them with fundamentals they could refine before next season. According to her teammates, she hadn’t left the gym.

After asking Bailey Compton, the photographer she had seen snapping pictures earlier, for directions, Nora found Laura in Shelley’s office. Laura’s friend Jess backed up the manager’s account of the entire afternoon spent on flower arrangements and napkin folding.

Walking back into the gym, Nora couldn’t help but notice the photo montage that flittered across a huge screen to her left. Shots of everything from the team in their Fighting Cardinals uniforms to pictures of banquet preparations.

Perhaps, thought Nora, Bailey had photographed one of her three classmates being somewhere other than where they had said. Looking intently as the pictures crossed the screen, Nora spotted one that caught her attention. There on the bare table in the locker room set two trophies in front of a stack of soft drink cartons and an empty washtub.

Suddenly, Nora realized she could name the MGP, the most guilty person.

The only way Bailey Compton could have snapped the photo of the trophies and the empty washtub was if she had been in the locker room before Sherry returned with the ice. Confronted, Bailey confessed that she had taken the trophy out of anger at Carrie after Devin turned down her invitation to the banquet even though he had broken up with Carrie.

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