Force Out (23 page)

When he stepped up to the plate in the fifth inning, Joey knew it would be his final chance at bat. Both teams had changed pitchers, and the one Joey now faced didn't have a slider. He had a curve, but his best throws were fastballs.

Joey had heard Coach Tucker whistle and mutter under his breath as the new pitcher warmed up. “Seventy-three miles an hour.”

The coach had turned to one of his assistants. “That's about as fast as I've ever seen a twelve-year-old throw it.”

The other coach had nodded, and that's what Joey did now. He looked right at the pitcher and nodded his head. “Bring it.”

“What was that, son?” the umpire asked.

“Nothing, sir. Just ready, that's all.”

“Well, step up.”

Joey stepped into the box and positioned his hands just the way Coach Van Duyn had taught him what seemed like a lifetime ago. The first pitch came, fast.

Joey barely nicked it. It popped up so high, it went behind the backstop. The pitcher grinned at Joey, but Joey grinned right back at him. The next pitch came right down the middle again, a bit high. Joey swung with everything he had and connected. He would have liked to swing a bit sooner, but he caught it dead center.

CRACK.

The ball flew down the right baseline, clearly gone. The image of his last big shot going foul crimped his joy. He slowed to a jog on his way to first.

Along with everyone else, he watched to see if the ball would end up foul or fair.

Joey turned to see the ump, who stood astride the baseline with a hand raised like a blade, angled up toward the ball. With one eye pinched shut, the ump tilted his head to line his open eye up with his hand. Joey reached first base.

Still, the umpire stood frozen, maybe thinking.

Suddenly, the ump swung his shoulders toward the infield, pointing a finger like he was directing someone to the gates of heaven. He might as well have been doing just that.

“Fair ball!”

Joey leaped into the air and continued his jog around the bases. He couldn't help a glance at Zach as he passed him. The hate in Zach's eyes looked like it might set Joey's T-shirt on fire.

Joey pumped a fist. “Yes.”

The contest was practically over.

All Joey had to do was keep from making a glaring error. He had distinguished himself in the field and at the plate. Zach would get one more at bat, and even a home run would leave Joey on top.

It was a force-out. But Zach was the one who wouldn't advance.

Joey was moving on.

When Zach hit a double in the sixth, Joey chuckled and muttered to himself. “All that extra coaching didn't do you a bit of good, Zach . . . bro.”

When the teams lined up to shake hands before the winners were announced, Zach gripped Joey's hand tight, stopping the line.

“I hope you're happy, you rat.” Zach glared.

Joey yanked his hand free. “I outplayed you. Don't be a sore loser. You didn't hear me whining about Leah.”

Joey nodded toward the stands where Leah and her friends were heading toward the parking lot.

“Outplayed me? You told Cullen about the hole in my swing. How low can you get?”

Joey forgot about all the bad things. He felt suddenly like he had betrayed a friend he loved. “I didn't. Zach, I swear. Did I want to win? Of course, just like you, but I would never do that.”

“Oh yeah? Cullen just threw all those inside pitches by coincidence? Really, Joey?”

“Zach, I think it was Butch. He heard us talking about it last week and I saw him talking to Cullen today before the game, I swear.”

“Liar.” Zach snarled and spat in the dirt.

Joey's face felt hot. He turned and got the line moving again.

After the handshakes, the coaches gathered the players in a half circle around home plate. One by one, three pitchers and Thomas Hagen, the catcher, were called up. That left just one infielder to be named, the only spot left on the existing team.

Coach Tucker consulted his notes. A couple of the other coaches huddled up with him and whispered in his ear. Joey suddenly remembered his own worst nightmare, having to get to the next base, but some kind of black magic making it totally impossible for him to run.

Would this be black magic?

Did Zach wrongfully accuse Joey of telling the pitcher about the hole in his swing? Did the coaches believe that, and were they now reconsidering the criteria? Might they change their minds about Joey because they thought he was the rat Zach said he was?

While Joey's stomach did somersaults, Coach Tucker cleared his throat.

“Before I announce our final roster spot,” Coach Tucker said, “I want to congratulate all of you just for making it this far. It's quite an accomplishment, when you think about it. First, you all had to be all-stars. Next, you had to be one of the two best players in your all-star tournaments. This group today is the best of the best, and I wish we could take you all because you all deserve it. But . . . that's not life. There are winners and losers. That's sports. That's why we love this game. Anyway, our last spot . . . goes to Joey Riordon.”

Polite clapping from all sides rained down on Joey.

His hands shook as Coach Tucker handed him his packet for select.

It was like a dream. Joey wandered as if in a fog. The crowd broke up. The kids who didn't make it hung their heads, and their parents patted their backs and shoulders. The rare few—the winners—grinned through hugs and kisses. Joey's mom shook his hand before turning and stopping Zach and his dad on their way to the parking lot. Leah walked with them.

Joey's mom put a hand on Zach's shoulder. Joey thought she was going to say something nice to try and make him feel better, but that wasn't it.

“Zach, I'd like you to come with me . . . back to the station.”

Zach's dad didn't wear an expression of shock or outrage, but one of grim disappointment. Leah's mouth hung open.

“What are you talking about?” Zach asked.

“We need to talk about Mr. Kratz's dog and his truck, Zach. I know what you did. I promised Joey and your father that I'd wait until after the selections before I dropped the hammer, but now it's time.”

“Mom?” Joey staggered forward, his face flushed from embarrassment at the look Leah gave him. “What are you doing?”

Zach's eyes bulged. “Am I going to jail?”

Zach's father put a hand on his son's shoulder. “We'll get it worked out, Zach. I don't know about jail, but I do know there are going to be some consequences. That's just how it is. You can't do things like this, Son, trust me.”

Panic washed over Zach's face. He turned and pointed at Joey. “He—”

All eyes turned on Joey.

“He, what?” Joey's mom said.

“Tell her, Zach,” Leah said.

Zach hung his head. He shrugged and turned to go. “Nothing. Congratulations, Joey. You did good.”

Joey stood with his feet planted in the grass as he watched his mom lead Zach toward her squad car. When Joey's mom opened the back door, Zach gave Joey a hopeless, pitiful look. He was about to cry.

Suddenly, a shriek pierced the night, stopping everybody in their tracks.

Joey's dad looked around in a panic. “Martin?”

The screaming continued coming from the big grass field just beyond the parking lot.

Everyone—including Joey—started to run.

When Joey reached the edge of the field, he saw Mr. Kratz was on his knees. Martin lay howling on the ground. Daisy stood opposite her master, barking. “Martin!” Joey's mom screamed and launched herself toward the dog.

“I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.” Mr. Kratz groaned and patted Martin's shivering head.

“Get that dog on a leash!” Joey's mom screamed. She put her hands on Martin, as if to heal him. Martin's body went still. Joey's mom gasped. “Martin?”

Mr. Kratz uttered a single quiet command and Daisy went silent, then sat down and tilted his head at Martin, casting a shadow over his body.

Carefully, Joey's mom rolled Martin over on his back.

His eyes popped open.

Clutched in his hands was a green Frisbee.

Martin sniffled. “Mine.”

Martin was just fine.

“Oh my God.” Joey's mom exhaled with relief. “Marty, my little Marty-poo.”

“Bad doggy,” Martin said. “Mine.”

“I'm so sorry, Officer Riordon,” Mr. Kratz said. “He just came out of nowhere and grabbed the Frisbee and Daisy grabbed it back. She does that with me. It's a game. She would never hurt him. She only barks, Daisy. Please, you have to believe me.”

Joey's mom examined Martin and dusted him off. “Of course I believe you, Mr. Kratz. This is all so bizarre. I was just taking Zach into the station. We're pretty sure he was the one who poisoned Daisy.”

Joey looked over his shoulder. Zach stood in the front of the crowd that had gathered in the shadows near the squad car, and his head stayed low. He said nothing to deny the charges.

Now it was Mr. Kratz who looked like he might cry. “But . . . Zach is my student. He's in my class. Why would he poison Daisy?”

In that moment, many things went through Joey's mind.

He'd done the whole thing for Zach in the first place. The two of them were no longer friends. Zach didn't even believe Joey hadn't been the one to reveal the hole in his swing. Zach called him a liar.

Most of all, if he did what he believed was right, Joey would forfeit his spot on select.

The team wouldn't likely bounce him, but his mother certainly would. That was even if he wasn't sentenced to jail or, at best, community service. Both would prevent him from traveling this summer. Either way, Joey knew that Zach could take the fall without too much problem. It no longer mattered all that much. The competition was over. Zach had been forced out.

Zach must have realized that, because Joey was certain Zach was about to spill the beans and confess to being there, at the scene of the crime. Joey held up a hand to make him stop.

He stepped toward Mr. Kratz, and looked him in the eye.

“Mr. Kratz, it wasn't Zach. It was me. I didn't mean to hurt Daisy. I would never do that. I just . . . I just wanted you to miss the field trip. I wanted a couple of the kids on the team to be able to play. I wanted us to win. I wanted to make the all-star team, so I could get this.”

Joey looked at the papers in his hand. He held them up to show Mr. Kratz, then handed them to Zach. “Here. At least one of us will get to go.”

“I won't let you do this for your friend, Joey.” His mom hugged Martin to her. “It's nice, but it's not right. His father heard him coming in on his bike that night. We know he was at Mr. Kratz's house.”

“But he didn't
do
it, Mom,” Joey said. “Zach was there, but he didn't do anything. It was me. I put the clamp on. I drugged Daisy. That's what I did with your pill.”

Joey's mom's face turned to stone. She simply stared at him.

Joey dropped his eyes under the weight of her look. They filled with tears that spilled to the grass.

She surprised Joey when she put a hand on his shoulder. “‘So shines a good deed in a weary world . . .'”

Joey looked up and blinked through his tears.

“What did you say?” Joey asked.

“It's a quote.
Willy Wonka
,” his mom said. “I love that movie.”

Mr. Kratz smiled and put a hand on Joey's other shoulder. “You're a good man, Joey Riordon. Your mother said you'd do this.”

“My mother?” Joey looked around.

Zach looked as confused as Joey was.

“Mr. Kratz said you earned yourself a wish.” Joey's mom tightened her grip on his shoulder. “When I got the lab results back and figured out it was my own Valium that got into Daisy, I knew what you did. I remember you being up that night, too. You're not a good crook, Joey.”

Mr. Kratz tightened his grip as well. “But I owed you, and you
are
a good kid, and a great science student. That test question crawled right under my skin. It's funny because I was thinking about it the very minute your mom called to tell me what happened with Daisy and my truck and I said to her, ‘He aced that test and I owe him a wish, so I can't very well be the one to take away his dream.'”

Joey could barely believe what he was hearing. “So . . . I can play?”

His mom's eyes hypnotized him. She nodded her head. “I made an agreement with Mr. Kratz and your father that, if you told the truth, I'd let you play. I had no idea if you were going to make the team, but you did. I'm proud of that, but I'm more proud that you told the truth.”

“I should have told it from the beginning,” Joey muttered.

“Yes, but you told it when it counted most, Joey. You did it when everything was on the line, and even when you thought your friendship with Zach was over.”

Joey looked at Zach, whose mouth hung open like a trapdoor. Joey walked over to him and extended a hand. “I swear I didn't tell Cullen about the hole in your swing.”

“I believe you, bro.” Zach gripped his hand.

“Joey?” Leah had stepped forward and she put a hand on Joey's shoulder. “You're awesome.”

Joey had no words. His face flushed with joy and embarrassment. He turned back to Zach.

“I just wish you were going with me. It's like a force-out. I hate that only one of us could make it.”

“Well, maybe someone will have to play trombone in a band competition and drop out. It's been known to happen.” Zach winked at him and kept a serious face for a moment before bursting into laughter.

Joey laughed, too. “You bet, bro.”