The Case of the Slippery Salamander (5 page)

Encyclopedia and Sally found seats right behind the Indians’ Bench. On the field, the Idaville players were warming up. When Tara Padrowski stepped up to the plate to take a practice swing, she hit the ball so hard, it rocketed over the fence.

“That was a home run, and this is only practice!” Sally cheered.

Mr. Padrowski stood up and took a bow. “That’s my daughter!” he shouted. “Did you see her smack that ball out of the park? She’s going to blow the Porpoises’ socks off!”

A few parents in the Porpoises’ section glared at him.

“Oh yeah?” a Porpoise fan shouted at Mr. Padrowski. “Well, my grandmother could hit your pitcher’s best stuff!”

Encyclopedia listened as the adults continued trading insults.

“The parents seem pretty uptight about this game,” he finally said to Sally.

She nodded. “I heard that last week during the play-offs, three fathers had to leave the park because they were disrupting the game.”

“Really?” Encyclopedia shook his head. “I know it’s the championship and everything, but it’s still just a game.”

On the field, the players’ warm-up had ended several minutes ago.

“Why hasn’t the game started yet?” Sally asked.

“Something must be up,” Encyclopedia replied. He noticed the Indians’ coach talking with the Porpoises’ coach. Both men looked worried.

“What’s going on?” Encyclopedia asked a player on the bench.

“The umpire had car trouble on his way to the field,” the player explained. “They’ve been calling around for a substitute ump, but everyone’s away. If they can’t find someone to fill in, we’ll have to postpone the game.”

One of the fathers in the Porpoises’ section overheard their conversation. He jumped to his feet and waved to the coaches. “I can fill in!”

“Really?” The Indians’ coach looked at him. “You’ve worked as an ump before, sir?”

“I sure have,” the man replied confidently. “I was an umpire in the major leagues for three years before I became a computer salesman.”

“Okay, Mr. Payne,” the Porpoises’ coach replied. “You’ve got yourself a job.”

The Indians’ coach found an umpire’s mask and pads. Mr. Payne put on the equipment, and a minute later the game finally began.

The Indians took the lead in the bottom of the first inning when Tara Padrowski hit a two-run homer out of the park.

“Tara is hot tonight!” Sally exclaimed.

But by the sixth inning, Encyclopedia was getting worried. The Idaville Indians were losing 5 to 2.

The worst part was, Encyclopedia had the feeling that the substitute umpire was making bad calls against the Indians on purpose.

In the fourth inning, he had thrown out Jimmy Rivera, who was trying to steal second base. Jimmy had looked safe to Encyclopedia and Sally. And after Tara’s two-run homer, the ump started calling three strikes on her every time she was up.

Now Tara stood on deck, getting ready for her next turn at bat.

“He’s no pitcher.… He’s no pitcher.…,” someone in the Indians’ section chanted.

“Keep your eye on the ball, Tara!” her father shouted.

Before Tara stepped over to the plate, the umpire bent down to dust it off. Encyclopedia noticed the words
DON’T GO WRONG
 … 
BUY A KRUMM COMPUTER
on the back of his blue T-shirt.

“Maybe the ump will finally give Tara a break and let her get on base,” Sally said.

“I hope so,” Encyclopedia replied. “I don’t think the Indians can win this game if she doesn’t get a hit soon.”

The first pitch was high. Tara didn’t swing.

“Good eye, Tara!” yelled her father.

But the umpire didn’t see it that way.
“Str-r-r-rike!”
he called out.

“Are you blind?” Sally shot up from her seat. “That ball was as high as the moon!”

“Get a pair of glasses, Ump!” someone else yelled.

Tara glared at the umpire, shuffling her feet in the dirt.

The next pitch came in high again, and the
ump called another strike. But Tara didn’t lose her cool until the third pitch came in wide and low.

“
Str-r-r-r-ike three!
You’re out!”

Tara threw down her bat and stalked over to her coach. “You’ve got to do something about that ump, Coach! He’s trying to make us lose the game!”

Coach Anderson stormed over to the umpire, fuming. “I thought you said you knew how to call a game!”

The umpire lifted his mask and glared at the coach. “You’d better stay out of this, Coach!” he shouted back. “In the major leagues, managers get thrown out for insults like that.”

“He’s the worst umpire I’ve ever seen,” Sally said glumly. She sank back onto the bench. “It would be one thing if the Indians lost the championship because they weren’t playing well. But if they lose because of his bad calls …”

“The fans will go nuts,” Encyclopedia said.

He kept his eye on the umpire as the man bent down to dust off the plate for the next Indians batter. As Encyclopedia read the words on the back of the man’s T-shirt again, something clicked in his mind.

“We’ve got to stop the game, Sally! That man never worked as an umpire before. He’s a major-league liar!”

How did Encyclopedia know?

(Turn to
this page
for the solution to The Case of the Umpire’s Error.)

W
ith the temperature in the nineties, Encyclopedia and Sally decided to beat the heat by heading to the Convention Center. It was air-conditioned.

The National Boat and Fishing Show had opened there. Encyclopedia liked looking at all the fancy boats and fishing equipment for sale.

The two detectives started on the top floor. They roamed around for a long time looking at motorboats, kayaks, and canoes.

The sailboats and bigger boats were displayed on the ground floor. Booths selling fishing gear and boating supplies had been set up there too.

Sally went to look at a large yacht. Encyclopedia stopped at a nearby booth with a sign that said
SHELLS AND MORE SHELLS
. The booth sold rare sea-shells from around the world and objects decorated with shells.

Encyclopedia was looking at a mussel-shell soap dish when Sally waved him over.

“Check out this boat, Encyclopedia!” Sally exclaimed, pointing to the enormous yacht. The yacht’s name,
Amazing Grace
, was painted on her side. “She has a rec room, a large-screen TV, two Ping-Pong tables, and a hot tub. I would love to cruise around the world on this!”

Encyclopedia was about to remind his partner that she got seasick after a few minutes aboard a canoe. But just then, a salesman approached. His name tag read:

“
Amazing Grace
is a beauty, isn’t she?” he said proudly.

“How much does she cost?” Sally asked.

“She’s not for sale anymore,” Ron replied. “I sold her yesterday. In fact, I wrapped up the paperwork this morning.”

Encyclopedia was curious. “Who bought the yacht?”

“Maury and Estelle Hinton bought it,” the salesman answered. “They want to cruise around the Greek islands with their nine-year-old son. They paid over a million dollars for it. Can you believe that?”

“Wow.” Sally let out a low whistle. “That’s a lot of money.”

“It sure is, and I’ll tell you kids something,” Ron went on. “Not everyone could handle a big sale like that. If I weren’t such a good salesman …”

Ten minutes later, Encyclopedia and Sally finally managed to escape the talkative salesman.

“Whew!” Sally stifled a yawn. “I thought he was going to brag about selling that boat all day long.”

“Me too,” Encyclopedia agreed. “He sure likes to talk.”

As they started down the aisle toward the sailboats, Encyclopedia spotted his father. Chief Brown was writing in a small notebook as he spoke with a tall, well-dressed man. The man had an arm around a woman who was weeping.

“Dad!” Encyclopedia hurried over. “Is everything okay?”

“Hello, Leroy.” Chief Brown spoke quietly and his expression was grim. “This is Mr. and Mrs.
Hinton. Their son was kidnapped from the convention center a short while ago.”

“Oh, no!” Sally exclaimed.

Encyclopedia instantly recognized the name. “You’re the couple who bought
Amazing Grace
, right?”

“That’s right,” Mr. Hinton said with a scowl. “Thanks to that loudmouth salesman from the Ship-Shape Company, everyone in the convention center knows we bought that boat!”

Mrs. Hinton nodded as she dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “We think that’s why our son was kidnapped. Someone must have heard Ron talking about how much we paid for
Amazing Grace
.”

Encyclopedia listened closely as his father filled in more details about the case.

The Hintons had come to the convention center first thing that morning to finish signing the papers to buy the boat. While they were busy, their nine-year-old son, Kent, sat by himself in an empty office.

“He had a pad of paper and his calculator with him,” Mr. Hinton said. “Kent is a math genius, and he’s always been able to amuse himself for hours with his calculator.”

“He loves to solve problems and play tricks
with that thing,” Mrs. Hinton added, bursting into tears again.

“Now, now, honey.” Her husband patted her shoulder.

“When the Hintons went to collect Kent, he was gone,” Chief Brown finished. “An hour later, they discovered that a ransom note had been left for them at the Message Center—the kidnapper is demanding two million dollars for Kent’s return.”

Sally gasped at the huge figure.

Encyclopedia offered to help, then asked his father to lead him to the office where Kent had been waiting for his parents.

As the Hintons had described, it was a small, bare office just off the main floor of the convention center. The only furniture was a metal desk and a chair. A blank white pad and a calculator sat in the middle of the desk.

Chief Brown explained that since the office was a crime scene, nothing in it had been touched or moved.

“Is that Kent’s?” Encyclopedia asked, pointing to the calculator.

Kent’s parents nodded.

“It was left behind, with the power still on,” Chief Brown said.

Encyclopedia went behind the desk and looked at the calculator. It was a new and very expensive model that could perform lots of fancy functions. When he looked at the display screen, he noticed a series of numbers—
577345
.

Sally scratched her head. “I wonder what Kent was calculating.”

Encyclopedia looked at her, still thinking.

“I know what Kent was calculating!” he burst out a moment later. “He was counting on someone to read the numbers from the
front
of the desk, not behind it!”

What does Encyclopedia mean?

(Turn to
this page
for the solution to The Case of the Calculating Kid.)