

BROOKS BERRY IN

The Case of The Stolen Season

Michael James

Published by Michael James at Smashwords

Copyright 2010 Michael James

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Chapter 1 - Practice Makes Perfect

The summer was starting to give away its secret that it was over. The nights were becoming cooler and the sun was setting a few minutes earlier each day. Brooks Berry noticed things like that. Brooks noticed a lot of things that other 12 year olds didn't.

He was tall for being only 12, had blond hair and blue eyes and was pretty skinny. He would be starting junior high this year. That could be intimidating for some kids, but he wasn't that scared; he was a pretty confident kid. Usually one of the smarter ones in his classes, but the thing that stood out about Brooks the most was his ability to solve puzzles and riddles. Ask him anything - he knew how to solve it. Or don't ask him - he'll probably already have asked himself the question and was on his way to solving it. He was always asking questions that were different from other kids his age. He was putting together adult puzzles when he was 5 or 6. Doing crossword puzzles meant for adults. And he loved mysteries. He loved reading old Sherlock Holmes books and the Hardy Boys. He frequently was able to solve the mystery before the end of the book, but he loved it when he wasn't able to. It helped him hone his skills, challenge his mind and look at things other than the obvious.

The doorbell rang and Brooks ran downstairs to meet his friend Brad Klemz. Brad was here to pick him up and they were going to head to the high school football field to throw the ball around. Brooks wasn't a big fan of playing football - it seemed like the football always hurt his fingers when he tried to catch it. Or worse, the pointy end would hit him in the chest. He hated that!

Brooks was named after Brooks Robinson - a 3rd basemen who played with the Baltimore Orioles many years ago. He'd seen him play on some stuff his dad had recorded off of TV and some clips on YouTube. He thought it was pretty cool to be named after someone like that. Baseball was really Brooks' sport - it was almost as if his dad had known that and that's why he had been given that name. He even played 3rd base on his little league team \- the same position Brooks Robinson did.

When Brooks and Brad got to the football field it was already taken by the high school guys who had a summer practice. "Whoa - check it out!" Brooks exclaimed, pointing to the giant new scoreboard. "Wow, that's massive!" Brad said, staring in awe, "I heard they were going to get a new one, but I had no idea it would be so cool."

The scoreboard must have been about 4 stories high, was painted a bright green and even had a video screen on it. It also had several advertisements on it just like a professional one. It was the biggest and newest in the entire state and the pride of the school district. There was some rumblings from the other coaches and principals. They were jealous of the school and how this school was able to get the new scoreboard before them.

The field was abuzz with activities. The coaches were barking orders and putting the players through their drills. Lot's of whistles shrieking and loud yelling. The crash of pads being smacked together as bodies hurled into each other sounded like shotgun blasts upon each impact.

Brad was a big guy for being only 12, tall like Brooks, but a lot heavier - not fat, just a bigger guy, dark brown hair that was sort of shaggy and a bit ruffled looking - even with a rigorous combing - and brown eyes. He had high hopes of playing for the football team at this high school in a few years. He helped Brooks practice baseball and Brooks helped him practice football, even if it meant a sprained finger or a bruised chest.

The two boys walked over to the baseball field that was empty. They started by throwing the football back and forth. Then Brad started to call some plays and Brooks would run the passing route. After a while the boys walked over to the bleachers and climbed to the very top so they could see all that was going on during the practice. This year the Wauwatosa East team had a guy that had been a junior last year playing quarterback - Jeff Kopish. He was the best player to come around in a long time, 6'2, 190 pounds, and lightening fast. He had already racked up a lot of passing records in his 3 years at the school, and his senior year was predicted to be off the charts. Very accurate throws and really able to move around to avoid tackles. His brown eyes flickered around the field to pick up open receivers and avoid the defense like he was playing a video game in Easy Mode. Tosa East was going to be good. It seemed like the team knew it, they had a certain confident attitude that was hard to describe.

Brooks could tell Brad was getting excited watching the action on the field. He was talking very fast and using his hands a lot - "Man, look how Jeff threw that ball - it must have been 40 yards downfield!" The coach heard the boys talking and motioned for them to come to the sidelines. "Hey Brooks, how's it going?" asked Coach Vitrano. "I'm good, Coach - the team looks really good." The coach was a good friend of Brooks' dad. They had gone to high school together. Sometimes Coach Vitrano and his wife would come to their house for cookouts. "Kopish is going to tear it up this year." said the coach. "Tosa West will never know what hit them."

Wauwatosa West - or Tosa West for short - was their cross-town rival. Every year they seemed to find a way to beat Tosa East in the state championship. "Just wait until I can play!" piped in Brad. "That will be a great day - just a few years away, Brad," replied Coach. "We also have some pretty cool trick plays that I can't wait to show the world. We got all new computers and software for reviewing game tapes and designing plays. This will be our best year ever. Technology is going to change how we play this game." They boys said goodbye to the coach, gathered their bikes and headed home.

Chapter 2 - Dinner with Uncle Mike

Brooks' Uncle Mike was a policeman with the Wauwatosa Police Department. He was one of Brooks' favorite people and Brooks' dad's brother. Uncle Mike was really funny and really smart - very tall and in great shape. He went to the gym a lot and did some MMA fighting - if you didn't know him, he could be scary looking. He shared Brooks' ability to solve puzzles and was always asking questions. The police car pulled up in front of the house and Brooks ran up to greet it. He still loved sitting in the front seat of the patrol car and pretending to be a cop even though he was getting a bit old for it! "Anything cool happen today, Uncle Mike?" Brooks asked. "Nope, another slow day," said Uncle Mike, "just the way I like it." Brooks knew Uncle Mike was lying. He knew that he loved the action part of his job - putting bad people in jail, keeping the neighborhood where he had grown up safe but also being able to outsmart criminals.

"Well, I take that back, we did have one interesting case. This kid was stealing bikes and putting them on Craig's List. But he was pretty clever about it - he'd take the bikes apart, paint them a different color and then swap parts, so it wouldn't look like the same bike when he was done." Brooks asked how he got caught. Uncle Mike said, "Well it was a real mystery for a while. Big rash of bike thefts and they weren't turning up anywhere. Most stolen bikes get found eventually because the guy stealing them has to sell them. But here, he was selling different bikes that didn't look the same.

What he forgot was that most bike frames have serial numbers on them. We looked on Craig's List and found a guy who had a bunch of bikes for sale. I had one of our cadets email him to see if he could come over to see a bike. He saw the garage full of bikes in various stages of being taken apart and rebuilt. Then he looked at 2 different bikes and pretended like he was taking a picture of them to show his mom. But he was really photographing the serial numbers with his phone. The serial numbers are a set of numbers the manufacturer engraves on the bike frame. Every bike has a different one. When he came back to the station, we ran the serial numbers against our stolen bike database. I went over and arrested him. Boy, his mom was angry! I guess she should have asked him some questions when she saw 20 bikes in the garage!"

"I know my mom would have," said Brooks. Brooks' parents were cool for the most part. But sometimes his mom was a little nosy. It wasn't that big a deal because Brooks didn't have much to hide, but you have to have some secrets from your parents - especially when you are 12!

Uncle Mike and Brooks walked up to the house together. Uncle Mike was going to have dinner with Brooks and his family. Brooks' dad liked to barbeque outside a lot. Brooks wasn't a big fan of barbeque because he was a vegetarian. He got made fun of sometimes for that but he didn't care. He had gone to a farm once and after seeing how cool and gentle the cows were and decided he could never eat one of them. When the family had barbeque Brooks' mom made sure that he had some veggie burgers for his dad to cook for him on the grill. With some cheese and ketchup on them, you'd never know the difference. Brooks' mom was pretty cool that way, she really supported his choice to eat that way - in fact, she had been trying to become a vegetarian too, but she still slipped once in a while. But she was trying!

As his mom served the burgers that his dad had cooked, Brooks sat down at the table outside. His dog Ripken sat by his side. Ripken was a white cattle dog who weighed about 35 pounds and sported a brown colored fur patch over one eye, on his ears and a couple more brown spots on his sides and back. He was named after Cal Ripken the Baltimore Orioles' Hall of Fame shortstop. He thought it was a cool name when he picked it out. It kept the baseball theme going in the family names! Ripken would do anything for a piece of food. His favorite trick was to put his paw on your leg while you were eating as if to remind you that he was hungry too, or if he was sitting on the couch next to you, to rest his head on your shoulder.

His dad had turned off the grill and was sitting with Brooks and Uncle Mike. Brooks' dad was shorter than his Uncle Mike. He was about 5'11, and was a little bit overweight. He worked a lot and didn't have too much time to do things for himself. He made sure he never missed one of Brooks' baseball games though. His hair was getting a little thin on top and a little gray on the sides. He was a good dad though - he was funny and didn't give Brooks too much of a hard time - except when he deserved it.

"So, son, it's been a while since you've had a mystery to solve! What do you have going on?" Brooks' dad was referring to what the family liked to call the Case of the Exploding Mailboxes. A bunch of mailboxes had been vandalized in Brooks' neighborhood. It started with one - the Miller Family's. Then it started happening every few days and it went on that way for about a month. Brooks didn't really notice or care until HIS family's mailbox suddenly ended up exploding one night around midnight. The next day Brooks went out and started examining it and amongst the busted up mailbox pieces were some papers with Chinese writing on it. Brooks smelled the papers and realized that they were firecrackers. Chinese firecrackers rang a bell somewhere in the back of his mind. He had thought long and hard about it. Earlier in the year he had remembered seeing a Facebook posting from one of his classmates that his dad had been to China and brought back some souvenirs including fireworks. Brooks' classmate was a good kid, but he had an older brother - Buzz - who was a bit of a troublemaker. He went back to Facebook and realized that his posting about his dad returning from China was one week before the mailbox bombing began. The timing made sense. He dug further into Buzz's Facebook postings. One simply read "BOOM" and it was the same night as one of the explosions. After doing some more investigating and an exciting late night stakeout with his Uncle Mike, the boy was arrested and charged with vandalism. Brooks was a neighborhood hero and the local paper wrote a story about him and how he had found the culprit and made the discovery. It made Brooks feel good that he was able to help out his neighborhood and from then on he decided to do everything he could to help make Wauwatosa a better place to live.

Chapter 3 - Game 1

Tosa East opened up their football season against a smaller school, Eisenhower. Brooks and Brad hopped on their bikes and headed out into the Friday night to watch the game. They had high hopes that the Tosa East Raiders would open up with a big victory against a weaker rival. The ride lasted about 10 minutes and when they got to the school, they locked up their bikes in the bike rack and walked towards the field.

The two friends stopped at the concession stand where Brooks got some popcorn and a soda and Brad got a pack of Red Vines and a Gatorade. As they turned away from the concession stand a man with long hair and a baseball hat was walking quickly towards the parking lot. He looked like he was in a real hurry, as he walked by the boys, his left arm accidently banged into Brooks, sending the popcorn bucket to the ground, "Hey!" yelled Brooks.

The man kept on walking quickly out of the area and headed towards the parking lot. Brad started to chase after the man, but Brooks stopped him – "Just let him go, I wasn't that hungry anyways." Quick-tempered Brad was flushed red, "I'll make him buy you a new bucket of popcorn!" "Don't worry about it, it's not worth it," said Brooks. "Well you can have some of my Red Vines if you want," offered Brad.

They walked into the field and took their seats in the bleachers with the rest of their classmates, parents and the high school kids. Brooks was excited that soon he would be one of them. A lot of the kids were dressed in red and white, Tosa East's school colors.

Eisenhower had a losing record last season and really no great improvement to the team this year. A rout was fully expected as this was going to be Jeff Kopish's big debut as a senior quarterback. Brad said, "I wonder if we'll see any of the trick plays that Coach was talking about." Brooks shook his head, "I doubt it, they probably won't need them in this game - but I'm sure we'll see some when they play the Trojans." The Trojans were the team name of the Tosa West football team - their big rival.

The whistle blew and the game started. The Raiders had lost the coin flip and headed to their positions. Eisenhower returned the kickoff to about the 25. On the first play, the Raiders blitzed the Eisenhower Lion's Quarterback who quickly dumped the ball over the oncoming rushers for a 25-yard completion. The Raiders appeared to be a bit stunned that the Lion's had so easily read the blitz and gotten the completion.

The next play was a 15-yard run up the middle. The 3rd play of the drive was a long pass to the wide receiver lined up on the left side. When the pass left the Lion's quarterback's hand, Brooks shouted, "This will be a pick! You don't throw to Joe Lofy's side of the field!" Joe was the Senior All State cornerback. There was a lot of talk of him going to a big NCAA school next year on a scholarship. Somehow the Lion receiver had two steps on Joe and the ball glided right over his shoulder into his outstretched arms and the receiver made the gap 3 steps, then 4, then 5 - then a touchdown. "I've never seen Joe get beaten so badly," sighed Brad. Joe was dejected as he walked to the sidelines. Brooks noticed a slight limp, hardly noticeable, but noticeable to an eye for details like Brooks. The trainer ran over to Joe on the sidelines and Coach Vitrano sent Jeff Kopish into the game to start the offensive drive. They had run the kick back to the 35-yard line, so he had good field position.

Coach V and the offense had been going over the first set of plays very thoroughly all week in preparation for this game. The first 10 were all scripted, so Jeff felt very prepared as he ran onto the field and strapped on his helmet. The first play was a short pass to the tight end - Jeff called out the play "BLUE, XRAY, 17, LEFT...HUT..HUT..HIKE!" The ball was snapped into Jeff's hands and he took a few steps backwards "Shoot" he thought, "Tight end covered by 2 guys, I can't pass there." He calmly looked for his second choice a quick dump out to the running back "What the? He's covered too!" Jeff looked downfield to see if one of his wide receivers was open...

CRUSH! Jeff didn't see the defender that was about to hit him from behind. 250 pounds of what felt like a 30 year old man was lying on top of him. "How does a high school kid weigh this much?" Jeff thought. He had been sacked for a 10-yard loss. Brooks looked at Brad and groaned. The second play was supposed to be a double reverse. Jeff would take the snap and hand it off to a player streaking to the left who would then hand it off to a player streaking to the right. He got to the line of scrimmage and called the play "RED DOG, XRAY, 3 BLACK...HUT...HIKE"

The ball was slammed into his hands; he took two steps back and handed off to the player streaking left - perfect handoff, just like in practice. The ball was handed off for the second time perfectly to the runner streaking to the right THUD. Eisenhower's defenders had read the play and didn't bite on the original direction of the play. Instead they held back and moved over to the right anticipating the reverse and easily tackled the player with the ball - loss of 2 yards.

"Whoa" sighed Brad. Coach Vitrano stood on the sidelines looking like a man who had seen a ghost. Two plays in a row that were smelled from a mile away.

The third play was supposed to be a medium pass route. "HIKE" yelled Jeff. A second later the ball was in his hands and he was stepping backwards quickly. Jeff started his receiver check off - Option 1 was covered. Quick scan to option 2 - covered. Quick scan to option 3 - covered. Jeff couldn't believe it. He ran to the left where he saw an opening and was able to get about 5 yards before being tackled. It was fourth down and Jeff headed to the sidelines as the punting crew ran onto the field. He walked over to Coach and said, "I don't know what's going on....nothing worked out there." Coach Vitrano was over his initial shock and back to his calm self. "No big deal, Jeff. It happens. Stick to the play, we'll get them next time."

The Lions made some progress downfield but then had to punt. Jeff strapped on his white helmet and headed back out. In the stands Brooks and Brad had a renewed sense of optimism. "Here we go," yelled Brad as he and Brooks bumped fists.

The first play was a run up the middle for short yardage. The next play was an incomplete pass.

In the huddle Jeff's frustration was showing. "We need to make a big play here. Who is going to step up?" he barked. He looked over at the sidelines. Coach Vitrano signaled for one of the new trick plays - the Statue of Liberty play with a twist - the running back would have the option to throw it or run it based on what would result in more yardage.

They had worked extensively on it over the summer and they had it disguised so well that nobody ever caught on; it even fooled their own defense during practice. It always resulted in big yardage.

CLAP, the team clapped their hands in unison and broke the huddle running to their positions. "GREEN GOBLIN, BLACK LEFT, 24 GO, HIKE!" Jeff received the snap and dropped back 5 steps. The running back that had lined up wide streaked behind Jeff. Jeff raised the ball as if to throw it downfield and heard the running back's footsteps approaching behind him from his left, suddenly he heard a second set of footsteps to his right. Then he felt the impact at the precise moment the ball was being grabbed out of his hand by the running back to start the second part of the play.

A safety had broken through the line and hit not only Jeff, but also the running back. Since the ball was unprotected at the point during the handoff, the ball flew about 10 feet in the air and 10 feet backwards. Jeff and the running back lay on the ground stunned. The safety scrambled to his feet and ran the ball into the end zone to score a touchdown. Coach Vitrano threw his clipboard to the ground, "How is this happening? That play is foolproof!" Brooks and Brad were crestfallen in the stands. But also bewildered. Eisenhower just wasn't this good. Brooks looked over at the Eisenhower sideline and their Coach Johnson was standing with his arms folded on his chest, a small smile on his face.

By halftime the huge new scoreboard announced the score as 35-7 with Eisenhower firmly in control. As the teams ran off the field to the locker rooms, Brad & Brooks just stared at each other. "I don't understand this," said Brooks. "I can't either," said Brad, "It's not as if they are playing badly, they are just being beaten badly." "Let's go, I've seen enough," said Brooks.

To make matters worse, the scoreboard announced the half time score of the other games being played around the town. Brookfield East was getting demolished by Tosa West 42-10. The boys groaned in unison and headed towards their bikes.

Chapter 4 Trojan Computers

Before Brooks went to bed he flipped on his Mac computer and opened an internet browser so he could check the local paper's website. The site had the final score of the high school games: Tosa East lost 54-21 and Tosa West was able to beat Brookfield East by 62 to 17. The headline for that game was - MARC ILLE SETS SCHOOL RECORD WITH 420 YARDS OF PASSING

Brooks slumped in his chair and turned off the monitor. "What the heck?" he muttered. He went to bed in a bad mood. Ripken jumped up on the bed with him to go to sleep and the bad mood escaped Brooks. Ripken was always able to cheer him up.

Brooks woke up around 8am and headed downstairs to get breakfast. Ripken followed and Brooks let him outside into the backyard. He poured himself a glass of orange juice and sat at the table reading the paper. There was a note on the table from his parents, WENT TO THE NURSERY TO BUY SOME PLANTS, BACK SOON. His older sister Ally came into the room.

Ally was 16 and a sophomore at Wauwatosa East. She was about 5'8" and very thin with shortish brown hair and a smile that made you think she was up to something. She was dressed in a white Under Armour t-shirt and a pair of gray shorts.

"Bye Brooks, I'm off to go running," she said. She was on the track team and really quite fast. When she was younger she had been diagnosed with Diabetes. You'd never know it though, she was as active and as happy as any kid you'd ever met. She just had to check her blood sugar a few times a day.

Just after the door slammed shut, she reopened it - "Don't forget to take mom's computer into the store to get it fixed this morning!" she yelled as she headed back out. Ripken pawed at the back door and Brooks got up to let him in. He petted his head as he passed him and Ripken returned the favor by stepping on his toe in a mad dash to get to his food.

Brooks finished his breakfast, thought about taking a shower, and then decided against it. "Why shower when I have this baseball hat?" he asked himself. He put on his Red Sox hat, grabbed his mom's laptop and placed it into his backpack. He got his mountain bike from the garage and headed out.

He had to drive by the high school to get to the computer store. The football team was given the day off after the game. School started next Monday, so there was plenty of activity still going on at the school even though it was a Saturday morning. As he rode by the football field, he saw Coach Vitrano out on the field by the new scoreboard. He rode his bike out onto the track circling the football field. The coach was just walking around looking at the field with a notebook in his hand.

"Hey Brooks," he called out when he saw him approaching on his bike. "Hi Coach. What happened last night?" Coach Vitrano answered - "I wish I knew, Brooks. We looked so good in practice. We had some great plays worked out. The whole school district got these new high tech software programs that help us design and run plays online in virtual situations. Kopish and I went through them over and over at my desk for hours last week after practice. He knew the plays cold. Unfortunately, it seemed like everyone else knew exactly what play we'd be running also!"

"Sorry Coach," said Brooks. "At least its a long season - you'll have more games to show them."

Brooks looked over at the scoreboard. It was huge, probably about 50 feet high. 2 legs supported the huge screen. A door on one of the legs was ajar. Brooks walked over to it and opened it - it opened to a ladder so you could climb up inside the scoreboard. "Can I check it out, Coach?" asked Brooks. "Go for it," he answered, "just be careful, there's a lot of expensive equipment up there."

The door was about 6 feet high, so Brooks was just able to squeeze into the opening to enter the leg. The hollow cylindrical leg contained a ladder with about 15 rungs on it. Brooks climbed the ladder and reached the main level of the scoreboard. Once inside the scoreboard he was overwhelmed by the smell of stale cigarette smoke. "Way to ruin a nice new scoreboard," thought Brooks. He stepped out on the catwalk that ran behind the board. The space was about 6 feet wide from front to back of the scoreboard.

There were 2 more levels above this one with small ladders leading to each of them. Lots of wires and electronics snaked their way through different parts of the board to run the video screen and other panels that displayed various information during the games.

Brooks bent down on the catwalk to look out a little slit in the front of the screen for viewing so he could see the field from way up high. From up here he had a great view of the whole field as it spread out in front of him. "They should sell tickets to sit in here," thought Brooks, "they could make these the smoking seats!" He saw there were cigarette butts thrown on the catwalk too. "This is like a giant ashtray," he thought with disgust. He got out a piece of tissue and gathered up 5 butts so he could throw them away and try to keep the place clean.

He stood back up, walked back to the entrance and headed down the ladder. He was starting to feel a little claustrophobic inside the scoreboard! After climbing down the rungs of the ladder he exited the scoreboard and threw the butts into a trashcan close by.

Before discarding them, he took a look at them. They were strange looking cigarette butts. For someone that didn't smoke, Brooks had spent some quality time with the butts because his little league team sponsored part of a local highway. They kept the roadside clear of trash people had thrown out of their cars. For some reason a lot of people don't think throwing cigarette butts out of their car windows is littering! Brooks hated that since he took pride in the highway his team worked on.

These butts had 3 rings near the part that goes in the mouth - black, metallic gold and red. Strange thought Brooks, never seen that before.

"See ya, Brooks, I have to work on the game plan for next week," yelled Coach V. "Bye, Coach," said Brooks as he hopped back onto his bike after gathering up his backpack.

The computer store was about 2 miles away. The late August sun was pretty hot and Brooks was sweating when he pulled up. Trojan Computers was a pretty small store. Definitely not a BestBuy or one of those types of stores. There were a few computers built from parts for sale. Lots of monitors and cables.

A short man was behind the counter cleaning out a keyboard with compressed air. He was about 5'8" with thinning brown hair. He wore a black golf shirt and jeans. Brooks walked up to the counter and pulled out his computer. "Hi can I help you?" the guy at the counter asked. "My mom called about fixing her computer - Stacy Berry is her name." "Oh right, I remember. Tell her I'll call her after I've done some work on it to see what the problem is."

Brooks looked on the wall and saw a poster with the Tosa West football team's schedule on it. "Tosa West had a good game," said Brooks. "They sure did, and I'll bet they have a bunch more this season!" said the man. "We'll see about that," said Brooks with a smile.

He handed Brooks a copy of the work order to bring back when the computer was done. He looked at the name on the paper and it said Gunther Arno. There was a business card holder on the counter that said "TROJAN COMPUTERS - Gunther Arno - OWNER" "Thanks" said Brooks as he walked out the door and headed to his bike. He entered the combination, unlocked it and headed home.

Chapter 5 Morning Revelations

Brooks woke up the next day and went to the Tosa East page on Facebook. He wanted to see if anybody had anything to say about last week's game. There wasn't much on the page. Most fans were pretty disappointed over starting the season with a loss like that. He hated to do it, but he clicked on the Tosa West page. It was full of congratulations and taunts to Tosa East. He read through the comments and one caught his attention. GREAT GAME, SON! The person who posted that was named Sue Ille-Arno. "Hmm," thought Brooks, "must be Marc's mom," referring to the Tosa West quarterback, Marc Ille.

"That other last name - Arno. I've heard it before. Where??" He couldn't place it. He got up from the computer and turned it to sleep mode. He headed downstairs to get breakfast. He sat down at the table, reached for the remote control and flipped on the TV. He grabbed the paper and opened the paper to the local news section. His toast and juice consumed most of his thought while he scanned the headlines. He was thinking about his day and what he'd do. He was supposed to hook up with Brad later that day to go to the batting cages.

The headline on page 2 caught Brooks' eye. TROJAN COMPUTERS COMPLETES SCHOOL DISTRICT TECHNOLOGY UPGRADE. The article went on to say that Trojan Computers had installed new computers in all of the school district offices and classrooms, redesigned the network for the district and also did the software upgrades on the new scoreboard installed at Tosa East. The story quoted the guy that Brooks had talked to yesterday - Gunther Arno. "That's where I recognized that last name from. Hm. I wonder if he's related to Marc Ille," thought Brooks.

The phone rang, Brooks answered it and it was Brad who wanted to talk about what they were going to do that afternoon. The boys made plans to meet up around 2pm. They decided they would head out to the school to play a game of Strike Out.

Strike Out is a game that you can play with 2, 3 or even 4 guys. One pitches, one hits, and then you could either rotate into the outfield if you had a 3rd or just play 2 on 2. On the school wall a red paint line in the shape of a rectangle formed the strike zone. The pitcher aimed for the strike zone - if he hit it or the batter swung and missed, it was a strike. If he missed the zone and the batter didn't swing - it was a ball. Then in the field there were different landmarks that determined singles, double, triples and over the fence it was a home run. The game was a lot of fun and really helped Brooks with both his hitting and fielding. Today it was just the 2 of them playing. They played for about 90 minutes and by the end they were both hot and tired. Brooks barely beat Brad 6-4.

As they sat on the ground drinking a soda they talked about Tosa East's football debacle. Brad said, "I read about the school district's new computer system - it sounds pretty cool. That stuff that Coach Vitrano was telling us about – the play editing software and video reviews seems really cool too. They are filming every practice and can watch plays on their computers. I guess he and the coaches and some of the players are reviewing every snap and doing simulations. Supposedly some pretty high tech stuff." "Well it didn't show last week," said Brooks. "I know it," agreed Brad. The boys headed their separate ways to go home for dinner.

Chapter 6 Game 2

On Friday morning, Brooks woke up early. He was excited about tonight's second game of the season. He was a little sad though as his summer was drawing to a close. School started the following Monday and while he enjoyed school and was eager to see his friends again, he enjoyed the carelessness of the summer. No schedule to keep, no real responsibilities. He had to take care of Ripken of course, but that was easy.

He finished his toast and juice and grabbed the receipt that the guy at Trojan Computers had given him. His mom's computer was fixed and she'd asked him to go pick it up today. He hopped on his bike and headed out towards the computer store. He reminded himself to ask the owner if he was related to Marc Ille - the Tosa West quarterback.

When he got to the store, he didn't have to ask - Marc was behind the counter watching a playback of a football game on the big screen monitor on the wall opposite the counter.

The bell on the door announced Brooks' arrival and Gunther Arno came out of the back room. The game playing in the background suddenly caught Brooks' attention again as he heard a voice he thought he recognized - it sounded like Coach Vitrano's voice.

Gunther barked at Jeff, "I told you not to watch that!" "Sorry dad." Marc said as he unplugged his laptop and headed towards the back room.

Gunther smiled at Brooks and asked how he could help him. Brooks handed him the receipt and Gunther went to the back room to get the repaired computer.

Brooks leaned over the counter and saw about 10 CD's on the back counter labeled TOSA EAST COACHING SESSION and then with different dates on each one. Brooks didn't know what to make of that. Why would Marc be watching East Coaching Sessions when he went to Tosa West?

Gunther came back out with the computer for Brooks' mom. "Here you go - thanks for your business," he said. " Marc had a great game last week," said Brooks. Gunther looked surprised, then smiled, "He really did. I think you'll see a lot more of those. He's a lock for that Quarterback job at the University."

That surprised Brooks. It was widely speculated that Jeff Kopish would be getting a scholarship and be the starting Quarterback at the University. "We'll see," said Brooks, "Jeff Kopish will give him a run for the money." Gunther's demeanor changed and his face hardened, "We'll see."

Brooks was a little put off by the personality change of seemingly calm Gunther. "Well thanks for fixing this, my mom said she already gave you the credit card number, right?" "That's right. Come again," said Gunther as he smiled and transformed back to his original demeanor.

Brooks walked out of the store putting the computer into his backpack and headed home. Later that day, Brad swung by on his bike and the boys headed out to the game. The bleachers on each side of the field were pretty crowded and buzzing with excitement as the boys climbed up to the top of the stadium. It was a sea of red and white as a lot of the students and parents were dressed in the school colors again to show support for their team.

The Brown Deer Falcons were a decent football team, but nothing to write home about. Tosa East was expected to be able to beat them pretty easily. Tosa East ran back the opening kickoff for a touchdown so they grabbed a quick 7-0 lead. Brad and Brooks cheered loudly. "This is more like it!" yelled Brooks.

On the opening drive for the Falcon's they drove the ball downfield relatively easily before being stopped. They settled for a field goal. 7-3.

The East Raiders threw the ball deep on their opening play. The play had started with a fake handoff that had nobody fooled - the safety drifted over into double coverage on the receiver streaking down the field. He jumped up and grabbed the ball out of the air as the Tosa East receiver went sprawling empty handed onto the turf. The Falcon safety started to run it back and got tackled.

The rest of the game progressed about the same way. Some miscues by the Falcons resulted in 2 more Tosa East touchdowns scored by the defense but they were relatively shut down on their offense. Jeff Kopish ended up throwing for only 83 yards and threw 4 interceptions and no touchdowns.

On the way down the stairs out of the stadium, Brooks and Brad were passing by the field just as Coach Vitrano and the rest of the team were jogging back into the locker room. The coach made eye contact with the boys as he jogged by and just sort of shrugged his shoulders - he didn't really have to say anything, the despair was evident on his face. The rest of the team was equally dejected, confused and some were angry. 52-21 was no way to lose a football game for this team.

The Falcon's followed the Raiders off the field. Their demeanor as was to be expected was much different. They were jubilant. Helmets held high in the air, loud whoops, and high fives.

It made Brooks and Brad a little sick to their stomachs. Their coach wasn't quite as jubilant as everyone else. He was still very happy, but he seemed to be looking around the stands searching for someone. He had his gym bag with him that held his playbooks and a game ball. His Falcon Football baseball hat was pulled down low over his face.

Brooks and Brad followed the team out of the stadium, made their way outside the gate and headed towards their bikes. They were still following the Falcon team as they shared a path to get to the visitors locker room and the parking lot.

The Falcon coach had stopped to talk to a guy with a yellow baseball hat on and very long hair. The man was wearing a blue nylon windbreaker. The coach handed the guy an envelope and a stack of CDs. The coach continued on into the locker room and the guy with the long hair headed towards the parking lot along with the rest of the fans.

Brooks got out his iPhone and looked at the local newspaper's website. He clicked on the sports section and looked at the rest of the high school scores. Tosa West won 35-3. He showed the screen to Brad. They looked at each other and groaned loudly.

Chapter 7 Trapped!

Brooks started school that Monday. School was enjoyable for him. He was a good student and learned quickly. He frequently got bored when the subjects weren't challenging for him, and during that first week while classes were getting ramped up his mind was quick to ponder the terrible start of Tosa East's football season. He thought about how at the end of last season it seemed almost written in stone that Tosa East was going to have a great season this year, and that Jeff Kopish was a star in the making - a sure thing to get the starting role and scholarship for next year at the University. Now 2 games into the season it seemed as though Jeff would be lucky to be a starting quarterback at a community college, and instead Marc Ille, the Tosa West quarterback would be the star of the season and might even have the inside track at that scholarship and the starting QB job.

How did Marc make such tremendous strides over the past year? It just didn't make sense to Brooks. Why did it seem like the other team had an answer for everything Tosa East threw at it, yet Marc Ille and Tosa West were putting on a clinic of how to run over teams.

"Maybe this week we should ride over to Tosa West and see them in action." thought Brooks. He told Brad his plan and he was all for it. "At least we'll get to see some good football, even if it is for that lousy school!"

The week flew by as Brooks met his new teachers and heard them outline what the plan was for the semester ahead.

On Wednesday after school, Brooks was at home playing a video game and his cell phone rang. He didn't use his cell phone too much, it was mainly for emergencies and letting his parents know where he was and where he was going if he was out.

It was his sister Ally. Ally went to Tosa East already. She had forgotten to bring her "Acting Bag." That's what she called her gym bag with a bunch of stuff she had in it for her theater activities.

She was in the school play this year and they had rehearsals a few times a week. The play wasn't scheduled until the spring semester, but they were already in heavy rehearsal mode. She asked Brooks to bring her bag to the high school for her. He said sure, grabbed the bag and hopped on his bike.

After he parked his bike he walked up the front steps of the school and headed to the auditorium to deliver the bag to his sister. He opened the heavy auditorium door and walked down the steep aisle.

"Thanks, Brooks!" Ally said, meeting him halfway. "No problem" said Brooks. "What's up with that?" Brooks asked pointing to a guy running cable in the rafters. "Oh, we are getting our theater wired for streaming our plays live on the internet." Brooks figured it was part of the same renovation that was being done on the entire school system computer network.

On his way back out to his bike, Brooks saw Coach Vitrano who was headed towards his office. "Hey buddy!" yelled the coach. "Hey Coach V." said Brooks.

Coach knew that Brooks loved computers almost as much as sports. He asked Brooks if he wanted to see his new computer software for designing plays. "Of course!" he said. They entered his office and Brooks pulled a chair behind the coach's desk.

Coach flipped on his computer and walked Brooks though the software program. It played videos of old plays and then diagrammed new ones. It also allowed you to view statistics on opposing teams. He could tell what plays they usually did on certain downs and with certain yards to go. Brooks was really impressed by its capabilities.

"Holy cow, this is like what the NFL uses!" exclaimed Brooks. "You aren't kidding!" agreed Coach Vitrano. "I sure am glad that I stopped by to deliver that acting bag for Ally," said Brooks. He said goodbye to the coach and headed out to get his bike.

On his way home he had to drive by the playing field. A man in a blue jacked was standing in front of the scoreboard. He threw down a cigarette, opened the side of the scoreboard and started climbing up into it. Brooks waited a while to see what was up. To kill some time and act inconspicuous, he acted like he was practicing some jumps on his bike in the parking lot while the man remained inside the scoreboard.

After about 15 minutes he came out, closed the door and headed for the parking lot. He threw an empty pack of cigarettes into the trashcan and opened the door of an SUV. The SUV was white and relatively clean on the outside.

From a distance Brooks could see the man was about 6 feet tall and had a shaved head. The SUV took off and headed out towards the main road. Brooks went to the trashcan and looked at the cigarette pack that the man had thrown into it. Turkish Supremes was the name on the pack – imported from Turkey. He rode over to the scoreboard and saw more of the same strange cigarette butts he had seen earlier with the strange markings. "Well now I know that these strange cigarettes are called Turkish Supremes," thought Brooks.

The door to the scoreboard leg was slightly ajar. Brooks opened the door and walked in to take a look. It was dimly lit with just some outside light illuminating the area. The area inside the leg was just a small cylinder that housed the ladder to get to the first level of the scoreboard. He remembered seeing a light switch outside the leg, so he stuck his head back out to find it and flipped it on. He turned it on and from above fluorescent lights lit the area up brightly.

Brooks climbed up the metal steps of the ladder. When he reached the main level, there was cabling everywhere and a lot of different computers and servers. Cigarette butts still littered the floor and the room smelled of smoke from a freshly smoked cigarette.

He walked down the narrow hallway inside the scoreboard and climbed up a metal ladder next to the far wall that took him up to the scaffolding that served as the second floor with more video equipment on it.

From outside he faintly heard a vehicle's tires crunching on the gravel path that led up to the scoreboard from the parking lot. Brooks ducked down. He wasn't really sure he was supposed to be in here. Coach Vitrano had let him in that one time, but now he might get in trouble if got caught up here again.

Suddenly the room went dark and the only light was the daylight from the outside. A loud voice screamed into the scoreboard. "STAY OUT OF WHERE YOU DON'T BELONG AND MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!" a man's voice roared and the door slammed shut below Brooks.

Brooks was startled but not scared. He figured it was probably a maintenance man who had a bad day.

He made his way back to the ladder to get down to the door. When he got to the ground, he was dismayed to find the door was locked from the outside. He was trapped inside the scoreboard!

Chapter 8 ESCAPE!

Now he was a little concerned. His heart fell further when he realized that his backpack containing his cell phone was outside, slung over his bike seat. How was he going to get out of here?

Inside the scoreboard it was very dim, only lit from the early evening sun creeping in through the cracks around some seams in the metal scoreboard. He remembered seeing a lighter on the ground of the first level - probably abandoned by the guy who was here earlier that was smoking. He somehow managed to find the lighter in the dark shadows and shook it. It still contained a small amount of fluid, but not much. He would have a little bit of a back up plan if things got too dark.

He needed to find a way out and quick. If he were stuck in there overnight, he'd be in trouble, both at home and probably with the school too.

In the back of the scoreboard there was a small hole where a rivet had fallen out. He looked through it and saw nothing but empty parking lot. He didn't want to have to bang on the metal scoreboard or yell and draw attention to the fact he was inside without permission, but it would have been a nice backup plan. With nobody around, that option wasn't even available to him.

He crawled up the ladder to the 2nd story scaffold and lit the lighter to illuminate his surroundings. It was all computer wires and the backs of video screens. He reached the ladder leading to the 3rd level scaffolding and climbed up it. He was now at the top level of the scoreboard, probably 30 feet above the ground. He flicked the lighter on and walked the length of the board. It was probably 50 feet wide.

He saw a panel of the scoreboard that was attached by bolts and nuts. He tried to twist one of the nuts to see if he could unscrew it and remove the panel. If he were able to do that he'd at least have an opening to the outside. He squeezed the nut between his thumb and forefinger and twisted, but it was too tight to unscrew by hand.

He continued to walk the length of the board, and saw that there were 2 more panels of similar size further down. They were about 6 feet long and 3 feet tall. The first one had THOMPSON'S SPORTING GOODS written on the back of it. "These must be the advertising signs that I see on the scoreboard," thought Brooks. He reached out and tried to remove these nuts by hand also, but to no avail. "Whoever put these signs up must take a lot of pride in their work," thought Brooks - they were all on way too tight for him to remove the nuts by hand.

Brooks sighed with despair. He turned around and climbed back down to the first level. He was annoyed and starting to get a bad case of claustrophobia from being trapped in this relatively small space. The stench of old cigarette smoke wasn't helping him either.

The sun was starting to sink and the light inside was decreasing rapidly. "What am I going to do?" he asked himself.

Despair started to get to him as he slumped down against the wall and sat. Brooks grabbed a tennis ball that was sitting next to him and he started to bounce it against the wall and catch the rebound. The repetitive action was helping him think. He ran through and dismissed numerous escape options.

As the light grew dimmer, it was harder to see the ball as it returned from hitting the wall. After one throw the ball bounced off Brooks' leg and careened down the narrow passage and came to rest against the far wall.

Brooks walked over to get it and noticed something tucked under the ladder leading to the 2nd floor. It looked like a fishing tackle box. He opened it up and discovered it was full of tools. He held up the lighter and saw the solution – a shiny metal wrench.

He grabbed the wrench and hopped up to the ladder. He reached the 3rd level and undid the nuts holding the advertising sign on to the scoreboard. It fell to the ground outside and exposed a hole in the front of the scoreboard that Brooks could easily fit through. The only problem was that it was about 30 feet above the ground! Way too high to jump. He looked around and saw nothing he'd be able to use to get down.

"Great," sighed Brooks, "it's like a starving man being given a bowl of wax fruit!" Then it hit him - THE COMPUTER CABLES! He'd be able to join them together and form a rope that would allow him to get to the ground! He scampered down the ladders and went to a cardboard box he's seen earlier full of computer cables. He found four 10-foot cables and quickly knotted them together, using some knots he'd learned from his Uncle Mike when they'd gone camping last year. "Forty feet should be plenty of room," thought Brooks. He took the cables up to the top landing. Just to make sure, he leaned his head out the opening in the scoreboard and threw one end of the cable down to the ground. The end hit the ground with a thud. He looked back and saw a steel beam to which he'd be able to tie the other end. He attached it using a figure 8 knot and gave it a good hard tug. It held tight and the tension only made it tighter. "Here goes nothing," thought Brooks.

Chapter 9 The CD

Brooks eased himself out of the scoreboard opening into the dusk. He was afraid of heights and this wasn't easy for him, but he knew he had no other choice except to stay up there overnight. He held on for dear life as he lowered himself slowly. "Don't look down, don't look down," he kept telling himself. He'd have loved to have just slid down but that would have resulted in a severe burn to his hands from the friction of the cable sliding between his palms. So instead he descended hand over hand, the strong computer cables easily supporting his weight. His hands and feet locked onto the cables in a death grip.

When he reached the ground he looked up and felt proud of his accomplishment. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!" he thought. As he exited the school football field he had to walk by the entrance to the scoreboard. A thick lock was on the clasp of the door. A piece of paper was stuck to the door. He walked over to it and removed it. It read MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS AND STAY OUT OF WHERE YOU DON'T BELONG. He crumpled up the paper and through it in the trash. "You've just made this my business," thought Brooks angrily. It still confused him – why would a maintenance man get so upset about this? If anything he would have just climbed up to tell him to leave the scoreboard. In fact if a school worker locked a kid in there on purpose he probably would have gotten in some real trouble. "Something strange is going on here," thought Brooks, "I've stumbled on something that someone didn't want me to see." Brooks got on his bike and headed home for dinner.

On Friday night, he and Brad headed to Tosa West. It was probably about 15 miles away and it was dark outside too, so Brad's dad offered to drive the boys to the game. "I can't believe you are going to see the enemy," he joked with the boys on the way over. "It's advance scouting - tonight Tosa West plays Kenosha, and next week Kenosha plays East." explained Brad. "I knew there must be some good reason to go into enemy territory," said Brad's dad. He dropped them off and they arranged to meet him 1/2 hour after the game ended in the parking lot.

They arrived at the school parking lot at the exact time the Kenosha bus pulled up. The coaches and players got off the bus as Brad and Brooks watched. An older guy got off the bus last. He had on a red nylon jacket with the name RUSSELL on it in white lettering and a baseball hat that said KENOSHA on it. The boys realized it was Coach Russell - coach of the Kenosha team.

A guy with long hair, a mustache and a yellow hat on walked up to him and tried to hand him a manila colored mailing envelope. He appeared to be agitated and kept trying to put the envelope into the older man's hand. Now it was the coach's turn to get agitated. He was walking towards the school locker room area being followed by the guy with the long hair. He pointed towards the parking lot and then at the guy. The coach reached out, grabbed the envelope and threw it about 10 feet away.

The envelope spun to the ground and split open. CD's went flying across the ground. The man with the long hair appeared upset as he quickly tried to gather the CD's and get back to his car to leave. The envelope had landed on the ground and skidded across the pavement until it came to rest alongside the base of one of the parking lot lights. The man had missed getting one of the CD's as it was obscured from his vision behind the light's base.

Brooks went over to it and picked up the CD. TOSA EAST COACH'S OFFICE was the title on the CD. It was written on the CD in red pen.

Brooks looked up to find the guy that had been talking to the coach. He saw the man nearing his white SUV so Brooks started running over to it. Brooks made it to the parking lot just in time to catch the guy squealing his tires as he left the parking lot.

"Oh well," thought Brooks. Brad caught up to Brooks. "What is that?" he asked. Brooks looked at the disk, "Hm, it's a CD for a computer. TOSA EAST COACH'S OFFICE - that's strange. I wonder what it is," said Brooks.

Brad didn't think too much about it, as he was anxious to get into the game. He always got very excited during sporting events. Brooks put the disk in his jacket coat and the boys headed into the game and saw Tosa West destroy yet another team. Kenosha played relatively well, but Tosa West had all of the answers. Marc Ille easily beat them throwing for 309 yards and 5 touchdowns. 42-7 was the final score. But they just didn't do anything special.

On the way out, Brad said "It just sort of looks like they go through the motions. There is no real athleticism there - its just they are at the right place at the right time."

Brooks couldn't resist taking that opportunity to tease Brad, "Sort of like how Ripken was there at the right time last summer?" Brad rolled his eyes as Brooks erupted in laughter. Last summer during a neighborhood picnic in Brooks' backyard Brad was teasing Ripken by putting a dog treat in the back pocket of his swimming trunks and walking around the yard. Brooks was going to take a picture of Ripken walking behind Brad to get the treat, up on his hind legs, but Ripken decided to grab the treat through Brad's trunks with his mouth and take off running. Unfortunately, Brad's trunks came with the treat and Brooks had snapped the picture of Ripken yanking down Brad's trunks and the most embarrassed look on Brad's face. It was the highlight of Brooks' summer and he never missed a chance to let him forget about it.

Brad's dad dropped Brooks off at his house. "Thanks Mr. Klemz" said Brooks. "See you tomorrow Brad!" Brooks headed up to his house.

He put his hands in his pocket and felt the CD. The event in the parking lot and the CD had slipped his mind during the game. His curiosity was high to see why Coach Russell had been so agitated over it. He popped it into his computer. He found the disk on the computer drive and double clicked on it. A video player opened and the date popped up "9/5". The video started playing - it was just an empty office with a computer on the desk and some notepads on the top of the desk. Suddenly, Brooks got a sinking feeling in his stomach- he knew that office. It was Coach Vitrano's. Now the title on the CD made sense. On the video there was some noise and the door opened into the empty office. Brooks recognized Coach Vitrano and then was taken aback to see himself on his computer! Coach Vitrano and Brooks walked into the room on the video. Brooks started getting a very creepy feeling - it was video of the day that Brooks had shown up to drop off Ally's acting bag. It looked like it was being filmed from behind Coach Vitrano's desk. He continued watching the scene unfold as the entire demonstration the coach had done that day was on the video. On the video Brooks left the Coach's office but it continued playing as Coach Vitrano started to design plays. Brooks slid the bar on the video forward to 45 minutes into it. Coach Vitrano and Jeff Kopish were going over the starting plays that they were going to use this Friday night. He and Jeff were talking about the defenders they were going to face and had decided to throw it deep to the receiver on the right side of the field. "Holy smokes – if a team were to get this information before they played Tosa East, it's no wonder they are getting beaten like they are!"

Brooks heard his dad click off the TV. His dad was a big hockey fan and the game had just ended that he was watching. "What are you up to, son?" his dad, Steve, asked as he walked by. Brooks responded, "I think I'm figuring out what is happening to the Tosa East football season." His dad asked, "What do you mean?" "Take a look at this, Dad." Brooks started the video gain - showing the Coach and Jeff going over the plays.

His dad stared at the screen in disbelief. "Where did you get this from?" Brooks explained how he had found it in the parking lot at the game, and how a guy was trying to shove an envelope full of these CD's into Coach Russell's hand. Coach Russell used to be Coach Vitrano's coach when we were in High School. They are very good friends. No wonder he didn't want to see these tapes. Did you tell Coach Vitrano about this?" "No" said Brooks. "I didn't see him tonight - we were at Tosa West, remember?" "Right," said his dad. "What time is it?" Brooks looked at the computer and told him 10:20.

His dad clicked on the TV to the local news. The sports segment had just started. The reporter started, "In local high school sports - the big news of the night - Tosa West wins again, powered by a very strong effort by Senior Quarterback Marc Ille." They showed some highlights of the game and then switched to Tosa East footage - "On the other side of town, things were not so good as Tosa East loses again. First play of the game - Tosa East tries to hit wide receiver Randy Edgar streaming down the right sideline - INTERCEPTED!" His dad turned to Brooks - "Looks like somebody else saw that video too." Tosa East lost the game 35-3.

His dad flipped the TV off. "What are you going to do?" he asked. "I'm getting to the bottom of this," said Brooks. His mind was already spinning with ideas. "Well be careful, and let me know if you need help with anything. Remember, there's lots of evil in the world. Try to avoid it." "Will do, Dad. Thanks. I'll let you know how it goes."

Brooks felt different emotions, anger that someone was stealing the East game plan; creeped out that someone had taped him without his knowing it, yet also strangely excited about having a mystery to work on and to solve. Before Brooks went to bed he texted Brad - someone's taping coach V's office and giving them 2 other schools. tell u more Monday

When Brooks got to school, Brad was standing by his locker. "What's going on??" Brooks explained to him what he'd seen on the CD. Brad was stunned. "Holy cow - that explains everything! I knew the Raiders weren't that bad! Did you tell the coach yet?" "Not yet," said Brooks. I want to investigate this a little more without having him go ballistic and possibly ruin any clues. I want to figure this out. Let's meet at my house after school and we can start the investigation." "Deal" said Brad.

School couldn't end fast enough for the boys. They drove their bikes back to his house at full speed.

Brooks' room was pretty cool. One of the walls was covered in a blackboard material that allowed Brooks to write things on it in chalk and wipe it clean when he was done. Ally had been in his room last week and drew a window on the wall and had a shark looking through the window at Brooks. He had no time for that now, he had a job to do. He erased the window and the menacing looking cartoon shark. He wrote in big letters - THE CASE OF THE STOLEN SEASON.

"Brad let's just start rattling off facts we know and things we have to do. I'll write them down and we can divide up the work so we can solve this faster." Brad was good for some easy groundwork, but he knew he had to do the sneakiest stuff and most of the legwork himself. "Let's start with people involved. Coach Vitrano, Tosa West coaches and players, guy who handed the CD's to the coach at Tosa West." "You think Coach Vitrano is involved?" asked a bewildered Brad. "Of course not, but he is involved, it'll help to have his name up there – if nothing else we can see who might want him hurt," said Brooks. "Makes sense. I guess we can keep Coach Russell off that list - he's definitely not involved after what your dad told us and how he refused to take those CD's," said Brad. "True, but he might know the guy that was trying to hand him those CD's" said Brooks. "Good point," responded Brad. "Well if you are going to put him on that list, you should probably put every other coach on there that Tosa East plays this year." "Done," said Brooks. "Now let's talk about what we know. We know that there is a camera in Coach Vitrano's office somewhere. I can look at the video again and figure out where the camera was placed in order for it to have shot at that angle. We also need to know what was on the rest of those tapes that the guy was able to pick up after they fell out of that envelope when Coach Russell threw them." "Brooks, I just realized something," said Brad, " that guy with the CD's was the same guy that we saw at the Tosa East game. He was talking to the Falcon's coach after the game. Remember his long hair and hat?" Brooks did. He created a title on the blackboard SUSPECTS and put "GUY WITH LONG HAIR AND HAT" under it.

Suddenly, it hit Brooks like a ton of bricks! In the computer store - Marc Ille had been watching a game on the big computer monitor across from the cash register. Or was it not a game; was it a tape that Coach Vitrano had been watching and breaking down? Brooks had thought he'd heard his voice on the video, but couldn't figure it out.

Brooks recounted what he'd had transpired at the computer store to Brad. "Put Trojan Computer under SUSPECTS," Brad said. Brooks did it. "What else do we know?" asked Brooks. "Well we know that Tosa East loses all of their games..." "AND TOSA WEST WINS ALL OF THEIR GAMES!" the boys said in unison. It was coming together quickly. "Brad. Take a guess who owns Trojan Computers," Brooks said. "Bill Trojan?" joked Brad. "Interesting guess, but no. A guy named Gunther Arno." Brad still wasn't catching on. "Guess what Marc Ille's mom's name is," asked Brooks. "Mrs. Ille?" he responded. "Close" said Brooks, "Mrs. Ille-Arno. She's been remarried." "Arno....Ille....you mean Marc Ille's dad owns Trojan Computers?" Brooks was proud of Brad for catching on so quickly. "Well, his step dad owns it," Brooks corrected.

"Let's go back to the long haired guy," said Brad. "When did we see him?" Brooks answered, "Right after the Falcon game at Tosa East, and then right before the Tosa West and Kenosha game." "And who does Tosa East play next week - Kenosha." Brooks was again impressed at his friend's thought process. So he goes to games after he's given information to a team that beats Tosa East. And he's at the game before it starts to see the coach who Tosa East plays the next week. Go get me that Raider schedule on my wall!" Brad hopped up and crossed the room.

"We have a date with a long haired chap at Marquette High School next week," said Brad. Brooks smiled.

Chapter 10 Marquette

The week flew by. On Tuesday Brooks went by the high school after his classes were over. The visit wasn't purely a social one. He went under the pretense of dropping off something for his sister, and stopped by Coach Vitrano's office. He needed to figure out where that camera was.

The door was shut but Brooks could see through the window. Directly behind Coach's desk was a book cabinet made of a dark wood. The camera must be somewhere in that cabinet noted Brooks. He'd need to get in there to determine exactly where. He'd also have to make the decision of just how much if anything to tell the Coach. He wanted to be able to make some serious headway in this case before he alerted him. Any change in routine could throw off the whole investigation, and Brooks didn't want that to happen. He needed to find a way into the Coach's office when he was not there so he could snoop around that book cabinet and see what he could find.

Soon enough the week was almost over. The boys needed to find a way to get to Marquette High School, as it was too far to ride their bikes. The boys decided to tell Brooks' dad more about what was going on and see if he could give them a ride to the game. He agreed and said he'd feel better being there with them in case something happened.

Actually, they really wanted to be there just before the game, then head back to Tosa East afterwards. They wanted to see if there would be any appearance by the longhaired man with the yellow hat.

Shortly before game time, Brooks' dad pulled up into the parking lot. "Dad, pull up close to that bus loading zone by the field." The bus pulled up and Marquette's opponents Brookfield East started piling out of the bus. "Shoot!" yelled Brooks, Marquette's the home team, what was I thinking, they'll be in their own locker room already!!"

Brooks and Brad bolted out of the car. They ran towards the side of the school that housed the locker rooms. Brooks was familiar with the school's layout; he'd played in a baseball tournament there a few months ago. The boys stood outside the doors waiting for the team to come out.

Brad looked over at the field and noticed they were already on the field stretching, throwing the ball and running. "We're too late." said Brad.

"How did I make that mistake?" sighed Brooks, kicking himself for not thinking. He looked towards the north side school parking lot.

"Let's go over that way, maybe we can see something," said Brad. The boys headed to the other parking lot opposite the one where Brooks' dad was parked. It was packed with kids and parents streaming into the game. There was no way to see anybody. The boys were dejected and headed back to the parking lot where their car was parked. "I can't believe it," said Brooks, still in shock. "Don't take it so hard, we all make mistakes, heck I messed up too, I knew they were the home team and wouldn't be coming by bus too." They opened the doors on the car.

"How'd it go?" his dad asked. "Nothing," said Brooks. "Waste of a night."

"Is this the guy you were talking about?" asked his dad showing Brooks his iPhone. "I thought this guy fit the description of who you were looking for so I took his picture when he walked to his truck." In the picture was a guy with a moustache and long hair standing in front of a white truck smoking a cigarette. The next picture showed him getting into the truck. On the back of it was what looked to be an orange bumper sticker in the shape of a football. His yellow baseball hat and long hair were unmistakable.

"That's him!" shouted Brooks. Brad grabbed the phone, "No doubt." "Dad, where was his truck?" asked Brooks. "Over there, parked next to that black Ford." Brooks got out and walked over to the now empty parking spot. "What are you looking for?" asked Brad. "I don't know. Something that doesn't belong," said Brooks.

He walked around the parking spot for a few seconds. Something strange caught his eye. He leaned down to look at a red & black striped cigarette butt that was still smoking. Brooks pulled out his own iPhone and took a picture of the discarded butt. "I found these same cigarette butts at the new scoreboard. I'd never seen them before. I did see an empty pack of them though - I think they are called Turkish Supremes," said Brooks. "And you do know your cigarette butts!" joked Brad.

"Actually I do" said Brooks recounting how he gained the knowledge picking up litter on the side of the road. Brad & Brooks headed back to the car. When they got inside, Brooks told his dad what he had found. "Another clue - good job guys. Any idea who could be doing this?"

"Someone that wants Tosa East to lose and Tosa West to win some football games," said Brooks. "Well I guess you'd better add every student at Tosa West to your Suspect Board," his dad Steve said with a smile.

He knew his son had a better idea than that. He started up the car and they headed over to the Tosa East field.

When they pulled up to the Tosa East parking lot half time had just ended. "See you later dad, thanks for the ride," said Brooks.

His dad headed home as the boys had decided they'd walk home after the game. "Bye guys. Be safe and bring home a victory for East tonight!" said his dad.

The score was already 28-7 with Tosa East getting pounded by Kenosha. The second half of the game was very quiet, not much more scoring for either half and the game ended 31-10 with both teams kicking a field goal apiece.

Brad commented, "It almost seems like Kenosha let up in the second half." As the teams headed off the field, Coach Russell ran by Coach Vitrano who stood on the field with his hand extended for a post game handshake. He ran directly over to Jeff Kopish and put his arm around the struggling quarterback. He said something briefly to him, smacked him on the shoulder pad and then headed out of the stadium to the locker room with the rest of his team. Coach Vitrano shook the hands of the Kenosha assistant coaches and ran back to their locker room with his team. Brooks found the snubbing of Coach Vitrano by Coach Russell strange. He thought his dad had mentioned that they were friends.

The boys headed off into the night to their respective houses. When Brooks got to his room, he sat on the bed and went over the night in his head. He stared at the big blackboard wall and what he had already written on it. Brooks wrote on the board: ACTION ITEMS - a list of things that needed to be done. FIND OUT MORE ABOUT TURKISH SUPREME CIGARETTES. He also wrote WHITE VAN. Some how, he was getting the feeling that the guy with the long hair that keeps popping up at these games, smoking Turkish Supreme cigarettes and driving the white van was somehow related to Trojan Computers. But he couldn't be sure. He'd need to do some research to find out more and make that connection solid. He laid in bed and let his mind wander to the case, sort of free thinking - letting thoughts float in and out of his mind in no particular order.

He popped up and flicked his light on he needed to make more progress before he slept. He grabbed the chalk and wrote on the board MOTIVE and then underneath it TOSA WEST VICTORIES and below that TOSA EAST LOSSES.

He thought more about it. "Let's take MOTIVE one step further. I know the motivation, but there has to be more to it. A winning high school season is nice, but how many people will take risks to make it happen. Who benefits from Tosa West winning? First, the coach does." Brooks wrote the name COACH ROWELL under suspects.

Doug Rowell had been the Tosa West football coach for the past 2 years. The previous coach who had been there for 10 very strong years had gone on to coach at the University. Coach Rowell had really been the Tosa West gym teacher who sort of inherited the job. Coaching wasn't really his passion, but more something he'd been roped into doing. He had however done a very good job over the past 2 years. And this season was - as painful as it was for Brooks to say it - amazing.

He didn't really think Coach Rowell was behind this, but he put his name up there so he could have it on the list and leave no stone unturned. Better safe than sorry.

He sat on the edge of his bed and laid back. "Who else?" Brooks asked himself "Who else benefits from this scenario? It's sad, because one big loser is Jeff Kopish - he had a guaranteed scholarship to the University. Now he'd be lucky to get one at State College." Brooks was wide-awake now as the puzzle piece fell into place. "Who would benefit under that situation? Marc Ille would," thought Brooks. "And who was watching a game tape of Tosa East - Marc Ille." Brooks jumped up and added Marc's name to the SUSPECT list on the wall.

It was all falling into place for Brooks. Who would have access to Tosa East's building in order to plant a video camera in it to secretly tape the Coach's office and also have the motivation to do it? Trojan Computers, who was owned by Marc's step dad, Gunther Arno!" Brooks chalked the name Gunther Arno up on the wall under Marc's name.

The case unfolded and hit Brooks on the head as if the shelf above his bed had fallen off its support and the books had dumped on his head! "If Tosa West had a great season and Marc Ille played at this level, and if Jeff Kopish bombed this season, that would completely alter who gets that scholarship from the University for next year."

Brooks had it now. The motivation. Who wins. Who loses. Now the final piece to put together was how it was happening and he had a very strong suspicion that Gunther Arno was getting information from the Tosa East coaching offices and practices and giving them to the Tosa West team. He had to get proof though. Hopefully he'd get proof before the entire season was lost and Jeff Kopish ended up at State College instead of the University.

Something still nagged at him though – who was the man with the yellow hat and long hair?

Chapter 11 Coaching Changes and Closing Doors

Brooks had a hard time sleeping that night. He felt he had really made headway in solving this mystery. He woke up early and flipped on his computer. He was going to see if Brad was on Instant Message so he could let him know what he had deduced last night. The homepage on his internet browser was set to the Wauwatosa News-Times site. It was the local newspaper.

As Brooks' instant message program opened, he glanced at the headlines. KENOSHA COACH HEADED TO STATE caught his eye. It said that after last night's game Coach Russell from Kenosha had announced that this was his last season there and that he would be heading to head the football team at State College - the Porcupines.

Brooks cut and pasted that headline into an IM and sent it to Brad. Brad had already been online for about 1/2 hour. He had been researching new workout routines to do so he could build up some more upper body strength.

Brad was already quite strong, but he knew that he'd have to compete with the older kids in just a few years as he went to the high school level of playing football. He wanted to be ready and he really took his job seriously - much more seriously than the average 12 year old.

The headline was a surprise to Brad. Why would someone want to go and coach there? In a way it made sense - Coach Russell had been a high school coach for quite some time now, with a pretty good record. He'd won a few state championships in his long career. But Kenosha had struggled recently.

Now he was taking over a second rate program at a second rate school. If you grew up in this state, you wanted to go to the University, but sometimes you ended up at State College if your grades weren't very good. State College's football team - the Porcupines - never quite seemed to pull it together over the years. Streaks of solid play spoiled by subpar performances were its trademark. In fact, they hadn't beaten the University's football team in the past 24 years. They were really the butt of more jokes than anything else. If someone got a bad grade on a test they were mocked with taunts like "Can I come visit you at State College?" To make it worse, their football team was mocked during almost every high school football game in the state. If someone fumbled it was tradition for the fans to chant "GO STATE, GO!"

"It would be a challenge for Coach Russell to do anything with that program, but as the next step in his career it sort of made sense," thought Brad.

Brooks was already off that topic and going crazy on the IM, rapid fire typing out the entire theory he developed last night. Brad watched his computer screen as Brooks spelled it out how Marc's Dad – Gunther - had the access to the school's computer system and was sabotaging the season in order to get his son a scholarship. It made a lot of sense to Brad. He was a little annoyed that he hadn't been able to put that together as quickly as Brooks had. Not many people were able to put things together as Brooks could, so Brad was just happy to have him as his best friend.

Brad typed into the IM box - "So what do we do now?" Brooks responded, "Meet me at my house in 40 minutes - bring doughnuts :)"

Brad smiled and typed back "see you then." He logged off his computer, brushed his teeth and changed his shirt. Then he headed downstairs.

His mom had made doughnuts of course; it was almost a family tradition. Ever since Brad was young his mom had made doughnuts every Saturday morning.

After Brooks and Brad had become friends she had actually changed her recipe a little. She used to use animal lard in the recipe. However, since she knew that Brooks was a vegetarian, she changed her recipe to one that used a substitute. It was healthier for her family anyways, and even though she wasn't a vegetarian, she felt good about using something that wasn't the result of an animal dying. She was about 5'9" with short blond hair and remarkably thin for someone who got up at the crack of dawn and made doughnuts every Saturday morning!

Brad grabbed 4 doughnuts and headed towards the door. "Bye mom, I'm going to Brooks' house. I'll be home by dinner." "OK Brad, be safe please." "No mom, I'm going to be dangerous. I'll probably run through traffic while dribbling a basketball," Brad teased. His mom smiled as he walked out the door.

When he got to Brooks' house, he rang the doorbell. Ally answered the ring. "Hi Brad. Dork is upstairs."

Brad headed up to Brooks' room and opened his door. "Hey buddy," said Brooks when he saw Brad appear in the doorway. "What's the plan?" asked Brad.

"What do you think of my theory?" asked Brooks. "Genius. It all makes sense - Jeff's dad giving Tosa West the advantage so his kid can get a scholarship." Brooks nodded. "There has to be 2 sides though. Tosa West must be getting the information to help them win, and then whomever Tosa East is playing must be getting the information on how to beat them. It makes sense that it's Jeff's dad - he has the motivation. Scholarships are worth a ton of money. He also has the opportunity by having access to Tosa East's building. We just need a little more information, but I think we are almost there." Brooks said with a smile.

"This morning, we are going to TOSA SMOKE SHOP to ask about Turkish Supremes. I want to see how easy they are to get. What I am hoping is that they are very rare, and nobody buys them except for Jeff's dad - then if we can link that to Trojan Computers - I'll know we are on the right track."

The boys headed downstairs to eat their doughnuts and have some orange juice. Brad had a crush on Brooks' sister Ally. He didn't mean for it to show, but it was hard to help it sometimes. "You look nice today, Ally," said Brad when she walked by. "Gross," said Ally. Brooks nearly fell off his chair laughing - not so much at his sister's rude comment but at how crushed Brad looked after she said it and kept on walking out of the room without missing a step.

Brooks mocked Brad with a high-pitched voice, "YOU LOOK NICE TODAY ALLY. Now...wait for it....this is how your face looked..." Brooks' contorted his face to look like someone who had just seen the worst tragedy ever.

Brooks kept on laughing at the embarrassed Brad. Brad grabbed Brooks in a headlock and wrapped his big arms around Brooks' small head. Brooks' muffled voice shrieked, "You win, you win!"

Brad let the headlock go and Brooks' smiling face was now crowned with messed up hair. "Let's go, loverboy," taunted Brooks as he got chased out of the house by Brad.

When the boys got to TOSA SMOKE SHOP they locked up their bikes to a bike rack that was set up outside the grouping of stores. They entered the store and were immediately overwhelmed by the smell of fresh tobacco.

There was a glassed-in room in the back of the store and a sign that said CIGARS above the door. The walls near the front of the store were lined with cigarette cartons. There was also a section for pipes and chewing tobacco. Brooks hated the smell of smoking and it almost made him sick to his stomach, but fresh tobacco had a smell that was pleasant to him.

Brad walked up to the counter and approached the older man behind it. "Hi sir, my dad asked me to stop in and see if you sold these. He said he thought they were called Turkish Supremes." Brooks held out his iPhone so the shopkeeper could see the picture of the cigarette butt with the colorful stripes. "I know we don't sell them. Let me take a look where you might be able to get some."

He got on his computer and typed in a few words. "Looks like he was right, they are called Turkish Supremes. The distributor's website says that the only place in the state that sells them is STATE SMOKES.

That's over in Collegetown. Hope those smokes are worth the drive to your dad." Collegetown was where State College was, about 90 miles away. Despite the fact the school was mocked, the college city that was surrounded it was pretty neat. Lots of people doing sports outside on the weekends and Brooks had a favorite restaurant there. It was a place that made hand tossed pizzas. The pizza chef twirled the dough right at your table and there was a pizza oven at the end of the table so you could cook it yourself. His family had been there a few times as there was a lake close by where they went boating sometimes.

Brooks and Brad thanked the man and walked out of the store. Brooks was disappointed. He had been hoping that this would lead to a clear link to the guy with the long hair and yellow hat and somehow back to Trojan Computers. Now it just muddied the waters and made things harder.

Chapter 12 Into the Coach's Office

It was Sunday night and Brooks sprawled out on his bed. He was disappointed in the past week. No link from the cigarettes and they didn't get a chance to see the guy with the long hair in the parking lot. The boys had decided that on Friday they would test out their theory again and try and get a more positive ID on the guy with the yellow hat and long hair that seems to enjoy talking to all of the coaches. Brooks also decided he needed to get to Coach Vitrano's office and figure out where that camera was. It would be tricky; he wanted to do it in a way that wouldn't tip him off. If Coach V found out about it, he might do something that would impact the ongoing investigation and Brooks would never be able to solve the case.

Brooks got off his bed and wrote on the blackboard: TO DO THIS WEEK. He underlined it and wrote those 2 items underneath it. He also wanted to find a way to talk to someone at State Smokes about their Turkish Supreme sales. That was way too far to bike though.

Brooks knew that he would be solo next weekend also, as Brad had to go away for the weekend. There was a football camp for the state's middle school kids at State College. Brad had gone last year and was headed back this year. It was a way for them to compete against other kids outside of their own school district and get some coaching from coaches at a higher level. It also gave the coaches a way to see the younger talent in the state so they would know whom to recruit when they got to the high school level.

This would be a big week for the investigation for Brooks. He hoped he'd have some better answers by the end of it, and hopefully be able to identify a link to Trojan Computers & Marc Ille's dad. He was sure they were involved somehow. The motivation of the scholarship was there, and they had the access to the school's computer equipment. It was all too perfect. But there was no hard evidence. And as Brooks knew from his Uncle Mike, while hunches were usually pretty good....facts were needed.

The next week at school flew by for Brooks. On Wednesday he headed towards the high school. He stopped by the practice field and saw Coach Vitrano. He was obviously crestfallen at how the season had been going so far. He was putting the team through some exhausting drills. Sprints and more sprints. "THIS RUNNING WILL CONTINUE UNTIL YOU WIN A GAME! UNTIL YOU WANT TO WIN A GAME! SO GET USED TO IT. IN FACT, WHY DON'T YOU ALL TRADE YOUR FOOTBALL CLEATS IN FOR RUNNING SHOES!" yelled the Coach.

Brooks sat in the first row of the bleachers. Coach turned away from his players and looked up from his clipboard. His hat was pulled down low over his eyes and a stopwatch swung around his neck. "Bob, take over for a few minutes," he said to his assistant coach. The assistant coach clapped his hands and yelled, "LET'S GET IT GOING, GET THOSE KNEES UP AND MAKE IT FASTER."

Coach Vitrano walked over to Brooks. Brooks could see the disgust in his face. "Hey buddy, how's it going?" the coach asked Brooks. That was one thing that Brooks liked about him was that he was able to get his emotions in check and make people realize that he wasn't mad at them despite the yelling.

"I'm good coach. Tough season, isn't it?" "Yeah, it really is. We should have been at a much better stage at this point, but its just not coming together. And to make matters worse, it looks like Kopish is going to lose his scholarship to the University." Brooks had obviously assumed it was in jeopardy, but hearing it from someone who had inside information was still stunning. Before this season it was almost a foregone conclusion that Jeff Kopish would end up there. Although the season had definitely not been showcasing his talents. "Would they really give it to Marc Ille?" asked Brooks. "Supposedly its going to happen within the next few weeks." responded the coach. "I know that Chance is the real deal though. I thought we'd been developing plays that would help show off his skills and ensure that scholarship for him. I guess I really let him down."

Brooks could tell the coach was really upset about how the season was turning out. An idea sparked in Brooks' head - "Coach, I want to buy a football shirt so I can wear it to the next game. How can I get one? I need to support the team." Brooks knew that he kept them in his office. "Meet me in my office after the game, I can get you one," he answered. Brooks needed to get in there alone for a few minutes.

"I have to head home in about 10 minutes. Shoot, I really wanted one to wear to the game," he said. Coach Vitrano reached into his pocket and handed Brooks his office keys, "Here, let yourself in. They are in a box in the corner. And don't leave any money - right now we should be paying you to wear our shirts." "Thanks Coach, I'll be right back with the keys." said Brooks.

Inside he smiled at how perfectly the plan worked. He entered the school and went into the locker room. The smell of sweat and the wintergreen smell of Ben Gay were overwhelming. Brooks opened the door to the coach's office and flipped on the light. He walked behind the desk and tried to recall the video in his head so he could determine where the camera was. He remembered that it looked like it was coming from over the coach's right shoulder when he was watching it. The back of the coach's head and shoulder were both visible, so about 3 rows up.

He got a chair to stand on and looked at what was on the 3rd shelf. Books, game tapes, some trophies. Nothing looked out of place. Then he saw it. One of the books was entitled Vince Lombardi Coaching Methods. The "O" in Coaching was cut out and Brooks could see a small circle of glass where the "O" was through the book's spine. This was it! He reached out for the book. It slid out from the case easily and then stopped, out of the back of it was a wire that went through the bookcase. A quarter-sized hole had been cut into the back of the bookcase to allow the wire to pass through it.

The book was a real book, but it had been altered to allow for the camera to be place inside of it. Brooks opened the book and removed a small camera. He jerked on the wire so he'd be able to see where it led after it went behind the bookcase. He saw a wire move along the wall.

Brooks got off the chair and followed the wire to the wall and saw that it went into a conduit along with some other electrical wires. He needed to know where that wiring went. He had to find someway to get behind that wall. The cinderblock wall was going to be a daunting opponent though.

Brooks put the camera back into the book and replaced it where he had found it. He had already been in the office for about 10 minutes so he knew he had to get the keys back to the coach. He grabbed a shirt, locked up and left the office. He headed back to the practice field, thanked the coach for the shirt and gave him back his keys.

"I guess I'll say hi to Ally while I'm here," thought Brooks. He knew she'd be in the auditorium practicing her part in the play. She usually didn't leave rehearsal until 6pm each night.

As he entered the auditorium he looked down at the stage and saw his sister sitting on the side of the stage going over her lines while a few of the other students read their lines standing on the stage. This year the play was the Wizard of Oz. His sister had landed a great role; she was going to be the Wicked Witch. She had her big, green fake nose on and a large pointed hat.

She looked up and saw Brooks walking down the aisle. "I'll get you my pretty!" she said loudly as he approached. "What's with the green beak?" he asked. "I want to wear it as much as possible during rehearsals so that I'm used to it when I'm on stage," she replied. Brooks sniffed, "What's that smell?" he asked. "I know, its gross!" said Ally. "It's the glue that's used to hold this fake nose to my face. It smells like a fake orange or something." "Your real nose was bad enough, wouldn't that just work?" teased Brooks. Ally hit him with the broom she had nearby.

A man with a ladder walked by the stage. He was too old to be a student. "Who's that?" asked Brooks. "He's one of the guys working on getting the video cameras and internet set up so people can watch our play live online. Grandma and Grandpa Berry is going to love it, they can watch it in Arizona," answered Ally. "Cool" said Brooks. "Is he with Trojan Computers?" he asked. "Huh? How the heck should I know? Nerd!" cracked Ally. "I have to practice - buh-bye"

Brooks walked up the ramped aisle through the seats and back to the doors in the back of the auditorium. He headed out to his bike and rode through the parking lot. A white SUV with a magnetic sign on the side that said STATE COLLEGE NETWORKING & INTERNET was parked by the exit. As he rode by the back of it he noticed an orange football sticker on the side. The sticker said State College Porcupine Football.

A man walked through the parking lot headed to where the van was. Brooks got off his bike and stopped by the van. The man approached the van and Brooks smiled at him. He was about 30 years old, 5'8" and very slightly built. He had brown thinning hair and looked the part of a computer guy.

Are you the guy hooking up the video streaming for the theater?" Brooks asked. "Yep, sure am," the man responded. "Cool," said Brooks, "I wish you'd stream the football games too, then I could watch from home." "The district was talking about possibly doing that next year. My brother is an assistant coach at State College, and we just started streaming their games this year." Brooks stifled a laugh in an effort to be polite. "Why would you want to stream their games?" Brooks asked jokingly. "Ha! I know what you mean, but just wait, next year they are going to be good," the man answered. "They have some tricks up their sleeves - just wait."

Brooks was thinking on his feet. "My dad was considering hooking up a security system for our house that he could monitor online. Is that something you guys do?" "Sure is, video surveillance is one of our specialties," said the man.

He reached in his truck and gave Brooks one of his cards. Have your dad call me if he wants me to set something up for him." Brooks decided to press more. "He said he wants to be able to monitor the housekeeper while he's at work, he thinks that she might be stealing from us, so he has to have a really small camera." Brooks told a white lie to see if he could have the guy talk about small cameras like the one in the coach's office.

The man beckoned Brooks to the back of his truck, "Take a look at this one and pulled out a camera about the size of a Tic-Tac box. This is the whole camera, with the lens right here - this par," the man pointed to an opening that was the same size as the one in the book in Coach Vitrano's office. "Wow, that is small," said Brooks. "OK, I'll give your card to my dad. Thank you!" "No problem." said the man getting in the drivers seat.

CHAPTER 13 STATE COLLEGE FOOTBALL CAMP

Later that night, Brooks called Brad's cell phone. "What's new Sherlock Holmes?" asked Brad when he saw Brooks' number calling him. "Had some interesting conversations today. Can you come over?" "Sure, give me 10 minutes," said Brad.

Brooks heard the doorbell ring and then a knock on his bedroom door. "Come on in," said Brooks. Brooks and Brad did their special handshake - slapping the palms of their hands together, then the backs of their hands and then a fist bump.

"Are you ready to have your Uncle Mike bust down the doors at Trojan Computer?" asked Brad. "Ha. Funny you should mention that. Listen to what I've uncovered." said Brooks. He went on to tell Brad about how he had gotten into Coach Vitrano's office and found the camera. Then he went on to tell him about the conversation he'd had with the guy from State College Networking & Internet.

Brad's face had flushed red with anger when he found out about the camera. "We have to tell Coach about that camera - this is killing the season!"

"We can't." said Brooks. "I need more time to get to the bottom of who is doing it. If we expose the camera, we might lose our chances of finding out whose it is."

Brad knew the situation was tough. "I wish I could go with you to the game this Friday, I'd take that guy with the long hair and clock him right in the jaw." "What? Why won't you be there?" asked Brooks.

"Football camp, I already told you that," replied Brad. "Arrgh" said Brooks remember now that Brad had told him earlier in the week about it. "We have a big bonfire on Friday night, it's a lot of fun," said Brad.

"Let's update the board." said Brooks. Under suspects he added STATE COLLEGE NETWORKING & INTERNET. He dug out the guy's card from his backpack. On the blackboard Brooks added the name of the guy he had met in the parking lot - BOB RUSSELL. Brad looked at it and seemed even more confused.

"I don't get it, Brooks. What is the motivation there? It has to be Gunther Ille at Trojan Computers. He's spying on Tosa East and giving the information to the schools they are going to play. It's obvious, isn't it? He wants his son Jeff to get the scholarship to the University."

Brooks was stumped also. "I know. That's what I thought too. Now I just don't know. At this point, I'm not ruling anyone or any motive out, so by putting everything up on this board, it will help us visualize things better and make sure we don't miss any detail, or rule out any possible suspect or motive."

The boys sat there stumped. "Well, maybe it's time to turn up the heat a little bit," said Brooks. "What do you mean?" asked Brad. "I'm not sure yet, I just know that I have to start getting some answers."

Brad left and went home. Brooks went downstairs and found his dad sitting in the living room watching TV on the family's big 50" television screen. Ripken sat on his lap.

"Hey Brooks," said his dad. "How's the case coming? I saw your assistant Brad was over." "Well," said Brooks, "I thought I had it all figured out, but now I'm more confused than ever."

"Well you'd better figure it out soon, Coach Vitrano is pulling his hair out trying to figure out what he's doing wrong. I had lunch with him today and he's really upset. Between the losses, his star quarterback on the verge of losing his scholarship to the University and Coach Russell going to coach at State, he's a wreck."

"Why would he care if Coach Russell goes to State? Did he want that job?" asked Brooks.

"No, he and Coach Russell had a falling out a few seasons back. It seems that Coach Russell had made up an address where a player lived in order to get him to become a student at Kenosha instead of Tosa East. He had gotten a mailing address from one of those postal places inside his district so it looked like the kid lived a lot closer to the school and was eligible to go to his school and play for him. He said that he felt that the coach had started to do a lot of shady things in order to win because he was getting closer to retirement and was still only a high school coach. Now his playing with shades of gray were getting rewarded when he got his new promotion to State."

"Wow that is pretty below board. I guess that explains why Coach Vitrano didn't shake his hand after the game last week," said Brooks. "I'm going to bed, dad. This whole thing is making my head hurt."

"Good night, son," said his dad. Ripken jumped off the couch and followed Brooks up to his bed where he slept most nights.

After school on Thursday, Brooks got on his computer to look up the phone number for Trojan Computers. He dialed the number and he recognized the voice of the owner, Gunther Arno. "Hello, I have a website that needs to do live streaming to the public. Is that something your company does?" asked Brooks.

"No it's not, I'm sorry. We don't do anything with video; we are mainly a networking company. We help computers talk to different computers and other devices. But we do some computer repair and sell some parts and things like that also. But nothing with video or anything like that. Might be something we should look into though. I know they wanted that at the school district where we just did a big installation," said Gunther.

"Oh yes, I read about that in the newspaper," said Brooks. "Who is doing that for them?" asked Brooks, even though he thought he already knew. "I believe it's State College Networking."

It was confirmed. This totally threw a monkey wrench in Brooks' solution. If it wasn't Gunther Ille and Trojan computers, who was it? He thanked Gunther and hung up the phone.

Brad sat around the bonfire with the rest of the kids attending the football camp. He had the hood of his bright red Tosa East football sweatshirt up over his head to fight off the chill of the night air. The fire was keeping his legs warm enough.

He sat next to John Porter, a kid he'd met at the camp last year. John was a wide receiver and had pretty good hands. They were drinking sodas and roasting marshmallows over the fire. There were a few fathers of some of the campers there and most of the staff of the State College Football team. It was just a time to relax and get to know each other and the counselors before the actual camp started.

All of the sudden from behind a tree came a crazy looking man shrieking and running with his hands flailing in the air. Some of the kids jumped in fear and some just stared as if they were in a trance. "What in the heck?" thought Brad. He saw the counselors laughing, some were even doubled over they were laughing so hard at the campers reactions. The man who had been running was about 6 feet tall and had a large mustache, long hair and a yellow baseball hat. "It's that guy from the parking lot!" thought Brad.

The guy stopped and doubled over in laughter as the kids tried to compose themselves. The man took off his hat and the hair came with it. "Fake hair!" Brad yelled inside his head. The man then took off his mustache also. The man was actually bald and had no facial hair. He vaguely recognized the guy as George Russell or Smokey as everyone called him. Smokey was an assistant coach at State and Brad knew him from last year's camp. Brad remembered he worked with the quarterbacks.

Smokey stood in front of everyone, "Hopefully that didn't scare you too much!" he laughed. "I wanted to liven things up here. For those of you who don't know me I was the quarterback coach here at State University. My name is Coach George Russell, but you guys can call me Smokey. As of next year, I'll be the assistant coach for the team, acting as the right hand man to the real Coach Russell of the team - my dad - Thomas Russell who was the coach at Kenosha High School until a few weeks ago and now is the new head coach here at State College. You'll meet him tomorrow. To keep things straight, just call me Smokey. It'd be far too difficult to have 2 Coach Russell's running around here! For now, everybody enjoy the campfire, don't stuff your faces too full of marshmallows, I don't want to see that stuff out on the field tomorrow. We are going to spend the next two days working you into the ground, so be ready for it. I'll see everybody bright and early at 7am tomorrow on Field 2. "

Smokey walked over to the other coaches and the parents. Brad sat at the campfire in shock. "You look like you've seen a ghost," said John. Brad smiled and tried to shake himself back to normal, "Nah, I'm ok. He just startled me a little. I'm going to the bathroom, I'll be back in a second."

Brad got up from the campfire and walked towards the locker room. He got out his phone and dialed Brooks. "Hey Brad, how's Boy Scout camp?" answered Brooks. Brad ignored the joke, "You aren't going to believe this. One of the counselors just played a joke on us running out of the woods and trying to scare us. He was dressed with a yellow baseball hat and a mustache. Oh, and long hair too." Brooks paused, confused. "Whoa, what? Why is that guy there?" he asked. The wheels were turning hard in his head. "Guess what else. He's a fake. The hair is attached to that hat. He's bald. Care to guess who he is?" "Tell me," said Brooks quietly. "Smokey Russell, assistant coach here at State and son of Coach Russell from Kenosha."

Brooks was having a hard time believing what he was hearing. "This makes no sense. Why would he tape high school games and give the tapes to the other coaches? Was it for scouting whom to give scholarships to? Usually coaches are more than happy to help by giving video to college coaches to try and assist their athletes to get scholarships. And if he was taping the games, and the practices, why wasn't he helping his dad win more games at Kenosha High School?" Brad's buddy John walked up behind him as he was talking - "Talking to your girlfriend, Klemz?" he teased. "I gotta go, Brooks," said Brad.

Brooks sat down on his bed. "This makes no sense. Well, if a costume store sells that hat and hair thing, it might be somebody else. Anybody would be able to walk in and buy the costume, but what are the odds? And if it was Coach Russell's son in the disguise, why had Coach Russell smacked the envelope out of his hand when he had walked up to him at the football game.

"Too many things aren't adding up here." Brooks was feeling even worse now after getting the call then he had before. He decided to go to bed and hope he felt better in the morning.

Chapter 14 Another Missing Link

Brooks woke up and felt no better. His head still hurt, it seemed like he had been thinking all night, even in his sleep. He knew he had to have some real results this week. If he didn't he'd have to tell Coach Vitrano. This football season was rapidly getting away from him and if he didn't do something soon the entire thing would be lost. Knowing that he could make a difference and that he was not getting any results was eating him up inside. He felt that since he'd figured out there was that camera in Coach Vitrano's office he was an accomplice.

Brooks picked up his phone. He had a text message from Brad that contained two pictures.

The first picture was of a bald man standing around a fire pit smoking a cigarette. The other was a picture of a cigarette butt on the ground – the red, black and gold bands clearly identified the butt as that of a Turkish Supreme cigarette. The words under the last picture were - "I guess that's why he told us to call him Smokey."

Brooks clicked his phone off and flipped on his computer. He looked online for the number for State Smokes. He dialed the number. "Hello," he said to the man that answered it, "I'm interested in getting a carton of Turkish Supreme cigarettes, do you stock them?" The man at the smoke shop said, "Is this for Coach Russell?" "No, um, no it's not," replied Brooks, stammering a little bit as he was taken aback that the man asked about the Coach.

"In that case, I'll have to order them for you, it'll take about three weeks. Coach Smokey is the only guy that ever buys them so I keep a carton for him. But I only order one a month." Brooks heart was pounding as he heard the shopkeeper's response. He realized they were that much closer to solving the case. "No thanks, I'll keep looking," said Brooks. "OK, well we're the only store in the state that can get 'em so if you want to order them, let me know." "Thanks," said Brooks as he hung up.

He walked over to the blackboard wall. He wrote: PRIME SUSPECT and underneath wrote SMOKEY RUSSELL. He thought for a few minutes and wrote underneath it COACH THOMAS RUSSELL, the former Kenosha coach and new State College coach. It was clear that Smokey at least had in his possession the CD's with the video on it that showed the inside of Coach Vitrano's office. Then Brooks remembered back to that meeting between Smokey and his dad. "His dad was so upset with Smokey. Why? Maybe he knew that he had those tapes and didn't approve of it. Or maybe he didn't want to be seen with his son and those tapes. But Smokey had his disguise on." There was still a lot of confusion over what the Kenosha coach's role in this was.

Brooks erased his name from the PRIME SUSPECT list and put him on the SUSPECT LIST. "Still not enough evidence," thought Brooks.

He headed downstairs to get breakfast. His dad threw him the sports page. "Check this out," said his dad. The headline was unmistakable. MARC ILLE THROWS 3 TD PASSES, SCHOLARSHIP TO THE UNIVERSITY.

He continued to read the body of the article. Tosa West had won big again last night and to make matters worse, the article said that Marc had gotten a scholarship to the University and would attend there in the fall. There would be a press conference on Monday after school to formally announce it.

A smaller headline on the lower part of the page read: EAST WOES CONTINUE, FALLS TO WEST ALLIS CENTRAL 70-21. KOPISH THROWS 2 PICKS.

"Do you believe that?" asked his dad. "I knew that Jeff was in danger of losing that scholarship, but I guess this finalizes it," Brooks responded. His dad said, "It's really too bad, Jeff had put together a good high school career up until this year. I wonder if that means he's going to end up at State."

Brooks got a glass of orange juice and went back to his room. He turned his computer monitor back on. This news really spurred him on to get to the bottom of what was going on. He remembered the second game of the season. "That was the first time he had remembered seeing Smokey as he was handed the packet by the other team's coach. But why did the coach hand something back to Smokey? Although, why would Smokey be giving him the video after the game? The coach must have been giving it back to Smokey. So he had it before the game and could have prepared his team for it." What team was that? He looked back at his Tosa East Football poster to see the schedule. He always wrote down the score on the schedule so he could remember the outcome of the games.

The second game was against Brown Deer. Smokey had exchanged something with the Brown Deer football coach. Brooks assumed it was CD's with video of the plays they were going to be using secretly taped.

Brooks decided to take a chance. He flipped on his computer and decided to get a new email account. He logged into gmail. "What name to use?" he asked himself. He decided to use a name that was given to him by the local paper when he had helped the police department track down the mailbox bombers. He checked to see if the name was available. It was. "Perfect. BoySleuth@gmail.com time for you to go to work." He went to the school district website and found out the name and email of the head coach or Brown Deer High School.

Dear Coach Thomas,

I have some information that could potentially embarrass your football program and damage your career. I know that you received video of Tosa East's game plan prior to your game with them. I plan on going to the school district and local news media next Friday and presenting them with the facts if you don't come forward on your own and make the admission publicly.

A Concerned Citizen and Sports Fan

Brooks hit the send button. It was a bluff of course. Brooks had no hard evidence, only suspicions. But, it was really perfect he thought. If it wasn't true the coach would just dismiss it and Brooks would have to do more investigation. If the coach came forward, the entire scheme would start crumbling down.

Brooks sat back in his chair. He almost hoped that the coach didn't respond and that this would just go away. He'd always believed that sports were pure and the outcomes were based on who was better on a particular day. Who had trained harder and strategized better. It would be really disappointing for him if he found out that people were cheating - especially at high school sports.

The next few days seemed to drag on. Tosa West had a big press conference on Monday after school, where the formal announcement was made that their quarterback Marc Ille got a scholarship to go to the University.

Then on Wednesday another big announcement came. Jeff Kopish was going to State College on a scholarship. "What a waste," thought Brooks, when he saw the news on TV. There was a big press conference at Tosa East that afternoon and as Brooks watched, he got a sinking feeling in his stomach. Coach Vitrano looked visibly upset, but tried to keep a good light on the moment. Nobody at the press conference looked very happy happy. "Of course, I would have rather gone to the University, but I look forward to helping State College build their program," said Jeff. Coach Vitrano thanked Jeff for his efforts and helping Tosa East over the past few years. He said he wished that Jeff's high school years would have ended better for him, but said the rest of his career was up to him to build.

Brooks sat quietly watching the conference on TV knowing that he might have been able to change things had he spoken up sooner. He was torn; part of him knew he was doing the right thing because if he would have blown the whistle on the camera earlier, the case might have been ruined and they never would have found out who was behind this. On the other hand, he might have ruined the football chances for Jeff Kopish and the football season for Tosa East.

The boysleuth@gmail.com address had been dormant all week. Brooks was starting to have his doubts about whether it was going to work at all. He sat down in front of his computer and flipped it on. He went to his gmail account and saw he had one new message! His heart skipped a beat. A reply from Coach Thomas was in his inbox.

He opened it and read. "I don't know who you are or where you found your information. I regret having watched that video. I'm resigning on my own tomorrow. You don't have to go public with this. I'll take care of it. I'm sorry. Coach John Thomas."

Brooks was beaming. He had confirmation that the other coaches in the school district were getting the videos. At last, he could put some heat on the people responsible for this. Just then another email came in. He didn't recognize the email address, but the subject line said FOR BOYSLEUTH. He opened it.

BOYSLEUTH-

I HAVE SOME INFORMATION FOR YOU. MEET ME AT THE TOSA EAST SCOREBOARD AT 9PM THURSDAY.

Brooks was stunned. He instant messaged Brad who was online.

BROOKS: Brad! just got 2 emails - Coach Thomas is resigning tomorrow and is going to admit having that information before playing Tosa East!

BRAD: holy cow! That's' huge! What was the 2nd?

BROOKS: somebody wants me to meet them tomorrow at 9pm at the tosa east scoreboard. he says he has some more information for me.

BRAD: i'm going with you!

BROOKS: i wouldn't have it any other way. see you tomorrow at school

Brooks sat on his bed. He was excited about getting more information tomorrow. He was glad Brad was going. Brad was a pretty strong kid who could be a big help if things didn't work out as planned. He was curious how someone had gotten that email address. Was it Coach Thomas? If so, why hadn't he just used his regular email address? Maybe he didn't want it going through the school district email servers that could track it back to him.

Either way, Brooks went to bed and had a hard time sleeping. Brad met Brooks at school. "Are we still on for tonight?" Brad asked. "We are. Don't forget to have my back," said Brooks. "Always," countered Brad. After school Brooks headed home. He was going to meet Brad at his house later in the day.

Brooks flipped on the TV and turned to the local news channel that was covering Coach Thomas' press conference live. A bleary eyed Coach Thomas sat in a black golf shirt behind a table with a few microphones atop it.

He started, "I did accept and watch footage of Tosa East the week before we were going to play them. I knew all the plays they were going to run and what defensive plays they were going to use. I got the information from a stranger who handed me a package filled with computers CD's. I had no idea who the person was, I had never seen them before and I have never seen him since. I watched the CD's, and they contained video footage of practices and private sessions inside the coach's office. I am sorry I didn't report getting this information immediately to the Athletic Department and I let my competitive nature get the best of me. Effective immediately, I am resigning my coaching position and wish to apologize to my players, to the school district and to everyone effected by my actions." He got up from the table and walked off.

"So that is that," thought Brooks. Brooks assumed that other coaches would be questioned and might even admit to having the information. "It will be interesting to see how this plays out," thought Brooks.

At 8:30 Brad rang Brooks' doorbell. Brooks answered it and left the house. He'd told his mom that he was going to the library to study for an hour with Brad. It was a small lie and Brooks felt badly about it. But he knew that his mom could worry too much. This meeting was too important; he had a feeling that it was going to be a big break in the case.

Brooks and Brad pulled up to the scoreboard, their LED bike lights illuminating it in a bright bluish white. The fall air was chilly and Brooks pulled up the collar on his jacket. It was foggy and a bit creepy. Brad must have felt the same and he expressed his concern, "I don't like this at all," he said. On the door of the scoreboard was a sign. It was written on white paper in a red felt tip pen and it read: COME IN AND SHUT THE DOOR.

"Should I wait out here?" asked Brad. Brooks didn't know what to tell him. He had a really bad feeling about this, but he needed to see what was going on. "No, come in with me," he said, "I don't want to be in there alone." The boys opened the door and Brooks pulled a small combination lock out of his pocket. He put the lock in the latch and clicked it shut; it blocked the door from shutting all the way and also guaranteed that nobody could lock him in this time. "Good thinking!" said Brad. Brooks had told him about his previous episode of being locked in and they both vowed to be prepared this time.

They climbed the ladder up to the first level - as Brooks' head poked above the first level; he saw a flashlight on the far end of the catwalk. He and Brad reached the top of the ladder and walked down the narrow passage reaching the flashlight after a few seconds.

Despite the fact that the parking lot was deserted when they got there, Brooks heard voices from outside. He stopped walking and put his finger to his lips indicating to Brad not to talk. He couldn't make out what they were saying but they sounded as if they were excited about something. "Let's get out of here and see who it is!" whispered Brad. "Wait," urged Brooks.

The boys froze and heard a car door open. They hadn't heard the car pull up; it must have arrived as they were climbing the ladder – the metal ladder was a bit loud as the boys had been climbing it.

The car door slammed shut and just as suddenly, there was a loud clank as the door at the bottom of the scoreboard leg slammed shut!

"They can't lock us in," said Brooks. As he was declaring a victory over not being locked in he heard the loud sound of tape being pulled off a roll. Both boys recognized it from the sports camps they had participated in and volunteered at - it was medical tape.

"HEY!" Brad yelled as he started barreling down the narrow passageway towards the door. It only took the boys a few seconds to get back to the door, but as they arrived at the bottom of the ladder they were dismayed to see it closed as tightly as it could given the fact that the lock that Brooks had put in the door prevented it from closing all the way and secured with what they assumed to be medical tape used by trainers to tape up injuries and support weak tendons and ligaments.

Brad pushed on the door as hard as he could, but it had been wrapped with several layers thick in the strong white tape. It hardly gave at all. "Shoot!!! They got us!" he yelled.

A voice from outside said loudly - "Yes we did get you little creeps. Think you can just meddle anywhere you want? You boys need to learn how to mind your own business. Now just sit back as we teach you!"

Laughter erupted from at least 2 people outside the scoreboard. Brad continued to pound at the taped door. Brooks was forced to about 5 rungs up from Brad's head as the narrow scoreboard leg only had room for the ladder and one person to climb up at a time.

After a few minutes Brad stopped pounding and joined Brooks upstairs on the first level's walkway. "What are we going to do now?" asked Brad. "Just wait for them to leave, I got out once, we can get out again, it's not a big deal, but we need them to leave first."

There was still a lot of shuffling and muted talking outside. There was a slight hissing sound that barely caught Brooks' attention. It was hardly noticeable. The air started smelling mildly sweet. "What's going on?" asked Brad.

"What.. talking.. you..about?" Brooks mumbled almost incoherently. Brooks heard the words he'd just said and realized they didn't make any sense. Slowly his mind started grinding...hissing noise, sweet smell, gas. The alarm sounded in Brooks' hazy head. "Brad," he yelled as he grabbed his friend's shoulder to get his attention. "We are being gassed, we have to get out of here - we have to get to the 3rd level so we can climb out the panel - grab 4 computer cables on the way up, I'll grab the wrench!!"

They stood up and immediately sagged against the wall. The gas was working well and they didn't have any time to spare if they wanted to get out of the scoreboard before passing out. Brooks regained a little strength and took off down the passage - he got to the end of it where the toolbox had been. It wasn't there, and when he looked up for the ladder leading to the next level, it didn't really matter, the ladder had been pulled up and was out of reach and there was no other way up. Brooks told Brad was going on when he reached the end of the hallway with the cables. Both boys sat down and passed out within 30 seconds, their bodies going limp and collapsing on the narrow passage way.

Chapter 14 Wake Up Call

Brooks woke up with a sharp headache and a groggy feeling, his arms were pinned behind his back and he had tape over his mouth. He didn't quite know where he was, but he was definitely out of the scoreboard and despite the fact that it was pitch black he could discern that Brad was lying next to him, still passed out. It was quiet but he could hear an engine running, but didn't feel any movement. His hands could feel canvas; it was like they were inside some sort of a big bag.

He kicked Brad whose eyes fluttered open. As he gained awareness of his surroundings Brad's eyes became wide. Brooks was not panicked, as he knew that wouldn't help the situation. As Brad began kicking and thrashing around whatever contraption they were in started to move. It rolled a few inches and hit something solid and stopped.

A car door opened and the smell of cigarettes entered the vehicle. "Look here, boy sleuths," a raspy voice said. "You need to stop digging around this football thing. Mind your own business, or you'll really get hurt. Next time we decide to knock you out, you won't be waking up, you boys understand?" The man kicked whatever it was that the boys were laying in. Luckily the kick landed between them and didn't hurt them. "I SAID DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

A flashlight was waved in their faces, illuminating the boys but simultaneously nearly blinding them as their eyes had adjusted to the dark. "NOW TELL ME IF YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M SAYING!" the man demanded again. Both boys nodded becoming increasingly frightened and angry. "RUIN MY PLAN AND YOU'LL PAY. I'VE WORKED MY WHOLE LIFE TO GET TO THIS POINT AND I'M NOT GOING TO HAVE IT RUINED BY 2 KIDS! NOW GET THE HECK OUT OF HERE! AND IF I HEAR OF YOU TWO DOING ANYMORE DIGGING AROUND OR CAUSING ANY MORE TROUBLE, WE'LL BE MEETING AGAIN!"

The light clicked off and more medical tape was quickly put over both of their eyes, plunging them back into darkness. Another door opened; and the boys were suddenly sent rolling down a ramp. The cart they were in was accelerating quickly! Above the clanking sound made by the metal wheels of the cart on the ground, they heard tires screeching and a motor racing. The boys rolled on a flat surface for what seemed like a few seconds before the cart fell over and the boys tumbled out of it, Brad falling on top of Brooks.

Luckily, the darkness didn't help the man who was putting the tape over the boys' eyes as it was done pretty poorly. They could both see out of one eye and made eye contact.

Brooks looked around and recognized the Tosa East teachers' parking lot. They were about 200 feet from the stadium parking lot. Their arms were still secured behind their backs and tape over their mouths. Brooks grunted and motioned with his head for Brad to go to the fence with him. When they reached the fence Brad shrugged his shoulders to indicate confusion.

Brooks sat down with his back to the fence and started rubbing the sharp wire at the bottom of the chain link fence on the tape. It cut through it after about 40 seconds. Brad imitated Brooks and was free a few seconds after. Both boys ripped the tape off their mouths and started rubbing their wrists where the tape was to get the circulation back.

"Those guys aren't kidding around!" said Brad. "Are you ok?" "Yeah, I'm fine, just annoyed I got burned again by those jerks." "I thought for sure that lock was going to do the trick," said Brad.

The boys walked back to the cart that they were held captive in. It was a big canvas laundry cart used by the school's athletic department for towels and dirty uniforms. The cart was now laying on its side in the parking lot.

Brad grabbed it and set it upright. The dim lights of the parking lot made it hard to see, but there was something white at the bottom of the basket. It was a towel; Brooks reached in and fished it out. It was a bit damp and Brooks held it up.

"I don't really want to take this wet towel, but we should see if it can help us." "Gross," said Brad. Brooks threw the towel at Brad but before it could hit his face Brad had grabbed it and returned the throw at Brooks. He wasn't expecting it and the towel hit him straight in the face and wrapped around his head. "OH MY!" yelled Brooks.

The boys sat down in the parking lot and started laughing, the stress washed off of them as they sat their laughing. "What time is it?" asked Brooks, as Brad helped him to his feet and the boys made their way back to their bikes. "10:30, man we are in some trouble!" said Brad. "I hope my mom doesn't gas me and throw me in a clothes hamper!" joked Brooks. But despite his humorous comment, he knew he'd have to make a choice - tell his parents what had happened or think of some way to explain being out so late on a school night.

The boys got back to their bikes and Brooks pulled out his mini flashlight from his backpack. The light beam hit the towel. Looked like an ordinary white, school-issued towel. "Nothing here," said Brooks. "Wait!" said Brad pointing to some small black lettering near the bottom seam.

Chapter 15 The Two Minute Warning

Brooks leaned in for a closer look and read: STATE COLLEGE PORCUPINE ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT. "I think we have our answer," said Brooks. "So my question for you - what are we going to do about it?" countered Brad. "Well right now, I'm going to have to use my brain for thinking of what to tell my mom why I'm out until almost 11 on a school night!" "Shoot!" yelled Brad. "I have to go too."

The boys hopped on their bikes and headed for their houses. Their bright lights illuminated the road ahead of them. "See you in the morning!" yelled Brad as he turned down his street. "Thanks for having my back!" ribbed Brooks.

Brooks put his bike in the garage and quietly opened the door to the kitchen. He peeked into the living room and saw his mom asleep on the couch. He heard a door close downstairs and heard his dad coming up from his office in the basement. Brooks quickly slipped upstairs and got in bed. He'd been able to get in his room undetected. Now he just had to hope that nobody had known what time it was when he came home.

Brooks woke up early on Thursday. He had about an hour to go before he had to leave for school. The case had reached a cross roads he felt. It was getting too dangerous to pursue alone. He had already had two close calls in that scoreboard, and it was escalating each time. Locked in was one thing, but being gassed and kidnapped took this to a whole new level. Plus he already had enough evidence he felt to know who was behind the plot. He knew the person who was passing the CD's with the video footage was Coach Russell's kid, Smokey. And he had knew that both Smokey and his son had motivation to sabotage Tosa East's season so they could help Marc Ille get a scholarship at the University and get the better of the two quarterbacks - Jeff Kopish to play for State College. Lastly he knew that Coach Russell's other son had access to Tosa East facilities to install the video cameras. It was time to call Uncle Mike.

"Berry" Uncle Mike answered his phone with just his last name. "Hey Uncle Mike, I need your help bringing a case to a close, can you come over this afternoon?" "Hey, Brooks, sure, I'd be happy to. Does this mean that the case of the lousy football season has been solved? " Brooks grinned, "It goes way beyond just that. I'll tell you when you get here. "See you after school, buddy," said Uncle Mike.

School dragged on. Brooks still had a headache from the gas the day before. As Brooks and Brad ate their lunch together in the cafeteria, Brooks told him his conclusions. Brad was excited to hear how it had unfolded, but his nagging headache was still bothering him. Brooks invited Brad to meet him after school to talk about the case with Uncle Mike. "I wouldn't miss it for the world," said Brad.

Finally the bell rang and the boys rushed back to Brooks' house after school. The police cruiser outside meant that Uncle Mike was already there. The boys put the bikes in the garage and headed in. Uncle Mike was dressed in full tactical uniform. He looked especially intimidating in all black with the big boots on and vest. "What's with the storm trooper outfit?" asked Brooks. "I was training with the SWAT Team this morning," he said. "So you've cracked another case? I'm eager to hear this," said Uncle Mike.

Brooks and Brad laid out their evidence, how they'd seen the guy that they later learned was Smokey Russell at the games talking to the coaches and exchanging things with them. Then they laid out the whole family connections. Uncle Mike sat nodding his head. His face grew angry when the boys recounted being locked and gassed in the scoreboard.

"That crosses a serious line," he said. "I'd like to question both the coach and his sons at the same time. I guess I can get a warrant for that..." he said, deep in thought. Brooks' dad who had been sitting at the table with his mouth open the whole time, amazed at what was going on right under his nose without realizing it, suddenly spoke up. "I read in a newspaper article that football games are a whole family thing for the Russell's. His kids go to every one of his games." "Well if that's the case, we can probably do it without stirring up suspicion on Friday at the Kenosha game," said Brad. "I'll coordinate it on my end," said Uncle Mike, "Brooks can you be there for the questioning with me?" "If it's ok with my dad," said Brooks. His dad smiled broadly and said, "I like how my consent now matters to you, son!" Brooks smiled sheepishly. "It's ok with me, but I'm going with you guys too," said Brooks' dad.

"HaHEM!" Brad loudly cleared his throat and looked at them annoyed. The group cracked up in laughter, "Brad, want to come along?" asked Uncle Mike. Brad was beaming, "I wouldn't miss it for the world!"

Chapter 16 The Final Play

Kenosha had just won their game 42-7 over Hamilton High School. Coach Russell ran off the field along with a group of his players, smiling brightly as yet another win got put into his record book.

Uncle Mike and 4 other officers were standing near the school locker room entrance. Brooks, Brad and Brooks' dad stood off in the shadows watching as the men stopped the coach as he came off the field. Uncle Mike didn't want the men seeing the boys they had kidnapped quite yet.

"COACH RUSSELL" said Uncle Mike, strongly but firmly. The Coach stopped running and walked over to the group of policemen. His smile was not as bright as it had been a few moments ago. "We'd like to have a word with you if you don't mind."

Just at that moment his 2 sons arrived expecting to see their dad in the locker room and help him celebrate. One of the other officers said "Smokey Russell, I'd like to have a word with you." Bob was next to be greeted by one of the officers. Smokey was getting visibly agitated. "What's this about? I demand to know!"

Uncle Mike walked over to him and he towered above Smokey who backed down immediately from the intimidation. "Just a few questions, that's all." Bob Russell stood there quietly, with a slight tremble in his body.

Ever the coach, their dad said, "Don't worry boys, they just want to talk – probably want to get some tickets for next season's State College games!" Uncle Mike turned his cold stare to the Coach. "Not quite," he replied. "Let's go inside gentlemen." Smokey smiled arrogantly and said, "If you want to do an interview with us, it'll have to wait."

This visibly angered Uncle Mike. "Actually Smokey, it's about something a little more serious than that."

"I want to see your warrant!" Smokey exclaimed. Uncle Mike snapped, "Smokey you'd better relax, we don't need a warrant to talk to you!" Then motioning to the other officers he said, " Get them inside."

The officers took the 3 men inside the school where Uncle Mike had arranged for private rooms to be available. The plan was to split them all up and let them talk separately. Then bring them together to see if they could get any more information out of them.

Uncle Mike & Brooks approached Bob's room first. "Remember, let me start," said Uncle Mike. Brooks nodded, he and Uncle Mike had discussed some interrogation strategies on the ride over.

Uncle Mike opened the door and saw Bob sitting at a table silently looking down at the floor. Sweat was forming on his forehead and he looked visibly uncomfortable. He was nervously tapping his finger on the tabletop.

"Tell me about it," said Uncle Mike. Bob looked confused. "Tell you about what?" he asked. "The kidnapping of my nephew." Bob appeared more confused now. "Kidnapping? What are you talking about?"

"What about this?" Uncle Mike pulled a laptop computer out of his briefcase and turned to Brooks. Brooks handed him the CD that had fallen out of Smokey's bag when his dad had knocked it out of his hand. Uncle Mike put the CD in the computer and the video started playing. The video started with a view out of the scoreboard capturing the Tosa East on field practice and quickly switched to the video filmed from Coach Vitrano's bookshelf.

Bob was shifting uncomfortably in his seat, obviously more agitated. "I don't know what that is, I'm being framed here. I've done nothing."

Brooks looked at him closely. He knew he was about to make things go from bad to worse for Bob. "I think he's telling the truth Uncle Mike. What if we make him swear to tell the truth? I don't have a Bible to use, but I do have this book."

Brooks pulled the book Vince Lombardi Coaching Methods out of his backpack. Bob's hand started to tremble visibly and his face went white. As Brooks slid the book across the table Bob held up his hands. "Stop. I did it. I videoed their practices and put the hidden camera inside the coach's office. My brother and dad made me do it, I didn't want to. My business was just getting off the ground and that school district set up was a real big win for me. Then my dad got the State College job and they made me do it. I owed my dad a lot of money. He helped me set up my business – paid for a lot of equipment. I felt I owed it to him. I ran the camera into the coach's office, and then I had my computer take the live feed and record it on the hard drive at my office. Then Smokey made me give him the CD's each week with all of the video on it. I don't know what he did with them, and I didn't care. I don't even like football!" Bob looked relieved but still very scared.

"Anything else you want us to know?" asked Uncle Mike. "I've told you everything," said Bob.

Uncle Mike & Brooks left the room. "One down, two to go," said Uncle Mike. Brooks smiled at him. The next room was Smokey. "Wait here," said Uncle Mike, holding up Brooks right before they entered the room. "Remember what we discussed." Brooks nodded.

Uncle Mike opened the door and faced Smokey. He appeared to have kept his smug attitude. "Hello Smokey," said Uncle Mike. "First, here's the CD back that you dropped at your dad's game when he knocked them all out of your hands. Nice disguise by the way. Why don't you tell me what you know?"

He threw the CD across the table and it skidded off the end and landed in Bob's lap. It was a ploy to get him to spill his guts on his own without having to pressure him. This bit of evidence being literally thrown at him apparently hadn't diminished Smokey's cocky attitude. "I've done nothing wrong here, officer. May I go please?" asked Smokey with a smile and phony politeness. "Not quite yet, son," Uncle Mike said sternly, "your brother told us everything. You may as well do the same." It was a bluff by Uncle Mike, since Bob hadn't said anything about the kidnapping. "I wish I knew what he told you about – something about his lame computer business?" mocked Smokey.

Uncle Mike walked to the door and ushered Brooks in. The smile was removed quickly from Smokey's face and the color drained from it, making it a pale white. His eyes grew wide as Brooks stood in front of him. Brooks greeted Smokey, "Hey, great to see you again. Here's your towel back. You left it in the laundry cart on Wednesday night. I must have been exhausted, I fell asleep right inside that scoreboard!"

The towel floated from Brooks' hand and landed right in front of Smokey. Smokey flinched and started sputtering, "I want to see a lawyer, I need to see a lawyer. I need a cigarette!" Uncle Mike read him his rights and told him to sit still until he returned. Brooks and Uncle Mike left the room and told one of the officers to stay in the room with Smokey.

They got to the third room and approached it. Brooks opened the door and he and Uncle Mike walked in. Uncle Mike nodded to Brooks to signal him to start it. Brooks was really excited to lead the questioning.

"Coach Russell. You have a long, successful career and a brand new future with State College. Why did you do this?" Coach Russell stood up from his chair "Look kid, I don't know whom you think you are talking to but I'm old enough..." Uncle Mike stepped forward, "I think it would help you if you listened to him, and answered his questions."

Coach Russell sunk down in his chair. "Coach," Brooks restarted, taking a different tactic, "we've just spent 45 minutes talking to both of your sons. They told us everything."

The coach remained defiant. "They'd never say a word to anyone!" Brooks countered, "You mean Bob would never tell us that he taped Tosa East practices and had a hidden camera in the coach's office? And how Smokey would never tell us how he delivered tapes to coaches the week before they played Tosa East so they could have an advantage while playing them?"

The coach's demeanor had changed considerably now. He was slumped over in his chair. He took off his glasses and wiped his eyes. "I got greedy," the coach struggled to choke out the words. "I finally got that gosh darn State College coaching job. I should have had it 10 years ago!"

Uncle Mike stopped him and read him his rights. Brooks put his hand on the coach's shoulder, "Go on, Coach." The coach looked at Brooks and he started to tremble. "I've always done it for the kids. I just wanted to win. To see the joy in them when they won and help them learn the greatest game in America. Then I got this head-coaching job at State College. Worked my whole career for it. Thought I could turn them around from a joke to a team to rival the University. I knew that State's coach was leaving after this season. So when Bob won that contract to do the wiring on the school district's computer system, Smokey came to me with the idea. He'd worked with Jeff Kopish for the past 6 years at that State College camp and knew how good he was. We'd give all of the coaches in the district video of Tosa East's practices and inside their locker room. And we'd help Tosa West win all of their games. We went to the Marc Ille boy and started giving him video of the opponents too – so he cold win his games and look like a superstar. We wanted to prop him up and bring down Jeff Kopish. That way, I'd get to have Jeff come to State and be my quarterback, he's 5 times the player Ille is. Then we took some heat when Ille's dad found out and tried to make him stop watching the video. That didn't last long though Ille kept on watching and kept on winning. I figured it was a win – win. State would get a great quarterback, I'd look good in my first year as coaching and Ille would get to go to the University. Who is the loser there?"

Brooks grew angry upon hearing the coach's explanation, "How about Jeff Kopish who could have gone to the University!" "I felt I would have been able to make him a winner at State," said the coach with a tear running down his cheek.

"Talk to us about the kidnapping the 2 kids, Coach," urged Uncle Mike. Coach Russell's head snapped up, "Kidnapping? What are you talking about? I'd never hurt kids, I've worked my whole life trying to help kids!" "You weren't there on Wednesday night?" asked Brooks. The coach continued to look confused, "Wednesday night I was celebrating my 40th wedding anniversary with my wife!"

Uncle Mike walked out of the room and kept the door open. The policeman who had been outside kept watch on Brooks and the coach. The coach put his head in his hands, "What have I done...my whole career, gone," he said with an air of despair.

Uncle Mike walked back into the room with Smokey and sat him down at the table. The coach started to cry softly when his son was brought in. Smokey's demeanor had changed also. Seeing his dad cry softened him.

"Dad, don't say anything until you talk to a lawyer!" said Smokey. "It's over son, I told them the truth," said the coach.

"Coach Russell, Smokey, we are going to arrest both of you for the kidnapping of Brooks Berry and Brad Klemz and assault for using gas to knock them both out." Coach Russell stood up, "What are you talking about? I told you, we did the taping, but there was never any kidnapping!"

"Dad, sit down," said Smokey. "I think I can explain...I sent this Brooks kid here an email – but I didn't know it was Brooks then. When Coach Thomas got that email saying they were on to him, I just replied to that same email address saying I had more information. Brooks and some other kid showed up and we locked them in the scoreboard. We pumped some chloroform in there to knock them out and tried to scare them. We weren't gonna hurt them, just scare them quiet."

The coach leaned back in his chair and let out a loud sigh. "What has this come to?" he asked himself aloud.

Brooks leaned in, "Smokey, you said 'we'" – who is we?" "Marc Ille - kid from West. He helped after his dad got mad at him. Said he wanted to do whatever it took to get a scholarship. His dad caught him watching the video once and almost ruined everything. But he really wanted Marc to get into a good college on scholarship so he didn't go to the authorities with the information, but he made Marc promise to stop watching the tapes and win on his own. Marc didn't buy into it though, he just told him he would stop to make his dad happy and get him off his back. He wasn't that involved but he was with me on Wednesday and did help me haul you and your buddy down from that scoreboard and into my truck after you guys passed out. Sorry about that. We might have gone too far." Brooks just stared at him.

"I have one last question for you, Coach Russell. When you played Tosa West, Smokey has his disguise on - the long hair and the moustache. He tried to hand you some CD's and you got angry with him and knocked the envelope out of his hands. Why?" asked Brooks.

"Easy!" said Coach Russell angrily; "I didn't want anyone seeing me with those dang CD's. He came up to me before the game to see if I could give those to Marc Ille after the game because he had a date that night. I told him to stay away from me – especially when he had that stupid disguise on! If someone would have caught me with those CD's I'd have been cooked right then!" Brooks and Brad looked at each other and nodded. The coach's actions seemed strange at the time, but now made perfect sense.

Chapter 17 Post Game

The next day Coach Russell and his sons and Marc Ille were charged for their crimes. Smokey and Marc were the only one that was in any real legal trouble. The Coach resigned from coaching at Kenosha High School and lost his coaching job at State University. Bob Russell lost his contract with the state. The school district also forfeited the whole season for every team but Tosa East who they declared the District Champion by default. With Marc Ille probably headed to prison, his scholarship was rescinded and it was offered to Jeff Kopish. Jeff eagerly accepted and was looking forward to fulfilling his dream of playing quarterback at the University in the Fall. Another winner in the whole situation was Coach Vitrano who was named the State College head football coach in place of Coach Russell.

Brad held the door open for Brooks' mom as she carried a large tray of hamburger buns to the table. The whole Berry family was there, including Uncle Mike and his wife Jenn. Each of them held a copy of the local newspaper that had the headline BROOKS BERRY - BOY SLEUTH - COMES THROUGH AGAIN AND BREAKS UP FOOTBALL CHEATING PLOT

"Come and get your veggie burgers!" yelled Brooks' mom as she came out the patio door. As they sat down to eat, Uncle Mike raised his glass and said, here's to the best Boy Sleuth of them all – Brooks Berry and his faithful companion!" Brad said, "Hey that was nice, thank you, Uncle Mike." "Huh?" asked Uncle Mike, confused. "The toast, remember – here's to Brooks and his faithful companion." "Umm, Brad, I was talking about Ripken..." said Uncle Mike.

The whole table erupted in laughter except for Brad who turned red. As if on cue, Ripken walked over to Brad, sat at his feet and put a paw on his leg. The table erupted in laughter again.

Inside the house, the phone rang. Little did Brooks know that he'd be on to his next mystery much sooner than even he could have hoped for...

