Ballpark Mysteries #12: The Rangers Rustlers Read online

  After a quick lunch, Mike, Kate, and Mrs. Hopkins lined up with the other tourists to watch the cattle drive. Mrs. Hopkins leaned against a lamppost while Mike and Kate got right up front for a good view. A few minutes after one o’clock, a cowboy on a horse rounded the corner at the far end of the street. Right behind the cowboy was a herd of huge Texas longhorn cattle. The cattle moved slowly. More cowboys rode along on each side to keep the cattle moving.

  “Here they come!” Kate said. “Wow. Look at those horns. They’re gigantic!”

  Kate was right. The cattle looked just like the steer they had sat on earlier, but bigger. Some of them seemed to have horns that were two or three feet long.

  “Psssssst!” Mike whispered to Kate. “We can look at the horns, but we really should be looking for Buddy!”

  They checked out the cowboys on either side of the cattle. One was a small, redheaded man, and the other was a short cowboy with a red handkerchief around his neck.

  Kate pulled her phone out and started taking pictures as the herd of cattle ambled by. She was just putting the phone away when there was some activity at the back of the herd. The people on the sidewalk stepped back.

  “Watch out!” someone cried.

  One of the steers had broken loose! Before the cowboys could stop it, the steer ran for the side of the street. A gasp passed through the crowd.

  The long, pointy horns of the runaway steer were headed straight for Mike and Kate!

  Kate’s mother screamed as the steer picked up speed.

  Its hooves made a pounding sound as it ran.

  Clump! Clump! Clump! Clump!

  “Quick! Get back here,” Mrs. Hopkins said. Mike and Kate jumped behind the lamppost with her.

  “This isn’t going to end well!” Mike said.

  Mike and Kate closed their eyes. The steer was so close that Mike and Kate could almost feel its hot breath. They waited to feel the collision or the sharp point of the steer’s horns.

  But instead, they heard the clatter of horseshoes, the whooshing of a rope being thrown, and a loud SNEEERFFFF!

  Kate and Mike opened their eyes. The steer was just a few feet away! But the cowboy with the red handkerchief had lassoed it. He was using the rope to pull the steer back to the middle of the street.

  Mrs. Hopkins let out a long sigh.

  “Yee-haw!” Mike yelled. He punched his fist in the air. “Ride ’em, cowboy!”

  “I guess knowing how to lasso really comes in handy,” Mrs. Hopkins said. She stepped away from the lamppost and gave Kate a hug. “That was a little too close for me!”

  The crowd drifted back to the edge of the street to watch the end of the cattle drive. Mike and Kate sat down on the curb to catch their breath. As they looked up, the last of the herd of cattle passed by. The cowboy at the end was walking his horse from one side of the road to the other. Mike grabbed Kate’s arm.

  “Look at the cowboy with the long white beard!” Mike said. “That must be Buddy!” He let go of Kate and jumped up. She stood to get a better look.

  The cowboy on the last horse had a long, frizzled white beard. And over his cowboy shirt he wore a black button-down vest. Thinking quickly, Kate pulled out her phone and took a picture of Buddy. She snapped another one as he tipped his hat in her direction.

  “I’ve got it!” she said. “Now we can show the picture to Jimmy, and maybe we’ll get your shirt back.”

  Mike shook his head.

  “You mean you don’t want your shirt back?” Kate asked.

  Mike waited for Buddy to pass by. Then he leaned over toward Kate. “I do,” he said. “But I’ve got a better idea. Let’s follow Buddy!”

  As the cattle drive continued, the crowd near Mike and Kate moved on to other things. Mrs. Hopkins checked her watch. “We have enough time to see the museum before we head to the ballpark for tonight’s game,” she said. “We’ll stop at the hotel on the way so you two can get dressed in your Western clothes for Old West Night.”

  Kate looked at Mike. Mike nodded in the direction of Buddy and raised his eyebrows a couple times.

  “That sounds good, Mom,” Kate said. “But Mike and I really want to watch the end of the cattle drive. We’ll follow the cowboys for a little bit and then wait for you outside the museum.”

  “Okay,” she said. “Just be safe, and stay away from the cattle. I don’t want either of you to get hurt! I’ll meet you in about half an hour at the museum.”

  As Mrs. Hopkins walked down the street, Kate and Mike ran to catch up with the cattle drive. The cowboys and cattle had turned right, down a side alley with cars parked on the left. Mike and Kate stayed a short distance behind Buddy. Shortly after they turned the corner, Buddy’s horse stopped. Mike and Kate ducked in between two parked cars and squatted down.

  “Okay, fearless leader,” Kate said. “Now what?”

  Mike popped his head up and studied the situation. Then he ducked down again. “They’re herding the cattle into a gate in the fence up there,” he said. “They must be putting them back in their pens. Buddy will stay at the end of the herd until they’re all in their gates. Then we can follow him and see where he goes.”

  Buddy kept moving slowly down the alley on his horse as the cattle moved into their pens. At the same time, Mike and Kate ducked from parked car to parked car, staying hidden and following a safe distance behind Buddy.

  “Psst! This is it,” Mike whispered to Kate as the last of the longhorns entered the gate. When the gate closed, Buddy nudged his horse forward. He rode farther down the alley. Mike and Kate had to scurry to keep up. The line of parked cars ended at the edge of a warehouse. The warehouse had a row of doorways and garage doors. A few delivery trucks were parked on either side of the alley.

  With no cars to hide behind, Mike and Kate moved from doorway to doorway, trying to keep an eye on Buddy while staying out of sight. They watched as Buddy hopped off his horse. He led it to a horse trailer attached to a red pickup truck. Buddy secured the horse in the trailer. Then he closed the back door, dusted off his hands, and walked across the alley to one of the warehouse doors. A black van was parked near the warehouse. Its back doors were open, and two men in cowboy hats and blue jeans were loading brown cardboard boxes into the van.

  “What do you think is in those boxes?” Kate whispered to Mike. They were crouched out of sight in one of the doorways.

  Mike popped his head around the corner for a second to get a look at the van. “Doughnuts, hopefully,” he said with a smile.

  Kate leaned against the doorway. She twirled her long brown hair around her finger for a moment. “Nice try, food guy,” she said. “But we’ve got to figure out what’s in those boxes for real.”

  Mike nodded. He sneaked another look around the corner but pulled his head back in almost immediately. He jumped to the other side of Kate and pushed her to the edge of the doorway. “You’ve got to look now!” he said. “Look at the guy in the green T-shirt!”

  Kate poked her head around the corner for a second and then turned back to face Mike. Her eyes were wide. “Is that who I think it is?” she asked.

  “Yup! That’s the guy who sold me the stolen T-shirt outside the ballpark!” Mike said. “He is working with Buddy!”

  Before Kate could ask him any more questions, they heard a door slam. Mike and Kate quickly peeked around the corner. The back doors of the van were closed. They watched as the men went inside one of the warehouse doors.

  Mike tugged on Kate’s shirt. “Let’s go,” he said. “We’re too far away to hear what they’re saying. We can hide over there.” Mike pointed to a round steel garbage can near the rustler’s van. It had DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS printed on its side.

  “Are you crazy?” Kate asked. “It’s not big enough. We’ll get caught!”

  But it was too late. Mike was already scurrying along the side of the building. Kate ran to catch up. If the rustlers came out now, they’d see both of them.

  A few seconds later, Mike and Kate ducked behind
the garbage barrel. They huddled close so they wouldn’t be seen. Kate was quietly panting from the run. But before she could say anything to Mike, the door to the warehouse opened. They heard voices.

  “Meet me here after the baseball game with the van,” said one voice. “I’ve got a new place selected for the stuff. If we work fast, we can be out of here before midnight.”

  “Right, Buddy,” said a younger voice. “See you later.”

  They peeked around the edge of the garbage can just in time to see Buddy get into the red pickup truck with the horse trailer. Mike’s T-shirt guy and the other man in the cowboy hat climbed into the van. The van’s and the pickup truck’s engines kicked to life, and both drove away. A faint cloud of dust trailed behind them.

  “Come on,” Mike said. “Now’s our chance.” He nudged Kate and headed for the doorway that Buddy had just left.

  The wooden door looked worn and old like all the other ones in the warehouse. Mike tried turning its handle, but it wouldn’t budge.

  “It’s locked,” Mike said. “Now what?”

  Kate tried the handle, too. Then she looked at the ground. Underneath their feet was a faded doormat that read TOUGH AS TEXAS on red, white, and blue bars. She motioned for Mike to back up and then took a step back herself. “Maybe there’s a key under the mat,” she said.

  Kate reached down and lifted up the dusty mat. The only thing underneath was concrete.

  “I guess we really can’t mess with Texas,” Mike said as Kate put the mat back. “But it was worth a try.”

  Kate studied the door and the lock. Then she reached into her back pocket and pulled out her plastic library card. She slipped it between the door and the door frame.

  “What are you doing?” Mike asked.

  “Just something I read about in a detective book I borrowed from the library,” Kate said. She slipped the plastic card in and out along the edge of the door near the lock. “Sometimes you can unlock a door by using a plastic card to push the door latch in.”

  Mike looked around to make sure no one was watching. “But what if we get caught?” he asked.

  Kate shrugged. “We’re not going to steal anything,” she said. “We’re just going to take a look.” She continued working the library card along the door frame. Suddenly, they heard a CLICK! Kate pulled the library card out. The door swung open!

  Kate’s face broke into a wide smile. She slipped the card back into her pocket. “See?” she said. “I told you it was worth going to the library! You never know what you’ll find in a book!”

  Mike and Kate stepped inside and closed the door behind them. The room was dark, but a small window in the back wall let some light in. Particles of dust floated in and out of the shaft of light. Once Mike’s and Kate’s eyes adjusted, they looked around.

  “Hay!” Mike said.

  “Hey what?” Kate asked.

  “Not hey,” Mike said. “Hay. You know, like H-A-Y. There’s nothing but hay in here.”

  Mike was right. The room was filled with big bales of hay. Small green and gold strands of it stuck from the edges of the bales. The piles towered in front of the door.

  Kate scanned the room. “Hay is right,” she said. “But that doesn’t make any sense. We saw the rustlers taking boxes from here. Let’s search the place.”

  Mike and Kate fanned out to explore the warehouse room. Mike felt his way along the rough wooden wall on the left side. Kate examined the bales of hay stacked against the wall on the right side. Suddenly, from outside, they heard a car door slam!

  Mike and Kate looked at each other. They heard footsteps on the gravel outside and two voices talking. Mike pointed to the back wall. The voices were getting louder!

  Mike and Kate raced to the back of the room. They crouched down behind the last pile of hay bales and tried not to move or make any noise. But a few minutes later, the voices stopped. They heard a car door slam again and then drive away. All was quiet.

  “Wow,” Kate said. “That was close! We’d better hurry up and get out of here.”

  Mike and Kate quickly returned to searching the rest of the room. But after another five minutes, Mike gave up. He sat down on a bale of hay. The stray stalks sticking out tickled the backs of his legs.

  “Hey, I’m tired,” he said. “Get it? I’m saying hey, not hay!”

  Kate groaned from behind a pile of hay. “Yes, Mike,” she said. “I get it. They sound the same. But I could use some help here when you’re done joking around. I think there’s something behind this bale of hay! And that’s h-a-y, not h-e-y!”

  Mike jumped up and raced over to Kate. With a push, they moved the bale sideways. Behind it was a pile of cardboard boxes.

  “Bingo!” Kate said. “I thought there was something back there.”

  Mike stepped forward and pulled the cover off the box on top. He and Kate leaned over and looked in the box.

  It was filled with stolen Texas Rangers T-shirts just like Mike’s!

  Kate stepped back and moved the next bale of hay away. There were more cardboard boxes behind it filled with more Texas Rangers shirts.

  “This warehouse is loaded with stolen goods!” Mike said. “Buddy and the rustlers must be stealing the trucks and storing the things here. Then they load them into the van and sell them before games!”

  Kate nodded. She started moving the bales of hay back into their original positions. “We’ve got to get to the stadium to tell Jimmy what we’ve found before they move all the stolen goods!” she said.

  Mike and Kate finished moving the hay and ran to the door. They pushed it open slowly to see if anyone was in the alley. When they discovered it was empty, they darted out and closed the door behind them. Then they ran to the bench in front of the Stockyards museum to wait.

  It wasn’t long before Kate’s mom met them and they headed to the car for the drive to the Rangers’ ballpark. On the way, Kate’s mom stopped at the hotel so Mike and Kate could put on the clothes they had bought at the Stockyards.

  When they arrived at the stadium, it took a little while to get in because so many people had come for Old West Night. Fans were wearing all types of Texas clothing, from cowboy hats to skinny string ties to colorful bandannas to fancy boots. Mike and Kate fit right in. The large loop of rope coiled over Kate’s shoulder made her look a lot like the cowgirl they had seen at the Stockyards that morning. Mike wore a cowboy hat, blue jeans, and the cowboy shirt and leather belt with the big buckle that he had bought earlier that day.

  “Well, don’t you look fancy,” said the ticket taker as Kate entered. “Maybe if the Rangers start to lose, you can lasso the other team for us!”

  Kate laughed. “I don’t think I’m good enough to do that yet,” she said as she and Mike went through the gate. “But I’ll keep practicing!”

  The woman handed Kate and Mike each a Nolan Ryan bobblehead. Once they were inside the park, Kate handed the bobbleheads to her mother. “Mom, can you hold these?” she asked. “Mike and I want to look around the stadium a little. Then we’ll go sit down.”

  Mrs. Hopkins took the bobbleheads. “Sure,” she said. “I’ll be up in the pressroom. I’ll meet you after the game at your seats. Have fun!”

  As soon as Mrs. Hopkins started walking away, Kate leaned over to Mike. “Now we can go find Jimmy!” she said. “He told us he’d be here for each Oakland A’s game. Let’s go!”

  Mike and Kate ran through the hallways of the Rangers’ ballpark until they came to the section behind home plate. They took the steps two by two down the aisle until they reached the seats where the former president had been sitting the day before. But the seats were empty today. All around them, fans were streaming in and starting to fill up the other seats.

  Kate tapped her foot and scanned the stadium. “He’s not here,” she said. “Where would he be?”

  “Maybe the president is sitting somewhere else today,” Mike said. He looked up and down the sections of seats, trying to find a tall man with a white cowboy hat standing nea
r the former president.

  “We’ve got to find him before the rustlers move all that stuff,” Kate said. “Let’s go up a level to see if we can spot him. The game is going to start in a little while!”

  Mike and Kate ran up the aisle to the walkway that went around the park. They hurried along, heading down the third-base side and dodging fans while still keeping an eye out for Jimmy.

  All of a sudden, Mike stopped short. “Uh-oh!” he called out.

  Kate ran back to Mike. He was standing at the railing that overlooked the field. “What’s up?” she asked.

  “This isn’t good,” Mike said. He pointed to the corner in left field. Below the main walkway was a large entranceway. It seemed to come from under the seats and open directly onto left field.

  Kate followed his finger. Her jaw dropped. “What’s he doing here?” she gasped.

  It was Buddy, the cowboy! He was riding the same horse that Mike and Kate had watched him load into the horse trailer at the Stockyards a couple of hours ago.

  “He’s about to come out on the field!” Mike said. “He’s probably part of Old West Night.”

  “We can’t let him get away,” said Kate. “Once he’s done and comes off the field, he’ll head back to Fort Worth and start moving the stolen merchandise!”

  Mike made a fist and punched it into his open palm. “If only we could find Jimmy!” he said.

  Kate shook her head. “There’s no time,” she said. “And there’s no way for us to stop him. We’re up here, and he’s down there.”

  Mike studied Buddy and his horse. Buddy was holding the horse’s reins. They looked like two ropes running from the horse’s mouth to Buddy’s hands. Mike’s eyes opened wide.

  “That’s it!” he cried. Mike looked at Kate and her cowgirl outfit. “Come with me. I’ve got an idea!”