As defeat loomed closer, Coach Karl persistently taunted a boy on his team. Eventually, he lost his composure and started hurling insults at the boy. Unexpectedly, the boy’s father stepped onto the field and apprehended the coach. However, the astonishing reason behind the arrest left everyone stunned.
“Goodness, gracious! Did none of you have breakfast this morning?! Justin, what on earth! Hurry up! Move! My goodness, you’re running like a little girl!” Coach Karl shouted, his jaw tightly clenched in anger.
After months of intense preparation and a relentless desire to lead his team to victory, the coach found himself overwhelmed with anger as he witnessed his 17-year-old son, Todd, who was hailed as the league’s most promising player, suffer a significant setback due to the team’s poor performance.
“Frustrating! Justin, you’re an absolute catastrophe! You’re utterly pitiful and just plain pathetic!” he muttered angrily, berating the young player in front of the entire team. At that very moment, Coach Karl felt a firm grip on his shoulder…
“What in the world?” he snapped, swiftly turning around and forcefully pushing the hand away. “Who are you? What do you want?” he inquired with a mix of confusion and annoyance.
“Your time as a coach is over, Coach! It’s long overdue!” Danny declared, swinging his baseball bat and delivering a powerful strike to the coach’s knees.
“Aaaargh! What the—!” the coach exclaimed in pain, collapsing to the ground. “What on earth are you doing?! Have you lost your mind?” he cried out.
Danny kneeled down, leaning closer to him. “You’re being arrested, Coach. And yes,” he whispered into the coach’s ear. “This blow is also for how you mistreated my son.”
Coach Karl’s face turned pale. “Aaa… Arrest? What are you talking about? I’m not the person you’re looking for!”
“Oh!” Danny exclaimed with a smile, standing up. “You’re more cunning than I anticipated, Coach! Look at you, still maintaining that innocent façade. You’re currently under investigation for a heinous murder!” he proclaimed. “Now, would you prefer I recount your deeds, or are you ready to confess to your crimes?”
Coach Karl’s heart skipped a beat, and his face turned pale as the blood drained from it.
A week prior…
Danny was enjoying his evening tea when he noticed his son, Justin, returning home after baseball practice. Normally, Justin would boast about his experiences on the field, but that evening, he discarded his baseball equipment and slumped onto the couch, clearly upset.
“What’s wrong, buddy?” Danny approached his son.
“I think my baseball career is over before it even began, Dad,” Justin sighed. “The coach benched me today, and-”
“Take it easy, champ. We all have good and bad days, don’t we?” Danny tried to console his son.
“It’s not that, Dad. First, someone killed our club director right near the training base weeks ago. Now the entire area’s fenced off, and we can’t train there,” he revealed disappointedly. “All you see there are those ugly crime scene tapes. Not cool at all.”
“Hey, cheer up, champion! I know the police will wrap whatever they’re up to very soon, and you boys will be able to train. Yeah?” Danny encouraged the boy. “C’mon, you gotta relax.”
But nothing could cheer Justin. He told his father they had an away game for the playoff spot, and their team could’ve gone further. There would’ve been sponsors and scouts from other groups, and they would’ve been well prepared, but now none of that would happen because they didn’t even have a proper base for training.
“I see,” Danny sighed, an idea forming at the back of his head. “Look, you ain’t got nothing to worry about, OK? I’ll see what I can do. I’m gonna make a few calls, find out what’s going on, and maybe we can figure out how long all of this is gonna take…and maybe we could make the process faster, so you guys can return to your practice.”
“Really, Dad?” Justin’s face lit up.
“Well, I could try!” Danny smiled and shrugged.
“Thanks, Dad!” Justin said and left for his room.
Once Justin was gone, Danny called his partner, John, to inquire about the club director’s case. “How far along are we in the investigation, mate? Any leads that could help us?” he asked.
“I’m afraid the case reached a dead end a couple of days ago, Chief,” John said. “It appears that the victim was bludgeoned, but none of the cameras captured anything. The attacker clearly avoided areas that were under monitoring. Aside from that, there are no fingerprints or witnesses. The other team is still looking for leads, but I don’t see this getting over any soon.”
“Jeez, that’s crazy. Alright, thanks.” As Danny hung up the phone, he couldn’t stop thinking about the incident.
The next day, when he stopped by his son’s baseball practice, he realized the training was taking place on an abandoned field, and the conditions were ridiculous, as Justin had mentioned.
The lawn was patchy and uneven, there was a lot of noise from the traffic on the adjacent roads, and there were only broken and worn-out benches for the players.
“Look at Todd! I bet that kid’s got something!” one of the parents standing beside Danny said, distracting the officer.
“I assume he’s the local star?” Danny grinned, looking at Todd throwing perfect pitches.
“Right, sir!” said another dad, his gaze riveted on Todd. “You’re absolutely right! Only 17 years old, but what a find. And just look at that boy! I mean, I didn’t even look like that when I was 25!”
Danny nodded in agreement. “I can understand why he receives so much praise, sir. By the way, I heard our chances for the season aren’t looking good?”
“Unfortunately, that’s true,” the man groaned. “I mean, after the whole murder incident, the kids have been deprived of proper training resources. Now, the coach is our only hope.”
“Oh, please!” a woman interjected. “I wouldn’t put my faith in a man like him!”
Danny furrowed his brows.
“Haven’t you seen how harsh he can be with the kids?” she snarled. “He’s so rude at times! He could make the kids despise the game! And things have only gotten worse after the club director was murdered. The only redeeming quality about the coach is his son, Todd, who plays on our team. Let’s be honest here; without him, we wouldn’t be performing as well in the rankings. If we win, many of the boys could catch the attention of scouts and secure a ticket to a better life!”
And that’s when it dawned on Danny. “Especially Todd…” he whispered.
“Where are you going?” the woman inquired as Danny made his way towards the exit.
“Something urgent came up at work,” he lied, swiftly leaving the practice.
As Danny reached his car, he dialed John again and asked him for the club director, Mr. Hamilton’s home address.
Danny drove to Mr. Hamilton’s house to investigate the case further when he noticed a woman pulled over and got out of her car. She stood still for a moment with tears streaming down her face, then she walked a few steps, only to collapse to the ground, sobbing.
Danny took a deep breath and approached her. “I’m assuming you’re Mrs. Hamilton?” he asked the woman, offering his handkerchief.
The woman wiped at her tears and rose to her feet. “Yes, but…I’m sorry, do I know you?” she asked, sniffling.
Danny showed his badge and said, “I’m sorry to hear about your husband. I just wanted to…”
“Police again?” she snapped. “I have told y’all everything I know, haven’t I? Why are you here, troubling me again and again instead of finding my husband’s killer?”
Danny calmly told her there were new leads and that he needed to search Mr. Hamilton’s room again. Thankfully, Mrs. Hamilton caved and let Danny in.
“Those cops searched his study several times but didn’t find anything. But you can have a look,” she said, leaving the room.
As he looked through the late Mr. Hamilton’s study, Danny noticed everything was in place. Mr. Hamilton’s laptop was clean and untouched; the files were neatly arranged on shelves, and even the magazines were clearly arranged. Only one thing stood out—a messy stack of papers behind his desk.
As Danny looked through the papers, he realized they were copies of the birth certificates of all the children on the team. And it was then an idea struck him.
“Hello, John? Can you please run a check on someone? Anthony Karl’s son. The man goes by Coach Karl. I wanna know about his son,” he asked his partner on call.
“Please hold on for a moment, Chief,” John said, and Danny could hear some murmuring in the background. Then John’s voice returned. “Hello, Chief, yeah, got it. Which son…the older or the younger?”
“Oh! He has two sons?” Danny’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “The older one, please.”
“Ugh, well, his name is Barney. The young man is 21 years old and resides in another city, apparently with his grandmother. There’s no record of him being enrolled anywhere… no reports of any involvement with the police.”
“And what about the younger one?” Danny inquired.
“The kid’s name is Todd, 17 years old. He plays in a baseball league… and by the way, he attends the same school as Justin!” his partner shared.
“Can you send me their photographs from the files? It’s quite urgent,” Danny insisted.
“Done, mate!” John replied, and Danny hung up the phone, his eyes fixed on Todd’s photo.
“So here you are…Todd! Gotcha!” Danny exclaimed, rushing out to his son’s game.
Present-day…
Coach Karl tried to shove the officers as he was cuffed. “You have the right to remain silent, Coach! Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law!” Danny reminded him, hurling him up to his feet.
“What are you even arresting me for?” he screamed. “Get off of me!”
The entire audience gasped, and the referee stopped the match as their eyes were drawn to Coach Karl.
“Dad! What the…what’s going on?” Justin took off his helmet, rushing up to his father in confusion. “Why are you arresting Coach?”
“Todd,” Danny turned to Coach Karl’s son. “Do you have something to confess to your fellow players? To these boys…aged 14 to 17?”
Todd gulped in fear. “I…I er, actually…”
“Well, maybe it is difficult for you when someone calls you with the wrong name. So let’s fix my question,” Danny said. “Barney, do you have something to confess to your fellow players? That you are actually 21 years old, for example?”
“How the hell did you even find that?” Coach Karl grumbled, glaring at Danny.
“I had my suspicions, Coach,” Danny admitted. “The day Mr. Hamilton found out your son had disguised himself so he could play at a high level, he was brutally attacked and killed. You did everything so your son’s lie wasn’t caught. Am I right?”
As Danny revealed the truth before everyone, Barney squared his shoulders and began crying. “I…I didn’t like it here…But Dad sort of forced me,” he sobbed.
“And he also went too far for his lies, didn’t he?” Danny added disappointedly as Coach Karl was carried to the police cruiser.
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