Hockey Mystery (2 page)

“In case you don’t know me, I’m Coach Reynolds.” His voice was loud and friendly. “The name of our team is the Polar Bears. My assistant, Henry Alden, is going to hand out jerseys and schedules at the end of the practice. We’ve got a great group of girls here, and we’re going to have a great team—right?” He paused, and a couple of girls said, “Right, Coach.”

“Come on, where’s your spirit?” he asked. Then he repeated his question even louder. “Are we going to have a great team?”

“Yes!” the girls shouted excitedly.

Coach Reynolds laughed. “That’s more like it! Before we start, why don’t you each tell us your name and how much experience you have with skating and hockey.”

Jessie listened as the girls spoke one by one. A petite girl with short black curly hair spoke first. “Hi, I’m Beth, and I don’t have a lot of experience playing hockey, but it looks like fun!” She smiled at Jessie.

Some other girls had played on teams before. But many, like Jessie, hadn’t even considered hockey until now. It seemed that Kevin Reynolds’s return to Greenfield had gotten everyone excited about hockey.

Soon it was Cathy’s turn. “I’m the coach’s daughter,” she said. “I’ve been playing hockey since I was little. I think I knew how to hold a hockey stick before I could walk.”

Everyone laughed. Since Jessie was standing next to Cathy she was next. “I’ve been skating for a long time, too. But I’ve only done figure skating. This is my first time trying hockey.”

When she’d finished, Jessie turned to Cathy and tried to catch her eye. But Cathy looked troubled. Jessie wondered what was bothering her. But before she could ask, Coach Reynolds was starting the practice.

First he led them in some basic stretches to loosen up their muscles. Then he had them skate around the rink a few times, to warm up and to see how well they skated. Jessie felt good on the ice. She’d been skating since she was little and had gotten to be very good at it.

Jessie noticed that the coach had sent Henry off the ice to get something. She wondered what it was. As she made her last circle around the ice, she saw Henry come back empty-handed. He skated over to Coach Reynolds, and the two stood talking for a moment.

Now all the girls had finished loosening up and were ready for the next activity. But something was wrong. Henry and the coach were still talking off to one side. It looked as if something was bothering them.

“I know, but I put them there just last night,” Jessie heard Kevin say. “I just don’t understand,” he continued. “Why would someone steal them?”

Henry said something quietly to Coach Reynolds.

Kevin thought for a moment, looking down the length of the ice. Then he turned back to Henry. “That’s a good idea.”

Henry skated quickly off the ice.

Benny was waiting by the glass. He’d heard what Coach Reynolds had said. “Henry, what’s going on? Was something stolen?”

“I can’t talk now,” Henry said. “I’ll explain later.”

Henry was gone for just a few moments, but it seemed like forever. A few of Jessie’s teammates began to fidget or adjust their laces. Kevin looked up toward the bleachers and shrugged. Jessie suddenly remembered that a group of parents and town council members were watching them practice. One man looked at his watch and frowned.

Finally Henry was back, his arms filled with mittens, gloves, and knitted hats.

“Great!” said Kevin when Henry had reached the center of the rink. “Spread them out the way we discussed.”

“Okay!” Henry said. He then skated down the ice, dropping a hat or mitten every few feet.

“What do you think he’s doing?” one of the girls said to Jessie.

Jessie shrugged. “I don’t know, but I guess we’ll find out soon.”

Jessie glanced up at the small audience in the bleachers again. They were turning to one another with puzzled looks and pointing toward the rink. A few leaned in together and began whispering. A few others began shaking their heads. They didn’t look happy.

The man who had been checking his watch stood up and shouted over to Kevin, “What does making a mess have to do with teaching kids hockey Reynolds?” He pointed at the ice, which was littered with mittens and hats.

“You’ll see,” Kevin called back.

When Henry was finished, Kevin explained, “We’re going to do some skating, stickhandling, and passing drills. I was planning to arrange some orange cones for you guys to skate around. You know, like you’d see on a highway where roadwork is being done. I bought them last night and put them in my office here. But when Henry went to look for them just now, they were gone! At first it looked like I might have to come up with a whole different set of drills! But Henry came to the rescue.”

“You mean we’re going to use the mittens and hats instead of cones?” Jessie asked.

“That’s right,” said Kevin. “He got a bunch of stuff out of the lost-and-found bin to use instead of cones.” Kevin showed the girls how to skate around the gloves and hats, smoothly weaving in and out. Then the girls tried it.

Next, Kevin had them repeat the exercise with their sticks guiding the puck along the ice. At the end of the line, each skater had to pass the puck to the next skater. To make the drill more exciting, he divided the girls into two groups and set it up as a race. Jessie, Beth, and Cathy were on the same team. They lined up and watched as the other girls took their turns, cheering on their team to go faster.

The girl ahead of Jessie moved up the course, carefully controlling the puck with her stick.

When she had finished, she passed the puck to Jessie, who stopped it with her stick. Now it was Jessie’s turn. She took a deep breath and set off. She had to concentrate hard not to lose the puck. She’d only recently started skating with a stick.

Controlling the puck, especially around things, was tricky.

“Go, Jessie!” she heard the girls on her team shouting.

Jessie was halfway done when she lost control of the puck. It slid off her stick and over to the boards.

“Oh, great,” she heard someone grumbling. “That was a dumb mistake.”

Suddenly Jessie realized it was Cathy talking. Why was she being so mean? Jessie felt her cheeks burning as she skated after the puck. She hooked her stick around it and got back to the course as quickly as she could.

“Come on!” Cathy called impatiently. “Hurry up!” She was next after Jessie and the last in their group to go.

Jessie managed to control the puck for the rest of the course and passed it to Cathy.

“Finally!” Cathy muttered under her breath as she started off. She zoomed up the course, weaving around the mittens and gloves easily. She never once lost control of the puck. But their side had already lost so much time that the other group won easily.

“Hooray!” the other group was cheering.

“Good job, everyone,” Kevin said. As he went on to explain the next drill, Jessie stole a glance at Cathy. Cathy was looking straight ahead, her mouth set in a grim line.
This is supposed to be fun,
Jessie thought.
What’s bothering her?

When the practice was over, Henry handed out the light blue jerseys and gave everyone a printed schedule.

“Our first game is in a week,” Kevin announced. “We’ve got to work hard to get ready. A regular season is usually fifteen or twenty games. But this is just a mini-league, to give you a little taste of what hockey is all about. So we’ll have five games and then the final tournament at the end of the month. I’ll see you all here the day after tomorrow at six.”

After the team had skated off, Benny and Violet came onto the ice for their lesson with Kevin.

“Ready to work those legs?” Kevin asked.

Violet nodded.

“We sure are,” Benny said eagerly.

“I’ll go put all these things back,” Henry said, walking off with an armful of gloves, hats, and mittens.

“What do you think happened to the missing cones?” Jessie asked.

“Do you think they were
stolen?
” Benny asked, his eyes wide.

“Why would someone steal a bunch of orange cones?” asked Kevin. He smiled. “I’m sure they’ll turn up sooner or later.”

As Benny and Violet began their lesson, Jessie went to change out of her hockey gear. On the way to the locker room she passed her figure skating teacher, Tracey.

“What were you doing with all those hats and gloves on the ice?” she asked Jessie.

“We were doing a skating drill,” Jessie explained. “Coach Reynolds was going to use cones, but they disappeared.”

“They
disappeared?
” Tracey repeated.

“Coach said he put them in his office last night, and this morning they were gone,” Jessie said.

Tracey rolled her eyes. “He’s planning to build a whole new rink, and he can’t even keep track of some cones?” And with that remark, she walked off.

Jessie walked slowly into the locker room. Beth had a locker next to Jessie’s. “Hey, Jessie,” Beth said. “Do you remember me? I’m Beth Davidson. I was in your figure skating class last year. With Tracey Lippert.”

“Oh, yes! Hi,” Jessie said.

“Tracey was pretty upset when I told her I wasn’t going to be taking her class again,” said Beth.

“She was upset with me, too,” said Jessie.

“I love watching figure skating on TV,” said another girl on the team. “Do you guys wear those fancy costumes?”

“Sometimes, for competitions,” Jessie said. “But most of the time I just wear a regular skating dress with a sweater.” Jessie dug in her bag and pulled out her turquoise dress. “Like this one. And these are my figure skates.” She held them up. “I had to get different skates for hockey.”

Jessie noticed that Cathy Reynolds was on the other side of the locker room. She had finished dressing and was watching her closely but not saying anything. She had a strange look on her face that Jessie couldn’t figure out. Then all of a sudden Cathy packed up all her gear, swung her bag over her shoulder, and began walking quickly out of the locker room.

The other girls were crowded around, chatting about hockey and figure skating and who their favorite teams and skaters were.

“Cathy!” Jessie called. “Cathy!” She’d been looking forward to showing Cathy around Greenfield. “Are we going to The Scoop?”

Cathy stopped walking and turned around. She looked very upset. “Not now. I’ve got to go. There’s something I’ve got to take care of.” And with that, Cathy was gone.

Jessie was left watching Cathy walk away. “First Tracey, now Cathy. What’s going on today?” Jessie said to herself. She wondered what was so important that Cathy had to take care of.

Jessie sighed, then turned back to her locker and finished getting dressed. When she had packed up her things, she left the locker room with Beth Davidson.

A woman was waiting by the door. She was wearing a Scouts jersey with the number fifteen on it.

“Mom!” called Beth.

“Hi, honey! How was practice?” the woman responded.

“It was great!” said Beth. “Mom, this is my friend Jessie Alden. She’s on the team, too.”

“Nice to meet you, Jessie,” said Mrs. Davidson.

“I like your jersey!” Jessie told Beth’s mother.

“My mom has a jersey from almost every team,” Beth said. “A couple of them are actual jerseys the players wore, with their signatures on them. Our house is like a hockey museum! We have pucks signed by famous players and pictures with their autographs, all kinds of hockey stuff.”

“Sounds like you’re a big fan,” Jessie said.

“My husband and I love hockey,” said Mrs. Davidson. “We have season tickets for the Scouts. So I couldn’t believe it when I heard that Kevin Reynolds was moving back here!”

“Is that a real Kevin Reynolds jersey you’re wearing?” Jessie wanted to know.

“No, it’s just a copy. I’d do anything for a real one!” Mrs. Davidson said. “Or one of his signed sticks. Of course, they’re much too expensive.”

Jessie spotted Henry standing by the ice watching Benny and Violet as they finished their skating lesson with Kevin.

“Come meet my brothers and sister,” Jessie said. She led Beth and her mother over to the ice.

“Thanks, Mr. Reynolds,” Violet was saying as she stepped out of the rink.

“My pleasure,” he replied.

Jessie introduced the Davidsons to Kevin and her sister and brothers.

“I’m a big fan of yours,” Mrs. Davidson told Mr. Reynolds.

“Thank you,” he said warmly. “Everyone in Greenfield has been so great to me.”

Just then a thin, balding man walked over to join them. He moved gracefully, and the children noticed he was humming softly under his breath. “Hello, Kevin,” he said in a quiet voice.

“Hello, Scott,” Mr. Reynolds said, slapping him on the back. Kevin turned to the others. “Scott and I learned to skate together as kids. He runs this rink. And he’s letting me rent space here while I get my own rink started.” He turned back to his friend. “Do you know the Aldens and the Davidsons?”

“I’m Scott Kaplan. Nice to meet you,” Scott said to the group gathered around Kevin.

“This is a great place,” Benny said. “We love skating here. And the hot chocolate at the snack bar is the best.”

“I’m glad you like it,” Scott said, smiling. He turned to Kevin. “I was watching your practice. Why were all those hats and gloves on the ice?”