“I’m sure she’ll do her best to set things up in an orderly manner,” Callie said. “But these guys have a job to do. If she gets in their way, they’ll run right over her, especially the TV guys who don’t have to rely on her for future tips. The fanzine guys are a little more circumspect about offending her.”
“Terrific,” he said sourly as one reporter pushed Neil aside to get to Terry. With surprising force, Neil pushed right back even before Hank could intervene.
“Sorry,” Hank said, muscling his way between the two men. He gestured toward Jenny. “See Miss Harding, if you want to talk to Mr. Walker.”
The reporter looked as if he might argue until Hank flashed his badge at him.
“Jeez, man, I was just going to ask how he was feeling after his accident.”
“And you are?” Hank demanded.
“Gil Haver, Newsday.”
Hank glanced at Terry. “Want to answer?”
“I’m certainly up to playing a little ball,” Terry said.
The reporter moved off, apparently satisfied that that was as much of a comment as he was likely to get.
Callie moved closer to Terry. “What about your ex-brother-in-law? Any sign of him?”
Terry was tall enough to scan the crowd, despite the number of people who were pressing closer, hoping for an autograph or a snapshot of the star. “I don’t see him,” he said, before turning his attention to the gathering of fans. “But I can’t even swear I’d recognize him after all these years.”
Then Callie lost sight of Terry as her own horde of fans surrounded her, waving photos under her nose for an autograph and pleading to have their pictures snapped with her. Hank did his best to maintain control, but it was a losing battle.
It was event organizers who finally managed to put a little order into the chaos by calling for the first game to begin.
They made it through six innings without incident. Once or twice during her times at bat, Callie was certain she spotted Jason in the crowd, but each time she lost him. Her heart thumped unsteadily as she thought about the fight they’d had. Until the very last instant, she’d been expecting him to follow through on his threat to cancel the game. As gut-deep scared as she was, she was still glad he hadn’t. The charity would have lost thousands of dollars.
At the beginning of the seventh inning, just when her team was about to take the field, Lindsay Gentry slipped up beside her.
“Where’s Terry?” she whispered. “Nobody’s seen him for several minutes now, not since we came off the field before this at-bat. I figured he’d gone to the restroom, but one of the guys checked. He’s not there.”
Callie’s heart leaped into her throat. She scanned the bench until she caught Hank’s eye. He was beside her in an instant.
“Any problems?”
“Where’s Terry?” she asked.
“He was here a minute ago,” Hank said, glancing toward the field as if he might materialize in his position at third base.
“Blast it all,” he murmured, then muttered something into his handheld radio, alerting his buddies that there was possible trouble.
Callie panicked. “Hank?”
He squeezed her shoulders. “Don’t worry. I’ll find him,” he promised. “Put one of the substitutes at his position. Go on as if nothing is wrong. I’ve already radioed one of the other cops to keep an eye on you until I’m back. He’s on his way over here now. I won’t budge until he’s in place.”
When Callie stood frozen, filled with dread, Hank snapped, “Just make the substitution. We don’t want this crowd to start wondering what’s going on. Do it now, so I can start searching.”
Acting by rote, her mind caught up in a swirl of panic over Terry’s disappearance, she grabbed Jenny off the bench and ordered her to play third base.
“Me?” Jenny protested. “How come?”
“Please. There’s nobody else.”
Jenny looked confused, but apparently she sensed Callie’s desperation because she finally nodded. “Okay, I’ll try. What’s going on? You look scared.”
Callie mustered a weak smile. “Just afraid of having to forfeit this late in the game,” she improvised. “We’re down to our last substitute player and I might need him to pitch. Grab a glove, okay?”
Used to the eccentricities of the stars with whom she worked, Jenny shrugged and took the field.
Isolated in left field, the next three outs were the longest moments of Callie’s life. Fortunately, the opposing soap team was not exactly packed with power hitters. Three ground balls dribbled into three quick outs. Jenny nailed the last batter with a solid throw to first base that had her teammates cheering.
Even over the exuberant shouts, Callie heard the distant wail of sirens as she was coming off the field. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind about what they meant. Terry’s disappearance had resulted in trouble, big trouble. Her stomach lurched as she tried to get a fix on where the sirens were headed.
Racing toward the bench, she spotted Jason running toward a secluded spot off to the left in the direction of the access road. She sprinted after him.
Whether Jason actually knew where he was going and what they would find or only anticipated the worst, he turned back and grabbed her just when she saw Hank kneeling down, bending over a body half hidden in a bright bed of tulips. The sneakers and jeans she could see weren’t distinguishable from hundreds of others in the park, but Callie recognized Terry’s vivid orange socks at once.
“No!” She thought she’d screamed, but the sound seemed to be little more than a whimper as Jason buried her face against his chest. She struggled to free herself. “Let me go! I have to see him.”
“Callie,” he protested.
“It’s okay,” Hank called out. “He’s alive, but barely.”
Callie tore herself free of Jason’s grasp and ran to her friend. Terry’s face and clothes were covered with blood. It looked as if someone had taken a bat to his head. She might have gagged and faltered then, but Jason’s grip on her arm steadied her.
She knelt down and
