The Missing Marlin Read online

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2014 by David A. Kelly

  Cover art and interior illustrations copyright © 2014 by Mark Meyers

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.

  Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks and A Stepping Stone Book and the colophon are trademarks of Random House LLC. Ballpark Mysteries is a registered trademark of Upside Research, Inc.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Kelly, David A. (David Andrew)

  The missing marlin / by David A. Kelly; illustrated by Mark Meyers. — First edition.

  pages cm. — (Ballpark mysteries; 8)

  “A Stepping Stone book.”

  Summary: “Mike and Kate are visiting the Miami Marlins ballpark when some rare animals from the ballpark’s fish tanks go missing.” — Provided by publisher.

  ISBN 978-0-307-97782-3 (pbk.) — ISBN 978-0-307-97783-0 (lib. bdg.) —

  ISBN 978-0-307-97784-7 (ebook)

  [1. Fishes—Fiction. 2. Rare animals—Fiction. 3. Miami Marlins (Baseball team)—Fiction.

  4. Cousins—Fiction. 5. Miami (Fla.)—Fiction. 6. Mystery and detective stories.]

  I. Meyers, Mark, illustrator. II. Title.

  PZ7.K2936Mi 2014 [Fic]—dc23 2013008420

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v3.1

  This book is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather Charles F. Murnane, an all-around athlete and high school baseball coach who achieved a 139–32 record in sixteen seasons.

  —D.A.K.

  For Luke, Darrien, Ily, and Mara. Stay nerdy!

  —M.M.

  “Hit ’em where they ain’t.”

  —“Wee Willie” Keeler on the secret of his forty-five-game hitting streak in 1897

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1 Under the Sea

  Chapter 2 Turtle Trouble

  Chapter 3 Panther Patrol

  Chapter 4 Fish and Gummy Sharks

  Chapter 5 Critters and Creatures

  Chapter 6 Guppy Goes Fishing

  Chapter 7 Tortugas

  Chapter 8 A Cooler Getaway

  Chapter 9 A Big Catch

  Dugout Notes

  The Marlins’ Ballpark

  Mike Walsh puffed out his cheeks and blew with all his might. A stream of seawater shot out of his snorkel. It arched over the deck of Uncle Oliver’s boat and hit his cousin Kate Hopkins in the back of the neck.

  “Hey!” Kate turned around. “What are you, a fountain? Remember, we’re here to see the marlins, not goof around!”

  Mike grinned. His freckles stood out even more in the Florida sun. “Do you mean the fish or the baseball team?” he asked.

  Kate’s mom grabbed a towel from a seat at the back of the boat and handed it to Kate. Kate dried her brown ponytail, which poked out from her baseball cap. “Both! Today we’re looking for fish,” she said, and pointed to the picture of a blue marlin on her T-shirt. The marlin had a long spear-like nose and a tall fin along the top of its body. “We’ll see the Miami Marlins tomorrow.”

  “Well, these are the marlins I want to see,” Mike said. He tapped the Miami Marlins logo on his shirt. It showed a blue and orange marlin coming out of a big colorful letter M.

  Mike and Kate were visiting Florida—and their uncle Oliver—with Kate’s mom, Laura Hopkins. She was a sports reporter for the American Sportz website. Mrs. Hopkins was writing a story about the Miami Marlins baseball team. That morning Uncle Oliver had driven them from his house in Miami down to the Florida Keys to go snorkeling. He’d promised there’d be lots of colorful fish.

  “I have my own favorite Marlin,” Uncle Oliver said. He had a bushy mustache and a large belly. “Maybe you’ll meet him later.” He tied the boat to a mooring anchor bobbing in the water. “The park ranger told me this would be a good place to snorkel. But remember—all the fish and animals in this area are protected, so don’t touch any of ’em.”

  “Or the coral! On the plane, I read that the coral reefs in Florida are in danger,” Kate said. She loved to read.

  Uncle Oliver nodded. “Yup. Florida’s coral reefs stretch from the Dry Tortugas islands in the south all the way up past Miami,” he said. “They make a great home for fish.”

  Uncle Oliver knew a lot about sea life. He was an animal expert who raised exotic fish. He ran a nature center called Panther Park. The workers at Panther Park helped injured animals and took care of animals that the police had rescued from poachers and smugglers.

  “The story I read said that poachers steal fish and sometimes coral, too,” Kate said.

  “What’s a poacher?” Mike asked. “Someone who cooks eggs?”

  “You’re always thinking about food, aren’t you?” Kate said. “Poachers aren’t cooks. They’re people who take animals illegally. Do you think we’ll see any, Uncle Oliver?”

  “Doubt it,” Uncle Oliver said. “But people do pay a lot of money for rare animals and fish. And even coral, I guess. Instead of looking for poachers, you might want to watch for a real marlin. Did you know they can grow to be fourteen feet or longer?”

  “Wow!” Kate said.

  “They’re also fast swimmers,” Uncle Oliver said. “They can go over sixty miles per hour!”

  “If I see one, I’m going to try to ride it!” Mike said. He pretended to make waves with his hand. “How about sharks? Are there any around here?”

  “Some,” Uncle Oliver said. “But I don’t think you need to worry ’bout them.”

  “Well, when I see a shark, I know what to do,” Mike said. He made a fist with his right hand and smacked it into his other hand. “I’m going to punch it in the nose! It makes them go away. That’s what they said on TV.”

  Uncle Oliver laughed. “I’ve heard that, too, but I’m not sure it really works,” he said. “When you’re done snorkeling, I have something special to share with you in Miami.”

  “Is it a shark?” Kate asked.

  “Not quite,” Uncle Oliver said. “But there will be fish. I’m going to the Marlins’ ballpark to unveil my new baseball fish. Would you like to come with me?” The Miami Marlins had hired Uncle Oliver to oversee two aquariums in their ballpark. He had bred a special fish for the team that was shaped like a baseball.

  “That would be great!” Kate said. “Are you sure it’s okay?”

  “No problema, amiga,” Uncle Oliver said. “As long as Mike doesn’t try to punch any of my fish!”

  Mike laughed. “I won’t punch them,” he said. Then he pretended to swing a baseball bat. “But since they’re baseball fish, I might get confused and try hitting them!”

  Kate groaned. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go snorkeling!”

  Kate, Mike, and Mrs. Hopkins put on their bright yellow snorkels and masks. One end of the snorkel went into their mouths. The other end was made to poke up above the water so they could breathe without lifting their faces. Meanwhile the masks let them see clearly underwater. They all slipped large plastic fins on their feet. The fins made it easy to swim as they looked for fish.

>   Uncle Oliver stayed on the boat while Mrs. Hopkins, Mike, and Kate slid from the back into the bright blue sea. The sun reflected off their swim masks until they dropped their heads into the ocean.

  For the next half hour, they floated facedown in the calm water, watching the fish under them. Mrs. Hopkins snorkeled near the boat, while Mike and Kate explored. Mike saw silvery fish with yellow tails and lots of little fish that looked almost clear. He watched a school of small fish. He motioned for Kate to follow. The fish darted in and out of the coral reefs. Mike couldn’t believe how many fish there were. But it was getting a little hard for him to see them. His mask was starting to fog up. Uncle Oliver had said that might happen.

  Kate pointed at a large green turtle swimming past. Mike peered through his foggy goggles and gave her a thumbs-up. He liked the way the turtle moved its front flippers to swim and its back flippers to steer.

  Kate was just about to swim over to the boat when she started making wild movements with her arms to get Mike’s attention. She motioned for him to turn the other way.

  Mike shrugged, kicked his fins, and spun around. He couldn’t believe what he saw.

  A big black shark was coming straight at him!

  Mike clenched his fist to punch the shark. His breathing sped up. If only he could see better!

  Suddenly, the shark shot forward.

  Mike tightened his fist.

  But it swam right past him!

  Mike lowered his hand. His breathing returned to normal. If his face hadn’t been underwater, he would have laughed.

  It wasn’t a shark at all!

  From far away the black object had looked like a shark through Mike’s foggy goggles. But when it passed by, he could see that it was only a scuba diver in a black wet suit and mask. He held a net, and a black mesh bag trailed along behind him. Kate turned and swam after the scuba diver.

  Mike let his feet drop. He popped his head above the water and spit out the snorkel. Finally, Kate swam over. They used their fins to tread water.

  “Did you see that?” Mike asked. “That scuba diver looked like a shark!”

  “You’ve just got sharks on the brain,” Kate said. “I’m glad you didn’t try out your shark punch.”

  “Why’d you follow him?” Mike asked.

  “I thought I saw him trying to catch a fish,” Kate said. “That’s why he went past you so fast. He was chasing a bright blue fish with his net! But I couldn’t keep up with him.”

  “Too bad,” Mike said.

  Mike and Kate swam back to the boat. Mrs. Hopkins was already on board. When Uncle Oliver saw them coming, he sounded the horn.

  TOOT! TOOT!

  “Just in time,” Mrs. Hopkins said. She gave Kate and Mike a hand up. “We need to leave for the Marlins’ stadium so Uncle Oliver can show everyone his baseball fish!”

  Kate and Mike grabbed towels and dried off. They sank onto the seats as Uncle Oliver drove the boat back to the dock.

  Kate spent most of the hour-long car ride studying one of Uncle Oliver’s books on endangered animals. She tried to show Mike some of the pictures, but he was more interested in bouncing his tennis ball off the side window. He always carried a ball with him.

  Back in Miami, they headed straight to the stadium. After a security guard in a blue suit waved them through the employees’ door, Uncle Oliver led them to the infield. A group of reporters with cameras mingled around home plate.

  Kate had never seen a ballpark with so many colors. The hallways were bright shades of green, red, yellow, and blue. The outfield fence and wall were lime green. A huge set of windows behind the outfield faced downtown Miami.

  “This stadium sure doesn’t feel like most baseball stadiums,” Mrs. Hopkins said. “It’s so colorful!”

  “Awesome!” Mike said. “What’s that?” He pointed at a huge sculpture just behind the center-field wall. The sculpture looked like an island with large pink flamingos, palm trees, the sun and ocean, and, of course, marlins.

  “It’s the Marlins’ home run sculpture,” Uncle Oliver said. “When a Marlin hits a home run, the fish jump, the birds fly, and jets of water shoot up!”

  Kate looked in the other direction, toward home plate. “Look—a fish tank!” she said. On the left side of home plate was a twenty-two-foot-long clear tank filled with coral. It was built into the infield wall, right in front of the first row of seats. All types of small fish swam in it.

  “Where’s the second tank?” Mike asked. “I thought there were two.”

  Uncle Oliver pointed to the other side of the plate, near the third-base line. A long white cloth covered part of the infield wall. “It’s under that drape,” he said. “That’s where my rare baseball fish are.”

  Kate couldn’t take her eyes off the beautiful blue water. Mike seemed more interested in looking at the edges of the tank.

  “Boy, this glass must be really thick,” he said. “What if a ball hits it?”

  Uncle Oliver twirled the end of his mustache. “No problem,” he said. “The Marlins put super-strong glass in front of the tanks. They even had a Marlins pitcher fire balls at it to make sure it wouldn’t break.”

  “Wow, that would be the perfect job for you,” Kate said to Mike. “You’re great at breaking windows with baseballs.”

  Mike rolled his eyes. Kate was right, but he didn’t like to admit it. “Well, that means I have lots of power!” he said.

  “The only power you have is the power to make accidents happen.” Kate laughed.

  Uncle Oliver cleared his throat. “Will you two excuse me?” he asked. “It looks like things are starting. I’ll see you back at my house tonight after dinner. I have a meeting with my banker later.”

  Kate and Mike nodded. Uncle Oliver ambled over to the other side of the infield.

  “And I have to go interview the team president,” Mrs. Hopkins said. “I’ll catch you afterward.” She dug a notebook out of her bag and headed for home plate.

  “Hey, there’s Guppy Gomez,” Mike said. “He’s the Marlins’ best pitcher. I’m going to see if he’ll teach me something.”

  Guppy was standing near the pitching mound. He was tall and thin with big feet and hands. Mike waited for him to finish talking to a reporter. Then Mike asked him a question. Kate watched as Guppy leaned down, gave Mike a baseball, and showed him how to hold it. Fifteen minutes later, Mike came running back.

  “That was great!” Mike said with a wide smile. “Guppy showed me how to throw gyro-balls, forkballs, and even an Eephus pitch!”

  “What’s an Eephus pitch?” Kate asked.

  “It’s when a pitcher throws the ball super slow and high,” Mike said. “Like twenty feet up. It arcs and falls over the plate. It’s really hard to hit.”

  A tapping sound came from home plate. Buck Thompson, the Marlins team president, stepped up to a microphone on a stand. “I’d like to welcome everyone here to the unveiling of a very unusual addition to the Marlins’ stadium,” he said. “It’s a set of rare baseball fish raised by Oliver O’Brien, our friend from Panther Park.”

  An assistant pulled the white cover off the fish tank. The crowd of reporters took pictures. Camera flashes blinked one after another.

  The second fish tank looked just like the first. But in the middle swam two white fish with red splotches.

  “Why did you name them baseball fish?” a reporter called out.

  Uncle Oliver leaned forward. “You’ll see shortly,” he said. “Just keep an eye on them.”

  Mike, Kate, and the crowd of reporters watched the red-and-white fish. Nothing happened for a few minutes. Some of the reporters started shifting around and talking.

  “Look!” one cried out. A hush fell over the reporters. Inside the tank, the two fish stared out at the crowd. But they had both puffed out their bodies like balloons. The splotches of red scales now looked completely different. They looked like the red stitching on a baseball!

  “Hey, they’re like two swimming baseballs!” one man said.
>
  The other reporters and Uncle Oliver laughed. “You’re right,” he said. “Now you know why we call them baseball fish.”

  The reporters took more pictures. Some talked with Uncle Oliver. Mrs. Hopkins stood off to the side, interviewing one of the Marlins. Mike and Kate came close for a better look at the baseball fish. “They’re cool,” Kate said. “I’ve never seen anything like them!”

  After a while, Mike and Kate wandered back to the fish tank on the first-base side, where it was quieter. Kate studied the fish while Mike tossed his baseball up in the air and caught it.

  Finally, Mrs. Hopkins finished her interview. She signaled for the kids to follow her up the stairs to the exit. Most of the other reporters had left. Uncle Oliver was nowhere to be seen.

  Mike scrambled after Mrs. Hopkins. At the top of the stairs, he turned to check on Kate. But she wasn’t behind him. Mike scanned the infield. At last he spotted Kate in front of the tank. She hadn’t moved at all!

  “Kate!” Mike called. He pointed at a pretend watch on his wrist. “Time to go!”

  Kate shook her head and looked at the tank closely one more time. Then she started running up the steps. Mike turned to follow Mrs. Hopkins.

  By the time Kate caught up to Mike, she was panting.

  “You’ll never believe what I just saw down there,” she said.

  “What?” Mike asked.

  “There’s an endangered sea turtle in the Marlins’ fish tank!”

  Back at Uncle Oliver’s house, Kate sat down in front of her mother’s laptop computer. She pulled up a page filled with photos of green sea turtles. They had long necks and shiny eyes.

  “That’s what I saw in the Marlins’ tank!” Kate said. “What was it doing there, Ned?”

  Ned was Uncle Oliver’s assistant at Panther Park. Uncle Oliver was still at his meeting, but Ned had just come in from feeding the animals. He wore a maroon shirt, tan shorts, and hiking boots. Ned leaned over and took a closer look at the screen. Then he scratched his chin.