“We’ve got to get down there to investigate!” Mike said. “Maybe he took the notes, not Milo!”

Kate turned to her mother. “Mom, can we meet you back here in a few minutes? Mike and I want to go see the Yankees’ Home Run Apple.”

Mrs. Hopkins looked up. “Oh, sure,” she said. “I’ll be working for the entire game.”

“Thanks!” Kate called over her shoulder as she and Mike slipped outside the door of the press box. They ran through the hallways and took an elevator down to the main level. Then they followed the main walkway around the stadium until they found an aisle near the apple.

“There he is!” Mike said, and they ran down the steps toward the field.

The man in the Mets jersey and Yankees hat was standing at the bottom of the aisle. He was too busy talking on his walkie-talkie to notice Mike and Kate racing down the steps.

They stopped just behind him. The nearby fans were still pointing at the big apple.

Kate tapped the man on the shoulder. “Excuse me,” she said.

The man jumped and turned around. He had a long face and a beard. His hair was cut in a crew cut.

“Oh!” he said. “Sorry, am I in your way?”

“No,” Kate said. She had to talk loudly because of all the noise from the crowd. Kate pointed to the man’s walkie-talkie. “We’re just trying to figure out what happened to the Home Run Apple,” she said. “We wondered if you knew anything about it.”

“I’m afraid I don’t,” the man said, “even though I should.”

“What do you mean?” Mike asked.

The man pointed to the Mets jersey he was wearing. “I’m Rocco Sampson. I work for the Mets,” he said. “I’m in charge of pushing the button to make the apple pop up after a home run!”

“That would be fun to do!” Mike said.

“It is,” Rocco said. He pointed at the Yankee pinstripes on the apple. “But this isn’t fun. Somebody must have done it last night when the stadium was empty.”

“Or maybe this afternoon,” Kate said. “Did you hear the press box was broken into? Someone stole my mother’s notes!”

“I didn’t know that,” Rocco said. “But whoever did this was obviously a Yankees fan, not someone who works for the Mets, like me!”

Mike pointed at Rocco’s hat. “But what about that?” he asked. “If you work for the Mets, why are you wearing a Yankees hat?”

Rocco smiled. “I wear the Mets jersey and Yankees hat during Subway Series games so I can show I support the crosstown rivalry of Mets and Yankees!” he said. “There’s only one thing that makes a good team better, and that’s a great opponent!”

“We think whoever stole my mom’s notes was also at the Brooklyn Cyclones game this afternoon,” Kate said. “The thief left a note for us there. Were you at the game?”

Rocco shook his head. “No,” he said. “I was with my boss running errands until about two o’clock today. Then I came back here.”

He looked at the apple again. “Sorry, but I’ve got to go,” he said. “I need to figure out how to fix that thing before the next home run.”

Rocco reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card and a pen. The card read ROCCO SAMPSON, METS APPLE MANAGER. He flipped it over and wrote on the back Okay to visit! and scrawled his signature underneath with a big, looping letter S.

“If you’re around for the third game of the series, feel free to come visit me in the scoreboard operations room,” Rocco said. “Just show the security guard this card and my note on the back. I can show you how the apple works!”

“Wow!” Mike said. He gave Kate a high five. “That would be awesome!”

Rocco smiled, waved goodbye, and headed up to the walkway. As soon as he was out of earshot, Mike looked at Kate.

“I’ll bet he took your mom’s notes!” he said.

Kate shook her head. “He’s got an alibi!” she said. “We can check it out, but if he really was doing errands this morning with his boss, he can’t be the person who left us the note at the Cyclones’ stadium. We’re looking for someone who could have been at the Cyclones game at one o’clock and here by three o’clock.”

Mike nodded. “That leaves Milo as our main suspect,” he said. “Let’s check on him.”

Back in the press box, Mike and Kate watched the rest of the first Subway Series game. When the Mets won the game 3–1, Milo finally left his seat to talk to another reporter. Seeing their chance, Mike and Kate walked over to Milo’s chair. As they passed by it, Mike bumped into the chair and knocked the bag onto the ground.

“I’ve got it,” Kate said. She leaned down and picked up the bag, put the Yankees cap back in it, and hung the bag on the chair. “Try to be more careful, Mike!”

“What else was in the bag?” Mike asked as they walked away. “Did you find your mom’s notes?”

“Nope! There’s nothing in there except the Yankees cap,” Kate said. “It’s a dead end.”