John Feinstein - The Rivalry - Mystery at the Army-Navy Game

Stevie could see Army superintendent Hagenbeck walking with the president, who was trailed by several other people in uniform, a number of Secret Service agents, and the usual phalanx of photographers and TV camera crews. Right at midfield were the representatives from Navy.

“I’m glad we got to see this,” Stevie said to Susan Carol.

“Me too,” she said. “But I wonder what’s going on in that referees’ locker room.”

Stevie wondered too. The president had reached midfield. The army officers snapped off salutes that were returned by their Navy counterparts. The president shook hands with the Army people and then joined the Navy people, who turned around to escort him to their sidelines. The entire stadium had come to its feet on both sides, applauding the scene.

“What do we do now?” Stevie asked as the president reached the other side of the field.

“We watch the halftime show,” Susan Carol said. “And we wait.”

The two bands put on an impressive halftime show, each ending its performance with the school fight song, which brought everyone back to their feet. Normally, Stevie would have enjoyed every minute of it, but he was squirming, looking at the clock every ten seconds, finding it hard to believe time could move so slowly.

The Army band cleared the field and the players came back out. And much to Stevie’s disappointment-so did the officials. Stevie and Susan Carol were both standing on the Army sideline. The clock was under two minutes. Apparently the second half would start on time.

“What do you think?” he asked Susan Carol.

“No idea,” she said.

Just as she finished, Stevie saw Pete Dowling, Bob Campbell, and the two FBI agents, Mayer and Caccese, coming out of the tunnel. Dowling spotted them, pointed at them, and the four men began walking briskly in their direction.

“Think we’re in trouble?” Stevie asked.

“We’ll find out soon,” Susan Carol said, sounding a little bit shakier than Stevie would have hoped.

Dowling spoke first when the four men reached them.

“Your theory might be right,” he said. “But we can’t be sure.”

“What do you mean?” Susan Carol asked.

Dowling looked at Caccese, who filled them in. “We definitely heard some things that sound suspicious. The referee-is it Daniels?-was lecturing someone about keeping his cool, that getting into arguments with people on the sidelines didn’t help anything.”

“That would have been Ramspeth,” Stevie said.

“Right,” Caccese said. “There was also talk about just sticking with what they were doing and being close to the payoff.”

“Payoff?” Susan Carol said. “You’ve got it right there, don’t you?”

Caccese shook his head. “No. They might be talking about some kind of bet; they could also just be talking about getting paid for working the game or the payoff of knowing they’ve done a good job. Trust me, it would never hold up in court. Bugging the room without a court order is already a little shaky. But we called Ed Murphy, who heads up our gambling unit in DC, and he thought there was cause. He’s on his way now.”

Caccese finished, “My gut tells me you guys have this right. We just don’t have enough evidence to take any action.”

Stevie felt his heart sink.

“The room is still bugged,” Mayer said. “Maybe we’ll hear something when they come in afterward. And we’ll watch to see if any of these guys seems to come into windfalls after the game. It’s not over.”

“But the game is,” Susan Carol said.

“Yeah,” Mayer said. “Could be. I’m truly sorry.”

Stevie and Susan Carol decided to stick together on the sidelines, if only to take solace in each other’s company. They started on the Army sideline since Army had the football to start the second half.

The third quarter was like a rerun of the first two. Army moved the ball quickly into Navy territory and had a third and one at the Navy 37. Fullback Jared Hassin, Stevie’s old friend who had piled into him at West Point, dove into the line and appeared to pick up the first down. In came Ramspeth-the line judge-to spot the ball. He picked it up and moved it back almost a full yard from where Hassin had been tackled. The Army bench immediately began screaming about the spot.

“What is with these guys?” Dean Taylor said. “It’s that same guy again, the line judge.”

Ramspeth’s spot left Army a yard short of a first down.

“I’m going to tell you something right now,” Stevie said while Ellerson called a time-out to decide whether to go for it on fourth and one or punt. “If you go for it and get the first down, there will be a penalty.”

Taylor, Hall, and Kelly all looked at him. “You just being cynical, Steve?” Hall asked.

“I don’t think he is,” Kelly said before Stevie could answer.

Army decided to go for the first down. They lined up in a tight formation, apparently planning to either quarterback sneak or go for the fullback dive again. Just as Steelman took the snap, though, the whistle blew. In came Daniels.

“Illegal motion before the snap,” he said. “That’s a five-yard penalty. Repeat fourth down.”

As the umpire picked the ball up and moved it back five yards, it was Ellerson’s turn to demand to know who the penalty was on. Daniels pretended not to hear.

“They didn’t even wait to see if we made it,” Taylor said.

“Guess they didn’t want to take any chances,” Susan Carol said.

With the play now fourth and six, Army punted, the ball rolling out-of-bounds on the 4-yard line.

“That should make the officials happy,” Susan Carol said. “They’ve killed five minutes, and Navy’s ninety-six yards from the goal line.”

“What do you guys know?” Tim Kelly said. “You know something.”

“We might,” Stevie said. “We just aren’t sure.”

“More sure by the minute, though,” Susan Carol added.

TV had gone to time-out. As the cadets and the midshipmen in the stands whooped it up, Stevie saw Mayer, Caccese, Dowling, and Campbell running down the sidelines.

“We’ve got them,” Caccese said as they got close.

“Whaaaa?” they both said.

“No time for details right now,” Caccese said. “But you know the kid in the locker room, the one taking care of the officials?”

“Daniels’s nephew, Todd?” Stevie said.

“Yeah. As soon as the boys left the locker room for the second half, he was on the phone with offshore betting services. He was reading off confirmation numbers to make sure the bets they’d placed before the game were all in place. Based on what we’ve heard, these guys have at least ten million dollars riding on the under-which was forty-eight points-and even more riding on the regulation game ending scoreless.”

“So what are you going to do?” Stevie asked.

“Ed Murphy, the head of the gambling unit, just arrived,” Caccese said. “We asked the TV producer to hold the time-out for a minute longer so we can remove these guys.”

“Remove them?” Stevie and Susan Carol shouted together.

“Yup. They can leave the field voluntarily or in handcuffs. We’re drawing up warrants for their arrests right now in the command center.”

“But are you sure all seven are involved?” Stevie asked.

“Not a hundred percent. Todd used eight different names when confirming the bets. They were fake names, but we’re pretty sure it’s these seven guys plus him. Okay, here comes Murph.”

A tall man with iron-gray hair in an equally gray suit was walking toward them, followed by at least a dozen other agents.

“Which one is the referee, John?” he asked, all business.

Caccese pointed at Daniels, who was in conversation at that moment with the umpire. “I’ll ask the Army coach to call him over.”