Page 17 of Scored

“Thank you.”

My smile stayed in place as we disconnected the call, and my thoughts went to Dad. He’d be walking around on cloud nine if he were here.

The next two weeks would be busy and exciting.

The Coopers only secured the first seed last night after midnight and the mechanics were in the works for our next two games. I knew there was a chance we could lose and game two of the playoff schedule could be held in another stadium. However, none of the planning happens overnight. It was better to be prepared for a two-game run at Crystal Light than to wait and be under the gun.

Each director answered when I called their personal phones. They all reassured me that we would be ready for as many games as possible. The emails went out to season ticket holders this morning, and we already had an eighty-six conversion rate. Eighty-six percent of our season ticket holders purchased seats for game one of the playoffs.

That was something I would proudly share during tomorrow’s executive meeting.

Hell, it would be higher by tomorrow.

A knock on my partially opened door caused me to look up.

“Vee, I learned all I could about the flowers.” Jen made a sour face. “It’s even weirder.”

Exhaling, I sat back in my chair. “What did you learn?”

She came forward and took one of the chairs before my desk. “As you know Mishler’s is local. Apparently, there is something called a floral relay network. They use companies like Telefora or FTD. Well, when an order is made from anywhere, the floral relay network sends that order to a shop local to the recipient.” She feigned a smile. “That’s why sending flowers is so expensive.”

“Are you saying Mishler’s got the order from one of those companies?”

“Yes. They said the sender didn’t enter or contact the store directly.”

“But…” I had to get my mind out of field preparation and security and on this. “There was a name or a credit card, right?”

“The name” —she shook her head— “the name on the order was Jack Sparrow.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Like the character? Johnny Depp sent me flowers with a threatening message?”

Jen shrugged.

“What about the credit card?”

Jen shook her head. “They can’t give out customers’ credit card information without a warrant.”

“I don’t want that.”

“Vee, I’m sorry. The flowers threw me for a loop. I meant to let you know Mrs. Hubbard called for you.”

“Daphne? When?”

“It seems like it was around ten o’clock.”

At ten o’clock I was sleeping. Did I miss her call?

I reached down and pulled my cell phone from my purse in the lower drawer. “Why would she call here? She knows my cell number.” There were two calls from Grant but no missed calls from Daphne. I looked back up at my assistant. “Did she say what she wanted?”

“She asked for you to call.”

Shaking my head, I caught sight of my screens. “Daphne can wait. Let’s talk stadium operations.”

“Let me go get my notes and we can get started.” Jen stood. She stopped as she got to the doorway. “I’m sorry I couldn’t learn more about the flowers.”

“Oh, speaking of those. Take them out to the front office. That way other people can enjoy them. Honestly, they creep me out.”

It was after four when I realized I hadn’t yet heard from Fin. Again, I checked my phone and email. Nothing from him or the trainers. I sent Don Tilson a quick email asking if he’d been given any injury information.