The World Will Know Your Name

This story is not about right and wrong. This story is about one man overcoming many things to finally get the reward he deserves for all of his hard work. If you live anywhere near the city of Sacramento, California you have probably heard of him. His name is Josh Harper. Some know him as Joshua Alan Harper, fugitive on the run. Others know him as "Joshy" the big hearted goofball who also just so happened to be one of the best players Sacramento State University's baseball team had ever seen. His story may not be for everyone, but everyone needs to hear it.

    "C'mon Josh! Hit one out of the park!" A very familiar sound echoes through the crowd as Josh Harper, shortstop for the Sacramento State Hornets baseball team steps to the plate for his first at bat of the 2016 season. Josh stands 5'7" tall, but has all the power of a man twice his size while at the plate. He's always played with heart, mostly because his late father taught him everything he knew. Luckily for Josh, his father had plenty of time with him before his untimely death the year before Josh was set to start his career at Sac State. Josh always used the murky at best circumstances surrounding his father's death as motivation for everything he did, especially in baseball. As he stepped to the plate for his first ever collegiate baseball game, just a few miles away at the California Bureau of Investigation office, a plot unlike any other Josh had ever seen was beginning to unfold.

    As agent Tom Richards sits at his desk reading through a file he was emailed from a Sacramento resident entitled "Just Thought You Should Know This..." his boss agent Mike Morello yells to him as he approaches from the coffee machine, "Richards! It's been weeks on that death out in the 'burbs we've been looking at. Do you have any leads?" "Well, sir, we might have one, but I highly doubt it'll go anywhere," he said.  "Just give it to me, that damn victim's wife won't leave me alone." Irritated as always at his boss' general lack of empathy towards grieving family members of victims, Tom invites his boss to sit down with him in his cubicle to go over the email together. "I was sent this email today, boss. I'm not sure what to make of it," Tom said. "I know exactly what to make of it," said agent Morello, "I'll alert the presses of our new main subject ASAP." Tom looked at his screen as his eyes kept reverting back to one line in the text "Josh Harper is NOT who you think he is."

    "PING!" goes Josh's bat as he rips a deep fly ball to dead center field in his first at bat as a Sac State Hornet. "Oh shit, this might leave the yard," he thinks to himself as he starts his ascent to first base. "It's long gone folks! An absolute bomb from Josh Harper to start his career here on campus!" the PA man for the Hornets yells to the moderately sized crowd. As Josh rounds the bases, he thinks to himself, "I should do this more often" and pumps his fist in the direction of his teammates in the dugout cheering for him. As soon as he enters the dugout after crossing home plate, Josh's teammates mob him with Gatorade showers and hugs for a congratulatory moment after his success at the plate. "You keep that up, man, and you'll be in the big leagues in no time!" yells Josh's best friend and teammate Ruben Dawson from the mob. Josh and Ruben had only met back in the fall when they were placed as roommates in their residence hall, but their bond was an unbreakable one. "Ruben what'd I say about all that big league talk man?" Josh only partially angrily says to him once the mob disperses to watch the next at bat. "I'm just sayin' man, those scouts out there aren't here to watch me or anyone else on this team," Ruben says with a smile. "Yeah yeah yeah, " says Josh. "I'm not going to believe it's true until I'm actually signing that contract." Ruben rolls his eyes and keeps watching the game as Josh looks into the crowd to see not one, not two, but three scouts watching his every move. "Damn man, the Dodgers, Pirates, and Orioles?" Josh thinks to himself "Maybe I am that good after all." Josh lets a smile creep across his face as he sits back to enjoy his teammates' time at the plate, but little does he know that his smile would be fading by the time the game was over.

    Just a few hours earlier, agent Tom Richards was just settling into his desk for yet another day of investigating a homicide in the Davis suburb of Sacramento. This case had been puzzling him ever since he took over investigating it because even though the victim was shot a whopping 12 times in the front of his body, there was almost no evidence linking the crime to anyone. No bullet casings, no DNA, no weapon, not even a strand of hair was left behind at the scene. As he finished reading the email briefing the gang and organized crime task force had sent him telling him they had no links to anything in this heinous case, another email came through from a personal email address. Usually when that happens, it's either some kid who found his card in the free lunch drawing bin at Chipotle who's trying to be funny or it's one of the many people he's given a courtesy card to over the years that has come back to haunt him. Just like Mrs. Matthews, the older woman who emails him every other week about the "hooligans" in her neighborhood that keep leaving rude messages in her mailbox when it's really just the local Chinese restaurant leaving menus and coupons in there like they do for everyone else. Taking that into consideration, agent Richards opened it nonchalantly as could be, but what was inside the email would make him sit straight up in his chair as he read it.