Double Play (Bishop's Run Series Book 2)

by B. D. Gates

Kane had parked the van in the parking lot across and up the street from Charlie's store, was focusing the cameras hidden in the vehicle's tinted rear windows on the garage and entrance when there was a light tapping on the driver's door. He pulled his gun and rotated the side-mirror camera to get a look, thinking that it could be someone intent on breaking in. There was that time in Dover when a local kid had tried forcing open the door, only to find the two agents standing behind him, guns drawn, quietly watching as he tried to slim-jim the door lock.

  What he saw surprised him.

  He walked through the pass-through and opened the door. "Get in here," he said, his jaw clenched, as Penny climbed into the driver's seat and gently closed the door behind her. "What part of 'no' didn't you understand, Penny?" He moved back into the rear of the van as he asked that question, giving her the space to follow him.

  Penny crossed the threshold, looking around in amazement at the banks of electronics and monitors like she'd fallen into a wonderland of her own dreams. "Omigod, this is just beautiful," she whispered, taking in the rows of glowing red LEDs on the control panels, stroking her hand across the top of the nearest screen.

  "Sit." Kane took his seat as he pointed to a second chair. "Do. Not. Touch. Anything." He went back to focusing and positioning the cameras, tapping the mouse to lock each one in place. "I hope like hell no one saw you. It could blow the whole investigation if anyone did. Hatch is gonna be so pissed."

  "You don't have to tell her, you know."

  "Penny! You're not supposed to be here! And now I can't make you leave without drawing attention, if you haven't done that already."

  "Kane, listen, I parked three blocks away, at a friend's house, and came through the back alleys to get here."

  "Penny, not only is that crazy, it's dangerous for you to be wandering alleyways. Someone could've grabbed you."

  Penny chuckled at that. "Well, see, I am all about protecting myself." She leaned forward, pulled her Glock from the holster in the back of her jeans, and held it up for the man to have a good look.

  Kane nearly choked.

  "Chill, dude, I'm licensed for concealed carry. I'm also a member of the local gun club."

  "Sonofabitch," Kane exhaled. "Look, I can't stress this enough. You are in trouble, big trouble. Now, for the next two hours or so, you're gonna sit there, you're not gonna move, and you're gonna behave. Got that? My van, my rules."

  Penny holstered her gun, a smug little smile on her face. "Fine." She was where she wanted to be, so that was a deal she could agree to.

  She watched Kane set up the rest of the surveillance gear, mentally taking notes as he clicked through the programs. When all was set, he leaned back and sighed.

  "Now, we wait."

  Penny bit her lip, then whispered, "Kane."

  "What?"

  "When was the last time there was any activity?"

  "Four nights ago. Why?"

  "Because it's Monday."

  "So?"

  "That's a pretty active day. If you check the logs."

  Kane just nodded.

  "Did you guys see the pattern? Before and after the weekends. Often enough for it to matter."

  Kane's brow furrowed. He hadn't been keen about doing surveillance on his own, it was not easy to watch the target and the van perimeter at the same time, Penny had just proved that by sneaking up on him during set-up. The idea that the scene was going to go hot was troubling, to say the least.

  "Okay," he sighed. "Get over here."

  Penny rolled her chair over next to him.

  "If there's gonna be activity tonight, I need you to watch these monitors here," he pointed. "Look for anyone approaching the van. We don't need someone getting suspicious and trying to check us out."

  Penny grinned. This was just getting better and better. She reached for the mouse in front of her, but Kane swatted her hand away.

  "Do. Not. Touch," he reiterated. Penny huffed and crossed her arms, leaning back in her chair to get a better look at all the monitors.

  It was nine o'clock. Charlie closed the store, turning out the lights after locking the front door. Kane and Penny watched him, his form in silhouette as he walked towards the low light at the back of the store. If there was not going to be any after-hours visitors, he would exit from a side door where that burnt-orange truck of his was parked.

  The side door stayed closed.

  Kane leaned back and looked over at her. "Here we go."

  Penny nodded.

  75

  The white truck entered the store parking lot and pulled around to the large garage at the back of the building. As the truck waited for the door to open, a large black SUV pulled in behind it. Three men emerged from it and walked into the building as the truck rolled through the opening.

  "That's different," Penny noted, looking up at the monitors over Kane's head.

  Kane was working the cameras, zooming in on the black vehicle, trying to get a clear shot on the license plate. "They must have something good tonight, or a lot of something, to have a security detail like this."

  "Security?"

  "Yeah. The SUV is protection for the truck. Strange, though, there's usually a sports car of some sort, something fast, riding point, like a scout car. It'll also act as a decoy if they need it, something to draw law enforcement's attention away from the truck."

  Penny, watching her monitors, grabbed Kane's arm. "Something like that?"

  He looked up at her screen bank and saw what had alarmed her. A souped-up low-rider, lights out, was rolling up to their van, blocking them in.

  "Shit." He stood up and pulled his weapon, chambering a round while he watched. Two men got out and walked up to the van. One knocked on the passenger door window as the other stood off to the side, obviously holding something, his hand behind him.

  "Be quiet," Kane whispered. "Let 'em think it's empty."

  The knocking repeated, this time louder and longer.

  Penny looked at Kane. These guys weren't going anywhere. She stood up and reached over, pulling Kane's shirt out of his pants, then unbuttoned the first three buttons. She unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans, then reached up and tousled his hair.

  "What are you doing?"

  "Tell 'em we're here for you to work a job but we can't afford to spend money on a room."

  The rapping repeated, more forceful, more insistent.

  Kane took a deep breath and moved to the front of the van, laying his gun on the seat as he opened the door and stepped out. Penny could hear the conversation.

  "Uh, hi, can I help you?" Penny watched Kane on the monitor as he stepped out of the van onto the parking lot.

  "What are you doing here?"

  "Doing? Nothing...sir?"

  "Who gave you permission to park here?"

  "Permission? Uh, nobody, I mean, I didn't know I needed permission..."

  "You're on private property. What've you got in there?"

  "Oh, shit," thought Penny. She worked fast.

  "I didn't know it was private. There's nothing in the van. I mean..."

  "Step away from the truck."

  "Now, really, guys, there's nothing..."

  "Jimmy! What are you doing out here?" Penny appeared at the door. "You know we only have maybe an hour before the baby wakes up," she whined.

  All three men looked up at her in surprise. Her hair was messy, but it was her unbuttoned blouse that caught their attention, her full round breasts exposed. She shrieked in surprise and pulled her blouse tight across her body.

  The two men snickered, but their body postures relaxed. Kane was quick to pick up the act.

  "These fellas say we've got to move, hon, that we can't stay here any more."

  The second man spoke up, now trying to be helpful. "There's a parking lot just down the way, at the grocery store, you can park there," he pointed.

  "Yeah, we tried that," Penny informed him. "It was too noisy, it kept waking the baby."

  Kane looked at Penny, his eyes wide. "Hone
y, if they say we have to go, then we have to go." Kane was tucking his shirt in his pants, making a show of bringing the conversation to an end. Penny kept up the charade.

  "Could we just have thirty minutes. Please?"

  The two men shook their heads.

  "Ten?"

  The headshaking continued.

  "He only needs three--three minutes?"

  The two men outright laughed at that.

  "Honey!" Kane took personal offense. That wasn't funny.

  "Fine! We're going." Penny huffed and disappeared into the van.

  Kane sighed.

  "Sorry," the first man said. He sounded like he meant it.

  "Yeah. Me too," Kane replied.

  The two men were still chuckling, but they were walking to their car. Kane watched them get in before he stepped up into the van and made his way into the driver's seat. The car backed away, pulling off to the side to allow the van to pass and exit the lot.

  Kane breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled out of the parking lot. Penny was in the control room, shaking, but it was more from exhilaration than from fear.

  76

  It was eleven-fifteen at night and everyone was back in my kitchen. Kane had called Hatch on the drive back to the house, Hatch meeting them in the back yard with angry shouting. Tess, hearing the ruckus, flew out the back door, grabbed Hatch by the arm, practically dragged her inside the carriage house with Kane and Penny following.

  That Hatch was pissed was an understatement.

  "You had no business being there! You're a civilian employee of the Tenley PD--that is all! You could have been killed! Do you understand that?"

  Penny wasn't having it. "Kane could have been killed if I hadn't been there! If those men had gotten into the van, they'd have killed him!" She didn't understand why Kane wasn't defending her and turned to him, pointing at Hatch. "Tell her!"

  Kane was sitting at the table, his arms crossed over his chest. He grimaced when Penny demanded he tell Hatch how she'd gotten them out of danger.

  "Tell her!"

  Kane was torn. "You're both right! Both of you! Penny, you disobeyed an order. Hatch, I'd be in serious trouble or dead if Penny hadn't been there. You two need to stop, right now! It's over. The mission has not been compromised, it's just taking another course."

  He continued. "Something big came in tonight, there was a security escort, that's what we need to be discussing. We need to figure out our next move, who these guys in the SUV were. How we're going to keep surveillance on the place."

  Hatch blew a breath, her shoulders relaxed, you could see her deflate with it. "You're right. Okay. So, the truck is no use to us any more. We need another way to keep an eye on the place. Anyone got any ideas?"

  It became so quiet I swear I could hear everyone breathing.

  Tess offered her thoughts. "We'd need different vehicles every night."

  Hatch added hers. "And we need monitoring equipment that we can move from one vehicle to the next without any difficulty. Something that'll let us upload information to the cloud so we don't need data banks. Do we have that, Kane?"

  Kane considered the available options and nodded. "I think I can put something together."

  Tess again. "We could see if Cap would give us access to the motor pool. That'd give us plenty of choices."

  Penny looked over at Kane. "Let me work with you, I may have something that we could use if you need it."

  Kane nodded.

  "Well, then. Kane, I think you need to pull the van off that street in front of the main house, bring it around and park it just past where I'm parked," I advised him.

  Hatch pushed off the counter she'd been leaning on. "Okay, folks, let's call it a night. Penny, I'll take you to get your car."

  Penny nodded.

  The impromptu meeting was adjourned and the three left as quickly as they had arrived.

  "Whew!" Tess dropped down on the couch. I joined her, pulling her close. My girls crept out of the bedroom, guarded and unsure if the yelling was going to start again.

  "C'mon, come sit down over here," Tess motioned to them. Their heads went up and they both trotted over and took their places on the floor next to her.

  "You know they only do that because you've spoiled them."

  "Ha! They love me. We bonded a long time ago."

  I laughed. Yeah, she was right. My girls sure love them some Tess. With or without fries.

  We'd spent a lot of time on this couch in the past. Hours. Whole evenings. Sometimes a full night. Never touching, she on one end, me on the other. Now, though, we were wrapped together, her legs over mine, holding hands.

  "Hatch was really mad," Tess said.

  "No kidding."

  "She had good reason. Penny's not a police officer."

  I shifted on the cushion a bit, put my arm around Tess, pulled her a little tighter to me, sighing.

  "You okay?" she asked.

  "Yeah, I'm fine." I smiled at her. "You know, this is the time of day that I always seemed to miss you the most," I said in a low voice.

  Tess nodded. "I never felt as alone as I did after being with you, Bishop."

  We kissed. It was soft, sweet, and I sighed again when we parted.

  She smiled, kissed me again, this one longer, then pulled me over on top of her as she laid down on the couch.

  "You're asking for trouble," I cautioned with a grin.

  "Oh, am I? Who's gonna give me trouble? You?"

  "Yep."

  "You do not give me trouble, you are a mild irritation at best."

  "A mild irritation. Now I'm offended." I kissed her neck.

  "A mere nuisance."

  "Are you kidding me?"

  "Do I look like I'm kidding?"

  "Well, aren't you all big and brave." I stood up and pulled her up with me. "I'll show you," I added, pulling her towards the bedroom.

  "Yes, show me. You do that." She came along easily. "We'll see who has the last laugh."

  As I reached the bed, she pushed me from behind, sending me sprawling across it. "Hey! No fair!" I shouted, as she straddled my hips and pushed my shoulders down.

  She leaned down and playfully nipped at the back of my neck."I never said I played fair," she replied, her nips turning to kisses. "Look who's laughing now!"

  "Why are you like this?"

  "It's your fault," she laughed.

  I rolled over and looked at her. "You're an extraordinary woman, Tess Hayes."

  "And don't you forget it."

  77

  Penny directed Hatch to her car but they found that it was blocked in by another that had pulled in behind it. There were no lights on in the house, apparently the owner was staying overnight.

  "Let's just leave it. You can take me home, it's not far. I'll get someone to come get me in the morning."

  Hatch agreed and they made the trip out to Penny's trailer on the lake, Penny throwing her arms wide as Hatch accelerated down the four-lane. It should have come as no surprise, Hatch recalling Baxter telling her that she was "fearless."

  And it was her fearlessness and her quick thinking that had gotten Penny and Kane out of that parking lot.

  Hatch shook her head and pressed her lips together with that thought.

  Hatch motored up Penny's gravel drive to the porch steps, then shut down the engine. Penny took off her helmet, handing it to Hatch before jumping from her perch on the Harley.

  There was just the whispering sighs of the light breeze through the trees, ambient light shining off the ripples in the lake. Hatch rocked the bike up onto the kickstand and walked up onto the screened porch behind Penny.

  Penny turned at the now-open door and looked up at Hatch. "Well, thanks for the ride, and for walking me to the door, but I've got this, there's no need to protect me at my own house." The low lamp light let Hatch see the sarcasm on her face.

  Penny walked on into the kitchen, pulling her holstered gun from its place in the small of her back and tucking it into the leather bag on the
bar chair.

  Hatch followed her through, closing the door behind her. She took Penny by the arm, turned her to face her. "Look, I'm not sorry. Not one bit. When I give you an order, it's not a suggestion. You've got to follow it. Even if you think it's stupid. Do you understand? This is dangerous work and you can't go off on your own, you could get hurt, you could get other people hurt."

  An image of Miranda delivering that same speech to Hatch, her finger pointing for emphasis, flashed through Hatch's mind.

  "Just what do you want, Hatch?" Penny's tone was challenging.

  Hatch was looking down into her eyes, the tiny green sparks in the light brown pulling her in as Penny stared up at her.

  "I don't want anything to happen to you, Penny." It was a whisper, harsh but plaintive nonetheless.

  That statement from Hatch made Penny pause, then "I can take care of myself."

  Hatch's brow furrowed as she gazed at the smaller woman. "Why are you being so damn difficult?"

  Penny really couldn't answer that, she didn't know why she had dug her heels in, she just knew that she was fighting against Hatch, against the pull of Hatch, the one she'd felt in the restaurant the first time she'd ever laid eyes on her. It was strong, overwhelming, like a rip current, and she knew that if she stopped fighting, if she gave in, it would pull her under and she would drown in it.

  "You need to go," Penny said, breaking the spell Hatch was casting on her, pushing her towards the door. Hatch took one last look back at Penny before she walked out, closing the door behind her. Seconds later, a flash and a deep rumble of thunder was followed by the downpour of rain beating loudly on the trailer roof.

  Penny stood there in the kitchen, listened for the sound of the motorcycle starting. She flew to the door and pulled it open, ran to the screen door and peered out through the pouring rain into the dark. She saw the glint of the sidepipes in the light from the house, but where was Hatch?

  "Would you mind if I wait out here for it to pass?"

  Penny turned around and saw Hatch sitting in the rocker in the corner. "Yeah, actually, I would mind."

  Hatch's face registered her surprise and after a second, she stood up and started towards the screen door. Penny caught her arm and turned her, directed her back into the house.