Double Play (Bishop's Run Series Book 2)

by B. D. Gates

  "Hi, Jacks. Does she always hit like that?"

  "Pretty much."

  "Oh, god." Hatch was smiling and shaking her head.

  Penny walked up on them. Hatch smiled down at her and Jacks smiled at the two of them.

  "You ready?"

  Penny nodded. "Let me just tell Coach that I'm out of here."

  Hatch nodded and she and Jacks followed.

  Biggs was leaning on the dugout rail, Carole next to her. They both seemed a little awestruck looking at Hatch, but for entirely different reasons.

  "Coach, Carole, this is Hatch."

  Coach was smiling as she reached out and they shook hands. "Tell me you play ball."

  "Uh, I used to pitch, in high school."

  Biggs got seriously starry-eyed with her reply and Penny laughed. "Sorry, Coach, she's not local."

  Coach looked positively dejected at that. "I could've used another pitcher," she sighed, Carole patting her shoulder in sympathy.

  "Just wanted to let you know I'm leaving, we've got work to do," Penny informed Coach.

  "Oh, well, then, you two have a good time," Carole smiled up at Hatch.

  "It's work," corrected Penny.

  "Don't keep her out too late, she's got a job to go to in the morning," Jacks threw in.

  "It's work," Penny repeated, huffing and turning on her heel. "Let's go."

  Hatch grinned at that, as she followed Penny up towards the parking lot, calling "Good night all, pleasure meeting you," as they reached the walkway.

  The three women all smiled and waved back.

  "Well, where did Penny find her?" Carole asked, a little incredulously.

  "Actually, Tess met her in Richmond and she found her way here," Jacks replied.

  "Damn," Carole said under her breath. "Way to go, Tess."

  "Richmond's not that far," Coach lamented.

  "Honey, no, you can't have her," Carole laughed.

  89

  Hatch and Penny were parked in the same spot Hatch and Tess had used the previous night, both working on their drive-thru orders and watching Charlie's store through the gaps in the shrubbery.

  The loaner from the motor pool didn't have air conditioning, and it was hot. Both women had a sheen of perspiration, the humidity causing small beads to collect on their necks and under their arms. Hatch had caught the scent of Penny's perfume and she was suddenly back in Penny's bed.

  She closed her eyes as she tried to suppress those thoughts, it was hot enough without thinking of Penny, naked, soft, and sweating underneath her.

  "Are you okay?" Penny asked, looking at her with concern.

  "What? Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

  She wasn't fine. And she knew it.

  "Penny, I need to tell you...I just want you to know...I'm sorry, really sorry, for getting so mad at you about...look, you're right, you saved Kane's life, and, I guess it just scared me that you were in a situation that could have gotten you hurt or killed."

  Penny sat quiet, considering Hatch's words. "Kane could have gotten killed, or both of you, if you'd been with him, Hatch."

  "Penny, it's part of the job, every time we go out, we accept that possibility and we accepted it the day we took that oath to serve and protect. We've made our peace with it."

  Penny sat with her arms crossed, scowling. "I'd rather think my way out than go down in a blaze of glory."

  "You think we don't? That we're not calculating ways out of a situation as it's happening? No one wants to die, Penny, no one wants to lose control of a scene and have it end with a body count, not even for the criminals."

  It was nearing nine o'clock and the two women settled in, waiting for whatever would happen next. Penny had Hatch's camera out, was looking it over and getting a feel for it, testing the balance in her hands, learning where the controls were, making changes as she looked through the viewfinder.

  Hatch watched her, a small smile on her lips as she found herself just looking at Penny, admiring the contours of her face, her perfect ear, the small dip of soft skin where her neck joined her shoulder, the beauty of her hands as she manipulated the camera.

  Penny glanced at Hatch, and found herself suddenly shy under her gaze. She kept her head averted as she feigned interest in the camera in her hands, quietly asking,"What are you looking at?"

  "You," came the answer, Hatch's tone soft.

  "Why?" Penny's tone matched Hatch's.

  "Because you're beautiful."

  Penny blushed with that, it was not a compliment she'd received before.

  She never knew, until this moment, that it was something that she'd wanted to hear, to have those words said with such warmth and reverence that she knew Hatch truly meant it.

  Hatch would remember this as the exact moment she fell for Penny, wholly and completely.

  "Stop."

  "No. You're beautiful, Penny Harris."

  She closed her eyes, tried to hold back the sudden tear, to keep it a secret, but it slipped from her eye, and she quickly wiped at it. Hatch caught her hand as it left her face, softly kissed the teardrop from the back of it.

  "Hatch..." She turned and found Hatch leaning in, her face so serious, her eyes so bright as she looked at her.

  "Penny," she responded, her eyes scanning Penny's face, looking to seal her declaration with a kiss. They closed the gap between them, their mouths finding each other as unspoken words died on their tongues.

  The bang of a metal door caught Hatch's attention and she broke away to watch Charlie as he exited the side door, his phone to his ear, climbing up into the cab of his truck and cranking it, the diesel engine rumbling like thunder. He put it in gear and backed out and they watched him turn out of the business and head south, the sound of the dual exhaust stacks receding in the distance.

  Hatch sighed, for a number of reasons. "Dammit."

  It took a few seconds for Penny to compose herself, her voice still quiet. "Well, it's only Thursday, Hatch, we've still got tomorrow night. The fourth is next week, and there's always activity around the holiday."

  Hatch nodded at that and then they sat for a while, making sure that the scene was cold. She spent the time wondering how to get them back to that broken moment between them, knowing in her heart that it was gone, and that it could not be reclaimed.

  The parking lot lights had switched on with a buzz when the twilight faded to near-dark. With a sigh, Hatch gathered up the trash and got out to throw it in the receptacle on the curb at the midway point of the brightly-lit parking lot. She had just deposited it when she became aware of a familiar rumble from the drive-thru order menu at the back the fast-food joint.

  She strode back to the car, keeping her head down but taking quick glances at Charlie's truck in the drive-thru. He had a passenger with him, and Hatch recognized the bearded rider immediately. She dropped into the driver's seat and checked out the rear-view mirrors to confirm what she'd seen.

  Yep. Same guy from Lin's.

  And he seemed to be looking right back at her.

  90

  "Son of a bitch," Hatch whispered. She turned to Penny. "Buckle up, we're leaving."

  "But that's Charlie," Penny replied, having spotted him in her rearview while Hatch was out of the car.

  "Look at his passenger."

  "Oh. Shit."

  Hatch backed the car out of the space, Penny stealing glances past Hatch's shoulder as they headed for the exit. She turned and faced the front when they turned out of the drive and headed north towards the ballpark and Penny's car.

  "So, now what?"

  "This is ridiculous, who the hell is this guy?"

  They rode on in silence, pulling into the ballpark a few minutes later.

  "I've got to find out who he is, he's giving me a headache."

  "He may be thinking the same thing about you, Hatch."

  She nodded at that.

  "So, if Kane is still sick tomorrow, let me know, okay?" Penny instructed Hatch. She leaned across the console and firmly kissed Hatch on the
lips before getting out.

  As she closed the door, her brain caught up with her actions and she looked back through the open window. Hatch's face had a look of surprise.

  She had surprised herself as well, and she was only able to say "Good night, Hatch."

  Hatch nodded at that. "Good night, Penny." Then she backed the car out and drove towards the exit.

  Slow clapping came from the field gate as Jacks made her way towards Penny.

  "Very smooth, girl, very smooth," Jacks said as she walked up to her.

  Penny looked at Jacks, still awed by what she'd done. "It was just...natural. To do that. I wasn't even thinking."

  "Do more of that. The 'not thinking' stuff. You just might surprise yourself. You know there's no such thing as accidents."

  Penny nodded at Jacks, but was thinking that Hatch would disagree.

  She would say there are happy ones.

  *****

  That night, at home in her bed, Penny thought about Hatch, how there was nothing ordinary about her, nothing about her that was like any other woman she'd ever known, and she gave in to her tears as Hatch's quiet words played over and over in her head.

  She heard the motorcycle, then the light tapping at her door, and when she let her in, Hatch took her in her arms and wiped away her tears before she softly kissed her.

  91

  Tess and Penny were parked in the usual surveillance spot, working on their take-out orders while they watched Charlie's business. Kane was still out, unsteady on his feet and unable to stay upright for longer than a few minutes. Hatch had gone to Richmond that afternoon to meet with her team leaders as they passed through on their way to D.C. She'd been delayed by the meeting running long, then was caught in a traffic jam of people leaving town for a long holiday weekend at the beach and didn't expect to make it back in time.

  "I cannot make a habit of eating this stuff every day, I'll die," Penny remarked.

  "They have salads, you know," Tess reminded her.

  "Yeah, but who wants a salad when Wally's has the best burgers in town? Well, the second best. The Pharmacy has the best."

  Tess nodded at that as she dumped her fries in the bag, poured in a packet of salt, then closed the bag and shook it.

  "Lawd, I thought Baxter was the only person who did that."

  "Where do you think I learned it? You have to admit, it works really well, the salt is evenly dispersed..."

  "And you don't spill it all over the place," Penny finished.

  Tess laughed. "Guess we've both heard the rationale."

  "There's also the 'adding the salt to the ketchup' trick."

  "Because you can always add more ketchup if it's too salty," the two women laughed, both shaking their heads at that, Tess with a smile, Penny rolling her eyes.

  Tess took a bite of her burger, chewing thoughtfully, then a long swallow of drink to chase it down. "Penny, did she have bad dreams when she was with you?"

  Penny looked over at Tess. "Yeah, well, maybe not bad, more like disturbed."

  "Did she cry?"

  Penny nodded. "There were a lot just after you left, Tess, I know she had them before then, but your leaving really set them off."

  "Did she talk, say anything?"

  "No talk, so much."

  "Jillie."

  "Yeah. I heard that a couple of times. Who do you think she is?"

  "Obviously, someone she cared about. I asked her once. She never answered."

  "Old girlfriend? Baxter doesn't seem like the type to carry a torch for someone."

  Tess laughed at that. "Would you like to reconsider that last statement?"

  Penny looked at her and Tess watched as the realization broke across her face. "Oh, yeah, haha, sorry, I guess I should retract that. Okay, so, maybe there's a woman out there who broke Baxter's heart a long time ago and she still dreams about her. Doesn't sound too good for you, Tess, that's some strong competition. I don't know though, it still doesn't feel like a good fit. You're the detective, what do you think?"

  "I've got a couple of ideas. One, old girlfriend, but I'm not fond of that one, either. Two, someone she was in foster care with, maybe another foster child, or the daughter of a foster family."

  "Someone who was like a sister to her."

  Tess was nodding at that, but hearing Penny say it out loud made the answer obvious, and she turned to look at Penny, amazement on her face.

  Penny was already looking at her.

  They both said it at the same time.

  "Jillie is her sister!"

  "Omigod, Tess, that fits! And it feels right. Well, more right than anything else I've thought of." Penny was nodding, smiling at the best possible answer to the mystery that had stumped her for the past year.

  Tess was frowning as she put her thoughts into words. "How do we find out, though? Where do you even start? I mean, how do we do a search when all we have is a first name? And could it be Gillian with a G, or Jillian with a J, and does it matter when we don't even have a last name? Then, there's Baltimore. That would be whatever county it's in, plus the surrounding counties, thirty or more years ago, and we don't even know if they were born there. And then, what happened to her? Where'd she go? Did she die? I mean, talk about a needle in a haystack."

  Penny sighed at all of that. She'd done a search on Baxter before, but that was easier because she had an identity to work with, a first and last name, a history to verify, and she sifted through information in order to rule out Baxter's lies. It was easy to verify the details online. Time-consuming, true, but not difficult.

  County records, though, that's an entirely different matter. Birth and death records are one thing, but adoption records are harder, many are sealed and can't be opened without a court order from a judge. And not even having a last name to work with? Forget it.

  "Tess, didn't Bishop ever tell you her last name? Wasn't there anything in her file?"

  "No. Her file used a number assigned by the U. S. Marshalls Service, and the only thing she ever said to me about her name was that it was 'Bishop, that's all, nothing more.'"

  "Hm. She said the same thing about 'Baxter.' Last name only, please, she has no tolerance for 'Lisa.'"

  "Unless it's Miz Maggie."

  "You still see her cringe, though, when Miz Maggie uses it."

  "I know. I swear she'd have it legally changed to a single name if she could. 'Bishop' or 'Baxter,' like a pop star."

  "I don't know, maybe 'Bishop Baxter?' or 'Baxter Bishop?'"

  Tess got a funny look on her face at that.

  "What?"

  "What if Bishop is her last name?" Tess's look was intense. "Then we've got her sister--Jillian Bishop."

  Their intentions, borne out of their mutual love for Bishop, were innocent, and sweet, and good, but you know what they say about good intentions and the road to Hell.

  And neither of them thought to ask Bishop if she wanted Jillian found.

  92

  On Friday, Kane was better but still too unsteady to work. Hatch decided that she and I could handle the surveillance, so we rode together to the ballpark, spending the early evening playing ball, Penny joining us shortly after we got there.

  Jacks was pitching and I was playing first base when I heard Carole yelling.

  "Tess! Tess Hayes! Get your sorry ass over here right now!"

  Oh. Shit.

  I looked up towards the stands to find Tess, spotted her on the walkway between the bleachers as she was making her way towards the front row seats. She had stopped, obviously not sure what was going on, was staring at Carole, who was now running at her from the first-base dugout. Hatch and Penny stood up at their seats behind home plate, Hatch looking as if she was about to launch herself between the two women if need be. Carole burst out laughing at that as she made her way to Tess and hugged her.

  "Girl, it is so good to see you!"

  There was a collective sigh of relief both on and off the field at that. It was the first time the two women had seen each other
since the wedding and Carole had to take that opportunity to get her digs in about Tess trying to stop it.

  Tess was smiling but still looking a bit rattled as she hugged Carole back. "Carole, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to mess up your wedding."

  "Honey, I know. You didn't mess it up. I have to admit, though, it was tense for a moment or two. I thought you were one of Biggs' old girlfriends come to stir up a fuss."

  "Well, I can't say for certain, but I'm pretty sure that none of her exes would be foolish enough to try to take you on."

  She laughed at that. "Listen, I've got to run, I'm so glad I got to see you, though, we all need to get together and have dinner one night."

  "That'd be great, yes, we should," Tess smiled. "Soon?"

  Carole nodded at that, the two women parted ways, and Tess joined Hatch and Penny.

  "Well, that was...something," Hatch remarked. "You okay?"

  "Oh, yeah, I'm fine, thank you," Tess laughed. "Nothing to worry about. Where's Bishop?"

  "First base," Penny answered. "Coach wants her to get used to other positions, so she's moving her around a bit."

  At about eight-twenty, Hatch stood up and got my attention, tapped her watch. We needed two more outs to come off the field so I let Coach know I had to go. She relieved me, taking my place next to the bag.

  "Have fun," I smiled.

  "You bet," she smiled back.

  I met Hatch and Tess on the walkway. "Not so fast," Tess said as she took me by the wrist and led me down into the dugout. "You two be careful tonight, ya hear?" And then she kissed me, sweetly, her hand on my chest. "Okay, now you can go."

  I just shook my head, smiled a small smile at her. She never liked letting me leave her without a kiss. We rejoined Hatch and Penny on the walkway.

  "Y'all stay out of trouble," Penny called as Hatch and I passed through the gate to the parking lot. We both kept walking but waved our hands to signal that we'd heard her, and I looked back over my shoulder to see Tess and Penny standing together, watching us go.