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eBook Category: Young Adult/Mystery/Crime
eBook Description: Trying out for her high school baseball team, Debra Jamison learns that her nightmares of being kidnapped again are about to come true. Join Vincent and Debra on solving the mystery of who is the third Numbers Kidnapper.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: 1999
Fictionwise Release Date: December 2002

1 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [362 KB], eReader (PDB) [115 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [107 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [98 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [122 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [159 KB], hiebook (KML) [286 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [138 KB], iSilo (PDB) [88 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [111 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [139 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [148 KB]
Words: 32114
Reading time: 91-128 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

Definitely female. Her reflection in the mirror only reminded her of why Dante's friends downstairs were laughing; her raven hair was too long, her breasts were too obvious and her soft gray eyes could never look intimidating. Penny leaned away from the mirror, still feeling she knew more about the game of football than half the guys still bellowing about her below.

"I'm sorry, Penny." Louis apologized in the bedroom doorway. "I thought if I suggested you'd play, they wouldn't mind."

She turned on the television in the right corner of her room and flipped through the channels until she reached the Dolphin game. "That's okay." She knew it wasn't Louis' fault.

"Are you all right?"

To hide her feelings, she picked up the newspaper, then crossed to her bed, glancing at the headline, "Basketball Player Missing."

"Are you?"

Still trying to veil her disappointment, she said. "Uh-huh. You'd better hurry before Frank or Dante let someone else play your position."

When he left, she dropped the paper and stepped over to the large bay window that overlooked the giant back yard. The bright green grass spanned half the four acre lot to the edge of the Indian River. After her twin brother Dante made the Bulldog team earlier this year, their father converted the back property into a football field with large plastic goal posts that sometimes fell down during the heavy Florida rain.

Boys gathered at the center, breaking up into two teams. She opened the blinds wider to watch them. They didn't know she did this every week. Each Sunday during football season, she turned away from the Sports Section or the game on TV and studied her brother's team's every move and attempted plays. She wanted to be out there so badly it hurt. Sometimes she saw herself among them, tossing the ball to Louis as no one had ever done before. She knew his breaks, even when he slowed down because he wasn't sure where the ball would drop. Louis seemed part of her out there on the field.

"Why do you kids insist on blaring the television and yelling while your Father is sleeping on the patio?" Her mother drifted into her room, snapping on a set of sparkling earrings.

"Not me -Dante's friends were making all the noise."

Her mother flipped back her dark permed hair and flared her pug nose. "Your father's on call this weekend. He needs all the shut eye he can get."

"I'll make sure, we keep quiet."

"Can you do me one more favor? I'm helping Mrs. Percy at the church bazaar this afternoon. She turned on a high hell to lower the television volume. "Take some drinks out to the boys in an hour. Tell them they must take a break. It's nearly 90 degrees today."

"Okay." Penny's heart pounded. She now had an excuse to go outside and be closer to the gridiron. "Bye, Mom."

After forty minutes, she couldn't stand the wait any longer. She rushed downstairs, filled glasses with water and hurried onto the screened patio.

Her father was snoring, with half his lanky body hanging over the bamboo futon. Seeing him like this made it hard to picture him as one of the state's best heart surgeons. Penny tiptoed past him and walked out into the yard.

"Come and get it!"

Louis dropped the ball and rushed toward her. "Hey." He slicked back his brown hair to keep the sweat from dripping into his hazel eyes. "How's the Dolphin game?"

Of all Dante's brawny, oversized friends, Penny found the smaller, thinner Louis the most friendly and handsome. He always made a point to talk with her about sports, school work, music, any subject on his mind at the time. He didn't have the rich beachside manner or the perfect suntan; his nose looked kind of big for his round, scruffy face. Still, he was very sweet, cared about her opinions and every Sunday when he wore his see-through #17 jersey and the athletic shorts that clung to his tight bottom like glue, Penny found it hard not to admire his physique.

"I don't know. I think the Jets are winning."

He took a glass and drank the water down in two giant gulps. "Figures."

Dante jointed them, wrapping a towel around his neck and patting down his wet, rippled muscles. "So you want to be a quarterback, Sis?"

"I can throw."

His face reddened as he held back his laughter. "Of course you can."

Louis grabbed the tray out of her hand and placed it in the grass as the others headed for the shady, date palm trees near the house. "Let's see what she's got."

"You're kidding, right?" Dante said.

"Nope. You still want to try, Penny?"

She nodded, hardly believing she was being offered the chance. Her brother David had been the last one to ask. He was seventeen when he was killed in a crash by a drunk driver. She was only ten, proud and idolizing him for spending his days trying to teach her how to handle the football.

She loved when David would yell, "Penny's the greatest football player in sports today," when she ran as fast as she could and got under the ball in time. Once when she bobbled it in front of David's college recruiters, quick tears sprang to her eyes as a scout jeered. David ordered the man out of the yard and tossed his school's application in the trash. Seven years ... and she still missed him every single day of her life.

Louis said. "I'm going to go center and break right."

Penny nodded and lunged back into her stance the way David had taught her a decade ago. She cocked her arm, feeling the adrenaline rush, then threw the ball. Louis ran forward. He looked back, once, twice, then on his third attempt the ball was right next to him. He broke right and caught it in front of the goal post.

"Holy cow!" She had tossed the football over fifty yards. She jumped up and down and screamed with glee.

"You couldn't do that again if your life depended on it!" Dante yelled.

Louis ran to her, picked her up and twirled her around. "That was awesome! I knew you had it in you!"

"Put my sister down!'

Louis did, grinning. "She's got an arm just like David!"

"Even if she's big enough to throw, it doesn't mean she's good in the pocket or that she can take a hit!" Dante said.

"We won't know what she can do unless we let her try." Louis returned the ball into her hands. "With a pass like that, when Gordan and Larry can't make it, she could be their replacement."

"Not in my lifetime!" Dante headed for the house.

"I'm not playing with any chick!" One of the boys said.

"Me either!" sneered another.

Before long only Louis and Penny remained in the backyard field. Guilt at stopping the practice filled her. "I'm sorry, Louie," she said, calling him by his nickname.

"About what?" He cocked his head, then gave her a bright smile. "We don't need them to teach you. I will."

"Really?"

"Why not? It's fun chasing a deep ball. I haven't done that in awhile." He ran back out onto the field. "Come on, show me that magic arm again!"