Dangerous Testimony

I will never quit. I thrive on adversity.

Honor on and off the battlefield.

My word is my bond.

His bond. His gut twinged. Long ago he’d promised Gwen he would love and protect her forever. He had not been able to shield her from the wicked hold of addiction. Would he be enough to protect Candace now?

He slowed the last two blocks and Bear reduced his gait to a steady trot. Watch and observe, Quidel. Stick to the mission, keeping Candace and Tracy safe from the Pack. You’re going to win. You have to.

“You’re gonna to listen to me this time, Candace,” he said as he eased his pace to a walk, knocked once and tried the door, surprised to find it locked. JeanBeth had an open-door policy, so Lon must have changed her ways. Atta boy, Lon. He used his own key to let himself in.

Tracy looked up from the board game she was playing with Lon, and ran to give him the customary squeeze. “Hi, Unco.”

Lon lifted an amused eyebrow, which Marco ignored.

She’d called him that since she was two years old and he’d returned to Coronado on leave. Crossing paths with Bruce Gallagher meant an invitation to meet his family, and they had taken him under their wings. Those were happy times back then, before Rick had been killed and Marco had been christened Unco. No one else in the world would dare address him like that. It made him sound like a jolly grocer from a kid’s story, but from Tracy, he didn’t mind. For some reason he couldn’t manage to be very stern with the girl, who made him laugh like no one else on earth.

“Who’s winning?” he inquired.

“I am,” Tracy announced proudly, “But Mr. Lon is trying his best.”

Marco chuckled. “You’re going down, Lon. Kid’s an ace at checkers.”

Tracy beamed. “Only sometimes.” She turned to Lon. “Want to take a break and go throw the ball for Bear in the yard?”

“Uh-huh,” Lon said, and Bear, sensing a game in the offing, was quick to follow them to the back sliding door and out into the Southern California sunshine.

JeanBeth handed Marco a plate full of kale salad with cranberries and lemon vinaigrette. His favorite and she knew it. They settled in the living room.

“Lon doesn’t talk very much. Is that some sort of Navy SEAL creed?” JeanBeth asked.

Marco smiled. “No, I know a few guys who will talk your ear off if you bring up the right subject.”

“What’s the right subject with Lon?”

“Dunno. I’ve never figured that out.”

“He doesn’t eat much, either,” she said with a disapproving frown. “Look how thin that man is. If he turns sideways you can’t even see him.”

“When we were stationed in Virginia Beach his mom sent him fudge. He’s got a real sweet tooth.”

Her face brightened. “I’ll make a note of that,” she said. Marco sensed that JeanBeth had just assigned herself a different kind of mission altogether. Brace yourself, Lon.

Brent slung an arm around Donna and leaned back on the couch.

“The Pack doesn’t leave much of a trail,” Brent said. “My guy at Homeland put me in touch with a Fed who figures Jay Rico runs a series of chop shops, but the locations change and they haven’t been able to get a bust.”

Candace nodded. “That’s what Donna and I got, too. We did find out that Rico was born in Long Beach, and he had a brother who died in jail and a sister who seems to have dropped off the radar. Never married. No kids.”

The phone rang, and JeanBeth picked it up and said hello.

Marco eyed her, noting the tension in her jaw as she listened, the subtle stiffening in her posture. She put the phone down.

“Who was it?” Angela asked.

“I’m not sure. A man, deep voice. All he said was ‘Tell Candace. Five rings,’ before he hung up.”

Marco felt a stirring of alarm, but he kept it from his face. “Let’s call Ridley at Coronado PD.”

Donna gave Brent a pat on the knee. “He and Brent are not the best of friends, but he did help get Sarah and Jett off that island. I’ll call. What should I tell him?”

“Did you say five rings?” Angela said, returning from the kitchen, her face grave.

JeanBeth eyed her. “Yes, what does it mean?”

“It’s a gang thing. I’ve counseled some young sailors who came from difficult backgrounds.” She toyed with the zipper on her jacket. “The rings is the number of phone calls you get before...” She looked at her mother and then at Candace. “It probably isn’t the time to talk about it.”

“Five rings before what?” JeanBeth repeated.

Angela grimaced. “Really, Mom. I shouldn’t have brought it up just now.”

“Angela,” JeanBeth said. “You have to tell us.”

All eyes were riveted on Angela. She pulled the patio door closed so Tracy would not hear from out in the yard.

“Five rings before what?” Marco asked.

“Five rings...” she cleared her throat, “before you’re dead.”

FOUR (#u506f236f-e42f-5331-ba20-9ece899d158b)

It seemed to Candace that time sped up as soon as Angela dropped her bombshell. In a matter of three hours, an officer from the San Diego Police Department named Jennifer Barnes, and Ridley from the Coronado Police were meeting with the adults in the family room, while Lon and Tracy were occupied building a spaceship with Tracy’s Lego set in the kitchen. Candace suspected Lon was silently taking in every word of the briefing, but fortunately, Tracy seemed oblivious.

Candace tried hard to focus, but her mind was still fogged in disbelief. The Pack had somehow tracked down her mother’s phone number and called to inform Candace that she would be terrorized and killed for daring to testify against their gang brother Kevin Tooley. She wondered if the same message had been left on her own home phone. A shiver went through her. Though her mother and Angela flanked her on either side and Marco and Brent stood sentry nearby, Candace felt the roots of fear taking hold. Suddenly Marco’s preparations did not seem so over-the-top.

“The district attorney has three witnesses that saw Kevin Tooley pull the trigger at the gas station,” Barnes said. “So far you’re the only one who has been threatened. I’ve been assigned along with Officer Ridley and another couple of San Diego officers to do drive-by checks of your house during the day and post a cop here at night until the trial.”

Candace blinked. “But what about when I’m not at home? Are you supposed to follow me for the next four weeks until our court date?”

Barnes shook her head. “I’m sorry, ma’am. We just don’t have enough manpower for that. We’d like to suggest that you stay at home as much as possible.”

“But I’ve got a daughter.”

She nodded. “Any other kids?”

“Tracy is an only child.” Only child, though Tracy desperately wanted a sibling. The words always hit Candace hard when she had to say them.

For a brief, shining period of time, she had carried that little sibling for Tracy. But then there was a knock on the door, the men in uniform respectfully reducing her life to ruins, and then there was the miscarriage when she’d lost the last part of Rick, and then there was a bottomless well of depression where she could see no hope, not even from the God she beseeched for mercy.