Lynette Eason - A Silent Terror & A Silent Fury

Her mother’s answer to every disaster: Food. Right now, Marianna wouldn’t complain. With her life so crazy, she’d welcome the familiar routine. Plus, she was cold and wanted to get inside.

Once Maddelena had everyone settled, she fired up the gas stove and cooked a breakfast fit for a five-star restaurant. The rest of her family made their way into the kitchen, and the introductions began.

Her terror fading in the chaos of family, Marianna felt herself relaxing and enjoying Ethan’s shell-shocked look. She said, “You don’t come from a large family, do you?”

He shook his head. “Nope. It was just me for a long time. My sister was almost ten years younger. Then, she died….” He trailed off, his gaze fixed on two of her siblings arguing over who got the next piece of toast. Alonso, her sixteen-year-old deaf brother and youngest member of the clan, had lightning-fast reflexes and beat out Gina, her twenty-six-year-old hearing sister who was a real estate attorney in North Carolina. Gina had come home last week to visit and announce her recent engagement.

Gina punched Alonso in the arm hard enough to make him wince. She signed, “You need to learn to respect your elders, boy.”

Alonso signed back, “When I see an elder that deserves it, I’ll give it.”

Gina very maturely stuck out her tongue, then turned her back on him to plop another piece of bread in the toaster.

Marianna smiled at the craziness. She told Ethan, “If you think this is bad, you should see us all at Christmas!”

“I can’t even imagine.” He took a bite of his eggs and chewed, but she noticed he never took his eyes from the antics of her family.

She also noticed Alonso refused to look in Ethan’s direction. Lasering the evil eye on her brother, she subtly signed, “He’s not the cop who arrested you. Be nice.” Unfortunately, about six months ago, Alonso had been arrested for being in the wrong place at the wrong time when a friend of his decided to shoplift. Protesting his innocence to this day, he still had an aversion to cops. Including his own brother, Joseph.

Alonso rolled his eyes and ignored her order.

Then she noticed Ethan’s frown. He placed his fork on his plate and reached for his phone, lifting it to his ear. He listened for a minute and a half, then hung up. His fierce expression was back, his tenseness from the break-in returning twofold.

She raised a brow in question.

He signed, “That was Catelyn. The lab found some evidence, and I need to get over there to find out what’s going on.”

“On a Saturday?”

He gave a small smile. “No rest for the weary.” When he stood, everyone looked up at him. He signed, “It was a pleasure to meet you all, but duty calls.”

Marianna’s mother frowned and signed back, “They don’t let you eat?”

Joseph shot him a sympathetic glance and saved him from having to answer by saying, “Mama, you know how it is in law enforcement. You’ve got to do what you can when you can.”

Maddelena rolled her dark eyes and signed, “Bah, you go do your job, then, but only if you promise to come back when you can eat a decent meal. And come to church with us tomorrow. We go to the church with the interpreter on the other side of town.”

Ethan said his thanks for the breakfast, made no comment about church and headed out the door.

Marianna stabbed a bite of pancake as she watched him leave, wondering why the fact that he was so comfortable with her family made her nervous.

* * *

Ethan climbed into his car, never so glad to get out of someone’s home. Not that he hadn’t enjoyed the crazy clan, but they made him think about the past. About what might have been.

Guilt pierced him as it did every time he thought about his sister, Ashley. And the more he was around Marianna, the more he thought about Ashley. A vicious cycle if there ever was one.

Poor Ashley. She’d been ten years his junior and stuck with him as the one person she could count on…and he’d let her down. True, it hadn’t been intentional, but in the end it hadn’t mattered. She’d died.

And his life had spiraled downward into a hole he’d almost been unable to claw his way out of. If it hadn’t been for his ex-partner, Mac McCullough, Ethan might still be drowning his sorrows in a six-pack each night. Mac had eventually quit the force and gone on to be a missionary overseas, but Ethan thanked God for the man every day.

His phone rang, yanking him from his memories. Thank goodness. “Hello.”

“Hey, it’s Catelyn. Where are you?”

“Almost to the lab. Why?”

“We got a shoe print from under her window.”

“Does it match the bloody one from the porch?”

“Nope. Unfortunately, not.”

“Are they the same size?”

“Negative on that, too.”

“All that means is that the guy wore a different pair of shoes.”

“Or this break-in is totally unrelated to the murder.” Ethan could hear her frustration. She wanted to catch this guy as bad as he did.

He said, “Yeah, I’ve already thought of that.”

“So, what’s Marianna going to do? Is she staying with her folks right now? I’m really nervous about her going back to that house by herself. Something’s just weird about the whole situation. The murder, then the break-in…weird.”

“I agree. But I’m stumped as to a connection. And yes, right now, she’s staying with her folks.” He sighed, ran a hand through his already mussed hair. “Listen, I haven’t been to bed yet. If you don’t actually need me there, I’m going to run home, take a shower and crash for a couple of hours.”

“Sure, I’ve got it covered. Go get some rest and call me when you get up. I appreciate you not calling me in on it last night.”

“Nothing much you could have done. I didn’t figure you’d hate me for letting you sleep.”

“Never. That’s why I’m willing to put in a few hours on the weekend. I’ll get it back after we catch this guy.”

“Thanks, Cate.”

He hung up, did a U-turn, then took a left to head home. Just a few hours sleep, then he’d be back on it, he silently promised himself…and Marianna.

As Marianna dressed for church in the morning, she studied the childhood room she’d shared with two of her sisters, Catherina and Alissa. She smiled when she thought of her twin, Alissa.

As children and even teens, they hadn’t wanted to be separated and had shared a room up until graduation from high school. They’d gone to different colleges, Marianna to Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. and Alissa to the University of South Carolina in Columbia, just a couple of hours away.

Being the parents of six children, her mother and father had had to get creative when it came to sleeping arrangements. The house had four bedrooms and a basement that had been converted into a small apartment for Marianna’s grandmother, who’d lived with them until she died last year.

Marianna appreciated the fact that her mother still kept the double bed and bunk beds in here so that the sisters could have their “reunion” during holidays. Often all four sisters usually wound up in the one room, staying up all night catching up, then crashing wherever they found a spot.

She said a small prayer of thanks for her childhood, knowing she’d been blessed. Oh, not always with material things but with the things that mattered. And one more thing to be thankful for was the fact that the vet had sent a text message saying Twister would be able to come home Monday. Marianna missed her four-legged friend.

Attached to the pocket of her black dress pants, her BlackBerry buzzed, pulling her from her thoughts. She slipped it from the clip and checked the caller ID.