A Silent Terror by Lynette Eason

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 breakin 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 breakin 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.