Chapter 7: The Commitment

When they pulled up next to Elmo's house, he ran out to meet them. He stopped, his eyes widened and looked at Judge Reynolds in surprise, "Oh dear, Ralph! What are you doing with these disreputable characters?"

"Well, Elmo, it seems I have made some strange alliances with unusual people." He chuckled humorlessly, "Though when one's nose is rubbed in it, one has to open his eyes and see what's before him."

"Ralph, you have mixed more metaphors in one sentence than I do in a whole action packed exciting novel." He laughed at Judge Reynolds' sour expression.

"But never mine, come in come in. Did you know we have had more excitement in the past week than we have ever had in this neighborhood?"

Dana looked from one to the other, "You two know each other?"

"Well I should hope to shout we do," Elmo grinned, "After all, we're brothers." He paused and amended his statement, "Well, we're half brothers. Our common father was a polygamist and raised us ten miles apart right here in San Diego."

"Denny and Dave," Dana ordered, " Please bring the box of coins here inside the house. We need to get this show on the road." She threw her arm around Jimmy as he came up beside her. He bent and kissed her neck just below the ear.

"Well, it seems you two have gotten rather well acquainted. I think I'm jealous," Elmo pouted and grinned at them.

"Stop trying to act like a character in one of your trashy novels, Elmo," the judge told him, "It ill becomes you. Besides, we have some serious matters to tend to this evening."

"Well, sorry, but you are always such a stuffed shirt that you bring out the macho red neck in me." Elmo looked at the serious faces around him, "Sorry, what's happening now?"

Dave and Denny carried the heavy box into Elmo's house and set it on the floor. Everyone else followed them inside. Dave removed the lid from the box and Elmo gasped, "I don't think those are Cracker Jack prizes, are they?"

"No they are not. I need you to pay off the people who have been helping me. They I want you to keep the rest of them here until I need them. Denny will give you a list of people and how to contact them. When they show up, give each of them fifteen of the Krugerands in the box. Tell them I apologize for not having US currency but the feds and the DA tied up my usually available cash and I won't be able to get at my other money here in town. Perhaps later, but not at the present."

"Honey, I never heard of a guy who would turn down gold." The writer's eyes looked at the rows of rolled coins. "My god. There's a fortune there."

"Yes, but it's a fortune Jimmy and I can't spend if we aren't alive and breathing to do so." Dana shook her head, "It almost seems like I'm on a treadmill."

Dave had turned on the television while the conversation had continued, "Holy crap. Come look at this." Everyone gathered in front of the giant screen in time to see Janet Powers being led away from the television station where she worked in handcuffs.

"Janet Powers, our own star reporter has been led away in handcuffs, arrested for refusing to divulge the whereabouts of the controversial and prominent local criminal lawyer, Dana Featherstone who has outraged authorities with the almost magical way she has of keeping her clients out of prison.

At Present, Ms. Featherstone is being sought on charges ranging from murder to the kidnapping of Superior Court Judge Ralph Reynolds. And now a word from our sponsor."

Denny turned the television down and stated in a low tone of voice, "I have had it with hiding and playing games. Elmo, I want you to go to my house and get my dress uniform. My wife will get it for you. I want you to take my wife, my daughter and my dress uniform and bring them here. If those bastards want to play rough, I will play rough with them in ways they have yet to imagine."

Alarmed, Dana asked, "Wait. What are you going to do? Please don't do anything foolish. Think of your family."

"I am thinking of my family," he told her softly. "I am thinking very hard about my family."

He turned to Elmo and ordered sharply, "Go."

"May I have the address I'm going?" Elmo asked plaintively.

"Oh, sorry, here," he whipped out a notebook and scribbled his address. Elmo took it and hurried out.

Dave looked at Denny, "I'll be right back. A lady friend keeps one of my dress uniforms at her place. I'll hurry over and get it. I'll be right back."

"Here, take my bike, it's faster and might help you if it becomes necessary to get out of a tight and narrow place." Denny tossed the key to his Norton. Dave caught it, nodded and left.

Judge Reynolds asked, "May I borrow your Van? I live a quarter of a mile from here at the Towers. I believe I should get changed into fresh clothing also.

"Well, hell. Come on, Jimmy, I guess we better change too." Dana walked out followed by Jimmy. The gold coins were left alone, forgotten and ignored. Dana contemptuously jerked the yellow tape off the door and stepped through. She gasped as she saw the amount of damage done to her living room.

Broken glass was everywhere. The ceiling fixture was ruined. The beautiful drapes she had been so proud of were in tatters from the bullets that had been fired. "God Damn them. Dennis was right. No more running. She rushed into the relatively undamaged bedroom and stripped. "Get naked," she yelled at Jimmy. "We need to shower and look fresh for TV. They want to burn me, they have to do better than they have already."

"You are so beautiful." Jimmy exclaimed as he saw her rush naked toward the bathroom. With a grin, he removed his clothes and followed her.

He hugged her close from behind. She turned and felt him poking her. "Not now, Jimmy. Just as soon as this is all over, we are going to Mexico for a vacation away from all this." She sighed and squeezed his erection with longing and regret.

"However right now we have to be practical. They will be back in a moment. I want us to have all the time in the world to do this right." She stood on tiptoes and pulled his head down and kissed him hard. You will be my first. I also want you to be my last and only one. Let's shower and change. There are new pants and sport shirt in the box on the floor over there." She pointed and Jimmy retrieved a box he recognized. He laid the clothes out and joined her in the shower.

They washed in silence. Dana kept peeking at his firm erection. It stayed large, straight and was obviously rock hard. With a regretful sigh she left the shower and dried off. She slipped on a pair of her sensible panties and bra. Next came the sensible power suit. She shook her short hair that barely covered her ears. Water flew and the hair fell into place. She was the picture of a diminutive female dynamo.

Jimmy took his time as he dressed. There was no underwear. He put on the black slacks and the brown patterned sports shirt. He stepped over to Dana's dresser and used one of her hairbrushes to brush his hair back. It fell into a crown of natural curls that seemed to catch the light in the room and glow.

"Oh how you look like an angel," she gasped, "so beautiful." She slipped her arms around his slender waist and hugged him. "I'm afraid I'll lose you."

"I love you," he whispered in a soft voice as his lips brushed the hair on top of her head. "Oh Dana, please love me."

"I do." she whispered, "Oh how I do." They silently held each other, drawing love and strength, each from the other. "Oh how I do." she whispered again.

"Come on, kiddies." Elmo's voice broke the spell. "Ralph is dressed and waiting. Denny's family is here and waiting. And I hear the sound a motorcycle engine throbbing through your broken window. That must be David. Now there's a man not to mess with."

"His motorcycle engine wasn't the only thing that was throbbing." Jimmy whispered to Dana. She giggled and took his hand and led him back into the carnage of the living room.

Dana gave her head a sad shake as she looked at the gouges bullets had made in her antique dining table. She looked at the chair that had been thrown at the intruder. "I paid ten thousand dollars for that set of chairs. Oh well."

"If you like, as soon as the police will release it, I'll get someone to come over here and begin repairing the damage to your house," Elmo told her.

"Thank you, Elmo, I would like that." Dana smiled sadly as she led Jimmy out and away from the house.

She changed her mind, stopped and told Elmo, "No, we wait until the police release the house."

Dave pulled the Norton motorcycle up onto Elmo's lawn. He hopped off. "I think we better move. I had to hurt a couple of shore patrol that didn't want me to get changed at Bev's house. He looked self-satisfied as he smiled at the memory of the altercation that by the look on his face he had greatly enjoyed.

Then Dennis came out of Elmo's house, resplendent in his full dress officer's uniform. He looked at Dave in his chief's uniform, the chest covered with ribbons, the gold hash marks on his arm shone brightly. Denny nodded.

"Hello, Chief," the regal looking woman at Denny's side said. Her aristocratic bearing and perfectly turned out dress gave her the appearance of either going to or coming from a state function.

"Hello, Mrs. Merewether, interesting times, huh?" Dave grinned widely as Belinda came out of the house, all dressed up in a white dress and pumps. She squealed and jumped up in the air to be caught by Dave. "Hello, Brat." he told her.

The pretty eleven year old who had barely begun to mature until the first hint of her future beauty had begun to show told him, "Better remember, we're going to get married." Her bright smile showered him with total affection.

"Girl, if I married you, your father would die of a heart attack and come back from the grave and shoot me. You better get yourself a younger guy." He tossed her in the air and caught her and set her on the ground.

She squealed as she was set firmly down. Instantly she became the serious little princess to her mother's queen. Her father looked at her abrupt change from tomboy to young lady and shook his head, perplexed. She smiled at him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He kissed her cheek and gave his wife a proud smile. Dana watched the close-knit family interact wistfully. Perhaps ... She squeezed Jimmy's hand.

Suddenly two shore patrol wagons came racing up. Eight shore patrolmen jumped out, led by a pretty first class with a no nonsense air about her. Dave dropped into a fighting stance. "Ease off, chief," she ordered, we're your escort."

"Escort to where?" a bemused Denny asked.

"Why, to where ever you wish to go, sir." she replied. "Right now the base is about to explode in the first mutiny in history where everybody is up in arms from seamen recruits to the officers in charge. One of the dead guys who got poisoned was my husband. We're at your disposal, Sir."

It was almost anticlimactic when a camper van pulled up beside the shore patrol wagon. The members of Dave's seal team came scrambling out. "Where's the party, Chief?" one big gorilla of a man yelled at Dave as he got out.

"I think the time for grand plans is past. Let's just go to the television station and take it from there," Dana told them. "No phone calls, no warning, let's just do it." Matching actions to words, she and Jimmy got in her old van. Everyone else nodded and re-entered their various vehicles. Dave led the way in Denny's motorcycle. Denny drove the red SUV, his family with him.

The trip was uneventful across the Coronado Bridge and into downtown San Diego. As he pulled the bike up on the sidewalk, and hopped off, a plain-clothes policeman walked up and ordered, "Get that thing away from here." He reached for the gun on his belt.