Free The Witness by Josh McDowell Page A

flushed with anger. “How dare you threaten me? I’m the one who—”
    “Silence! Do not think you are the first ‘client’ who has ever tried to back out of her obligations in the middle of an operation. We have ways of handling such people, ways I guarantee you never want to experience for yourself.”
    “I’m not trying to back out,” she said. “I just don’t want to pay more than we agreed.”
    “You will pay what it costs, or you will pay with your life. Is that understood?”
    Claudette stopped cold in her tracks. She knew he was serious, and she knew he was capable. She did not want to die. She simply wanted to be free, and rich, like she had always deserved. The collateral-damage death of her stepdaughter, Brigitte, had been unfortunate, but luxury and alcohol were helping to soften that pain. Now she feared she could suffer the same fate.
    “Very well,” she sighed. “How much more will you need to finish the job?”

18
    The surrealness of seeing his childhood best friend—a friend he hadn’t laid eyes on in almost ten years—collapsed against his front gate quickly gave way to action. Kadeen al-Wadhi reached back into his house and pressed a button on the wall next to the door. A buzzer sounded, and the gate’s lock clicked.
    Because the gate swung outward, Kadeen had to push hard to shift Marwan’s weight in order to give himself enough of an opening to squeeze through. Once outside the gate, he placed a large rock into the gap—a rock he kept there just for that purpose, having locked himself out of his property one too many times. Then he took hold of his friend.
    “Marwan! Marwan, speak to me!”
    Marwan’s head lolled back. There was no response. It was obvious by the numerous small scabs on his friend’s face that he had recently seen some trouble. But obviously, those tiny cuts were not enough to cause unconsciousness. There had to be something more.
    A dog barking down the street reminded Kadeen of his location. He had to get Marwan off the street and inside.
    “Kadeen, what’s going on?”
    Kadeen turned and saw his wife, Rania, in her yellow robe, standing in the doorway.
    “Quickly—come hold the gate open,” Kadeen said in a strong whisper.
    When he saw her hesitate, he added firmly, “Rania, now!”
    She rushed to the gate and pushed the rock away with her foot. As Kadeen slid Marwan’s arm around his shoulder and hefted up his weight, Rania asked, “Who is it?”
    “It’s Marwan Accad,” he answered as he grunted his way around her. The toes of Marwan’s shoes formed two serpentine tracks in the dirt as Kadeen struggled toward the front door.
    He heard the gate clank closed behind him and felt his burden lighten as Rania placed herself under Marwan’s other shoulder. They worked themselves sideways, then edged their way through the narrow door and into a small living room.
    They dragged Marwan across the floor, knocking a vase off an end table as they passed, and dropped his body onto a couch. Both were panting when they straightened up, but Kadeen’s breath suddenly caught in his throat. The left shoulder of Rania’s robe was stained dark with blood.
    “ Habibti , are you . . . ?” Then he realized the source of the blood. “Help me get his coat off.”
    Together, they slid Marwan’s arms out of his jean jacket. Kadeen could see that although Marwan had padded his right shoulder, blood had soaked through and covered the upper quarter of his shirt. He looked up to ask his wife what to do next, but after seeing the blood on herself and on Marwan, her nursing training had already kicked in.
    “Get me some scissors—the ones from the block in the kitchen,” she ordered.
    Kadeen jumped into action, thankful that Rania had taken charge. He felt very comfortable in a lot of areas, but this was not one of them.
    As he ran through the house, he wondered what Marwan could be doing there. Was he running from something? Was he hiding? Had one of his