Guilty Until Proven Innocent

By Elless Bock

After being wrongly accused of murder and sentenced to life in prison, Becca thought that there was no purpose to her life. However, something changes. Follow the character on an adventurous journey that leads her into the jungles of Peru, the forests of Guatemala and even into the country of Haiti.

 

Secret CIA ops that no one ever hears about cross Becca's path. Can the Navy SEALs help train her to keep her alive through all the treacherous missions? Discover what will come of Becca in the end. 

 

This book follows a timeline from the 1980s.  

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elless Bock
• Release date: Nov 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201326449

Elless Bock

Ellis Bock enjoys the warm desert air in the winters and roams the mountains of Colorado in the summers. You can always find her at any local coffee shop, wherever she might be, working on her next story. She likes to point out that her six grandchildren often contribute their ideas to her stories, as well as their awesome use of the English language. "Bro, that is so lit!"

Book preview

Chapter One

Becca

Becca took a moment to remember what was next on her list of things to do. She then grabbed a bag of fertilizer and a container of fuel that she’d hidden under the stairs of one of the compound’s buildings.

Ducking behind the jungle’s foliage, she made her way to the building that housed the drug lab. There was a waste drum on the side of this building into which she poured the fertilizer and the fuel.

Next, Becca placed a charge on the drum and set the timer for 3:55 a.m. She wanted this charge to go off first and draw the attention of the guards to this particular area of the compound. She hoped the extra homemade explosive device, along with whatever chemicals were inside the drug lab would make for an exciting blast. Just to be sure, she also set a charge on the opposite side of the same building.

Becca had been scouting out the drug lab for about two weeks. While posing as a laundry lady, she assessed the best possible way to rescue the three Americans who were being held captive by one of the Rodriguez family’s drug lords.

The compound was one of the largest in Colombia and it was run by the Cali Cartel. The lab was hidden away in the tropical jungle just south of the city of Santiago de Cali. There were armed guards at the main gates as well as at the building that housed the prisoners. Guards also stood watch at the main drug lab facility and at the office building.

Everyone was checked going in and out of the area and double checked while entering or exiting any of the main buildings. However, they were more suspicious of unfamiliar men than women and they’d been on high alert for any kind of military activity. That was why Becca had been picked for this particular mission. It would be much easier and unexpected for a single woman to take down the entire lab and get out of the country with the three prisoners.

✱  ✱  ✱  ✱

Rebecca, or Becca as her friends called her, was a young lady from Colorado. She’d grown up in a small town on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains. The little town was about as far away from civilization as one could get. Becca didn’t mind though, she loved growing up in the wilderness of Colorado.

Becca’s father was a good man and worked hard for a natural gas company, manning the gas wells in the high country of Colorado’s western slope. Her mother stayed at home, watching after the five kids. Becca was the youngest child and the only girl. This was probably the reason Becca had grown up to be so tough.

She’d spent most of her days following her older brothers around, trying to do whatever it was that they were doing. Whether it was ‘Kill the guy with the ball’ or ‘hunting rabbits in the local mountains’, Becca was always involved. Her father also loved the outdoor life and had the kids involved in hunting, fishing, camping and just exploring the countryside.

Becca’s grandfather gave her the nickname of Enapay, pronounced Ehn ahp ey in the Siouan language. He told her that it meant ‘brave one’. When she was young, he would say, It’s usually a name used for a boy, but in your case, it fits you well.

This would make Becca stand like she was proud, then her grandfather would just laugh, as usual. He had nicknames for all the kids, but of course, Becca thought that hers was the best one. Also, on more than one occasion, she’d live up to her nickname.

...It was a cold winter day. Becca had just gotten out of school for the day. She raced down the dirt road to catch up with her brothers as they always walked home together.

Duke, the family’s yellow lab, always met them when they were about half way home. It was a small and closely knitted community so no one ever had any issues about Duke running free. He made his way around town every day. Everyone seemed to like him and they spoiled him rotten. Becca had always thought that it was amazing that he wasn’t a fat roly-poly dog with all the treats he got each day from the townsfolk.

On this particular day, as they walked past the local pond, a flock of geese took off in front of Duke. For Duke, there was nothing better than a good bird chase. Off he went, but before the boys could get Duke to stop, he’d taken off across the frozen pond.

It wasn’t until he reached the middle of the pond that the ice gave way. Becca and the boys were all standing at the pond’s edge, screaming at Duke to get out, but he just couldn’t get out on his own.

He was struggling to keep his front legs out on a piece of broken ice and was getting nowhere as he tried to paw his way out of the icy water. Thomas, the oldest brother, stepped out onto the ice, but it immediately started to crack underneath his feet. He quickly stepped back.

They all watched in horror, not knowing what to do.

Becca, who at that time was still just a young girl, pulled on Thomas’s jacket. I’m the lightest. I can do it.

It probably wasn’t the smartest thing, but they were still all just young kids, so Thomas and the other brothers agreed.

Becca slowly started walking out onto the ice. She had made it a good distance. However, as she was getting close to Duke, who was still struggling to get out, she heard the ice begin to crack underneath her. She was a quick thinker though and instinctively she dropped to her belly, spreading her weight out as much as she could across the surface of the frozen pond. 

Becca from that point, crawled forward on her belly, like an army man would do, until she reached the edge of the hole. She brought her right shoulder forward and outstretched her arm until Duke was able to claw his way up, over her shoulder and down her back. Even as the immense pain of Duke’s claws dug into her back, Becca didn’t withdraw, not until Duke was completely out of harm’s way.

Once Duke was all the way out and laying completely on top of Becca, she pushed her way backwards along the ice, away from the hole. Duke was still laying on top of Becca, too exhausted and cold to move. He just let Becca slide him all the way back across the ice to where the boys stood, which was no easy task as the big dog almost weighed as much as little Becca. As soon as they reached the pond’s edge, the boys took off their jackets and wrapped up the poor shivering Duke.

Thomas pulled up Becca from the ice and hugged her under one arm. Truly, as grandpa would say, you are Enapay!

Of course, everyone got a lecture later for doing something so risky, but Becca could tell as stern as her father was trying to be that he was actually happy that they’d saved Duke.

✱  ✱  ✱  ✱

By the time high school had come around, Becca had grown to be about 5’7" and was fit and lean. She wasn’t very pretty, but she wasn’t ugly either. She was just an average looking young girl.

Her long dark hair and olive skin tone came from her great grandmother who was a native American. Little did Becca know that this would later come in handy when she would need to fit in with the local South American population.

Becca wasn’t much into looking really girly, so she kept her looks simple. She kept her hair in a simple ponytail and rarely wore make-up. Her usual outfit of the day consisted of a pair of 501 Levis, a t-shirt and a classic pair of Adidas tennis shoes.

Becca was very athletic and was much stronger than she looked. Her aggressive and independent personality traits made her highly competitive in everything that she did.

Her brothers often tormented her, playing mind games on her until she snapped. Becca would lash out with a physical eruption of rage toward her brothers, beating on them the best she could. They usually would just laugh at her efforts then tease her even more. She would finally give into her brothers and just enjoy a good family brawl. 

Sometimes her father would even join in, giving the older brothers more of a challenge. On many occasions the living room was turned into a wrestling ring, which in turn would end up with the super glue coming out of the drawer to fix a broken lamp. Becca swore her mother kept a never-ending supply of glue around the house. All in all, this rough-housing childhood would become important in building Becca’s tough character.

After graduating from high school in 1982, Becca was off to college. She’d actually been accepted into West Point, but declined in the end and decided on a Colorado State School. During a summer job in Denver hauling rolls of grass sod around, some of the men talked her into applying for the police academy. At that time the Police Department was looking to add women to their ranks and were looking for physically fit and strong women that could possibly do the job. So Becca had applied just for the fun of it. In her last semester of college, she’d gotten a phone call from the Police Chief. He’d offered her the job. So as any young person would do, Becca looked at the salary. She only needed to complete her student teaching to be a teacher, but when it came down to salaries, the police department paid so much more than the local school districts. So off to the police academy she went.

Becca was a great fit for the police department. Her common sense, athletic ability and independence had made it easy for her to adapt to the male dominated profession. Since she’d been a tomboy growing up she fit in well with most of the men on the job. She excelled quickly on the job and was promoted as soon as she was eligible.

She had many police friends, but there was one she’d come to be very close to. He was older than she was, by quite a lot. He was also a police captain, Robert, but that didn’t seem to bother their friendship off the job and that was all they were, just friends. Although, as their friendship grew so did Becca’s attraction towards Robert, but she’d kept that to herself not wanting to ruin the friendship she so enjoyed. Besides that, Robert had a girlfriend that he was romantically involved with.

However, Becca didn’t really think that this woman was a good choice for Robert. She thought the woman, Jenna, was a little bit on the psychotic side. It seemed as though