The Countdown Begins

by Patrick Higgins

  “Isn’t that just lovely. He must be brainwashed just like Brian!”

  Sarah felt another urge to lash out at her husband but remained calm. In a softer tone, she said, “Brainwashed? I felt so blessed to meet Tom. When was the last time you read the Bible, Dick?

  “It seems you read all things Catholic, except the Book that’s so transformed our son.” Sarah sighed. “It took reading it for myself to finally see just how on-track Brian really was.”

  Dick snickered. How could he not be insulted by her comment?

  Sarah ignored her husband and kept going, “The more I read it, the more I can relate to what Brian and Jacquelyn are going through. All throughout the Bible, God’s servants were beaten, tortured, imprisoned, and even killed for their faith in Christ. Yet they firmly stood their ground, by remaining true to the faith despite the persecution and separation.”

  “How can you say that, Sarah?”

  “I’m sorry, Dick. I respect your opinion and your beliefs. But I won’t apologize for reading the Word of God or for being a born-again Christian.”

  Dick lowered his head. “I can’t believe you would do this to me. To us!”

  “I didn’t do anything to you, Dick! It was a decision I had to make on my own, without your involvement!” Sarah frowned. “I’m sorry, dear, but I’ve had lots of time to think this through and pray about it. There’s nothing you or anyone else, including a Catholic priest, can do to change my mind.”

  She sounds just like Brian! “I feel so betrayed by you, Sarah.”

  “That’s because you’re spiritually blinded to the Truth. The proof is that you’re more sold out to the Catholic Church than you are to Jesus.”

  “That’s ridiculous, Sarah,” Dick barked, “and you know it!”

  Sarah glared at her husband, “Do I? Again, I respect your opinion. Now I’m asking you to respect mine. Whether you believe it or not, I feel so transformed spiritually despite the deep pain in my heart!”

  Sarah paused to formulate her next thought. “If you wish to remain with the Catholic Church, that’s your choice. But I no longer want anything to do with organized religion on any level.”

  Dick’s face reddened.

  “Now that you know will you hate me like you hate Brian?”

  Dick erupted, “Hate him? How can you say that, Sarah? I don’t hate him. I’m trying to save him!”

  “You can’t save him, Dick, only Jesus can! And He did, last November.” Sarah shook her head. “Have you noticed Brian harbors no animosity toward you? None whatsoever! Sure, he’s deeply concerned for you...”

  “Concerned for me? Ha! What a joke!” Dick barked.

  “Deeply concerned, yes, because you keep clinging to things that have nothing to do with obtaining the salvation of God. But he doesn’t blame you for it. Mostly he blames the Church.”

  “Brian has nothing to fear from the Catholic Church, Sarah. It’s the one true Church.”

  “Again, that’s your opinion, but it’s no longer mine.”

  Dick started pacing the floor huffing and puffing in anger.

  “Calm down, Dick. You were never like this in the past.”

  “It’s because of Brian!”

  “Really?” In a whisper, Sarah said, “Look at Chelsea over there: her life’s so off track, yet she’s still your little girl. Probably because she never challenges anything you tell her.

  “Brian’s the most on-track member of this family, yet you treat him like an outcast! How can you properly grieve Renate’s suicide when you’re so full of venom? I can’t take it anymore!” Sarah sat on the bed and was clearly on the verge of tears.

  Dick sat next to his wife. “Are you saying you’re abandoning the Catholic Church altogether?”

  “Yes. I’ll never try pulling you away from it. Just please don’t try to pull me back in. That’s all I ask.”

  Dick glared at Sarah. “Hello? Where’s my wife? I know she’s in there somewhere. Whoever you are, can you please tell her to resurface!”

  You’re the one with demons, not me! “Mock and ridicule me all you want, Dick, but I remain unchanged.”

  “I’ve had all I can take of this nonsense.” Dick called the front desk. “Can you put me through to Brian Mulrooney’s room?”

  After a few moments the person on the other end said, “You’re the only Mulrooney we have on file, sir. Is he related to you?”

  “What about Jacquelyn Swindell?”

  “Let me check. No one by that name either, sir.”

  What in the world? Dick Mulrooney looked at his receiver. “Never mind!”

  Dick slammed down the phone in anger and called Brian on his cell phone. It went to voice mail: “This is your father. Why aren’t you or your wife registered at this hotel? What’s going on? I’m so disgusted with you both! If I never hear from you again, it’ll still be too soon! Goodbye!”

  “Would you please stop! I can’t take it anymore!” These were the first words Chelsea had uttered since watching the DVD. She covered her ears with a pillow to further drown out her parents’ voices.

  Sarah should have been shocked by her husband’s tirade, but she wasn’t. She calmly reached for her cell phone and called Brian. It, too, went to voice mail.

  “Hi, sweetie. I’m sure you’re still at church,” Sarah said, not knowing they’d already left Michigan, and were in Ohio headed toward Pennsylvania. “Sorry for your father’s outburst. It’s the last thing you and Jacquelyn need right now. He’s in mourning just like the rest of us. But at least you know why it’s happening. Mostly, anyway.

  “Something really good happened to me this week. I wanted to tell you last night, but with everything that happened, it wasn’t the right time. I’ll call you once I’m back in New York. Be careful on your journey,” Sarah said, careful not to mention Pennsylvania. As of yet, Dick and Chelsea had no idea Brian was leaving the state of Michigan, let alone for good. “I love you both very much. God bless you.”

  Sarah followed up the call with a short text message to her son: Don’t worry, I deleted all pictures of Tamika and Charles on your father’s phone. As an added precaution, I threw our wedding programs in the trash down in the lobby. So, your father and Chelsea have nothing to take back to New York. Stay strong! God is with you and will see you through it all.

  Sarah sent the text and burst out in tears.

  36

  AFTER A FULL DAY of driving, Mr. and Mrs. Brian Mulrooney exited the Pennsylvania turnpike. It was 10:30 p.m. Last time they drove to Chadds Ford, Brian did all the driving. With a warrant out for his arrest, Jacquelyn drove this time. Besides, he was too distraught to get behind the wheel of a car.

  Jacquelyn slowed the vehicle to a stop and paid the steep toll, then drove south on route 100 until it merged with U.S. 202 south. They took it all the way to Chadds Ford.

  Before leaving Michigan, she removed the EZ Pass toll transponder from her vehicle, so they couldn’t be tracked by it.

  The Mulrooneys were bone-tired from being on the road all day. What should have been a joyous trip for the newlyweds—their first as husband and wife—was anything but that. They held hands most of the way doing their best to console one another, mostly in silence, which was a difficult feat in itself.

  Their wedding couldn’t have ended any worse than it had! As much as they both tried blinking the horrific images away, the phrase, “Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, it does,” kept coming true.

  If the newlyweds thought leaving the state of Michigan would allow for a brief reprieve from their many problems, they were wrong; bad news followed them all the way to Pennsylvania.

  It wasn’t enough that Megan McCallister made a disparaging DVD blaming Brian and Jacquelyn for her sister’s suicide and her mother’s untimely death. After leaving the church, she teamed up with Renate’s best friend, Rachel Stein, and uploaded the video onto all their social media pages, and even onto YouTube.

  Normally, a video like this would have been removed
due to its graphic nature, but since the accused were Christians, they allowed it to remain online.

  To further smear Brian and Jacquelyn Mulrooney online they sent the link to everyone in Brian’s circle of friends, including his former co-workers at the Marriott Hotel.

  With Megan McCallister out of work and Rachel Stein three months pregnant, both women had plenty of time on their hands. They vowed to spend much of it assassinating Brian Mulrooney’s character and his reputation. It was their new full-time jobs.

  Halfway through the state of Ohio, just as the sun was rising, Brian Mulrooney was peppered with questions and comments on his social media accounts from friends and co-workers who’d viewed the video. Some seemed genuinely concerned for him. But most were outraged, especially those who knew and loved Renate McCallister.

  His former boss Susan Marlucci was one of the first to contact him on his LinkedIn business account. Brian read it aloud to Jacquelyn: Not in trouble?! I knew you were lying all along! And to think I always thought you were a level-headed individual. You’re nothing but a murderer in disguise! Had I only known you were a womanizer, I would have done all I could to protect Renate from a monster like you. Your wife must be a real psychopath to marry you and have a fugitive as part of her bridal party.

  What’s wrong with the two of you? I hope you both go to jail for a very long time! Tamika Moseley too! Either way, your days in the hotel business are finished. You have my word on that! You both should burn in hell for what you did to Renate and her poor mother! Don’t you ever show your faces around here again!!!

  “Now I’m a womanizer? What’s next, pedophile? The hits just keep on coming,” Brian mumbled to himself. “Good thing the ETSM’s paying my expenses from here on out. Who would want to employ me with the many lies being spread about me online?”

  To be labeled a murderer from so many people was a heavy burden to carry. Knowing it was spiritual warfare at the highest levels meant there was nothing he could do about it.

  Brian deleted the comments, blocked all who posted them, and powered down his cell phone. He searched the Word of God hoping to be refreshed by the countless eternal promises everyone belonging to God could look forward to. He read the last chapters of Revelation three times while en route, twice aloud so his wife could hear and hopefully be comforted by it.

  But it was nearly impossible to concentrate on what he was reading with visions of Renate’s suicide tormenting him. To see someone he once loved with all his heart, marred and mangled to the point that her face was unrecognizable, twisted Brian’s stomach in knots.

  And how could he forget the level of disgust he saw in his father’s eyes after watching the DVD? He really did blame Brian and Jacquelyn for her death. Brian had no trouble believing his father really didn’t want to hear from him ever again.

  Then there was the way Renate’s father pointed his finger at him in church, scowl on his face, holding him in contempt for driving his daughter to suicide and making him a widow all in one day. How could Brian not feel guilty? Of course, at the time, he didn’t know he was being openly accused of Renate’s death.

  Now that he knew, it was too much to bear. Especially since Renate’s sister, Megan, super imposed the words, “Congratulations, Murderers!” onto each DVD wedding guests took home with them. Now everyone knew...

  Luke 12:52-53 kept flooding Mulrooney’s mind: For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.

  Brian sighed. Don’t I know it...

  Now here he was moving to a new state, which just happened to connect to the state in which there was a warrant for his arrest. It only added to his growing angst.

  If New York City authorities ever learned of his whereabouts in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, would they come looking for him?

  Probably. Brian shivered at the thought. He couldn’t remember feeling this insecure and entirely out of place in his life.

  All this mental jostling kept pushing him further away from any sense of exuberance he should have felt, having just married the woman he deeply loved.

  Each time he tried thinking joyful thoughts—after all, he did have much to be thankful for—a new wave of grief, sadness, shock and fear pulled him back under, suppressing what little wind he still had left in his sails. He didn’t know if he was coming or going!

  “Are you okay, sweetie?” Jacquelyn said, squeezing his hands as they drove south on U.S. 202.

  Brian nodded yes.

  But Jacquelyn knew he wasn’t okay. Even worse, she knew her husband’s thoughts were centered squarely on Renate McCallister.

  Jacquelyn understood, but that didn’t stop her from battling constant jealousy flare ups. She quickly repented after each one, asking for God’s forgiveness.

  With Brian so unreachable, all this windshield time gave Jacquelyn plenty of time to lament over her own situation.

  As her reputation was being assassinated online, she became terror-stricken by the potential danger she may have brought upon the ETSM, by telling her parents she was moving to Pennsylvania. Would they come looking for her at some point? Jacquelyn didn’t know.

  She didn’t know anything anymore, only that Brian would never leave her. He assured her many times on the long drive that his love for her was genuine and wouldn’t crumble even under the most intense pressure, because it came from above.

  If Jacquelyn didn’t have that assurance from her husband, she’d be fit for a straight-jacket now, no questions asked. Having gone through the same pool of emotions Brian was now suffering, when her first husband died, she knew it was normal to mourn the loss of someone who was part of your life for so long.

  Brian was simply grieving for Renate. Nothing more. He was there when Jacquelyn was at her absolute worst and hadn’t left her side since. Nothing had changed between them. It was her turn now to be there for him.

  Forty minutes after exiting the turnpike, Jacquelyn pulled her red Blazer into the hotel parking lot. It was the same place they stayed at on their first trip to Chadds Ford. But instead of reserving separate rooms, only one room was needed this time.

  The Mulrooneys walked inside the hotel, still too numb, tired and grief-stricken to bask in the elation they should have felt being husband and wife. They looked nothing like a happy newlywed couple on their honeymoon. At least they held hands.

  With the final payment received from TH Corporation, the only thing left was to sign the huge mountain of legal documents. After that, the property was all theirs.

  As exciting as it all sounded just 24 hours ago, the DVD changed everything. Throw into the mix that their unsaved family members and friends thought they were criminals and wanted nothing to do with them, and it was easy to understand why they were having great difficulty processing it all.

  Brian opened the door to their hotel room, “Well, here we are, my love. Our second honeymoon suite...”

  Jacquelyn smiled wearily. After showering, Brian sent text messages to his mother and Charles Calloway, informing of their safe arrival to Pennsylvania. He then sent one to Rhonda Kimmel, confirming that they’d be at her office at 10 a.m. sharp.

  A few minutes later, Kimmel replied confirming everything was set on her end.

  Brian was grateful that his real estate agent was able to adjust her schedule and meet with them tomorrow morning, rather than on Wednesday. Then again, in this new climate, her schedule was probably wide open. Still, he appreciated it.

  Just as Mulrooney was about to power off his phone, he received a text message from Travis Hartings. Charles just texted me. Glad you arrived safely. Not to further startle you, but given what’s already happened, Clayton and I feel the hotel you’re staying at is too close to the residence. We think it would be best if you check out in the morning and find another hotel either in New
Jersey or Delaware. Make sure it’s in your wife’s name...

  Brian replied: Will do!

  At that, the Mulrooneys settled into bed for the night. Instead of being intimate like they were the night before, Brian held his wife for dear life as she lay shaking uncontrollably in his arms. It was his turn to comfort her.

  Much like in the car earlier, he whispered Scripture after Scripture in her ears until Jacquelyn dozed off, and her body stopped quaking from fear and from the long drive.

  In the darkness, Brian wondered how many newlyweds on the planet—past and present—had ever come close to enduring what he and Jacquelyn had in the first 24 hours of being married. He seriously doubted there were many.

  Nevertheless, the Mulrooneys were on a mission from God. Which meant the joy buried deep beneath a mountain of guilt and grief would resurface in time.

  The key for now was to keep taking positive steps in the right direction, despite their dire predicament. Meeting with Rhonda Kimmel in the morning would be a vital first step.

  Come sunrise, as Pennsylvania landowners, they would begin at once cleaning and scrubbing ETSM safe house number one, from top to bottom, the moment the keys were handed over to them.

  With time being of the extreme essence, they’d keep themselves busy day and night to avoid going insane.

  37

  THE NEXT MORNING

  “CONGRATULATIONS, GUYS,” RHONDA KIMMEL declared, after the final signature was recorded.

  “Thanks, Rhonda.” Brian did his best to hide the grief on his face and in his voice. But the bags under his eyes indicated something was seriously wrong.

  Rhonda Kimmel placed her pen on the desk and removed her reading glasses. “I hate to pry, Brian, but are you okay? I’m almost afraid to ask, but are you having second thoughts?”

  “No. It’s nothing like that. We still want the land.”

  “What is it then?” the Realtor said. “Not used to seeing you both so down.”

  “We’re mourning a death.”