Three Days to Forever (A Mac Faraday Mystery Book 9)

by Lauren Carr

  “Only if you make the announcement that my brother is walking my daughter down the aisle for me,” Mac told Jessica while eying David for his reaction. “I think it’s about time we finally let this skeleton out of the closet. Don’t you, David?”

  “If we weren’t blood brothers before,” David said with a chuckle, “we certainly are now.”

  “What family skeleton are you talking about?” Murphy asked. “Am I marrying into a family of serial killers?”

  “No,” Jessica said. “David is my uncle. He’s Dad’s half-brother. They had the same father. Patrick O’Callaghan.”

  With a shrug of his shoulders, Murphy said, “Cool.”

  “You’re not surprised?” Archie asked.

  “I figured that out yesterday,” Murphy said. “The way Mac lost it when David got snatched—”

  “I didn’t lose it,” Mac objected.

  “You broke his brand-new TV,” Murphy said. “I figured you two were pretty tight. Then, when you flipped out—”

  “You flipped out?” Archie asked Mac.

  “When he found out that I was going with them to the farm to save David,” Jessica said. “You should have seen him.”

  “I did not lose it or flip out,” Mac insisted.

  “You killed my TV,” David said.

  “I thought you were going to strangle Murphy with your bare hands,” Tristan said with a nod of his head. “It was quite awkward.”

  “Point is,” Murphy interjected, “when you were threatening to kill me, I saw the same spark in your eyes that Dad gets when he turns into a Papa Bear. Since it’s never been publicly released who your birth father was,”—he tapped David in the shoulder—“I deducted that you two were brothers.”

  Jessica’s smile lit up her face. “Okay then!” She hugged Mac and kissed him on the cheek before getting up and kissing David. “He’s going to wear his marine uniform with all his ribbons and medals.”

  “She insisted,” David told them.

  “And what Jessica insists on, she usually gets.” Mac called over to where Murphy was helping Tristan, “I hope you know what you’re getting into, Murphy.”

  “I have an idea, Mac,” Murphy replied. “Oh, thank you for the wedding.”

  “What about a honeymoon?” Archie offered. “I’m going to be laid up after my surgery next week, and we have a month-long honeymoon all planned for January.”

  “Have you ever been to Australia, Murphy?” Mac winked at the young man.

  “No, I haven’t.” Murphy shook his head. “Thank you, but I can’t do a month-long honeymoon.”

  Jessica’s face fell. “Why not?”

  “I’ve got two weeks holiday leave since I worked through the holidays,” Murphy explained. “I have to report back to the Pentagon on Monday January sixteenth. We can go for two weeks, but not for a month.”

  David leaned in to whisper to Jessica, “You have to make concessions like that when you marry a man who works for a living.”

  “I still remember when I was grateful for a long weekend at the Outer Banks, sleeping in the back of a van with four of my friends because we couldn’t scrounge up the money for a single motel room.” Jessica wrapped both of her arms around Murphy. “Two weeks in Australia with my new husband will be perfect.”

  “That’s the attitude to have,” Archie said.

  A sly grin crossed Mac’s face when he asked, “And then after that?”

  “After what?” Jessica asked.

  “After you get back from the honeymoon?” Mac asked. “Where are you two going to live?”

  Jessica and Murphy exchanged questioning glances.

  David clarified Mac’s question. “What are you two going to do after the wedding?”

  Seeing Murphy’s pink cheeks, Mac and David exchanged chuckles. Murphy blushed as easily as his father.

  “After you consummate your marriage,” Mac said. “Have you two discussed where you are going to live?”

  “I’m not commuting from Williamsburg to the Pentagon,” Murphy told Jessica. “I’m subletting a two-bedroom condo in Crystal City from a naval buddy who’s stationed in Spain. I was planning for you and Candi to move in with me and Newman.”

  “Who’s Newman?” everyone, including Jessica, asked in unison.

  “My dog,” Murphy said casually. “He came with the condo.”

  “What kind of dog is Newman?” Jessica asked.

  Murphy shrugged his shoulders. “Basically, he’s a Heinz fifty-seven … a mutt … a forty-five pound couch potato.”

  “Couch potato?” Tristan asked.

  “Oh yeah,” Murphy said. “Newman has his own chair and spends his whole day watching television. He loves TV Land.”

  Jessica smiled brightly. “Spencer will finally have a playmate.”

  “Yeah.” Murphy frowned. “As long as she doesn’t steal Newman’s remote. He hates it when you touch the remote.”

  Mac and Archie exchanged knowing grins.

  “Well,” Archie said, “every marriage, no matter how much you love each other, requires some time for adjustment—even for your pets.”

  David turned his attention to Mac. “You can thank Jessica for clearing your name.”

  “You’re just now telling me this?” Mac turned to Jessica, who was whispering into Murphy’s ear. “You cleared my name … of the Dooley murder?”

  “It wasn’t murder. It was suicide,” Jessica said, almost as an afterthought.

  “Doc Washington is taking another look at the autopsy results,” David said.

  “Wasn’t he stabbed twenty-nine times?” Mac asked.

  “The same number of times Harris Tyler was stabbed.” Jessica plopped down on the bed next to Mac, who suppressed a grimace when he was jostled. “I found that to be quite significant. It was symbolic. I mean, the exact same number of times that Leigh Ann had stabbed Harris Tyler. Bianca even said she almost thought her manipulative mother had come back to kill Russell and frame you because she insisted she didn’t commit the murder.”

  “All of the evidence said she did,” Mac insisted.

  “And everyone knew that she did,” Jessica said, “except Russell Dooley, who was in complete denial. Plus, he was suicidal. He has a long history of suicide attempts.”

  “But he stabbed himself twenty-nine times?” Mac replied. “I was a homicide detective for over twenty years, and I never saw a suicide where the victim stabbed himself multiple times.”

  “I didn’t either. That’s why the thought never occurred to any of us …” David grinned at Mac’s daughter, “except to Jessica.”

  “Russell Dooley paid Bishop Sullivan, a clerk who worked in the records department, five thousand dollars for your blood,” Jessica said. “He identified Dooley in a photo lineup.”

  “Five thousand dollars for my blood?”

  “To plant your DNA at the scene,” David said. “Jessica and Murphy found the bags of blood in a garbage can down by the creek. Dooley’s fingerprints are on the bags, and they have your name on them. We just need DNA to confirm it’s your blood in the bags.”

  Jessica’s violet eyes were dancing. “After Leigh Ann Dooley killed herself, Russell blamed you. He totally bought her lie about you setting her up. He wanted to kill himself—he’s been suicidal for years—but he also wanted to get even with you. So he planted the idea that he had uncovered proof that you framed his wife. He totally made up this story about finding a recording of you admitting to planting evidence to frame Leigh Ann—”

  “Even wrote a letter to his lawyer telling him about the tape and saying that if he was murdered and the tape ended up missing that you did it,” David said.

  “Of course, no tape would be found because none existed,” Mac said. “It was all a lie to set me up.”

  “Exactly,” Jessica said. “Before he came, he g
ot his affairs in order, not because he expected to be murdered, but because he was going to kill himself and frame you for murder.”

  “I have to give the guy credit,” Mac said. “Dooley came up with a pretty clever plan.”

  David nodded his head. “If you hadn’t been shot and needed blood, we never would have discovered that your blood here at the hospital was missing.”

  “On the night of his ‘murder,’” Jessica made quotation marks with her fingers, “Russell Dooley scattered your blood that he had bought from the hospital around the crime scene. Then, he took the bags out into the woods and put them in a garbage can down by the river. A witness saw him coming back to the cabin, which he wrecked to make it look like there was a fight. Then, he took a steak knife that he had stolen from the Spencer Inn and stabbed himself.”

  “Twenty-nine times.” Tristan climbed down from the chair.

  “Wouldn’t that hurt?” Archie asked. “I broke two bones in my ankle, and I can’t stand that. How could—he must have had a high pain threshold.”

  “Adrenaline,” Jessica said with a shrug of her shoulders. “Determination. Conviction in what he was doing. I read of a case where a woman had been shot four times. The police arrested her ex-husband. He spent three weeks in jail before she came out of a coma and told the police that she had shot herself … four times.”

  “Russell Dooley had a high blood alcohol content and massive doses of painkillers in his system,” David said.

  “Most of the stab wounds were shallow,” Jessica said. “Like he was working his way up to the fatal wound he had.”

  “Point is,” David said, “between Bishop Sullivan’s statement about Dooley buying the blood from him and Dooley’s fingerprints on the bags that were found near the crime scene, you’re in the clear.”

  Archie reached across to grasp Mac’s hand. “Thank you, God! And Jessica.”

  “Hey, I’m daddy’s little girl!” She hugged Mac.

  “You certainly are,” Mac breathed into her ear before kissing her on the cheek.

  “You’re all set up, Dad.” Tristan handed the laptop to Archie. “We’ll do a system test before the wedding.”

  Taking the remote, Archie turned on the television.

  Murphy stepped over to Mac to shake his hand. “Congratulations, Murphy. I have to admit, I am pleasantly surprised that she asked you. Looks like my little girl is growing up.”

  “And thank you for your blessing, Mac. I’m going to do everything I can to take care of her.”

  “And you’re taking on a big job … taking care of her, I mean.” Mac jerked a thumb in Jessica’s direction.

  “She’s worth the challenge.”

  “At the top of the news,” a news journalist announced from the anchor desk, “a police chief from the western resort town of Spencer, Maryland, is missing. The FBI has been called in.”

  Mac and Archie looked from the portrait of David O’Callaghan on the television screen to the real person chuckling at the foot of Mac’s hospital bed.

  “You’re missing?” Mac asked while the journalist went on to report that there was a scene of violence at David’s home and that he appeared to have been removed by force.

  “I wish they had used a better picture for that,” David said. “I like my marine portrait better.”

  “It’s all part of the plan,” Murphy told them.

  “What plan?” Archie asked.

  “In other news,” the journalist continued while a video of a private jet plane taking off played on the screen, “Billionaire Nathaniel Bauman notified the FAA last night that one of his private corporate jets was hijacked in Houston, Texas. Reportedly, the jet was stolen from Bauman’s private airfield. According to the FAA, radar has picked up the jet leaving United States airspace early this morning and crossing the Atlantic Ocean in the direction of Europe.”

  “I thought we got control of that jet,” Mac said. “Or was I mistaken about that?”

  “We did get control of it,” Murphy said.

  “But it’s left the United States, and Bauman has reported it missing,” Mac said.

  “Of course, he reported it missing,” Murphy said. “It’s called deniability for when his jet lands in Baghdad and an abducted American is removed from it and beheaded. He can claim he had nothing to do with any of it.”

  “Like reporting a gun missing before using it to commit murder,” Jessica said.

  “So you have been listening to me all these years,” Mac noted.

  “But David’s not on the jet,” Archie said, “and he’s not going to be killed in Baghdad.”

  A sly grin crossed Murphy’s lips. “But they don’t know that yet.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  New Year’s Eve—Spencer Inn

  “A guy could get used to this,” Murphy said when the valet hurried forward to open the door for him to step out of the driver’s seat of the purple Ferrari.

  “Get used to it.” Jessica took his hand and stepped through the front doors of the Spencer Inn. She glanced at the time on her cell phone. Seven o’clock. “In five hours, we’re going to be married!” She clasped both hands around his elbow.

  Spencer’s high-pitched bark caught many of the guests’ attention when she raced from the sitting area in front of the stone fireplace to leap into Murphy’s arms. “How ya doing, Candi?” He rubbed the top of her head while she licked his face and squirmed in his grasp.

  “Her name is Spencer,” Jessica corrected him.

  “I call her Candi.”

  “Wasn’t Candi your first girlfriend?” Donny called from where he was sitting in the lounging area with Joshua, Cameron, and two other couples who Jessica did not know.

  She instantly guessed that one of them was Murphy’s twin brother. He looked exactly like Murphy, except that his longer hair fell in layers to the top of his worn leather jacket collar. He was clad in faded jeans and a sweater.

  “She was,” Joshua Junior said with a wicked grin that betrayed that he also had the same dimples as his twin. “Murphy dumped her after he found out she was doing the do with half of the basketball team.” He stood up from where he had been sitting to offer his hand to Jessica. “I’m J.J., Murphy’s older brother.”

  “By seven minutes,” Joshua said.

  “J.J. is going to be my best man.” Murphy took him into a warm hug. “Thank you, bro, for making the road trip on such short notice.”

  “Hey, I’ve got your back as long as I get to kiss the bride.”

  Jessica reached up to give J.J. a kiss on the cheek. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, J.J.”

  “And this is Destiny.” J.J. gestured to the young woman who had been sharing the loveseat with him. “She’s my date.”

  Jessica noticed a puzzled expression cross Murphy’s face when the exceedingly slender young woman stood up. Keeping her eyes lower, a blush crossed her pale face when she came forward. She only shook Jessica’s hand when she offered hers.

  In complete contrast to Jessica, who was clad in a tiger-striped mini dress with a faux fur jacket in the same striped pattern and high heels, Destiny wore faded jeans and a worn sweater. Her long auburn hair was a thick mane of layered waves. Her makeup was barely there. When she did speak, it was in a soft voice.

  “Sarah texted,” Donny reported. “ETA is one hour, and she does have a little black dress that she can wear.”

  “Wonderful,” Jessica said with a squeal. “Is she okay with being my maid of honor?”

  Cameron said, “Sarah Thornton is game for anything.”

  “Sounds like my type of girl,” Jessica said.

  Joshua went on to introduce the other couple sitting on the sofa next to the fireplace. Only then did Jessica notice the baby carrier on the floor next to the man’s feet. She spotted an immediate family resemblance between him and the Thorntons.


  “This is Dr. Tad MacMillan,” Joshua introduced him. “He’s my cousin, and no Thornton wedding would be complete without him. And his wife, Jan, and little Tad Junior.”

  “How old?” Jessica moved across the sitting area to get a closer look at the baby.

  “Eight months,” Jan replied with pride.

  “Too young to be the ring bearer.” Murphy asked Tad, “Did you get them?”

  “He got them,” Joshua said. “I knew we could count on Tad.”

  “Get what?” Jessica asked while Tad reached into his coat pocket.

  “The rings.” Tad handed the ring box to Joshua, who stepped over to Murphy. “I got them out of your dad’s jewel case.”

  “These rings signified many years of love and joy for your mother and me,” Joshua said while opening the box to show Murphy. “I’m praying that they bring the same type of joy and love to you and Jessica.”

  Murphy swallowed. “I know they will, Dad.”

  Jessica rose up and wrapped her arms around Murphy while he showed her the two wedding bands. They were plain white gold, and, after many years of wear, were slightly scratched up, but they were gorgeous to the couple.

  “They have a lot of history,” Joshua said.

  “And a long future,” Jessica said tearfully while taking him into a hug.

  “Welcome to the family, Jessica,” Joshua whispered into her hair.

  “I feel like we’re already family.”

  Even if Cameron couldn’t bring herself to attend her stepson’s wedding, she did want to share in it. So, she joined Mac and Archie in their hospital room. Archie had slipped out of her bed to snuggle with Mac, leaving her bed for Cameron to stretch out on. She even rested both feet up in the sling.

  The room ended up being standing room only with nurses, orderlies, and hospital personnel from all over crowding in to see the local social event of the year.

  Expecting the big turnout, and not wanting Mac and Archie to miss out on the celebration, the Spencer Inn had food delivered to the dining room for everyone on the staff as a special thank you. The only thing missing was the champagne.