Gone Forever

by Diane Fanning

  “No. I didn’t need to—William and James are at home—they came home on the school bus.”

  “You left them home alone?”

  “Why are you so upset? They are 9 and 11 now and I have Timmy with me.”

  “Why did you have to leave them by themselves?”

  “I had to run errands.”

  “Rick, how would you feel if you needlessly left work to pick up one of the kids?”

  “You’re making a big deal over nothing.”

  I stopped by the grocery store to pick up lunch snacks for school the next day and to get a loaf of French bread for our spaghetti dinner. Rick called. “James is hungry. Pick up some Wendy’s on the way home.”

  “We’re having spaghetti, tonight,” I told him.

  He ridiculed me for not wanting to pick up fast food. He didn’t seem to see any difference in feeding the kids spaghetti or a burger from Wendy’s.

  That Wednesday, on the way back to work after helping out with Junior Achievement, Sue called Dee Ann in Amarillo. “I’m getting a divorce. I just can’t take it anymore. He won’t pull his load. He lets the kids wander off. I’ve asked him to get a job and he won’t,” she confided. “But don’t say anything to anyone, because I am keeping it a secret from Rick.”

  Dee Ann promised she would not mention it. Sue added that Rick was acting too crazy. “He gets in my face and screams at me. I don’t have time to fight with him anymore.”

  The other concern Sue shared with Dee Ann was financial. Her sister Ann wanted to distribute $15,000 each to Sue and her two brothers as part of their inheritance. Sue didn’t want Rick to know about the money now that the divorce was in progress.

  After talking to Dee Ann, Sue called George Dowlen to find out if he was familiar with her attorney, Christine Tharp. She told George that Rick was irresponsible and unable to care for their three sons. When Sue got home that day, William and James were there, but no one else.

  17

  On Tuesday, November 12, Sue opened a new bank account in her name only at the River City Federal Credit Union. She used co-worker Jennifer Biry’s address for any mail. Then she got a cash advance of $7,500 from a credit card to retain her attorney.

  She summarized the next few days in her journal.

  Rick came home and told me that he attended the Howard PTO at lunchtime and found out that it was unsafe for kids weighing under 80 pounds to ride without booster seats so he bought two for James and Timmy for his car. “You are abusing Timmy by letting him use only a seat belt in your car,” he accused.

  His words stung and upset me but he continued. “It is about time I found something that you are doing wrong,” he said, a smug expression on his face. “I researched and found out that only 200 kids are kidnapped each year by strangers—a lot more are killed by riding without booster seats. So, you are guiltier of child abuse than I am when I let the kids run around the store unsupervised.”

  He then told me that he’d made an appointment for me with the Safety Council to have my booster seats inspected on Friday. When I objected that I had plans that day, Rick snapped, “You are neglecting your kids.”

  In the morning, I changed the appointment Rick set to one that day at lunch. I followed the expert’s advice in selecting seats for Timmy and James.

  Rick took the boys out to dinner that evening and I planned to catch up with them at the Woodridge family literacy night after they ate. While everyone was gone, I decided to search Rick’s office to see if he had any credit cards he had concealed from me. But the door was fastened shut with a chain and a combination lock. I couldn’t believe it—he’d locked me out. I don’t know what he is hiding.

  On Friday afternoon, I called and found Rick at Target. He said he was buying a five point booster seat for Timmy. “Why didn’t you buy the one the Safety Council was selling at the school?”

  “I needed to return the one I bought Wednesday.”

  “If you bought the $40 one from the Safety Council, you could still return the $60 one to Target.”

  “$20 is no big deal,” Rick said. The seat I bought James is safer than the one you bought from the Safety Council.

  I found that hard to believe. I am not convinced that he cannot tell the difference between the truth and a lie.

  That day, two seemingly unrelated events occurred. Guy Chipman took his Suburban to the Wash Tub Car Wash to be detailed. Then he dropped off the vehicle along with one remote-equipped alarm key at the Texaco service station. For a small fee, Richard Clemmer would sell the vehicle for him and Chipman would not have to hassle with potential buyers. Chipman did not leave any personal items in the car.

  Just a short drive away, Rick McFarland sat down at one of his computers and accessed Sue’s computer. He downloaded files from her computer to his. The documents included Sue’s journal, client and custody questionnaires that Sue filled out for her attorney and a list of property and assets. Rick was now aware of Sue’s plans to file for divorce. He began to make plans of his own.

  18

  Sue talked to Ann about her inheritance from their mother. She wanted checks to be sent to Jennifer’s address so that Rick could not get his hands on them.

  “I’m no longer looking at that money for the kids’ education. I’m looking at it as a cushion to build our future.” She added that she knew she would have to support Rick for a while after the separation.

  The conversation moved to talk about the boys. Ann pointed out that even if Sue did get sole custody, Rick would be entitled to regular visitation.

  “I hope I will be able to convince the judge that Rick should only be allowed to have visitation with one boy at a time,” Sue said.

  Saturday, November 16, Blanca Hernandez was sitting in her living room in front of the window that faces the street. She saw Rick drive up the street slowly while staring at her house. Then he turned around and drove past her again. When he repeated this action seven times, Blanca called Sue to find out if she was okay and told her what Rick was doing.

  At 9 P.M., Charlene heard a noise coming from Ned and Harriet Wells’ house at 356 Arcadia across the street. The house was for sale and although one of them dropped by every day, they were no longer living there.

  Peering out the window, she saw Rick McFarland dressed all in white. He was weed-eating around the curbs at the Wellses’ house. How odd, Charlene thought—Rick never trims his own yard without being nagged by Sue.

  Rick was up and down throughout Saturday night so I was tired when I woke up Sunday morning. “What were you doing all night?” I asked him.

  “I was working on the laundry,” he said.

  It didn’t look like much laundry had been done so I asked him, “What else did you do?”

  “I was getting caught up on business.”

  After church, I took the boys to lunch and the zoo. We got back at 3:30 and I asked Rick what he had been doing.

  “Hooking up the GameCube to surround sound,” he said.

  Great. Our home computer is not working and here he is enhancing the audio on a game.

  After November 17, Sue made no more entries in her journal. She did not chronicle the last eight days of her life.

  19

  That same day, after a trip to the zoo and the all-too-familiar confrontation with Rick upon returning home, Sue got a phone call from neighbor Carrie Miller. It was almost time for Wesley’s birthday party that afternoon and she wondered if Sue would be bringing her boys over. “Did you get the invitation Wesley hand-delivered?” she asked.

  “No,” Sue sighed. “Rick probably didn’t give it to me, as usual.”

  The five McFarlands made it to the party and Sue even brought a present for Wesley—a Ouija ball that talked to you when you threw it in the air. She spent time with Wesley showing him how to play with it.

  At one point during the party, Carrie noticed that Rick was nowhere to be seen. Concerned that he might be roaming around in her house, Carrie asked Sue if she knew where he was.


  “He said he went to Home Depot,” Sue said, “but he’s probably lying to me again.”

  After the party, Austin Hardeman, another neighborhood boy, went over to the McFarlands’ with William to play on the trampoline. They were soon joined by Wesley. When the play became too aggressive, a distressed Austin ran off.

  Sue looked down from her bedroom window and realized Austin was no longer there. She sent Wesley home, gathered up her boys and rushed over to the Hardeman house. “What happened to Austin? Is he here?” Susan asked.

  “Yes he is here. He ran home crying. Where were you? You were supposed to be watching them,” Austin’s mother Karen said.

  “I looked out the window and Austin was gone. I’m sorry, Karen.”

  Carrie and Wesley showed up at Karen’s house. After a brief conference, the three mothers chastised the boys for their behavior. The kids made up and headed to the backyard to play.

  “Did Rick get back?” Carrie asked.

  “I don’t know,” Susan said.

  “Where did he go?”

  “I called and he said he went to the bank.”

  “What?!” Karen added, “Susan, the bank’s not open.”

  “I don’t know where he is or what he is doing. He always lies to me.”

  In unison, her friends said, “Well, yeah . . .”

  “I’ve had it with that man. I need to go find where he is.”

  While Sue had lunch with Jennifer Biry the next day, Christine Tharp called her cell phone to discuss serving divorce and eviction papers on Rick. Sue wanted the papers served within the week. In addition to wanting it all over, the coming week was the least stressful in her monthly work routine. Tharp advised her to wait until the Monday after Thanksgiving—the holiday might interfere with the efficiency of working with the courts. However, the first week of every month was the worst time of all for Sue to be distracted from her job.

  After the call, Sue poured out her worries to Jennifer. She said she was very nervous about the coming week. She’d been bringing the boys into bed with her to make sure there was no room for Rick. She hoped he’d believe that they came there on their own. But he figured out it was all at her instigation and got very upset.

  Sue said that she’d made reservations for Rick to fly to St. Louis to spend time with his family over Thanksgiving—they wouldn’t be going up at Christmas, so she thought he’d like the idea. Sue told him she was going out to Amarillo for the holiday so he’d be more willing to go to St. Louis. She really planned to stay home, Sue confided to Jennifer, and make Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings for a couple of friends from Houston, but felt if she couldn’t get Rick to visit his parents, she would have to go to Amarillo. She did not want to spend the long weekend with Rick.

  Sue pulled out a yellow sheet of paper filled with hotel information. Sue told Jennifer, she’d made arrangements for a room for Rick at a nearby hotel—she pointed to the second one on her list—so he would have someplace to go after the papers were served.

  Jennifer told Sue about her plans for Tuesday, November 26, and Sue offered to baby-sit for her. Unlike most of the commitments she made in her life, Sue did not keep that promise.

  Later that day, Sue sent an email to her sister Ann:

  Rick is getting more secretive and remote by the day. Maybe he’s doing some of his own plotting and planning. In my dreams . . .

  My attorney, Christine Tharp, cannot get everything ready this week as she is going to be in court. Then next week is a short week due to Thanksgiving. The following week is out of the question for me work-wise. So this may have to go on another THREE weeks. UGHHHHHHH!

  Unbeknownst to Rick, I made him reservations to travel to STL over Thanksgiving. I’m going to talk him into going, as I don’t think I could stand 4 days straight of him. The tension is killing me. He can tell his parents since we aren’t coming to STL for Xmas he wanted to take some time to visit with them. Now I only have to convince him . . .

  At 356 Arcadia, Shiner, the Wellses’ black Labrador, was still in residence in the backyard behind a sturdy gate with a complex lock. Harriet came by every day to feed him and planned to move him as soon as the fencing was erected at their new home.

  At 10 P.M., Charlene and Susan noticed that Shiner was out of the yard and in the front of the house. They assumed that Harriet or Ned must be at the house. At midnight, they spotted Shiner padding his paws down the street.

  Susan coaxed the wandering dog back into the yard and discovered the gate hanging wide open. She knew someone had to have been on the Wells property. It was impossible for Shiner to have unlatched the gate on his own.

  Before 8 A.M. on Wednesday morning, Rick called Sue’s work phone and left a message: “Susan, Rick. If you feel you need some time away this Thanksgiving, feel free to do so. I’m going to stay here in San Antonio. Do whatever you think you need to do.”

  But Sue was not at work, she was at home that morning with Julie Speer. Julie was helping her prep the house for the birthday party she was throwing for Margot Cromack that weekend. Margot’s husband Doug called Susan a few weeks earlier because he wanted to throw a fiftieth birthday party for his wife. “Can you help me? I don’t know who to invite,” he said.

  “First of all, Doug, you don’t throw a birthday party at your house, because if you do, she’ll have to clean up afterwards.”

  Sue and Julie worked to assimilate the pieces Sue hauled back from St. Louis in September into the existing interior design. Before they got down to the task at hand, Sue said that the plan to build shelves by the fireplace had to be put on hold for now. Around 11:30, they were near the front door deciding what to do with the stackable baskets when Rick drove by at a slow speed.

  “Rick is bizarre,” Sue said with apparent irritation.

  A half hour later, the two women were in the living room near the window. Rick went down the road in his white van. Julie said, “He’s driving by again.”

  Sue just lowered her head.

  That afternoon, Rick McFarland and one of his sons pulled up to the Texaco station on Austin Highway, near his home. The owner, Richard Clemmer, noticed he was lecturing his son, but the boy did not appear to be paying any attention. Rick then looked toward the lot at a white Jeep and a blue-and-gray Suburban adorned with FOR SALE signs.

  Rick got the key to the Jeep from Clemmer and took the car out for a test drive. He returned in twenty minutes and got the key for the Suburban. He didn’t return with it for two hours.

  When he got back, he said, “My wife likes the Suburban but I like the Jeep—I like its leather interior and it would fit in the garage better than the Suburban.” Rick wrote a false name and telephone number in the phone message book and said he was going out of town for a few days and would get back to Clemmer later.

  The next day Sue talked to Dee Ann about coming out to Amarillo with her boys to spend Thanksgiving with her.

  “I’ll get busy cooking,” Dee Ann replied.

  “I don’t need anyone else making me feel guilty,” Sue snapped.

  “I’m not trying to make you feel guilty, Sue. I’m excited about cooking. We’ve got fifteen other people coming that day.”

  Sue’s voice softened, “Could you get a baby-sitter for the Friday after Thanksgiving, so we could go out?”

  As soon as she got off of the phone, Dee Ann arranged for the girl next door to take care of the kids that night.

  Rick called the Texaco station and spoke to Fernando Adamez. “A friend of mine test-drove the white Jeep you have for sale. It broke down at a Diamond Shamrock on Austin Highway. Will you tell the owner about the Jeep?”

  Adamez looked across the street at the Diamond Shamrock there. A white Jeep was parked at the gas pumps. A while later, he noticed it hadn’t moved, so he grabbed the keys off the board in the office and went over to it. The key fit the ignition, but the Jeep would not start. He pushed it out of the way of customers and went back across the street. Later, Clemmer got the Jeep back to the T
exaco station.

  On Friday, November 22, Rick stopped by to see Clemmer. He told him about his friend’s problem with the Jeep and wanted to know if it could be fixed. He said that his wife liked the Suburban better. And again, he told Clemmer that he was going out of town, but would be back to see him on Monday or Tuesday.

  That same night, the McFarland, Hernandez and Matthews families planned to get together for dinner. The original scenario called for the three families to rendezvous at Joe’s Crab Shack. When Blanca objected to that restaurant, they selected EZ’s for the meeting point.

  Sue surprised everyone by showing up with her kids but without her husband. When asked where Rick was, Sue laughed. “I didn’t tell Rick we weren’t going to Joe’s Crab Shack.”

  Over dinner she told Blanca that Rick had spent all the money in their bank account. “I gave him a deadline to return all of the money,” she said.

  Susan McFarland had three more days to live.

  20

  On the morning of Saturday, November 23, Blanca left a message on Sue’s phone. When Sue returned the call, she asked if Blanca had seen Rick. Her husband, she said, had not returned until midnight the night before. When she asked him where he had been, he refused, at first, to answer. Later he told her he had been at the neighbors’, but did not specify which ones.

  About 9:30, dressed in gray sweats, Rick pulled his white minivan up to a gas pump at the Texaco service center. He asked Raymond Ross to pump $10 worth of gas. Then, he asked to look at the Suburban. Ross went to the office and grabbed the key off of the board.

  While Ross pumped the gas and checked the air in the tires, Rick opened the driver’s-side door and the hood. He walked back and forth between the two several times, then went to the office and grabbed the key to the restroom. In ten or fifteen minutes, Rick returned to the office, had a drink of water, fixed a cup of coffee and paid for his gas.

  Ross asked, “Do you need anything else?”

  “No,” said Rick sitting down on a chair. “I’m just killing some time.” He sat quietly, sipping on his coffee. Five minutes later, he left.