“I worry that Richardson will come in with some big guns for defense counsel against the locals out here.”
“Me too,” Mac answered. “But Director Mitchell has an interest in seeing the case properly prosecuted, so the Justice Department will be involved and the Judge …”
“The Judge?” Wire asked.
“The Judge is going to discreetly reach out to some lawyer friends of his and encourage them to offer some assistance to the folks up in Cayuga County. But you know what I think?”
“What?”
“In the end, this thing will never go to trial.”
“You don’t think so?”
“No,” Mac shook his head. “A deal will be cut and as a result Mychal Richardson’s public career, not to mention legal career, will be over. From what I’ve observed over the last couple of days, that’s a very good thing. She just needs to do her time and then go away.”
“Without Johnson doing what he did, could we have solved his sister’s homicide? Would we have found that Richardson drove that van? Would we have been able to put the case together?”
Mac nodded, “I think any case can be solved. With the right resources, with intellect, with dedication and determination, any case, any homicide, any robbery, any terrorist event, any crime can be solved. There is no such thing as the perfect crime, the unsolvable crime.”
“You believe that, don’t you?”
“I do. It requires resources. We had the resources here. But if you have them and you keep at it long enough, I think you can figure anything out.”
“Is this your last foray as a special agent of the FBI?”
“You never know,” Mac answered, filling Wire’s glass and his with more beer. “I did like having all the federal toys at my disposal, and I can feel the director wanting to take another run at us.”
“Me too, but I don’t want to go back full time.”
“Me neither,” Mac answered, shaking his head. “I’ve come to like my freedom and I don’t miss the daily grind, but every once in a while I don’t mind coming out of the bullpen when an interesting case comes along. It’s good to get back in the trenches and solve a tough case every so often. I know one thing, though.”
“What’s that?”
“I won’t do it without my federal partner,” Mac said, raising a toast.
“Federal partner?”
“Yeah, if I go back to St. Paul, I work with the boys, and if I’m working a federal case …”
“You want to work with me?” Wire asked, smiling.
“Exactly, Dara Wire.”
“To partners then,” Dara answered, returning the toast. “It was indeed good to work together again.”
“It was. I’m glad we survived it.”
“True that,” and they toasted again and then Wire’s phone beeped. She looked down at it and smiled and giggled.
“Dara, is that a certain gentleman from Miami who is texting you?” Mac asked with a knowing smile. “Or should I say sexting you?”
Wire nodded, “I’d like to get down there for a few days, but geez, I’ve really neglected my business for a while here…”
Mac shook his head, “Can I offer a word of unsolicited advice?”
“Do you offer any other kind?” Wire needled.
“Funny. But in all seriousness, your work can wait another few days. Go down to Miami and let the guy pamper you, take care of you and spoil you. He clearly wants to and, most importantly, you need it and you deserve it.”
Wire nodded. “You’re right,” and she proceeded to text Gonzalez back, reading it out as she wrote: “Be there tomorrow.”
“Excellent. Now, when you do get back from your little sojourn down to Miami, I need your help with something that needs a woman’s perspective.”
I
t was a beautiful mid-September night with just a whiff of fall in the air. The president was on a trip to South America for a conference and Sally didn’t have to go along, so they’d managed to slip away from Washington. Mac was only too happy to get back home and relax and spend some quiet time at their St. Paul home, visiting with family and friends, the pressures of Washington a thousand miles away.
Mac was finally feeling better physically, the cast off his left wrist and the bruising around his eyes finally gone. He looked like himself again. He’d even been able to go for a run earlier in the day, a short three miler, his first run in nearly two months. His conditioning needed serious work. Good news was that he had plenty of time now available to devote to it.
After dinner was finished, they sat on their back porch, sipping the remainder of the bottle of red from dinner and enjoying a quiet bonfire. Sally stared off into the distance. Despite the relaxing environment of being at home, he could tell she’d been distracted, deep in thought for the last two days, something bothering her and making her nervous.
“What’s on your mind, Sally?” Mac asked casually, looking straight ahead, sipping from his wine.
“Our plan.”
“Our plan?” Mac asked, turning to look at her.
“Yeah, you asked me what our plan was a while ago and I’ve been giving it a lot of thought.” She turned to him, sitting on the edge of her chaise lounge, looking down. “It scares me to death.”
“Why?”
“I’m worried you will want certain things, a certain thing that I can’t give you.”
“What can’t you possibly give me?” Mac asked, confused.
“Children.”
“Children?” Mac looked at her quizzically, having sat up. “Are you telling me you can’t have kids?”
Sally teared up and sniffled, looking down, nodding her head. “David and I wanted to have a child. We tried to have a child but I couldn’t get pregnant. So I went to the doctor and that’s when I found out.”
“Found what out?”
“I have a lazy ovary. Having a child is extremely unlikely for me. This is
really
why David and I ended up getting divorced. When I couldn’t get pregnant … “ her voice trailed off.
Mac smiled, sat up and faced Sally, “How long have you been worried about telling me
that
?”
“For three years I’ve been wondering how to tell you about this, because I know how much you love kids, want kids, want to have a family and what if I can’t give that too you?”
“Do you like kids?”
“I love them.”
“Do you want kids some day?”
“I’d love lots of kids.”
“Sally, David was a fool and I thank God every single day that he was. But babe, there are lots of ways for us to have kids. There’s adoption, there’s surrogacy, there’s ways. If we want a family, there is a way for us to have a family, even if we can’t get there the old-fashioned way.”
“Yeah?”
“Hell yeah.”
“You’re sure?”
“Absolutely. This is not an issue, not for me.”
Sally gave him a long, tight hug. He could feel three years of worry simply wash off her body in that embrace. After a minute, she pulled back and kissed him softly and said, “I thank God Meredith was so stupid. She has
no idea
what she’s missing.”
“Things have worked out well for us, I think.”
Sally stood up and walked around the patio, getting some space, bouncing around, suddenly relaxed and visibly happy. She stopped and turned to him. “Mac, can I have four years? I want one term with the president and let me help him get reelected if he runs. Then I’m done. Then I want us to have our life together with a family wherever you want that to be, here, Washington, wherever you want. I just want a term with the president and I’ll walk away and we can have the rest our lives and have a family, everything.” She had a hopeful smile on her face, relieved to have everything out in the open. “What do you think?”
Mac smiled. “I think that sounds really good. I have just one small minor amendment to that plan.”
“What’s that?”
He slowly stood up, took a breath, a nervous breath, reached in his pocket and walked to Sally and then dropped down to one knee down in front of her, taking her left hand in his right, “Sally Loughlin Kennedy, will you marry me?”
In his left hand he was holding a stunning ring, silver band, five-carat diamond sparkling gloriously in the night. It was spectacular. Wire had helped him pick it out two weeks ago. He’d been walking around with it looking for the right time.
Now they both knew what they wanted.
Now there was a plan.
Now was the right time.
Sally was shocked, her hands to her mouth. There had been no discussion about this, no preparation or subtle hints that Mac usually dropped when leading up to something. She could almost always read him and sense what he was thinking, yet this? This she had not seen coming. This was something that she thought would come down the road.
She may not have been completely ready. This wasn’t part of what she thought was the immediate plan, but that didn’t matter.
There could only be one answer.
She took a deep breath, composed herself and smiled.
“Yes, I say yes!”
First Case – prequel novella
The St. Paul Conspiracy
Deadly Stillwater
Electing To Murder
Fatally Bound
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Roger Stelljes
is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the McRyan Mystery Series. He has been the recipient of several awards including: the Midwest Book Awards–Genre Fiction, a Merit Award Winner for Commercial Fiction (MIPA), as well as a Minnesota Book Awards Nominee.
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