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

  Three Days

  to

  Forever

  A Mac Faraday Mystery

  By

  Lauren Carr

  Three Days to Forever: Book Information

  All Rights Reserved © 2015 by Lauren Carr

  Published by Acorn Book Services

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author.

  For information call: 304-995-1295

  or Email: [email protected]

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Designed by Acorn Book Services

  Publication Managed by Acorn Book Services

  www.acornbookservices.com

  [email protected]

  304-995-1295

  Cover designed by Todd Aune

  Spokane, Washington

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  Published in the United States of America

  Table of Contents

  Three Days to Forever: Book Information

  Dedication

  Note From the Author

  Dedication

  Cast of Characters

  Epigraph

  Prologue

  Part One: Three Days to Forever

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Part Two: Two Days to Forever

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Part Three: One Day to Forever

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Part Four: Forever

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Check Out Lauren Carr’s Mysteries!

  Kill and Run

  Note From the Author

  Fans of past Mac Faraday and Lovers in Crime mysteries are in for a treat with Three Days to Forever. I have chosen to take a different path with the latest Mac Faraday Mystery. Don’t worry. We have plenty of dead bodies and lots of mystery— as well as intrigue, suspense, and page turning twists.

  The key job of a fiction writer is to look at a situation, make observations about how things are and how they work, and then ask, “What if …” Then, the writer twists, turns, and manipulates, while maintaining believability, to make for a thrilling plot.

  This is what I have done with Three Days to Forever.

  Mac Faraday’s latest adventure plunges him, Archie, David, Gnarly, and the gang head first into a case that brings the war on terror right into Deep Creek Lake. Current political issues will be raised and discussed by the characters involved.

  Keep this in mind while you turn the pages—Three Days to Forever is fiction. It is not the author’s commentary on politics, the media, the military, or Islam. While actual current events have inspired this adventure in mystery and suspense, this fictional work is not meant to point an accusatory finger at anyone in our nation’s government.

  If, however, future events prove that circumstances in Washington are as I have depicted them in Three Days to Forever ... well, keep in mind that you read it here first.

  Happy Reading!

  Lauren Carr

  Dedication

  To the Men and Women of the United States Military—

  All Gave Some, Some Gave All

  Cast of Characters

  (in order of appearance)

  David O’Callaghan: Spencer police chief. Son of the late police chief, Patrick O’Callaghan. Mac Faraday’s best friend and half-brother. He is also a major in the United States Marine Reserves. Leads a team in special operations.

  Jassem al-Baghdadi: High-ranking official of Islamic terrorist group in the Middle East. Leader of their military council. Listed on Homeland Security’s most wanted list. David O’Callaghan kills him during a mission.

  Colonel Glen Frost: David O’Callaghan’s commanding officer when on active duty.

  Mac Faraday: Retired homicide detective. On the day his divorce became final, he inherited $270 million and an estate on Deep Creek Lake from his birth mother, Robin Spencer.

  Robin Spencer: Mac Faraday’s late birth mother and world-famous mystery author. As an unwed and pregnant teenager, she gave him up for adoption. After becoming America’s queen of mystery, she found her son and made him her heir. Her ancestors founded Spencer, Maryland, located on the shore of Deep Creek Lake, a resort area in Western Maryland.

  Police Chief Patrick O’Callaghan: David’s late father. Spencer’s legendary police chief. The love of Robin Spencer’s life and Mac Faraday’s birth father.

  Gnarly: Mac Faraday’s German shepherd. Another part of his inheritance from Robin Spencer. Gnarly used to belong to the United States Army, who refuses to talk about him.

  Archie Monday: Former editor and research assistant to world-famous mystery author Robin Spencer. She is now Mac Faraday’s fiancée.

  Russell Dooley: Husband of the late Leigh Ann Dooley, who Mac had arrested for murder many years ago. Blames Mac for his wife’s suicide.

  Joshua Thornton: Hancock County, West Virginia, Prosecuting Attorney. Retired Navy JAG officer. One of Mac’s groomsmen. Recently married to Cameron Gates.

  Abdul Kochar: Best-selling novelist who had immigrated from Afghanistan.

  Donny Thornton: Joshua Thornton’s seventeen-year-old son. He’s in Spencer for the skiing.

  Cameron Gates: Homicide detective with the Pennsylvania State Police. Recently married Joshua Thornton. She turned down an invitation to Mac and Archie’s wedding because she doesn’t do weddings or funerals.

  Reginald Crane: Murder victim in Pennsylvania. He was tortured to death. Cameron Gates is on the case.

  Ethan Bonner: Reginald Crane’s assistant. Found the body. Now he is in the wind.

  Chelsea Adams: Paralegal for Ben Fleming. First and current love of David O’Callaghan. Suffering from epilepsy, she has Molly, a service dog trained to sense and warn of seizures.

  Deputy Chief Arthur Bogart (Bogie): Spencer’s Deputy Police Chief. David’s godfather. Don’t let his gray hair and weathered face fool you.

  Gil Sherrard: Lives at the Beaver Dam Motel where Russell Dooley’s body was found. He spends a lot of time in jail.

  Agnes Douglas: Mother of the bride. She raised
seven children alone, six boys and one girl. She is proud to tell how she put food on the table by cleaning homes for rich folks.

  Sheriff Christopher Turow: Garrett County Sheriff. Retired Army Officer. He’s one of the good guys.

  Dr. Dora Washington: Garrett County Medical Examiner.

  Officers Fletcher, Brewster, and Zigler: Officers with the Spencer Police Department. They serve under Police Chief David O’Callaghan.

  Hector Langford: Chief of Security at the Spencer Inn. A lean, gray-haired Australian, Hector has been with the Inn for over twenty-five years.

  Jeff Ingles: Manager of the Spencer Inn, the five-star resort owned by Mac Faraday, who likes to keep Ingles’ life interesting.

  Leland Elder: Special Agent with the FBI. He and his partner Neal Black take over the Reginald Crane murder case from Cameron Gates.

  Neal Black: Special Agent with the FBI. He and his partner Leland Elder take over the Reginald Crane murder case from Cameron Gates.

  Tonya: Spencer Police Department Desk Sergeant. She runs things at the police station.

  Murphy Thornton: Second Lieutenant in the United States Navy. Naval Academy graduate. He’s not your average navy officer. Joshua Thornton’s son. His identical twin brother, Joshua Junior, is older by seven minutes. Like father, like son.

  Nathaniel Bauman: CEO of NOH Bauman Technologies, a billion-dollar company that has been selling weapons to both America and her enemies. He also owns multiple news organizations.

  Tristan Faraday: Mac Faraday’s son. In his third year of college at George Washington University. Studying natural science. He’s an intellectual and proud of it.

  Jessica Faraday: Mac Faraday’s lovely daughter. Graduated with honors from the College of William and Mary with a master’s degree in behavioral and cognitive neuroscience. Her inheritance from Robin Spencer thrust her into high society.

  Spencer/Candi: Jessica Faraday’s blue merle Shetland sheepdog. She has a long way to go in training.

  Colt Fitzgerald: Former underwear model turned actor. He may or may not be Jessica’s boyfriend. Depends on who you ask.

  Jan Martin-MacMillan: Joshua Thornton’s childhood friend and neighbor. Married to Dr. Tad MacMillan.

  Dr. Tad MacMillan: Joshua Thornton’s cousin and next door neighbor. He’s the town doctor in Chester, West Virginia.

  Ra’ees Sims: Owner of Sims Security in Texas. Very active in a Muslim mosque. Supports Islamic extremists. The ATF has been watching his company.

  Muhammad Muiz: Special advisor to the President of the United States on Islamic affairs.

  Ismail Kochar: Abdul Kochar’s brother. Islamic extremist. Leader of a terrorist group in Iraq.

  Epigraph

  Freedom lies in being bold.

  Robert Frost

  Prologue

  Eighteen Months Ago – Desert outside Baghdad, Iraq

  “Don’t you do this kind of backwards, Major?” Marine First Lieutenant Oliver Dean asked as he kept his eyes trained through the night-vision binoculars. He was peering down the mountainside to the terrorist training camp hidden in the valley among the desert caves.

  “How is that, Lieutenant?” Major David O’Callaghan pressed the earbud to his ear. He didn’t want to miss any confirmations from the members of his special operations team sent out to surround the camp.

  “Rubbing elbows with the rich and famous in Deep Creek Lake for eleven months. Then, in the summer, just when the weather gets great and the sexy young things in their barely there bikinis arrive, you come out here in the desert with us smelly, ugly—”

  “Who you calling ugly, Dean?” Bates objected from the other side of David. Second Lieutenant Hallie Bates puffed out her abundant bosom, which was crammed in under her bulletproof vest and desert fatigues. Raised in a tough neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, the African-American woman’s street attitude flared. “Take any of those rich pampered hos from that fancy-dancy Spencer, strip her of her acrylic nails, shove her into desert fatigues and eighty pounds of gear, and slap a helmet on her prissy head. Then see just how pretty she is.”

  “They do smell better,” David confessed.

  Hallie wagged her head back and forth while asking, “Who would you rather have out here watching your lily white butt, Major? Me and Matilda”—she held up her assault rifle and patted its barrel—“or a sweet smelling deb?”

  The Delta team saved David from having to answer. They were in position on the opposite side of the camp.

  “Roger that,” David said into his mouthpiece. “Charlie, do you read me?”

  “Loud and clear, Major. Just waiting for the word.”

  “Still haven’t heard from Foxtrot and Gamma,” David noted more to himself than to his team of three men and a woman. They all kept their eyes and ears focused on what was supposed to be a sleepy terrorist training camp. “But they have further to go,” he said to soothe his nerves.

  Seeing lights moving down among the camp, he eased across the makeshift rocky clearing toward the telescope. “What’s going on down there? Have we been blown?”

  “It looks like everyone in that camp is awake,” Lieutenant Dean said. “Maybe they’re practicing nighttime maneuvers.”

  “Too many lights and movement to be business as usual,” David said while studying three guards running toward the main entrance. The only road leading into the camp cut through a break in the rocky hillsides surrounding it. He thanked God that the members of his team had managed to get across the road before attention had been drawn in that direction.

  “Gamma in place and ready, sir,” his radio announced.

  The last team followed to tell him, “Foxtrot is set up.”

  I don’t like all this activity, David thought, too busy thinking to acknowledge receipt of the transmission.

  “Do you copy, sir?” Foxtrot asked.

  David hit the button on his mouthpiece. “Copy. Charlie, Delta, Foxtrot, and Gamma, do you all have visuals?”

  All four teams reported that they had their equipment and weapons set up for their attack on the camp.

  “Three vehicles arriving,” Lieutenant Dean said with excitement in his voice. “Looks like they’re having a party.”

  Taking in a deep breath, David focused his blue eyes through the telescope at the two trucks and a Humvee that were making their way across the rocky road into the camp.

  “Talk about timing,” Lieutenant Hallie Bates moved in to take a closer look through her night binoculars. “They just got two truckloads of weapons.”

  “Are you sure?” Lieutenant Dean placed his binoculars back up onto his face.

  Their answer came when one of the men below yanked the lid off a crate to reveal a box full of automatic assault rifles.

  “That’s what it looks like.” David could hear his team around the camp chattering into the radio. “Everyone hold their positions. I need to report this to command.”

  “Yeah,” Hallie said with a note of sarcasm. “I can already tell you what they’ll say.”

  “Stand-down,” Dean replied before sticking his pinkie finger into his mouth to chew on a ragged fingernail.

  “I’ve been at this a little bit longer than you,” David said. “They may tell us to wait for backup—”

  “With all due respect, sir,” Hallie said, “You guys in the reserves. You haven’t seen what we’ve been seeing. Sometimes, I wonder whose side Washington is on anymore.”

  Even in the darkness, David could catch the frustration in her eyes. Since arriving in Baghdad five days earlier, he had noticed a significantly low level of morale in the fourteen-person special operations team of which he had been put in charge.

  “Major!” the Charlie leader uttered a harsh whisper across the radio. “Check out the dude that got out of the back of the Humvee. It’s Jassem al-Baghdadi!” David could hear him asking the re
st of his team. “Isn’t that Jassem al-Baghdadi? He’s like the leader of their military council.”

  David was already peering through the telescope on his sniper rifle. He had memorized the lead terrorist’s face the year before, when intelligence information given to the marines special operations units revealed that Jassem al-Baghdadi was the chief coordinator of a jihad attack on a marine base in Afghanistan. Nineteen marines, all relatively new and on their first overseas tours, had been killed when an enlisted marine drove onto the base in a military truck filled with explosives. Then, he had rammed it into a barracks of his fellow comrades.

  A deeper investigation of the marine’s background discovered that the Muslim was also a devoted member of Jassem al-Baghdadi’s terrorist network. The attack had been planned for months with numerous communications between the marine and al-Baghdadi.

  The official cause of the attack was listed as workplace violence by a disgruntled soldier. In-depth investigative reports from the few journalists who had uncovered proof of the direct communication between al-Baghdadi and the careful coordination of the attack had been unable to gain any traction within the mainstream media.

  But all of the branches of the military, and especially the soldiers serving in the Middle East, knew the facts that had successfully been kept under wrap.

  At the moment, Jassem al-Baghdadi was in Major David O’Callaghans crosshairs. The terrorist leader was proudly directing their freshly trained terrorists, who were gazing up at him in awe of his accomplishments—masterminding the death of innocent westerners.

  In contrast to the excitement that David felt building up in the pit of his stomach and working its way to his beating heart, Hallie and Dean were apprehensive.

  “Hundred bucks says we’re told to let him go,” Dean grumbled to Hallie.

  “I’ll take that bet.” David thumbed the button to connect with Colonel Glen Frost at their base.

  “How many times has ops had al-Baghdadi in their sites and been told to stand-down?” Hallie asked Dean.

  “Twice that I know of,” the lieutenant answered. “In Somalia, they were told that there were too many civilians around. Those civilians were confirmed to be pirates holding thousands of westerners hostage.”