Open Season for Murder (A Mac Faraday Mystery Book 10) (23 page)

“Just to be clear,” the federal agent in charge of the surveillance on Dr. Elizabeth Breckenridge reminded the Spencer police chief and Mac, “you’re here as a professional courtesy. This is a DEA operation and bust.” The hard core, older agent allowed a smirk to come to his lips. “To tell you the truth, we have all we need to make an arrest now without getting the doc to incriminate herself, but you seem to think that the daughter can get her to admit to killing the university president …” With a shrug, he turned back to his agents who were monitoring the listening devices they had managed to plant around the Breckenridge home.

“Hey,” Mac told his back, “you know as well as I do that if you can nail her for murder in addition to all the other charges you have against her, then you’ll have a lot more ammunition to have her put away where she belongs instead of living a comfy life of leisure in witness protection.”

“That’s why we agreed to this, Faraday.”

To the federal agency, immunity was worth it to arrest the cartel who Lindsey York had brought in from South America. Agents in California were sweeping in to arrest Lindsey’s partners while the agents in Deep Creek Lake prepared to pick up Dr. Elizabeth Breckenridge.

In a matter of days, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Justice had struck a deal with Rachel Breckenridge. The U.S. Marshals had taken her into custody. While getting their sting operation in place, the agents had Dr. Elizabeth Breckenridge under surveillance. Periodic texts were sent to her from Rachel’s burner phone to tell her that she was moving about in the Cayman Islands until she got some place safe to contact her.

Upon learning the good news of a possible break in his father’s death, A.J. Wagner did not hesitate to exhume Howard Wagner’s body in hopes of investigators finding proof of his murder. However, Mac was painfully aware that even if they did find evidence that his father had been murdered, there was little hope of finding real evidence to connect Dr. Elizabeth to the deed.

Now, from a secured location which even Mac and David were not aware of, Rachel was set up to contact her mother in a video call in hopes of extracting an admission to murder from her.

Carlisle Green was kind enough to allow the agents to use her home, which was directly across the cove from the Breckenridge home. The wall to wall, floor to ceiling windows provided a perfect view into the doctor’s home.

As the lead agent had reminded Mac and David, they were only along for the ride. While curious about their progress, Carlisle Green kept out of the way by cleaning out her kitchen cupboards. This was not an easy task with Gnarly’s help in the form of ripping up the newspapers she was using for packing material for the aged dinnerware, cups, and mismatched glasses.

After accepting her offer for a bottled water, David told her, “Bogie told me that you were planning to move back to Africa.”

“At least for now.” Giving up on getting a weathered box back from Gnarly, who appeared to be trying to turn it into a den, she decided to put together a fresh box. “I guess Gnarly doesn’t want me to move.”

Taking the box from her, David proceeded to tape the bottom together for her. “Your family has summered here for how many generations …”

“And that’s okay,” she said. “But their way is not mine. I’ve found my place and Deep Creek Lake is not it. These—” she gestured across the cove at the Breckenridge mansion “—are not my people.”

“Have you been tempted to go back to your old ways?” David asked. “Is that why you’re leaving?”

Squinting, she held up her fingers and thumb pressed together. “I am human. I admit, I do have some fond memories of the past, but I also have a lot of memories that make me want to bury my head in shame.” She took the offered box from him. “I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.” Her eyes met his.

“Yeah.” David tried to hold her gaze. “About that?”

She laid her hand on his. “Listen, I really am sorry for how I used to treat you.”

“It wasn’t exactly a one way street.” Looking her up and down, David saw that since that night, she had filled out, become healthier. He pushed away the desire to find out how she would look in a red thong now. He bet she would be sexier.

“I was disrespectful to you, David,” she said. “To me, you were a piece of meat and that was how I treated you and, as a human being and an officer of the law, you deserved a lot more than that. I had no right pawing at you the way I used to when you would pull me over.”

A moment of confusion turned to clarity when David recalled the time when he had pulled Carlisle over for speeding in her red sports car. While he was giving her a breathalyzer test, she grabbed his crotch. When he pulled away and chastised her, she responded with a laugh.

Her face turning red at the memory, she looked down at the floor where Gnarly had shredded so many newspapers that they could not see the hardwood floor.

“I did forget about that,” David said softly. “I meant a different time.”

“There was another time?”

“The summer before Ashton disappeared,” David said. “You showed up at Benny’s while I was there and they refused to serve you …”

Her face was blank.

“I drove you home …”

Still her face was blank.

“You came into the kitchen to get me a beer and came out wearing nothing but your panties …”

Her eyebrows came together to meet between her eyes. “Sounds …” She swallowed. “I seem to recall a fantasy that went like that.”

“It was real,” David said. “Listen—”

“Did we have sex?”

“No but we came very close.”

“Damn!” she said loud enough to make the agents heads turn in the living room. After David shushed her, she continued, “Blackouts can be both a blessing and a curse. You can forget the things that can leave you paralyzed with embarrassment, but you can also forget some really juicy stuff too.” She looked David up and down. “You have no idea how many fantasies I had about getting you in between the sheets since I was twelve years old and to think I came that close and—did we kiss?”

David sighed. “Yes.”

“Damn,” she said with a shake of her head. “Did I enjoy it?”

“You don’t remember that night at all?”

“I’m sure it had nothing to do with your kissing,” she said. “Now that you’re engaged I guess it’s too late for a do-over?”

“Very much so,” he said. “Which is why I brought it up in the first place.” He sucked in a deep breath. “I would really appreciate it if you didn’t mention that night to Chelsea.”

She grinned. “How can I bring up what I can’t remember?”

“Which is what makes this blackout a blessing.” He smiled back at her.

When she moved in closer to him, he was uncertain if she was seeking the do-over of a kiss that she had mentioned. Instead, her eyes searched his in silence—long enough to make him look for a graceful retreat out of the kitchen.

“David,” she said in a soft tone, “do you know why the past is called the past?”

“Because it has already passed?”

“Exactly,” she said. “It is in the past. It is behind us. Have you ever tried to move forward while looking behind you? It’s very difficult to do. Sometimes, you end up falling on your face because you are so busy looking into the past that you fail to see the wonderful offerings right in front of you.” She moved in to whisper into his ear. “You have a beautiful bride-to-be who is madly in love with you and your life spread out ahead of you. Embrace the future and don’t look back.”

“What are you two so serious about?” Mac’s abrupt tone caused David to almost trip over Gnarly who was cleaning up the floor under the refrigerator.

Sensing a fossilized dog treat, Gnarly was sprawled out on his stomach with his legs spread eagle while reaching with his snout under the kitchen appliance. Failing to capture the treat, he cried out for help in pulling out the refrigerator.

“Gnarly,” Mac chastised the dog, “what are you doing? Clean up this mess.” He grabbed David’s arm and pulled him out of the kitchen. “Rachel is calling her mother via Skype. They’re about ready to start.”

Once they were out of Carlisle’s earshot, Mac squeezed David’s elbow. “Are you behaving yourself?”

“Yes,” David hissed. “Carlisle and I were just talking. I’m not a kid.”

“I know you’re not a kid,” Mac said, “but it is my job as your best man to get you to the altar and flirting with a passing ship is very dangerous when it comes to you.” He poked David in the chest with his finger. “Considering your past relationship with her, keep your distance.”

“Our past relationship is in the past, Mac,” David said. “That’s where we intend to keep it.”

“Breckenridge has just picked up,” the agent called over to them.

Mac and David rushed over to the laptops and computer monitors that littered the dining room table. The lights in the room were dimmed and the shades pulled to prevent Dr. Breckenridge from seeing inside the house.

On one monitor, Dr. Breckenridge’s image appeared as she spoke into the web cam. In the one next to it was Rachel’s face with a sun filled image behind her.

“Hey, Mom,” Rachel said with forced brightness in her tone. “I’m here … finally.”

“Where are you?” Dr. Breckenridge demanded to know. “I expected you to call me two days ago when you got settled.”

“It took me this long to get settled,” Rachel replied. “I felt like I was being followed. What was that you texted about Lindsey York being murdered?”

Mac could see that the young woman’s face was tight with nerves. Her grin was forced. Since Dr. Breckenridge was her mother, he worried that she would notice the nerves and sense that something was up.

“She must have OD’d,” Elizabeth said with a roll of her eyes. Her tone sounded bored. “What’s the weather like there?”

“It’s fine,” Rachel said. “What’s the media saying? Have the police questioned you?”

“Why would they be questioning me?” Dr. Breckenridge’s eyes narrowed. “I saw on the weather channel that a storm was coming in from the east. It’s been chilly the last couple of days.”

Mac could see Rachel’s mind working. Finally, she responded, “Yes, it has. I’ve been staying inside because I don’t know if Lindsey’s goons had seen me leave or not. Mom, did you take care of everything like you said you would?”

“Yes, I did,” Elizabeth answered. “I told you I’d take care of everything. Now that Lindsey is gone, you can come back home.”

“I thought you said she OD’d,” Rachel said.

The expression on Elizabeth’s face betrayed her growing impatience. “She did … at least, that’s what I assumed. The police aren’t talking. But you know Lindsey. She was downing everything she could get her hands on.”

“So you didn’t …”

“No! I didn’t kill her,” Dr. Breckenridge said.

David and Mac exchanged looks of disappointment.

Rachel said, “But you said you took care of—”

“I hired a private investigator to break into her house in Los Angeles. He found everything she had against us, that’s what I meant.”

“So you didn’t take care of Lindsey the same way you took care of A.J.’s dad?” Rachel asked.

Sparks of anger came to Dr. Breckenridge’s eyes. “Why did you bring that up?”

“Just, when you said you’d take care of Lindsey,” Rachel rattled on, while wiping sweat from her brow, “I had assumed—that’s why I thought you were the one who poisoned her.”

“No one said anything about Lindsey being poisoned,” Dr. Breckenridge said. “You little bitch! Are you putting words into my mouth?”

“Considering everything that Lindsey was into, and then how conveniently Dr. Wagner died after he threatened to expose you.”

“Dr. Wagner had the same problem that his son has,” Dr. Breckenridge said in a low voice. “He underestimated me. He thought that he could defy me, pass me over for key slots in the university. He thought I would roll over and allow him to kill my reputation and career. He was wrong. Unfortunately, he discovered that too late. When the digitalis hit his heart, I could see him trying to rethink his position about making me confess and walk away from all this.”

“We got her!” Mac yelled, but the chief agent was already giving the order for his people to move in.

“Digitalis,” Mac breathed to David. “That’s what she used. Let’s hope when A.J. exhumes the body they can find it to pin his murder on her.”

“You little bitch!” Elizabeth Breckenridge was screaming from the monitor in front of her while two agents grabbed her arms and pinned them behind her back. “Let go of me!” Fighting the men holding her, she screamed at her daughter, who was crying. “You set me up! Don’t think I’m ever going to forget this!”

“I’m sorry, Mommy,” Rachel Breckenridge sobbed.

Both monitors went black.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Spencer Inn Restaurant

Dr. Elizabeth Breckenridge’s arrest for dealing drugs at the medical school in Maryland made all of the major news stations—overshadowing the capture of Ashton Piedmont’s murderer.

By the morning after the noted doctor’s arrest, Lindsey York’s and Jasmine Simpson’s murders in the Spencer Inn seemed to have been forgotten by everyone—except by the Inn’s owner, Mac Faraday.

During breakfast, the reminder of the two murdered women was sitting directly across the restaurant in the form of Rock Sinclair and Vincent Van Dyke having a heated discussion—probably some sort of production meeting. Smirking at the bickering, Samuel Nash sat at the table along with Kassandra Van Dyke. Dressed in a summer dress with flat shoes and her lush hair pulled back into a ponytail, Kassandra appeared as bored as Samuel was amused.

Recounting the details of each murder in his mind, Mac didn’t realize he was staring while holding a slice of toast in mid-air until David sat down across from him.

“I thought you’d be happy,” David broke through his thoughts. “You solved a murder case that wasn’t even ours and I see that your arm is no longer in a sling.”

Mac blinked to the present. “I was supposed to wear the brace and sling for another week, but they kept getting in the way.”

After dropping the slice of toast onto his plate of scrambled eggs and hash browns, he flexed his right hand. The pain shot all the way up to his shoulder, which was still tender. Through sheer force of determination, he refused to allow it to show on his face.

Steering David’s attention back to the case, Mac said, “Hector says they have had no luck of finding Parker Lander on any of the security videos for the night of the ball. It’s starting to look to me like he didn’t do it.”

“Ben gave me more bad news when I dropped Chelsea off at his office just now,” David said.

“What’s that?”

“Even though Dr. Elizabeth Breckenridge admitted to Rachel last night that she slipped digitalis to A.J.’s father, who did not have a heart condition, they may not be able to make the murder charge stick,” David said.

“Digitalis will kill you if you take it when you don’t have a heart condition,” Mac said. “It will
cause
you to have a heart attack.”

“And Howard Wagner did die of a heart attack,” David said. “But Breckenridge’s lawyer is already looking to have the statement thrown out because in her conversation with Rachel she said nothing about stealing Piedmont’s research and book. Her PI destroyed everything that he stole from Lindsey York’s home. Since the feds have no proof of her stealing Piedmont’s research and book, then they can’t prove motive. If the judge throws out Breckenridge’s statement, then they won’t have a case to indict her for killing Dr. Howard Wagner.”

“I’ve lost my appetite.” Mac pushed his plate away.

While shaking his head, David saw Carlisle Green, carrying a valise under her arm, enter the restaurant with Corey Haim and A.J. Wagner. The three of them were seated at a table near the windows with a view of the lake down below.

Mac saw Kassandra Van Dyke sit up at attention upon seeing them.

Corey and A.J. ordered coffee and Carlisle ordered tea. After the server hurried away, Carlisle took a thick folder out of her valise and opened it on the table. The three of them huddled in close together.

Her eyes filled with longing, Kassandra openly stared at the group.

“What’s that about?” David asked Mac.

“A.J. and Corey seem to be working with Carlisle on something,” Mac said. “Corey Haim had said he wanted to build a clinic in the rural area where he came from in West Virginia. Maybe he convinced Carlisle to donate towards that.”

“Kassandra, pay attention,” they heard Vincent Van Dyke snap at his daughter. “This is important.”

“Lindsey’s death has left your show wanting,” Rock said.

“But you already signed a contract with us,” Vincent reminded him. “Just because Lindsey died, doesn’t mean you can back out of the show now. My lawyers have looked over the contracts. Nowhere is there a provision that you can cancel because Lindsey York passed away.”

Samuel Nash chuckled. “Guess Lindsey’s death worked out well for you, huh, Van Dyke. She was squeezing you out as star of the show and now you’re back in the lead.”

“And since Jasmine is dead, I noticed you’ve taken over as producer and director,” Vincent Van Dyke said.

“You’re absolutely right,” Rock said to Vincent Van Dyke. “There was no provision for Lindsey’s death. So we are obligated
for now
. Problem with your show is that Lindsey’s death left a void. She was the catalyst for conflict—she was the live wire. People aren’t going to want to watch a happy loving father-daughter team. Can Kassandra do anything else besides flash her breasts?”

Seeing Kassandra’s attention diverted at the table across the way, Vincent snapped his fingers. “Kassandra, pay attention. Tell the man what you can do.”

Kassandra turned to the men sitting at the table. “I can quit.”

Vincent Van Dyke laughed loudly. Seeing Rock’s stunned expression, he insisted, “She’s joking.”

“Mr. Sinclair really doesn’t want to do the show with Lindsey gone and I don’t really want to do it anymore,” Kassandra said. “So why not drop the whole thing? Then everyone will be happy.”

Samuel Nash was chuckling.

Vincent Van Dyke’s rage reminded Mac of one of his strong arm tough cop performances on his old police show. “Do you have any idea what I’ve done for you to get you this far? The sacrifices I’ve made? The risks I took?”

Anyone who wasn’t watching the men at the table before now diverted their full attention to it. Kassandra cowered in her seat. David stood up, but Mac was already on his way across the restaurant to the table.

“Do we have a problem here?” he asked.

Vincent turned on Mac. “This is none of your business.”

Mac’s low tone contrasted that of the aged actor. “My joint. My business.” He turned to Kassandra. “I think your friends are waiting for you over there, Kassie. Why don’t you join them?”

“Sit down, Kassandra,” Vincent ordered. “We have business to discuss.”

With wide eyes, Kassandra looked from her father, who dared her to move, to the table across the way where Carlisle was in the process of pulling up an extra chair. With a wave of her arm, Carlisle invited the young woman to join them.

“They’re waiting for you, Kassie,” Mac said.

The young woman tossed her napkin onto the table. “I’m sorry, Daddy, but I just can’t do it anymore.” Like a frightened rabbit who had suddenly been set free, she scurried across the restaurant to sit with Carlisle, A.J., and Corey.

“You’re going to regret this, Faraday!” Vincent Van Dyke said.

Mac said, “You’re going to regret it if you keep pushing that young woman into a life that she doesn’t want. I’ve only seen her a handful of times and I can see that she doesn’t want any of this.” He swung his arm to indicate the men seated at the table. “She doesn’t want to be a star. She wants to do that.” He gestured across at the table where Kassandra was giggling and smiling while talking with Carlisle over the papers that she had spread across the tabletop.

“I think our business here is over.” Rock Sinclair stood up.

“No, it’s not!” Vincent raged. “We have a contract.”

“One of our stars is dead, the other doesn’t want to do it, and you’re a has-been, Van Dyke,” Rock said. “Have your lawyers call mine and we’ll work out a settlement, but there’s no show.” He gestured at Samuel. “Come on, Nash, our work here in Deep Creek Lake is done.”

“Actually, it’s not,” David said. “We still have the matter of two murders to solve and both of you are witnesses. I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

When Mac tried to follow them, Vincent Van Dyke grabbed him by his injured arm. “We’re not through yet, Faraday. You can’t just ruin a man’s life and then walk away.”

Refusing to let Vincent see him cringe at the pain shooting up to his shoulder, Mac told him through gritted teeth. “I didn’t ruin your life, you did. Now get your hand off me.”

“You owe me,” Vincent hissed in his ear.

“You’re right. I do owe you.” Mac whirled around and grabbed Vincent’s arm that had grasped his arm. Spinning the unprepared actor around on his heels, Mac pinned his arm behind his back and shoved him face down onto the table.

“Give it up, Van Dyke,” Mac snarled. “It’s over. Time for you to follow your daughter’s lead and walk away from Hollywood and their sick games to find a real life—not just a pretend one on TV… while you can still do it with a shred of dignity.”

Releasing Vincent Van Dyke, Mac stood up and straightened his shirt. Seeing that every guest was focused on him with wide frightened eyes, he said, “He didn’t leave a tip for his server.”

As Mac made his way through the tables, there was a flurry of activity as customers slammed tip money down onto their tables.