Chapter 26
As they climbed the stairs to the floor of Chris' room, AJ reminded Sarah that he would be right outside listening to every word. All she needed to do was call his name and he would come in. Mac nodded and kissed him quickly before moving to knock on Chris' door.
She was on alert when she realized the door was slightly ajar. Throwing AJ a warning look, she slowly and silently pushed the door open. John Farrow was standing over Chris Ragle who lay on the floor unmoving. On the floor between them was a gun. "John, what happened?!" she gasped just as AJ appeared in the doorway.
"When he saw it was me at the door instead of you, he pulled a gun. We struggled and it went off."
As Farrow was explaining, AJ had moved into the room to check on Chris. "He's dead. We need to call this in."
"What should we say?" Mac questioned.
"The truth," Farrow responded as he pulled out his cell phone to make the call.
The trial was embarrassing because the information about the affair had to come out, when it was revealed that Chris had been trying to blackmail Sarah and John. AJ was in court every day to lend his support to his wife. At one point, he was even called to testify. The plea of self defense was easily proven from the condition of the hotel room furniture and the presence of gunpowder residue on both men's hands. Other than a few rude comments Harm made to Mac outside of AJ's hearing, everything was handled quickly and professionally.
Even the talk that Mac had wanted to have with AJ about his possible doubts at the timing of her affair with John had really been unnecessary. On the forty five minute trip to meet with Chris she had brought up the subject and then added, "I was hurt that you might have had doubts about what I'd told you, but later when you defended me to John I knew I was mistaken."
"It wasn't doubts about you at all, Sarah. I was hurt, but had no right to be. Our pasts were just that, past. They have no effect on what you and I have with each other. I mean, while I was in Italy looking for Francesca, I had several meetings with Marcella. During one of those encounters, she told me that when she had run away with our daughter, she had expected me to follow her and bring her home. I have to admit that for just a moment I wondered what my life would have been like if I had. After all I did love her at one time and she did give me Francesca. However, I realized that if that had happened, I never would have had you in my life, and that is frankly unthinkable!"
"I'm very glad you didn't follow her too, then," Mac admitted with a smile.
After that things settled down for a time, Francesca came for a visit at Christmas and stayed for two weeks. Then AJ and Mac went into high gear preparing for the coming baby. Sarah had many shopping trips with Harriet, while AJ painted the guest room that was going to become the nursery. They were very secretive about the names they were deciding between. Unlike Bud and Harriet, however, they had asked for AJ's permission to name their expected son after him.
Sarah and Diane's birthday came around again and to everyone's stunned amazement, Harm finally proposed to Diane. She had been dating Mic on and off, but they had officially ended on Valentine's Day. Harm had sent Diane flowers and the resulting fight between her and Mic had been their last. When that happened, Harm stepped up and spent the next month working on proving that he had finally accepted Carry who was now almost two years old. Whether Diane was just being cautious, or she really wanted to be sure of Harm and his feelings about her child, she had set the wedding date for May 22, 2000.
It was five and a half weeks after the engagement announcement, and AJ was sure that Sarah could have given a count down to the second if both of them hadn't been too busy to think about it. Later they decided something had to be in the air that day that led to an amazing series of events.
To be continued….