Chapter 18 <br><p> 


"Let's take a recess for 30 minutes and the trial will 
resume at 2:30," Judge David Marshall announced. The 
trial against Anthony Moreno opened Thursday morning 
with the prosecution questioning Al Gwynn, the hitman 
Moreno hired to kill the bank officer. Gwynn discussed 
in detail the meeting where Bannion was a witness to 
Moreno ordering Gwynn to kill the banker and he 
recounted several meetings where Moreno talked about 
his illegal dealings with the banker. Moreno's lawyer, 
Barry Roberts, started cross-examining Gwynn after the 
lunch break and tried to present him as a known hired 
killer who had made a deal with the prosecution to 
benefit himself. Gwynn freely admitted that he was 
testifying against Moreno for the deal but that didn't 
affect the truth which was that Moreno hired him to 
kill the banker. Dara wasn't worried that the defense 
was successful in swaying the jury. Everyone, even the 
defense, acknowledged that Gwynn was a hired killer so 
the only question was 'who hired him?'. The defense 
offered no credible evidence that someone other than 
their client hired Gwynn and tomorrow, Bannion would 
support Gwynn's testimony that Moreno hired Gwynn to 
kill the banker. These were the points that Dara was 
going to emphasize in her closing statements to the 
jury. The courtroom was quickly emptying for the 
thirty-minute recess. Sitting at the prosecution's 
table reviewing her notes of Gwynn's testimony, a warm 
hand lightly caressed the back of her neck as Dara 
heard Mac's voice whisper in her ear, "How's it going, 
beautiful?" Dara looked up to lock her eyes on Mac's 
warm gaze.  <br><p> 

"Hi." Dara motioned for him to sit down beside her as 
she confessed, "I've missed you." Both Mac and Dara 
had been very busy the past few days and they hadn't 
really had time to discuss what was happening to their 
relationship.  <br><p> 

"Me too," replied Mac as he let his finger trace her 
jaw. Remembering that they were 'at work' in the 
courthouse he lowered his hand to the table and leaned 
back in the chair remarking, "I was sitting in the 
back of the courtroom for the last 30 minutes. It 
looks like the trial is going well for us."  <br><p> 

"It is," Dara agreed. "Normally I would like to have a 
prep session with a key witness such as Bannion the 
evening before he testifies, but I have his original 
statement and that will pretty much be the basis of my 
cross-examination of him tomorrow. With the security 
issues, I'll just forgo reviewing his testimony with 
him tonight."  <br><p> 

"Even I don't anticipate seeing Bannion tonight but 
both Taggert and I will be at the decoy safe-house 
where Bannion was previously held. If Griffith plans 
to stop Bannion from testifying then he'll have to 
make his move tonight, and we'll be waiting for him," 
Mac stated grimly.  <br><p> 

Dara visibly tensed when Mac mentioned that he and 
Taggert would be waiting to trap Griffith tonight but 
she tried to mask her feelings with Mac sitting there 
observing her. As much as she wanted her would-be 
assassin captured, Dara couldn't help but worry that 
both Mac and Marcus would probably have an active role 
in trying to apprehend him. She cared deeply for both 
men and silently prayed that they both would remain 
safe throughout the stakeout.  <br><p> 

Hoping to assuage her concerns, Mac moved the 
conversation to issues beyond the upcoming stakeout. 
He took Dara's small hands into his and offered, "Hey, 
I know that we won't be able to get together tonight, 
but let's plan to meet tomorrow night. I think that we 
have a lot to talk about, don't you?"  <br><p> 

Her face brightening, Dara smiled, "Yes, we do have a 
lot to discuss. Do you have any specific plans this 
weekend?"  <br><p> 

"How about spending every moment with you starting 
tomorrow evening?" Mac said seductively as he leaned 
forward and kissed her lightly on the lips.  <br><p> 

"Sounds great to me," Dara murmured as she nuzzled her 
face against Mac's ear and neck and held him closely. 
She fervently wanted to tell him that she loved him 
but now wasn't the time or place to make such a 
statement. Instead she pulled back looking directly in 
Mac's eyes in hope that he could see how much she felt 
for him and she said, "Keep safe tonight Mac." <br><p> 

Disregarding their surroundings Mac pulled Dara to him 
and deeply kissed her. Fighting to suppress a moan and 
fearing that she was being swept away by Mac's 
insistent kiss, Dara right hand moved from Mac's neck 
to his cheek in an attempt to pull away. But Mac 
continued to hold Dara tightly and kiss her as if he 
was using this possessive kiss to dispel any worries 
she had. A few seconds after feeling her relax and 
give into the kiss, Mac finally broke the kiss. He 
cupped Dara's chin with his thumb and forefinger and 
said, "Don't worry. I'll see you tomorrow morning." 
Nodding her acknowledging response, a speechless Dara 
gave a tentative smile as Mac released her and left 
the courtroom.  <br><p> 

~~~*~~~ <br><p> 


It was almost 10 p.m. and for the last 3 hours few 
words had passed between Mac and Taggert as they 
waited in Bannion's former hotel room. The tension of 
waiting during this stakeout was bad enough but the 
added tension because of his earlier comments about 
Mac and Dara made the situation unbearable to Taggert. 
Finally he started to speak.  <br><p> 

"Look Mac," Taggert began slowly. "I know that I might 
have been out of line about what I said about you and 
Dara. But I really said as a friend, to both you and 
Dara."  <br><p> 

A flash of darkness that Taggert was unable to detect 
in the dimly lit room appeared in Mac's eyes. After 
their argument a few days ago he knew that it was 
inevitable that his relationship with Dara would be 
mentioned during the night. Taken aback by Taggert's 
comments in his office Mac had unwittingly let himself 
be placed in a defensive position during that 
confrontation. That situation would not repeat itself 
tonight. "Taggert, who are you kidding? I don't have 
to be a psychologist to say that you sounded more like 
a jealous ex-boyfriend than a friend the other day." <br><p> 

"What?" sputtered Taggert as he sat straight up in his 
chair.  <br><p> 

"You heard me," Mac continued letting Taggert know 
that he knew exactly what was going on here. "I know 
that you and Dara dated previously. Did you think that 
I wouldn't ask her out because of it?"  <br><p> 

Mac had struck a nerve when he accused Taggert of 
being jealous. "No," Taggert countered in a spiteful 
tone of voice, "I thought that you wouldn't ask her 
out because you're still married. I don't want to see 
Dara hurt Mac."  <br><p> 

Mac's jaw clenched as he willed himself to control his 
temper. "Not that it's any of your concern but I've 
filed for divorce from Felicia and I'm not using Dara 
to 'get over' Felicia. I'm finally following through 
with something that I wanted to do years ago and I'm 
thankful to have this second chance with Dara. And I'm 
sure that if you've broached this subject with Dara 
she's told you that she's more than capable of taking 
care of herself. So don't bring up this subject with 
me again, O.K., friend?" Mac said with obvious sarcasm 
as he spoke the word 'friend'.  <br><p> 

Mac took Taggert's non-response to his question as an 
unspoken yes and they both sat in silence as the 
stakeout continued. At 10:40 p.m. the lights and heat 
suddenly stopped operating in the room. Immediately 
Mac used a police radio to communicate with the law 
enforcement officials in the hotel room near the 
elevator down the hall. That room was without power 
also. Taggert in the meantime was busy using the room 
phone to contact the front desk. He was informed that 
there was a temporary power outage on 2 floors of the 
hotel and the maintenance people were working on it. 
Just at the moment when Taggert ended the call the 
power was restored and the room was lighted again. The 
power couldn't have been out for more than 2 minutes. 
After looking through the peephole at the door Taggert 
slowly opened the door and saw no one in the hallway. 
Mac didn't believe that the power outage was an 
accident and immediately he called the officers in the 
room near the elevator to ask if the video 
surveillance equipment was in operation during the 
power outage. As he suspected, the equipment had not 
been operational during the outage.  <br><p> 

Mac knew that certain systems in the hotel, such as 
emergency hallway lighting and the electronic key card 
systems for rooms, were usually run on backup 
electrical systems so that they would be operational 
during power outages. Placing a call to the hotel 
security officer, Mac asked him to review the log of 
electronic key card usages for the hotel rooms on the 
6th floor where they were located and report any rooms 
that were entered with a key card during the power 
outage. The hotel security officer reported that only 
one room on that floor was entered during the power 
outage using a key card; it was room 621, which was 
currently listed as unoccupied. <br><p> 

After quickly coordinating the team of officers on the 
6th floor and giving them last minute instructions, 
Mac stood with 4 other men outside of room 621 a few 
moments later. It was Mac's desire to apprehend 
Griffith without any violence but that all depended on 
what waited for them on the other side of the door. On 
Mac's signal, the officers used a battering ram to 
break down the door. With their guns drawn, Taggert 
and Mac were the first to step into the room and the 
other officers quickly followed.  <br><p> 

"Don't move!" shouted Mac and Taggert simultaneously. 
Seated at a table near the window was the hitman Roger 
Griffith. His right arm was stretched over small round 
table that was covered with a large backpack. In his 
hand was a 44 caliber semi-automatic gun that he had 
just retrieved from the tabletop but it was pointed 
towards a side wall and the palm of his hand was 
facing downward towards the table as he held the gun. <br><p> 

"Drop your weapon now!" Mac sharply ordered. "This 
will be your only warning."  <br><p> 

Griffith's eyes immediately locked with Mac's and he 
recognized Mac's face and voice from the city garage 
two days earlier when he attempted to kill Dara. He 
grudgingly gave Mac a brief glance of admiration. 
There was no one else that Griffith had encountered 
during his 20 year 'career' who had prevented him from 
killing his target not once, but twice. For Griffith, 
surrender and prison were not options. At best he 
thought that with a stray bullet from one of the 
officer's guns he'd be able to take out every in the 
room with him. He started firing his gun immediately 
as he swung it around to point it at Mac and he used 
his left hand to grab the large backpack and use it as 
a shield against his chest. As Griffith made his first 
move Mac immediately shouted "Temple!" Jack Ribisi, 
the best target shooter on the PCPD, was given his 
signal by Mac to kill the suspect immediately with a 
single shot to the head. He had been standing a few 
feet to the left of Taggert with a clear shot at 
Griffith and the one shot he fired did not miss its 
mark. Mac swore under his breath a mere few seconds 
later as Roger Griffith sat in front of them, dead, 
still holding the blue backpack. Griffith was only 
able to fire two shots before being killed and they 
injured no one. Gingerly touching the backpack, Mac 
briefly glanced inside of it and saw that it contained 
a large amount of explosives. It was clear that 
Griffith's plan was to use a bomb to kill Bannion. 
After instructing Taggert to contact the bomb squad 
and the coroner's office, Mac walked out of the hotel 
room to the end of the hallway to place a call from 
his cellphone. His call was answered after the first 
ring.  <br><p> 

"Mac?" Dara whispered nervously. She'd recognized 
Mac's cell phone number on the caller id display. Dara 
had been hoping that he would call her tonight but she 
also knew that she wouldn't receive a call unless 
something occurred. "Are you O.K.?" she asked waiting 
anxiously to hear his response.  <br><p> 

"Hi Sweetheart," Mac sighed, realizing that Dara had 
no idea how just hearing the sound of her voice made 
him feel so much better. " I'm O.K. Griffith is dead. 
He made an attempt to get Bannion tonight and he left 
us no choice in the end." <br><p> 

"I know," Dara said wanting to console him. <br><p> 

"I'm going to go and be with Bannion for the rest of 
the night just to make sure that everything is O.K. 
and I'll bring him to the courthouse tomorrow. I just 
wanted to let you know what has happened and..." 
pausing as he reflected on what he wanted to say, Mac 
continued, "I just wanted to hear your voice. I needed 
to hear it tonight."  <br><p> 

"Me too," Dara acknowledged. "I wouldn't have slept at 
all tonight if I hadn't heard from you. Thanks for 
calling Mac. I... " Biting her bottom lip, Dara 
decided that she could wait one more night before 
telling Mac how she felt about him. " I'll see you 
tomorrow morning."  <br><p> 

"Goodnight Dara." <br><p> 



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