The McFarland boys attended riding camp over the Christmas break. Margot arrived each morning to take them to the ranch. One brisk morning, the boys emerged from the house in lightweight clothing unsuitable for the chill in the air. Margot detoured past her home and grabbed sweatpants and sweatshirts to keep them warm.
At noon, Margot always drove back to the ranch to pick them up and return them to their home and their grandparents. One day when she arrived, Rick was there. He was walking around the collection of old cars by the stable with James. If Rick kicked the wheel of car. James kicked the wheel. If Rick peered in a window, James did, too. When Rick put his hands in his pockets, James likewise stuck his down deep.
A comment Sue made nearly two years earlier drifted up into Margot’s mind. “If I divorced Rick right now, James would never speak to me again.”
Margot pooh-poohed that idea at the time. But, now, watching James echoing Rick’s every move, she saw the strong connection between father and son and knew that Sue had grounds for her concern.
A case like the disappearance of Susan McFarland generated a lot of irrelevant leads. One of the oddest of all was a phone call on December 26 from a woman who’d spoken to a psychic in the interior of Mexico. Susan McFarland was alive and being held captive by cocaine-snorting thugs in an old abandoned house, the psychic said. These thugs were in regular cell phone contact with Richard McFarland.
Other tips had a stronger connection to reality and required the time of investigators to follow them up. Employees at Ruben Auto Center in Seguin—forty miles east of San Antonio—discovered a burned human body in the back of a pickup truck on New Year’s Day. From the beginning, investigators thought it unlikely that it was Susan McFarland. They went out to the scene just the same. The trip was fruitless. Susan McFarland was still missing.
The neighbor with the window overlooking the McFarland house returned home after being away for the holidays. Once again, she was up later than the rest of the family and walked room to room turning out the lights. Once again, she paused by a window and looked over there.
As if on cue, Rick came out of his house and stopped at the same spot as before. This time, he did not re-enact the rock-throwing. Instead, he threw his arm up and swung it around in a broad motion as if to say, “Come on over.”
She staggered back from the window. As frightened as she was, she did not want Rick to know of her fear. She stayed away from him as much as possible, but sometimes contact was unavoidable. When she did see him at school or in the street, she donned a façade of polite normalcy. She did not want McFarland mad at her. She did not know what he would do.
On January 2, Susan Schooling went on line to do research on after-death communications. She was ready to try any means to locate Sue McFarland. She was desperate to do something—anything—to find answers to the mystery that shredded the peace of the neighborhood and the hearts of three young boys.
She sent emails to three or four websites that appeared credible. One hour later, she received a call from Scotland. It was psychic Christine Toomey. She said she could not fight the urge to call. She felt an extreme, powerful energy—Sue McFarland was trying hard to communicate.
Christine was certain that Sue’s body was burned—all police would find were charred bones. She said that finances were a major struggle between her and her killer, and a generous amount of money was involved.
The psychic claimed that Sue said she was okay now and in a better place. She was with an elderly woman—a small, frail older woman—possibly her mother.
Christine also delivered a warning from Sue to Susan: “Absolutely do not go over to the house when you would be alone with Rick.” Sue does not want you there, the psychic said. She wants you to stay away.
About the manner of Sue’s death, Christine said she died from a blow to the head. “It was real quick and fast. She did not feel it.” It was going to take a long time, however, to resolve the case. It would probably be a year before Rick went to jail.
“They found already, or will find, a red sweater or red top in or nearby a creek, lake or ravine, with other debris that belongs to Susan. That is what she was wearing when she was murdered. He left her clothed when he burned her body, and that item was blown away by the wind, while burning, into a nearby area like a creek bed. They will find it.”
Finally, Susan asked where Sue’s body was located. Christine was vague, but said that Sue kept telling her it was twenty-five minutes or twenty-five miles from where Rick was located. When investigators found Sue’s body, it was 15.2 miles from 351 Arcadia Place—a twenty-five-minute drive.
On January 3, Sergeant Palmer called Margot Cromack on her cell phone and left a message when he got no answer. At 5:50 P.M., surveillance reported that Rick arrived at the Cromack house. Five minutes later, Margot returned Palmer’s call.
The background noises prompted Palmer to believe she was either outside or in a car. He asked her if she was alone. She assured him that she was. As he continued his conversation, Palmer sent Sergeant Wedding over to drive by the Cromack home. In a couple of minutes, Wedding was there. He spotted Margot on the porch near her front door. Standing close to her—leaning in and listening to the conversation—was Rick McFarland.
Wedding relayed the information to Palmer. Interesting, Palmer thought.
Rick continued to bug Susan Schooling about caring for his boys after school. “I have to get a job. I have to bring some income in now that she’s gone.”
Susan said she would think about it, hoping he would drop it. But he didn’t. After giving it more thought, she knew she could not bear to spend every day in the house where Sue died. She could not tolerate being around the man who killed her. She loathed the idea of being paid by him. The thought sickened her. She told Rick that she could not do it because it conflicted with her class schedule.
Rick, as usual, did not take no for an answer. And Susan’s distress escalated. Her father Mike intervened, writing a note to Rick that read, “I don’t think it would be a good idea under the circumstances. I think you should get someone else.” He dropped the note in the McFarland mailbox.
Rick came out right away, read it quickly and chased after Mike Schooling. Rick followed Mike into the house and confronted Susan. “My mom is gone now. And I thought you’d take care of them. I am so pissed. Now what am I going to do?”
Susan, Charlene and Mike cited the class scheduling problem again and again. Rick kept blaming them for his problems. Then he blurted out: “Now that I’ve been named the prime suspect, are you thinking I’m going to get a chain saw and chop you all up?”
The Schoolings had no response for that outburst. But it sure gave them something to ponder.
Sue’s family called a hiatus in the search efforts before Christmas. They wanted the staff and volunteers to have some normalcy in their holiday season. On January 5, the search geared up again. Searchers revisited Brackenridge Park and combed an area near the Sunken Gardens and Alpine Trail.
Early in the evening of January 6, Sergeants Palmer and Wedding met with Margot Cromack at the Terrell Hills Police Department. They questioned her about her relationship to Rick. Palmer then asked her about providing information to McFarland and allowing him to listen in on the phone conversation she had with him.
Margot denied ever allowing Rick to eavesdrop on a telephone call. She insisted she was not at home when she talked to Palmer three days earlier. Wedding and Palmer knew that was not true.
Margot volunteered that the only reason she maintained contact with Rick was that she wanted to keep an eye on the three boys. That was all she cared about, she said.
Palmer called Sue’s sister Ann. “I want you to be very careful around Margot Cromack.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“She has led me down rabbit trails.”
“What are rabbit trails?”
“Places that lead us nowhere,” he said. “She’s been sharing information inappropriately with Rick. I don’t think you can trust her.”
“What am I supposed to do with this information?” Ann asked.
“Tell your family members and Sue’s close friends.”
Two years after the fact, Margot continued to insist the officers were mistaken.
On January 7, law enforcement followed Rick and his son Timmy to The Spy Store. There Rick asked about bug detectors that could identify listening devices and telephones. He wanted to know if they worked on cell phones, too. He left without making a purchase.
While Rick was running around with his youngest son, William and James were at the Miller home. Carrie noticed that William had adopted a caretaker role. In response to James, he often made parental remarks like “James, do not do that,” or “Very good, James.” His caring warmed her heart, but the reason he assumed this role was as chilling as a Dean Koontz plot.
In the middle of that day, Stephanie, in a fit of anger, let the F bomb fly. After her mother had chastised her, William gave Carrie advice on how to correct her children when they got in trouble. He demonstrated how his father laid them across the bed and used one or both arms to spank them with a small board. “One time, I had to tell my teacher I could not sit down because my bottom hurt too much.”
Later that day, Carrie walked into Wesley’s room where William was playing Nintendo. When he turned toward Carrie, his eyes were moist and heavy with threatened tears. “What’s wrong, William?” she asked.
“I miss my mom.”
“Where do you think she is?”
“She’s out looking for a new husband.”
“Oh, c’mon, William. Do you really think your mom would go off and leave you and James and Timmy to look for a new husband and not be here for Thanksgiving?”
“Yes. She needed a little break from us. She’ll be back.”
Carrie now knew what Rick had been telling the boys about their mother. It sickened and enraged her.
When she left the room, Wesley said, “William, do you think your dad did something to her?”
“No,” William said. “Some people do, but I don’t.”