Just Take My Heart - Mary Higgins Clark [100]
“Thank God there were no cameras,” Emily said, feeling huge relief about that part of it. “I don't know how I would have handled that. The rest of it is bad enough. And I can't believe he was even in the basement handling my father's tools. When I was growing up, Dad was always fixing something. He was so proud of his work?shop.”
“Emily, we have to talk about something. We both know that Lanning is still out there and that he's a maniac. And he's a maniac who's been obsessed with you. If you are even thinking about staying here, we'll have a police officer outside 24/7 until he's appre?hended.”
“Jake, I've given that a lot of thought in the last couple of hours and I was pretty torn about what to do. I think I'm going to stay here. But I would like an officer to be outside.” She half smiled. “And please ask the officer to watch the back of the house carefully. Lan?ning liked to go in through the porch.”
“Of course, Emily. The Glen Rock police will make sure that any officer assigned continually walks around the house.”
“Thanks, Jake. That makes me feel a lot better. I'll have to intro?duce Bess to the officer on each shift so she doesn't keep barking her head off.”
Seeing the duffle bags on the backseat of her car, Jake asked if he could carry them inside.
As much as she trusted Jake, at this point she didn't even want to tell him what was in them. “That would be good. They're kind of heavy. I brought home some files to work on. I won't be back in the office for a couple of days. I want to be here when the locks are changed and when they upgrade my pathetic alarm system that Lan?ning got around so easily.”
Just Take My Heart
68
Detective Billy Tryon returned to the courthouse at eight thirty on Monday evening to drop off some of the physical evidence from the Kirk homicide. He had stayed at the crime scene from the begin?ning and went back and forth among the three houses, supervising the collection of evidence. Most of his time was spent in the Kirk home and garage.
After he spoke to Emily in Lanning's kitchen, he did not want to encounter her again. When she left around six, he asked Jake Rosen where she was going. Jake told him that Emily only said she had to get out for awhile.
Billy was pretty sure she had gone to the office. His cousin Ted had told him that after Easton's outburst in court, Emily had in?formed him she was going to retrace every step in the case.
Ted heatedly told Billy that he had been a half inch away from forbidding her to spend any more time on it, but was afraid she might end up signing an ethics complaint against him. “If she did that, I can assure you that I won't be the next attorney general,” he had railed.
From his vantage point in the Kirk house, Billy waited to see when Emily would come back. She returned about seven thirty and he saw her talking to Jake Rosen in the driveway again. He didn't like the way they always seemed so cozy. Then he watched as Jake lugged two heavy-looking duffle bags into her house.
When Jake came back out, Billy called him over. “What was in those bags?” he demanded.
“Emily is going to take a couple of days off and she wanted to bring some files home to work on. Why would that bother you?”
“I just don't like her attitude about anything,” Tryon snapped. “All right. I'm out of here. I'm going to take the evidence bags back to the office, then go home.”
On the drive back to the courthouse, Billy Tryon was in a rage. She's trying to undo that verdict and she's trying to blame me. I'm not going to let that happen.
She's not going to destroy me.
And she's not going to destroy Ted.
Just Take My Heart
69
After he spoke to Belle Garcia, Michael Gordon couldn't dial Richard Moore's number fast enough.
“Hi, Mike.” Moore sounded upbeat. “I saw you at the courthouse today, but I never got a chance to talk to you. As soon as Easton's sentence was done, I raced over to the jail to tell Gregg what hap?pened. He needed to hear something positive, and I think