Just Take My Heart - Mary Higgins Clark [104]
The comforting aroma of the marinara sauce filled the kitchen and the spaghetti was ready. Emily dumped the spaghetti in a strainer, transferred a portion of it into a bowl, took the sauce out of the microwave, and spooned it over the pasta.
She carried the tray into the living room, placed it on the wide tray table in front of her favorite chair, and sat down. Bess, hearing her move, woke up, trotted into the living room, and settled beside her. It was quarter of eight. I'll find something worth watching until Courtside comes on, Emily thought. There's bound to be a panel discussion about Jimmy Easton's outburst. After that, I'm sure the news will have plenty of coverage about Zach Lanning.
Jimmy Easton and Zach Lanning. A great combination for my viewing pleasure, she thought as she began to twirl the spaghetti onto her fork. Michael Gordon was in the courtroom today. I'm sure he'll show a clip of Easton's speech. “I did what I was supposed to do.” How much of Easton's testimony had been fed to him?
From where she was sitting she could see the duffle bags with the Aldrich files stacked against the wall in the dining room. Tomorrow morning, early, I'll start on them, she decided.
The phone rang. For a moment Emily was tempted to let the an?swering machine pick it up, but then she realized it might be her father. He's bound to hear about Madeline Kirk and be worrying about me.
But the caller was Richard Moore, not her father. “Emily, I heard about that serial killer and that he murdered your neighbor, but Cole just told me he was also stalking you. I'm so sorry. You've got to be pretty rattled about that.”
“That's a good way of putting it, Richard, and yes, I am. There's a cop on guard full time at the house.”
“I would hope so. Emily, you'd better watch Courtside tonight.”
“I was planning to watch it. I'm sure it's all about my witness, Jimmy Easton.”
“It is all about him, Emily, but there's a lot more than what hap?pened in court. Mike has a guy coming on the show who has proof that Jimmy made a delivery to Gregg's apartment the very day he swore he got the ransom money.”
For a long minute Emily simply could not speak. Then she said quietly, “If that's the case, I want those people in my office tomorrow morning. I want to see that proof and if it's legitimate, Gregg Aldrich will get out on bail, then we'll take it from there.”
“That's what I expected you to say, Emily.”
A little more than an hour later, her dinner barely touched, her arm around Bess, Emily watched Courtside. When it was over, she went into the dining room, turned on the light, and pulled the first batch of files from the duffle bag.
She did not go to bed at all that night.
Just Take My Heart
72
The inmates at the state prison filed into breakfast on Tuesday morning at seven a.m. Jimmy Easton had not slept well. He had al?ready been hassled by some of the other inmates about being a snitch. “You'd sell out your mother, Jimmy,” one of them had shouted to him.
“He already did,” another one yelled back.
I'll call Moore this morning as soon as they let me get to a phone, Jimmy thought. When I spill the beans to him, I know they'll try to bring me up on perjury charges. They'll want to bury me, but they still need my testimony. Moore will tell them to give me a good deal. So when I make the prosecutor's office look dumb, the guys here will get a laugh out of it and get off my back.
He wasn't hungry, but he ate breakfast anyhow. Oatmeal, toast, juice, and coffee. He didn't talk to the guys on either side of him at the table. Or they didn't talk to him. No problem.
Back in his cell he started to feel lousy. He lay down on his bunk but the burning feeling in his gut wouldn't go away. He closed his eyes and drew up his knees as the burning became hot coals ripping up his insides. “Guard,” he called, feebly. “Guard.”
Jimmy Easton realized he had been poisoned.
His final thought was