Just Take My Heart - Mary Higgins Clark [114]
Her eyes almost closing, Emily walked with him into the kitchen, then listened and tried to absorb the differences between this system and her old one. After he left with the promise to return tomorrow, she let Bess run outside for a minute. The back door again rebolted, she checked her answering machine. She was disappointed to see that Alice Mills had not returned her call.
She tried again to reach Alice at her home and then at the Al?drich apartment. She left another message at the Aldrich number. “Alice, I would really appreciate it if you would call me back. You may not want to talk to me and I can understand why. I want you to know that the prosecutor has taken me off the case and I expect to be fired.”
She knew that her voice was cracking but continued. “I honestly feel that if we knew why Natalie was frightened, we could find the person who murdered her.”
Emily went into the living room, sat in her usual chair, and wrapped an afghan around her. I know that I probably won't stay awake, she thought, but I do want to watch Courtside when it comes on. She set the alarm on her watch for nine o'clock, closed her eyes, and was instantly asleep.
The alarm did not wake her. It was the persistent ringing of her cell phone that finally dragged her from sleep. When she answered her voice was groggy. “Hello,” she whispered.
“Emily, are you all right? I've tried you three times in the last half hour. I was getting so worried. You sounded so upset when you left that last message.”
It was Alice Mills. The genuine concern in her voice brought in?stant tears to Emily's eyes. “No, I'm all right. Alice, I may be crazy, and I know that the prosecutor thinks I am, but I believe that I know who killed Jamie Evans and almost certainly killed Natalie, too.”
Hearing Alice gasp, Emily continued. “There must be some peo?ple who were close to Natalie, maybe another actor or a makeup person or a wardrobe lady who heard or saw something. Alice, did you think it was unusual for her to rush off to the Cape the way she did?”
“Natalie was stressed because of the divorce and getting a new agent but I never thought of her as being frightened,” Alice Mills said. “Emily, it's not just for Natalie that it's so necessary to find the person who did this. It's also for Gregg and Katie's sake. Did you watch Courtside tonight?”
“I intended to but I fell asleep.”
“Gregg and Katie and I were guests on it. Gregg talked about how horrible it is to live under this cloud, to be the 'person of inter?est.' But of course he is ecstatic to be out of jail. Katie is going back to school tomorrow and I'll be moving home.”
“To your wonderful little apartment just a few blocks from Lin?coln Center,” Emily said.
“Did I tell you that?” Alice asked, surprised.
“You must have.”
“Emily, there is one person I can call right now who will surely be awake. Jeanette Steele is the wardrobe mistress at the new play that opened at the Barrymore. She of all people might know some?thing. She was with Natalie that last night.”
“I'd be so grateful. Thank you, Alice.”
Now somewhat awake, Emily got up and went back to the kitchen. It's too late to eat anything much, she thought. Maybe just some toast and a glass of wine. That should do me in pretty fast.
Emily looked at the kitchen window that faced the rental house. The shade was only halfway closed. She walked over to it and for a moment looked out. It was raining hard. What a miserable night, she thought as she pulled the shade down. And that place still gives me the creeps.
Before she put the bread in the toaster, she walked into the living room and looked outside to be reassured by the sight of the police car at the curb.
Just Take My Heart
81
In his familiar perch at the kitchen window of the rental house, Zach was treated