Just Take My Heart - Mary Higgins Clark [16]
“Twenty years!” Gregg Aldrich snapped. “Only twenty years. Why don't we call them right now? If we wait they might not offer such a good deal.”
His voice was rising. He slammed down his napkin, and then as the waiter came back into the room, made a visible effort to calm himself. When the waiter was gone again, he looked from Richard to Cole and then back to Richard. “Here the three of us sit in our designer suits, in a private dining room of a Park Avenue apartment building, and you are suggesting to me that to save myself from dying in prison, I spend the next twenty years of my life there. And that's if they're bighearted enough to agree to that.”
He picked up his cup and drank the espresso in one gulp. “Rich?ard, I am going to trial. I am not going to abandon my daughter. And there's one other little fact that I should mention: I loved Natalie! There is no way on God's earth that I could ever have done this to her. And as I have made clear to you, I intend to testify. Now, if both of you will excuse me, I'm going to try to get some sleep. I'll be at your office at eight o'clock tomorrow morning, then we'll present ourselves in court. As a team, I hope.”
The Moores looked at each other, then Richard spoke. “Gregg, I will not raise this topic again. We will give them hell. And I promise you, I will savage Easton.”
Just Take My Heart
12
On September 15th, the trial of the State of New Jersey versus Gregg Aldrich began. Presiding was the Honorable Calvin Stevens, a longtime veteran of the criminal bench, the first African-American appointed to the Bergen County Superior Court, and considered to be a tough but fair jurist.
As the jury selection was about to begin, Emily looked over at Aldrich and his attorney Richard Moore. As she had thought many times during the preparation of this case, Aldrich had picked the right guy to represent him. Moore was a lean, handsome man in his midsixties with a full head of salt-and-pepper hair. Impeccably dressed in a dark blue suit, light blue shirt, and patterned blue tie, he exuded an air of quiet confidence. Emily knew he was the kind of attorney who would exhibit a friendly and respectful demeanor to?ward the jurors, and that they would like him.
She also knew that he would exhibit the same demeanor toward the witnesses who really didn't hurt his client, and save his rapier at?tacks for the ones who did. She was fully aware of his record of suc?cess in cases where the state had been forced, as she would be shortly, to call as a witness a career criminal like Jimmy Easton, who would claim that the defendant had solicited him to commit the crime.
Sitting next to Moore was his son and associate Cole Moore, whom she knew well and liked. Cole had spent four years as an as?sistant prosecutor in her office before going to work for his father five years ago. He was a good lawyer and, together with his father, would present a formidable defense team.
Aldrich was sitting on the other side of Richard Moore. Facing life in prison, he had to be terrified, but outwardly he appeared calm and poised. At forty-two, he was one of the top theatrical agents in the business. Noted for his quick wit and charm, it was easy to see why Natalie Raines had fallen in love with him initially. Emily knew he had a fourteen-year-old daughter from his first marriage, who lived with him in New York City. The girl's mother had died young and their investigation had shown that he had hoped and expected that Natalie would be a second mother to her. That had been one of the reasons for the breakup, according to Natalie's friends. Even they had admitted that for Natalie, nothing was more important than her career.
They'll make good witnesses, Emily thought. They'll show the jury how angry and frustrated Aldrich was before he snapped and killed her.
Jimmy Easton. He was going to make or break her case. Fortu?nately there would be some corroboration of his testimony. Several