Just Take My Heart - Mary Higgins Clark [28]
Superb timing, Emily thought. Now Jimmy's record will be at least somewhat separated from his testimony about Aldrich. Thank you, Judge.
Her face impassive, she waited at the prosecutor's table until Eas?ton was escorted back to the holding cell by a sheriff's officer, and the jurors had left the courtroom. Then she hurried to Ted Wesley's office. He had sat in the courtroom all morning and she wanted to get his reaction to the way she had handled Easton.
In the two weeks since the announcement was made that he'd been nominated to be the attorney general of the United States, there had been a flurry of press about him and the coverage had been generally very favorable. Why wouldn't it be? Emily asked her?self as she hurried down the corridor. Ted had been a prominent at?torney and active in Republican circles before he was appointed prosecutor.
When she entered his office she could see a stack of clippings on his desk that she was sure were about his nomination. And it was obvious that he was in a very upbeat mood.
“Emily!” he greeted her. “Come on over here. Take a look at these.”
“I'm sure I've seen most of them. You're really getting fabulous press. Congratulations.”
“You're not doing so bad yourself. You've pretty much knocked me off the front page with the great job you're doing on this case.”
He had sent for sandwiches and coffee. He pulled open the bag and started unpacking the food. “I ordered ham and swiss on rye for you. And black coffee. Right?”
“Perfect.” She accepted the sandwich he held out to her.
“Then sit down and relax for a few minutes. I want to talk to you.”
Emily had just started to unwrap her sandwich. Something's up, she thought and looked at him, a question in her eyes.
“Emily, I'm going to give you a piece of advice. You haven't wanted to publicize or even discuss the fact that you had a heart transplant two and a half years ago. Everyone in this office knows that you had heart surgery and, of course, you were out sick for sev?eral months. But because you were so quiet about the details, I think I'm the only one here who knows that your surgery actually involved a transplant.”
“That's true,” Emily said quietly as she opened the packet of mus?tard and squeezed it across the bread. “Ted, you know what Mark's death did to me. I was a basket case. People were so kind, but I was smothering in sympathy. Then, not even a year later, when out of the blue I had to have my aortic valve replaced, it was more of the same. Everyone expected me to be out for three months anyway. So, when the valve failed so quickly and I ended up needing a trans?plant, I was blessed to get one right away. I went back into the hospi?tal quietly and only told a very few people, including you, what had happened.”
Ted leaned forward in his chair, ignoring his own sandwich and looking at her with deep concern. “Emily, I absolutely understand and have always understood why you didn't want to talk about this. I saw your reaction when I asked you six months ago if you felt well enough to take this case. I know you don't want to be considered to be fragile in any way. But let's face it. You are trying a very high-profile case and are becoming very well known. The case is on Courtside every night and your name keeps coming up. They're talk?ing about you. It's only a matter of days before they start really dig?ging, and trust me, they'll find out about this. It's great human interest. Between the transplant and losing Mark in Iraq, you're going to be fodder for the tabloids, even though they'll probably be nice to you.”
Emily took a sip of the coffee. “Your advice, Ted?”
“Be prepared. Expect the questions and don't let it upset you. Like it or not, you've become a public figure.”
“Oh, Ted, I hate that thought,” Emily protested. “I've never wanted to talk about it. You know that some of these guys make it tough enough to be a woman in the prosecutor's office.”
Including and especially guys like your cousin, she