Just Take My Heart - Mary Higgins Clark [32]
“How did you let Mr. Aldrich know that you wouldn't go through with it?”
“I wrote him a letter saying that I didn't think I was the right per?son for the job he had in mind and I was grateful to him for the non?refundable advance he gave me.”
The outright laughter in the courtroom caused an angry reaction from the judge, who once again warned against outbursts of any kind. Then the judge told Emily to continue.
“What did you do with the five thousand dollars, Mr. Easton?”
“The usual. I blew it all gambling.”
“When did you mail the letter backing out of your deal to murder Natalie Raines?”
“The morning of March twelfth, I sent it to Gregg Aldrich at his apartment. I mailed it in the post office box near my rooming house in Greenwich Village.”
“Why did you write to him?”
“ 'Cause he said not to phone him, that he had made a mistake calling me that one time. And I knew he'd get the letter. You know what they say, 'Neither rain, nor storm, nor dark of night will keep the postman from completing his appointed rounds.' And I've got to say he was always there with my bills.” Jimmy couldn't help turning and smiling at the jury, hoping they appreciated that little joke. He knew they were eating up everything he said, and it felt good not to be the one on trial for a change.
“That letter backing out of your contract to murder Natalie Raines was mailed on March twelfth,” Emily said slowly and turned to look at the jurors. She hoped they were doing their own calcula?tions. Gregg Aldrich would have received that letter on Friday the 13th, or Saturday the 14th.
She hoped they were remembering what she had told them in her opening statement. On Friday evening the 13th, he went to see Natalie's final performance and the witnesses who saw him there stated that he sat stone-faced in the last row, and was the only one who did not participate in the standing ovation for her. On Saturday the 14th of March, he rented a car and followed his estranged wife to Cape Cod.
She waited a long moment then looked at Judge Stevens. “No further questions, Your Honor,” she said.
Just Take My Heart
20
Richard Moore stood up slowly. For the next two hours, after reviewing Jimmy Easton's long criminal record with him, he began to attack his testimony. But the more Jimmy testified, the more he was actually strengthening our case, Emily thought with satisfac?tion.
Moore kept trying to put a different spin on the facts that Gregg had met Jimmy in Vinnie's-on-Broadway, that Gregg called Natalie in Jimmy's presence, that a chance acquaintance, Walter Robinson, commented to Gregg about Natalie's performance in Streetcar, and that shortly afterwards Gregg called Jimmy on his cell phone.
But skilled attorney that he was, Richard Moore could not rattle Jimmy or catch him contradicting himself. When he asked, “Isn't it a fact that Gregg Aldrich and you had only a casual conversation about sports?” Jimmy replied, “If you call asking me to kill his wife casual conversation, sure.”
Moore's question: “Isn't it true that in a noisy bar it would be im?possible for you to hear what Natalie Raines said to Gregg?”
Jimmy's answer was: “She was an actress. She knew how to project her voice. It's a wonder the whole bar didn't hear her scream?ing at him.”
Jimmy's loving this, Emily thought. He's eating up being in the limelight. She worried about the fact that he was becoming too loquacious, and an increasingly irritated Judge Stevens kept remind?ing Jimmy to restrict his answers to the questions posed.
“As to the phone call from Gregg Aldrich's cell phone to yours, isn't it a fact that when you were at the bar you told Gregg you had mislaid your cell phone since you arrived there? Isn't it a fact that you asked him to dial your number so your phone would ring and you could find it? Isn't that what really happened?”
“Absolutely not. I never mislaid my cell phone,” Jimmy answered. “I always kept it in a clip on my