Just Take My Heart - Mary Higgins Clark [44]
At twenty of ten, Belle was still going strong. She was talking about how it had been a good thing that Suzie, the housekeeper who worked next door to where Natalie lived, had been so nosy that she had gone in to check on Natalie and found her dying on the kitchen floor. “I don't know whether or not I would have the nerve to go into that kitchen myself,” Belle said.
Oh, please, Sal thought. To Belle, a closed door was an invitation to see what was going on. He stood up. “Well, I'm sure you would have helped if you had had the chance,” he said wearily. “That's it for me. We've got an early-morning pickup in Staten Island. People moving to Pearl River.”
As he got into bed fifteen minutes later, the name Jimmy Easton popped back into Sal's head. No wonder that guy looked familiar, he thought. He worked for us on and off a couple of years ago.
Not too reliable.
He didn't last.
Just Take My Heart
29
On Saturday morning, as he did every day, Zach watched through the blinds as Emily ate breakfast. It was already eight thirty. She gave herself a couple of extra hours to sleep, he thought. Yesterday she had left the house at six thirty a.m. Today, she took the time to have a second cup of coffee while she was reading the newspaper. Her dog. Bess, sat on her lap. He hated that dog. He envied her closeness to Emily.
When Emily went upstairs to dress, he felt the familiar disap?pointment that he could not then see or hear her. He stayed at the window for about twenty minutes, until he saw her getting into her car. It was a warm early-October day and she was wearing jeans and a sweater. She didn't get dressed up when she went to the office on the weekend. He was sure she was going in to work on her case.
He had his day planned until she got home again —the first of the leaves had begun to fall, and he spent the morning raking and gathering them, then putting them into large plastic bags for the town pickup.
Zach was sure that Emily wouldn't be back until late afternoon at the earliest. After he had lunch, he drove to the local nursery and picked up some autumn plantings. He especially liked the yellow mums, and decided to line the walk from the driveway to the porch with them, even though he wouldn't be around long enough to enjoy them.
As he piled the flowers into a shopping cart, he found himself wishing that he could buy some for Emily. They would look nice on her walk, too. With the way she works, she hardly has any time for herself, let alone for her yard, he thought. But he knew if he tried to be nice to her like that, she would take it the wrong way. And then . . .
It really doesn't matter anyway, he decided, as he paid the ca?shier. She won't be around much longer to enjoy them, either! He still was angry with himself that he'd been stupid enough to be sit?ting in her enclosed porch when she came home that night a few weeks ago. It had ruined their growing friendship, and now she to?tally avoided him.
He was glad at least he'd taken that fancy nightgown from her bottom drawer the last day he went through her house. He was sure she wouldn't miss it. She had at least eight of them in that drawer, and from what he had seen in her hamper she usually slept in a long T-shirt.
He drove the short distance home, reflecting that in the couple of weeks since it had been clear that Emily had rejected him, he had begun his preparations to leave New Jersey.
As soon as he had killed her.
His house was a month-to-month rental. He had informed the owners he would be moving out on November 1st. He had also given notice at work that he would be leaving at the end of October. His story to all of them was that his elderly mother who lived in Florida