Just Take My Heart - Mary Higgins Clark [45]
Zach knew he had to disappear right after Emily died but before her body was found. He was sure that the cops would investigate all of her neighbors, and that he had undoubtedly been seen walking her dog. And it was always possible that Emily had commented to her family or friends that she thought the guy living next door to her was strange and made her feel uncomfortable. You can bet that they would tell that to the police, he thought.
He thought about how Charlotte, his third wife, had thrown him out of his own house. Afterwards she had told her new boyfriend that he was weird and that she was afraid of him. You were right to be afraid of me, sweetheart, he told himself with a chuckle. I'm only sorry I didn't take care of my former good buddy, who became your boyfriend, at the same time.
In total he bought twenty-six flats of mums. He really enjoyed spending the rest of the afternoon planting them. Just as he expected. Emily came home around five o'clock. She waved to him as she got out of her car, but quickly hurried into her house.
He could see she looked tired and stressed. He was pretty sure that she'd be in for the night and fix her own dinner. He hoped so. But at twenty after six he heard the sound of her car engine starting through the open side window. He got to the window in time to see her backing out of the driveway and caught a glimpse of the silk blouse, pearls, and big earrings that she was wearing.
All dolled up, he thought bitterly. She was probably meeting friends for dinner. At least no one picked her up, so she probably didn't have a date. He could feel his anger growing. I don't want her to have anyone else in her life. Not anyone!
He felt himself getting very upset. He knew it wouldn't take him a minute to cut out a windowpane and be waiting in her house when she got home. Her alarm would be no problem. It was a cheap basic system. He could easily disarm it from the outside.
Not yet, he warned himself. You're not ready yet. You need to get a different car, and rent a little place in North Carolina. A lot of people were relocating there all the time and with a new identity, he was sure he could blend in easily.
Determined to take his mind off what Emily was doing, he went into his kitchen, took out the packet of hamburger he had bought for tonight's supper, and turned on the television. He liked several Saturday-night programs, particularly Fugitive Hunt, which came on at nine p.m.
Twice in the last couple of years they'd presented a segment on him. He enjoyed watching them and mocking the computer images that they said might look like him today.
Not even close, he had snickered.
Just Take My Heart
30
Ted Wesley had invited Emily to have dinner at his home on Sat?urday evening. “We're just having a few friends in,” he explained. “We want a chance to be with people we really care about before we move.”
He would be starting his new job in Washington on November 5th. Emily knew that the house in Saddle River was already on the market.
It was the first time she had received a dinner invitation from Ted and Nancy Wesley. She knew it was a reaction to the favorable pub?licity she'd generated in the media during the trial. Ted liked to be associated with people in the limelight. Successful people!
Win or lose, the newspapers with my pictures plastered all over them will be lining next week's garbage pails, she thought, as she drove through Saddle River and turned onto Foxwood Road. If I lose, it'll be an awfully long time before I'm invited back, she warned herself wryly.
Ted's house was one of the largest of the mini-mansions on the winding street. He certainly didn't buy this on a prosecutor's salary. Emily thought. Of course before he became prosecutor, he was a partner in his father-in-law's prestigious law firm, but the real money, she knew, came through his wife, Nancy. Nancy's maternal grandfa?ther had founded a chain of upscale department stores.
Emily parked the car near the house's rotunda at the end of the driveway.