Just Take My Heart - Mary Higgins Clark [47]
“I don't know if Ted will bite my head off if I bring this up,” Bar?bara Moynihan said, somewhat hesitantly. “But, Emily, you couldn't have been happy about Michael Gordon announcing that he thinks Gregg Aldrich is innocent.”
Emily could sense that Marion Rhodes, the psychologist, was awaiting her answer with intense interest. And she was acutely aware that while this was a social setting, her boss, the county prosecutor, was also sitting at the table.
She chose her words carefully. “I would not, and could not, be prosecuting this case if I didn't believe strongly that Gregg Aldrich killed his wife. The tragedy for him and his daughter and Natalie Raines's mother is that he probably did love Natalie very much. But I am sure Dr. Rhodes has seen many times over the years that people who are otherwise very decent can do terrible things when they're very jealous or sad.”
Marion Rhodes nodded in agreement. “You're absolutely right, Emily. From everything I have heard and read, Natalie Raines prob?ably still loved her husband. If they had gone to counseling, and had really talked out the problems caused by the frequent separations when she was on the road, things really might have turned out differ?ently.”
Ted Wesley looked at his wife and, with surprising candor, said. “Thanks to Marion, that's the way it worked out for us. We got the help we needed from her when Nancy and I hit a rough patch many years ago. If we had broken up then, look at everything we would have thrown away. Our boys never would have been born. We wouldn't be about to move to Washington. And after the counseling. Marion became our cherished friend.”
“Sometimes, when people experience emotional trauma or con?flict in an important relationship, it can be very helpful to work with a good therapist,” Rhodes said quietly. “Of course not all problems can be solved and not all relationships can be, or should be, sal?vaged. But there are happy endings.”
Emily had the uncomfortable feeling that Marion Rhodes was directing those comments at her. Could it be that Ted was setting her up to meet not a man, but a therapist? Surprisingly, she did not feel resentment. She was sure that Ted and Nancy had told the others about Mark's death and her surgery. She recalled that Ted had once asked her if she had ever seen a therapist to talk about all she had been through. She had responded by saying she was very close to her family and had plenty of good friends. She told him that the best therapy for her, like so many who experienced loss, was work. Hard work.
Maybe Ted has also told Marion that both my father and my brother and his family have moved away, Emily thought. And Ted also knows that with the work schedule I've had, there's been very little time to spend with friends. I know that he has been sympathetic about everything that has happened. But, as I was thinking when I arrived here tonight, if I lose this case there will be plenty of Monday-morning quarterbacking about him assigning it to me. Let's see how much he cares about me if that happens.
The evening broke up at ten o'clock. By then Emily was more than ready to go home. The brief escape she had enjoyed for the last few hours was over. She wanted to get a decent night's sleep and be in her office early Sunday morning. After the favorable impression Gregg Aldrich had made so far on the stand, she was again feeling deep anxiety about the cross-examination.
Or was it more than that? she asked herself as she drove home. Am I really worried about the cross-examination and