Just Take My Heart - Mary Higgins Clark [48]
Or is it that I am terrified that we have made a terrible mistake and that someone else killed Natalie?
Just Take My Heart
31
At nine p.m. Saturday night, Zach, settled in the small living room of his rented house, and sitting where he could see Emily's driveway, switched the channel so that he could now watch Fugitive Hunt. A couple of beers had helped to quiet his nerves, and he was physically tired from all the yard work and planting the mums. He wondered if Emily had noticed when she came home from work or when she went out again a little bit later how nice the yellow mums looked along his walkway.
The background music for Fugitive Hunt came on. “Tonight we will have three segments on old cases, the host, Bob Warner, began. ”Our first segment is an update on the two-year-old search for the man last known as Charley Muir. You may recall our prior two seg?ments on him—one right after the multiple murders in Des Moines. Iowa, two years ago, and another follow-up segment last year.
"The police allege that Muir was very bitter about the divorce, and was incensed when the judge awarded their home to his wife. They say that was the motive for the murder of his wife, her chil?dren, and her mother. By the time the bodies were found, he was gone and has not been seen since.
“The continuing investigation has uncovered startling new evi?dence that he is responsible for the murders of two other women, whom we now know were his first and second wives. The first one, Lou Gunther, died in Minnesota ten years ago. The second one, Wilma Kraft, died in Massachusetts seven years ago. During each of his three known marriages, he used a different identity and continuously changed his appearance. In Minnesota he was known as Gus Olsen, and in Massachusetts he was known as Chad Rudd. We don't even know what his real name is.”
Warner paused, the tone of his voice changing. “Stay with us for the rest of this incredible story. We'll be right back after these messages.”
They're still at it, Zach thought, scornfully. But give them credit—they've now connected me to the other two. They didn't have that last time. But let's see how I'm supposed to look at this point.
As the commercials were playing, Zach got up to get another beer. He was all set to get a laugh at the upcoming pictures, but he couldn't help feeling uneasy. The fact that they had linked him to both Minnesota and Massachusetts worried him.
Beer in hand, he sat down again in front of the television. The program was coming back on. Warner began by showing pictures of Zach's third wife, Charlotte, with her children and her mother, fol?lowed by pictures of Lou and Wilma. He described the brutal nature of their deaths. Charlotte and her family had been shot. Lou and Wilma had both been strangled.
To Zach's growing dismay, Warner displayed pictures of him that had been provided by family members of his victims. The pictures over the ten-year span, between Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Iowa, demonstrated that at various times he had been bearded or clean-shaven, and had worn his hair long or in a crew cut. He was pictured wearing thick glasses, granny glasses, or no glasses at all. The pictures also revealed that his weight would fluctuate from very thin to chubby, then back again to very thin.
Warner continued by exhibiting computer age-enhanced images of Zach, which interchanged the various potential differences in his head and facial hair, weight, and glasses. To Zach's horror, one of them substantially resembled the way he looked now. But anyone watching the show is looking at all of those pictures at once, he tried to reassure himself—they'd never recognize him.
“FBI profilers believe that, based upon his known prior employ?ment, he could be working in a warehouse or a factory,” Warner continued. “He also worked briefly as an electrician's helper. His only known hobby is that he enjoyed working in his yard and took pride in maintaining a garden. We have been provided pictures of his homes and will show them to you now. All three pictures were taken in autumn