Just Take My Heart - Mary Higgins Clark [54]
“I was sure.” Gregg Aldrich's voice was rising.
“How could you be so sure? This was the most important issue in your life. How could you be so sure?”
“I looked in the window. I saw her sitting alone. That's how I knew.”
Emily, stunned at this new revelation, recognized instantly that Gregg Aldrich had just made a big mistake. Richard Moore knows it, too, she thought.
“Did you get out of your car and walk up her lawn and look in her window?”
“Yes, I did,” Gregg Aldrich said, defiantly.
“What window did you look in?”
“The window on the side of the house that looks into the den.”
“And what time of the day or night was it when you did this?”
“It was just before midnight on Saturday night.”
“And so you were hiding in the bushes outside her home in the middle of the night?”
“I didn't think of it that way,” Gregg answered, the defiance gone, his voice now hesitant. He leaned forward in the witness chair.
“Can't you understand that I was worried about her? Can't you understand that if she had found someone else, I knew I had to go away?”
“Then what did you think when you saw her alone?”
“She looked so vulnerable. She was curled up like a child on the couch.”
“And how do you think she would have reacted if she had seen a figure in the window at midnight?”
“I was very careful not to let her see me. I did not want to frighten her.”
“Were you then satisfied that she was alone?”
“Yes, I was.”
“Then why did you drive past her house again several times on Sunday?” Emily demanded.
“You admitted it in your direct exami?nation.”
“I was worried about her.”
“So let me get this straight,” Emily said. “First, you tell us that you went there in your rented car just to find out if she was alone. Then you tell us that you were satisfied that she was alone after you peered in her window while you hid in the bushes at midnight. Now you tell us that on Sunday, even though you believe she's alone, you're driving around her neighborhood a good part of the day and into the evening. Is that what you're telling us?”
“I'm telling you that I was worried about her and that's why I was there on Sunday.”
“And what were you so worried about?”
“I was worried about Natalie's emotional state. The way she had been curled up like that said to me that she was very upset.”
“Did it occur to you that the reason she appeared to be upset might be your fault, Mr. Aldrich?”
“Yes, it did. That was why, as I testified on Friday, on the drive home from the Cape, I think I made my peace with the fact that it was over between us. It's hard to explain but that was my thinking. If I was the cause of whatever was upsetting her, then I had to leave her alone.”
“Mr. Aldrich, you did not find your wife with another man. Then on the way home, to quote you, you decided that Natalie was one of those people who are 'never less alone than when alone?' Aren't you telling this courtroom that either way you had lost her?”
“No, I am not.”
“Mr. Aldrich, isn't it fair to say that she simply didn't want to be with you anymore? And if something else was troubling her, she didn't turn to you for help. Isn't it true that she wanted you out of her life?”
“I remember feeling on that drive down from the Cape that there was no point in hoping that Natalie and I would get back together.” “That upset you, didn't it?”
Gregg Aldrich looked into Emily's eyes. "Of course I was upset. But something else was happening, a feeling of relief that at least I knew it was over. At least I wouldn't be consumed by her any longer.
“You wouldn't be consumed by her anymore. Was that your reso?lution?”
“I guess that's one way of putting it.”
“And you didn't drive out to her home the next morning and shoot her?”
“Absolutely not. Absolutely not.”
“Mr. Aldrich, immediately after your wife's body was found, you were questioned by the police. Didn't they ask you if you could give them the name of even one person who might have seen you jog?ging in Central Park between, and