Just Take My Heart - Mary Higgins Clark [57]
For two hours she slept and was awakened by her own voice whimpering “Please don't. . . please don't. . .”
She bolted upright from the pillow. Am I crazy? she asked her?self. What was I dreaming?
Then she remembered. I was frightened and I was trying to stop someone from hurting me.
She realized that she was trembling.
She could see that Bess was aware that she was upset. She pulled her dog close to her and said, “Bess, I'm glad you're here. That dream was so real. And pretty scary. The only person I know who would really want to get me is Gregg Aldrich, but I'm certainly not afraid of him.”
A thought suddenly struck her. And neither was Natalie. She, too, believed he would never hurt her.
My God, what's the matter with me? she asked herself, impa?tiently. She looked at the clock. It was ten of eight. Time to cook a decent dinner, catch up on the paper, and then watch Courtside.
After everything that went on today, she thought, let's see if Michael Gordon is still so sure his buddy is innocent.
Just Take My Heart
37
It was not a good day in court for Gregg Aldrich,“ Michael Gordon said somberly as the opening credits for Courtside appeared on-screen. ”A confident and seemingly credible Gregg Aldrich on direct examination last Friday came across very differently today. The courtroom was stunned when for the first time, he admitted that he had hidden in the bushes at midnight outside his wife's Cape Cod home and watched her as she sat alone. This occurred just about thirty-two hours before Natalie Raines was shot in the kitchen of her New Jersey residence, after returning from Cape Cod."
The Courtside panel all nodded their heads in agreement. Judge Bernard Reilly, who on Friday evening had expressed understanding of how a chance encounter in a bar could lead to bizarre and unfair accusations, now acknowledged that he was deeply troubled by Gregg Aldrich's performance under blistering cross-examination. “I felt for Richard Moore when Aldrich admitted he had his nose pressed against the windowpane at midnight. I'll bet anything that he had never told Moore he did that.”
Georgette Cassotta, a criminal psychologist, said, “Let me tell you. That image sent shivers through the women on the jury. And you can bet that the men on the jury also reacted strongly. He went from the concerned husband on direct examination to a Peeping Tom on cross-examination. And going back past her house again on Sunday, after he admitted that he was satisfied by Saturday night that she was alone, could have sealed his fate.”
“And there's something else that really helped the prosecution's case today,” Judge Reilly added. “I think Emily Wallace was very ef?fective in the way she approached the issue of the squeaky drawer. She gave Aldrich every opportunity to suggest an explanation for Easton's knowledge of that table and that drawer. He couldn't come up with anything. He and Moore had to know that she was going to pound on that. The problem is that he didn't come across as some?one who honestly just didn't have an explanation. He came across like someone who had been cornered.”
“But if he really didn't do it,” Gordon said, “and if he really doesn't know, couldn't that have been the reaction of a man who feels entrapped and in despair?”
“I think at this point that Gregg Aldrich's best shot is that one or two jurors react that way and he gets a hung jury,” Judge Reilly responded. “I just don't see twelve jurors voting not guilty, frankly.”
Just before the program ended, Michael Gordon reminded his viewers that as soon as Judge Stevens finishes his instructions on the law, the jurors would begin to deliberate. “Probably around eleven o'clock,” he said. "And at that time you will be able to vote on our Web site as to whether you believe Gregg Aldrich will be found guilty or not guilty of the murder of his wife. Or, whether there will be no unanimous decision either way, which would result in a hung jury and another trial.
“I seriously doubt that we will have a verdict by broadcast time tomorrow evening,” Michael continued. “You can