Just Take My Heart - Mary Higgins Clark [68]
An hour later, after having treated Bess to a twenty-minute walk, Emily put out her food, changed her water dish, and went upstairs. Bess had been so frantic to go out that she hadn't taken the tin* change when she first got home.
Just Take My Heart
45
Detective Billy Tryon was clearly enjoying his fifty-third birthday dinner at Solaris, the popular restaurant located around the corner from the Bergen County Courthouse. His arm around the chair of his latest young girlfriend, Donna Woods, he commented how good it was to get away from the tension of waiting for the Aldrich verdict.
“Jake and I put in a load of hours on this one,” he said, a hint of boasting in his tone. “Too bad he couldn't make it tonight. His kid is in some game.”
“Billy, I didn't think you liked Jake,” Donna protested earnestly. “Why would you want him here?”
Thoroughly enjoying Tryon's obvious embarrassment as he shot an angry glance at his girlfriend, Emily felt an immediate kinship with Jake. Too bad I don't have a kid in a game tonight, she thought. I'd really rather be almost anywhere else.
The others at the table were two assistant prosecutors, two vet?eran detectives, and Investigator Trish Foley, the one who had left the note inviting Emily to the dinner.
Trish is such a good friend, Emily thought, but she doesn't real?ize how I feel about Billy Tryon. I'm sure that she invited me here because she knows I'm worried about the Aldrich jury. She thinks that getting out tonight will be good for me. I'd much rather be home with Bess, she sighed.
She had not seen led Wesley today but she knew he had bet his office. It surprised her somewhat that he hadn't stopped by to or hello. That wasn't like him when a jury was out on a major case.
Billy Tryon, still squirming from Donna's indiscreet comment about his opinion of Jake, tried to change the subject. “Come on, Em, stop worrying. When you've got such a model citizen as your star witness, getting a conviction is a piece of cake,” he joked. “Didn't you love Easton's story about the letter he sent Aldrich backing of the deal and keeping the 'nonrefundable advance'? That was my line and he used it. It got a big laugh in court.”
“That was your line!” Emily exclaimed in shock.
“Well, you know what I mean. When I first interviewed him, he told me that in his letter to Aldrich, he wrote that he wasn't going to return the money. I joked to him that it was like a sort of nonrefundable advance. And that's the way it came out when he testified.”
“Hello, everybody.” Ted Wesley pulled out a chair and sat down. They had not noticed him approaching but it was clear that he had overheard Billy's remark. “Let's get off that subject,” he said brusquely. “We don't need to create problems.”
And happy birthday, Billy, Emily thought sarcastically. She stud?ied the prosecutor's face. Something is bothering Ted, she thought. I wonder if he saw Courtside last night. I bet he did. And he can't be happy when nearly half the viewers think that his office is prosecuting an innocent man. That's not exactly the best image for the in?coming United States Attorney General, the chief law enforcement officer in the whole country.
She was aware that Ted's greeting had been directed to the whole table and that she had not received her usual warm recognition. Of course, that should have been what I expected, she reminded her?self. I know Ted is a fair-weather friend, not just to me, but to pretty much everybody. If Aldrich is convicted, I predict plenty of fair weather—nothing but balmy breezes and plenty of sunshine.
Trish tried to reinstate the festive mood that Donna's revelation had obliterated. “So, Billy, what do you really want for your birth?day?” she asked cheerfully.
“What do I want? Let me see.” Tryon was also obviously trying to shift the conversation away from any reference to Easton. “To keep doing whatever it takes to get the bad guys. To win the lottery so I can have a fancy pad in a Park Avenue building. And to visit my cousin the new attorney general in Washington.” He looked at Ted and smiled. “I want