Just Take My Heart - Mary Higgins Clark [77]
Before she made coffee, she walked out to the driveway to pick up the morning paper. Knowing what awaited her, she took it back into the kitchen and spread it open. A picture of Gregg Aldrich showing him slumped in his chair after the verdict had been deliv?ered covered the top half of the front page. She cringed as she looked at the lower picture which showed a distraught Alice Mills pointing a finger at her.
She skimmed the article then threw the paper down. As she had expected, it had dramatically exploited the irony of Alice Mills's reference to her heart with the reality of Emily's medical history.
Disgusted, she vowed to put it out of her mind, and while she had coffee and toast, she made an appointment at the salon. There had been a noon cancellation and they were able to fit her in. “Something's going right, Bess,” she said. “At least I can get a hair?cut. It's so long, I'm starting to look like you.”
Four hours later, Emily pulled into the Garden State Plaza park?ing lot and headed into Nordstrom's. My luck's holding out, she thought forty-five minutes later as she handed her credit card to the saleslady.
“They're you!” the saleslady beamed cheerfully as she neatly folded the three new suits and placed them in a large shopping bag.
“Thanks very much for your help,” Emily answered pleasantly. “I'm going to enjoy them.”
She had already picked up stockings. Her final stop would be the makeup counter. While she was heading toward that area of the main floor, Emily felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around.
“Emily, it's so good to see you. We met at the Wesleys last week. Marion Rhodes.”
It was the psychologist who had been at the dinner party. Emily thought of her mother, who had always told her never to assume that people she had only met casually would be able to remember either her name or where they had met. Marion's mother must have told her the same thing.
Today Marion was dressed casually in a cardigan and slacks, but she still had that same indefinable air of elegance that Emily had admired. Her smile was as warm as the tone in her voice. Emily was genuinely pleased to run into her.
“You've had quite a week, Emily. I've been reading about your case in the papers. Ted told me how proud he is of the job you did. Congratulations on getting a guilty verdict. You must be very pleased.”
Emily realized that her eyes were suddenly moist. “By any chance did you see this morning's paper with the picture of Natalie Raines's mother pointing at me and basically accusing me of knowing in my heart that Gregg Aldrich is innocent?”
She knew that Marion, as a close friend of the Wesleys, had to have been told by them about her heart transplant.
“I know, Emily. I read the paper. It can't be easy when something like that happens.”
Afraid to answer for fear her voice would break, Emily nodded. She was aware that Marion was studying her intensely.
Marion opened her bag, reached into it, and took out her card. “Emily, I wish you would call me. Maybe if we talked a few times, I could be of some help to you.”
As Emily willingly accepted the card, she managed a half smile. "I remember Ted saying at dinner that you had helped him and Nancy through a rough patch, as he called it, a long time ago.
“I'm not embarrassed to admit that I feel kind of overwhelmed now. I'll call you next week.”
Just Take My Heart
52
Years of evading capture had taught Zach to be cautious. He returned home from Henry Link's smoky kitchen, had an early dinner, and was now thinking about how he would get back there to pick up the car. He would not call for a cab at his house because there would be a record of it.
Instead, he walked a mile to Fair Lawn and got on a bus to the Garden State Plaza in Paramus. From there he walked the half mile to Link's home in Rochelle Park. He hoped that Henry Link wouldn't see him and then come out and start talking his ear off again.
But there was no