Just Take My Heart - Mary Higgins Clark [8]
Even though she loved the process of preparing a new case and truly didn't mind the hours, Emily soon began to realize that running back and forth from the office to the house to take care of Bess was just too time-consuming. She also felt guilty that Bess was alone so long every day and now late into the evening.
Someone else had noticed it, too. Zach Lanning had begun to prepare his yard for spring planting. Early one evening he was waiting after she had deposited Bess back into the house. “Miss Wallace,” he began, his eyes slightly averted, “I can't help but notice that you seem to be hurrying home because of the dog. And I see you rush right out again. I read about that big case that you're in?volved in. I bet it's a lot of work. What I mean to say is that I love dogs, but the owner is allergic and won't let me have one in this house. I'd really enjoy having your dog—I heard you call her Bess — as company when I get home. If your house is just like this one, your back porch is enclosed and heated. So if you wanted to leave the cage out there and give me a key to just the porch, I could let her out, then feed her, then take her for a nice long walk. My backyard is enclosed and she can run around a bit while I'm working in the garden. Then I'll put her back and lock the door behind me. That way you don't have to worry about her. I bet that she and I would get along great.”
“That's really nice of you, Zach. Let me just give it some thought. I'm really rushed right now. I'll call you in the next day or so. Is your number listed?”
“I just have a cell phone,” he responded. “Let me jot down the number for you.”
As Emily pulled the car out of her driveway to head back to the office, Zach could barely contain his excitement. Once he had a key to her porch, it would be easy to take a wax impression of the lock on the door that led into the rest of the house. He was sure she was going to take him up on his offer. She really loves that useless hunk of fur, he thought. And once I'm inside, I'll go up to her bedroom and go through her drawers.
I want to touch everything that she wears.
Just Take My Heart
7
Alice Mills dreaded the thought of being called as a witness at the trial. The loss of her only child, Natalie Raines, had left her more bewildered than bitter. How could he do that to her? was the question she asked herself over and over again during the day, and haunted her at night. In her recurring dream, she was always trying to reach Natalie. She had to warn her. Something terrible was going to happen to her.
But then the dream became a nightmare. As Alice ran blindly in the dark, she felt herself stumble and fall. The faint scent of Nata?lie's perfume filled her nostrils. Without seeing it, she knew she had tripped over Natalie's body.
And that was when she would wake and scream, “How could he do that to her?” as she bolted up from the pillow.
After the first year, the nightmare had come less frequently but then increased again after Gregg was indicted and the media frenzy began. That was why, when Alice received a call in mid-April from Assistant Prosecutor Emily Wallace asking her to come in for an interview the following morning, she sat up the night before in the comfortable chair where she often dozed off while watching television. It was her hope that if she did fall asleep, it would be a light slumber that wouldn't let her sink into the nightmare.
Her plan didn't work. Only this time she called out Natalie's name as she woke. For the rest of the night, Alice was awake thinking of her lost daughter, musing over the memory that Natalie had been born three weeks early, arriving on her thirtieth birthday. Of course, after a marriage that had been, to her sorrow, childless for eight