Just Take My Heart - Mary Higgins Clark [83]
And for the two years I've lived here, you could just about say the same for me, she added, ruefully.
“It's clearly time for a change,” she told Bess, as they continued down the block. “I don't want to end up like that poor soul.”
They walked for almost an hour. Emily felt that her brain was beginning to clear. So what if people know I've had a heart trans?plant? she asked herself. I'm certainly not ashamed of it. And since it was two and a half years ago, I doubt that anyone will look at me now as if I'm about to keel over.
And as far as Alice Mills telling me that in my heart I know Gregg Aldrich is innocent, I think my problem is that he comes through as a very nice guy and I'm sorry for his daughter. I'll take one more look at his file and put it away. He has absolutely no grounds for an ap?peal.
That evening as she watched the second movie she had rented and ate lamb chops and a salad on a tray in the living room, she found herself trying to remember what it was that had bothered her when she was packing up the nightgowns she intended to give away.
Just Take My Heart
55
From his front window, Zach had watched Emily cross the street with Bess on Sunday afternoon. He correctly surmised that she had not walked past his house because she didn't want to run into him. Just wait, he warned her silently, just wait.
The satisfaction he had felt when he squeezed the life out of Madeline Kirk had been replaced by the certain knowledge that he was running out of time. She had recognized him. Maybe it had been because she paid attention to the fact that he'd planted mums around his other houses. But even without knowing about the flow?ers, someone from work or around here might have zeroed in on that computer image that looked like him.
Something else, in the next day or two someone would notice that Kirk's newspaper was still on the porch or that her mail hadn't been taken out of the box. He had thought about trying to buy more time by getting her newspaper and her mail when it was dark but he decided it was too risky. Somebody might notice him.
Or maybe some relatives who were hoping she'd die and leave the house to them might get excited when she didn't answer the phone. Even if they lived on the other side of the country, they still could call the police and ask them to check her out. The minute the cops started nosing around, they'd spot the cut-out screen and the peeling paint on the ground. There was just no way he could make it look as if she had taken off on her own.
After he killed her, he had wrapped her body in garden-sized gar?bage bags and tied the bundle together with twine. He'd carried her into the kitchen and picked up her car key from a dish on the coun?ter. Then he took her into the attached garage and dropped her in the trunk of her car. After that, he'd gone through her house and found some surprisingly good jewelry and eight hundred dollars in cash hidden in the refrigerator. He'd smirked at the thought of her wrapping her diamonds and money in aluminum foil.
Then, careful to see that no one was outside walking, or no car coming in either direction, he had hurried across the street and back into his house. Before he went to bed, he packed his clothes, his radio, and his television and put them in his car. Instinct kept warn?ing him that he only had a little time. Somebody was bound to come looking for the old lady in the next couple of days, and they'd find her body when they went through her car.
Wherever he had moved, he'd always managed to find a job, and always had a cash reserve. Now, after buying the car, the reserve still added up to almost eighteen thousand dollars, enough to live on until he was settled again. Online, and using yet another phony name, he'd rented a motel cabin near Camelback Mountain in Pennsylvania. Only a few hours away, it would be easy to drive back here in a couple of weeks when the police weren't swarming around here 24/7.
Satisfied with his plans, Zach