Just Take My Heart by Mary Higgins Clark Page A

of this jury, Jimmy Easton told Aldrich about his criminal record and he further told him that he would be happy, for the right price, to take care of his problem. Aldrich offered him five thousand dollars up front and twenty thousand dollars after the crime was committed. You will hear Mr. Easton testify that the agreement was made and that Aldrich gave Easton many details about Natalie's schedule and where she lived. You will also hear, ladies and gentlemen, that telephone records indicate a call was placed from Aldrich's cell phone to Easton's cell phone. You will learn that Jimmy Easton went to Gregg Aldrich's apartment, the interior of which he will describe in detail, and accepted the five thousand dollar down payment. Mr. Easton will tell you, however, that he thereafter became very afraid of getting caught and spending the rest of his life in prison. He will also tell you that he then wrote a letter to Mr. Aldrich informing him that he couldn't go through with it. Ladies and Gentlemen, I submit to you that, tragically for Natalie Raines, it was at that point that Gregg Aldrich decided to kill her himself."
    Emily concluded by thanking the jurors for their attention. As the judge was telling them that Mr. Moore would now speak, she walked slowly back to her chair. She nodded almost imperceptibly to Ted Wesley, who was seated in the front row. I'm glad that's over, she thought. I think it went pretty well. Now let's hear what Moore has to say about our star witness.
    Moore stood up, theatrically shaking his head as if to clear away the nonsense he had just been forced to endure. He thanked the judge, walked toward the jury box with measured steps, and leaned slightly on the rail.
    Good neighbors chatting over the fence, Emily thought sarcastically. He does this all the time. He wants to be their new best friend.
    "Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Richard Moore. My son Cole Moore and I represent Gregg Aldrich. We want to start off by saying thank you for the several weeks that you have taken from your personal lives to serve on this panel. It is most appreciated by both of us. It is also most important. You literally have the life and future of Gregg in your hands. We spent a long time picking this jury, and when I said that the jury was
    'satisfactory,' I was saying that Gregg and I knew that the peo-ple seated here were going to be fair. And that's all we ask of you.
    "The prosecutor just spent nearly an hour going through what she represents as the evidence in the case. You heard it the same way I did. There was no arrest in this case for nearly two years. Up until that time, all the police knew was that Gregg and Natalie, like so many other couples, were in the midst of a divorce. Like so many other people involved in a divorce, Gregg was heartbroken. I promise you that he will testify in this case. He will tell you, as he told the police long before he was arrested, that he went to Cape Cod because he wanted to know if she was involved with anyone else. He did that because he wanted to see if there was any point in continuing to seek reconciliation.
    "You will hear that he saw that she was alone, then left Cape Cod and returned to New York. He never even spoke to her.
    "Assistant Prosecutor Wallace told you with emphasis about the two hours that Gregg Aldrich was out of his apartment the morning that Natalie was killed. You will hear, however, that his morning jog was a matter of longtime daily routine. The prosecutor's office would have you believe that on that morning, he managed to drive in rush hour traffic to New Jersey, kill Natalie, and then return in rush hour traffic to New York all within these two hours. They would have you believe that he murdered the woman whom he knew was not involved with anyone else, and with whom he still desperately wanted to reconcile. That was pretty much the totality of the evidence until Jimmy Easton came along. This model citizen, this savior of their case--a man who has spent