Just Take My Heart by Mary Higgins Clark Read Free Book Online Page B

eyes shifting between Emily and the defense table, Emily continued. "Telephone records reveal that on the following morning, Saturday, March 14th, Gregg received what would be his last phone call from Natalie. According to his own statement to the police after her body was found, Natalie left a message for Gregg that she had gone to her Cape Cod home for the weekend. She told him that she still intended to be present at the scheduled three o'clock transition meeting on Monday in her new agent's Manhattan office."
    Emily related that Aldrich explained to the police that this meeting had been scheduled so that he and the new agent could review her contracts and pending offers in Natalie's presence. Gregg admitted to the police that in the message Natalie told him she needed to be alone, and implored him not to contact her for any reason during the weekend.
    Emily then turned toward Gregg, as if to confront him. "Gregg Aldrich responded to that request," she said, her voice rising. "Although he initially denied that he had any further contact with Natalie prior to her death, the police challenged him with the records they quickly obtained. Within a half hour of that phone call, his credit card was used to rent a vehicle, a dark green Toyota sedan, which he kept for two days and drove a total of 680
    miles. The rental itself was particularly important because the defendant already owned a car, which remained in the garage of the apartment building where he lived."
    Turning back toward the jurors, Emily argued that the mileage was extremely significant because the round trip to Natalie's Cape Cod home from Manhattan was five hundred and forty miles. Only after being confronted by the police with the fact that a Cape Cod neighbor, who lived around the corner from Natalie, had seen him driving a dark green Toyota past his home on the Saturday night prior to Natalie's death, did Gregg Aldrich admit that he had been there.
    "And what did he say about why he had gone there? He would have this jury believe," Emily argued, "that his sole purpose in mak-ing the trip was to see if his estranged wife was with another man that weekend. Aldrich would also have you believe that if he had seen anyone else with her, he would have given up his efforts to reconcile and accept the divorce."
    Emily rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders. "Just like that," she said. "After begging her to come back to him, the same man who was literally stalking her in a rented vehicle that gave him cover, was going to pick up his marbles and go home. But he didn't count on a neighbor seeing him behind the wheel of that rented car.
    "Gregg Aldrich lives very well. There are fine inns on Cape Cod, but he stayed in a cheap motel in Hyannis. He admitted that he drove past Natalie's house twice on Saturday and did not observe any other car or person there. He further admitted that on Sunday he drove by her house three times, the last time at eight o'clock that evening, and that it appeared to him Natalie was alone. He claimed that he drove five hours back to New York and immediately went to bed. He stated that he awoke at seven a.m. on Monday morning, left about seven twenty for a jog in Central Park, jogged or walked for well over two hours, and returned the Toyota to the rental office six blocks from his apartment at ten a.m."
    Emily's voice grew increasingly sarcastic. "And what did he tell the police about why he rented a car, as opposed to driving his own luxury vehicle? He stated that his own car was past due for servicing and he didn't want to put this much more mileage on it at that time." She shook her head. "What a pathetic story. I submit to you that Gregg Aldrich rented a vehicle that would not be recognized by Natalie if she had happened to look out her window. He did not want Natalie to know that he was stalking her."
    Emily took a deep breath. "But he did know her habits. Natalie hated to drive in traffic. She didn't mind driving late at night or very