We'll Meet Again by Mary Higgins Clark Read Free Book Online Page A

was pulling up to Molly’s house, a two-story ivory stucco with dark brown shutters.
    A plump woman in her sixties with a cap of gray hair and bright birdlike eyes opened the door almost before Fran’s finger left the doorbell. Fran recognized her face from the newspaper clippings of the trial. She was Edna Barry, the housekeeper who had given such damaging evidence against Molly. Why would Molly rehire her? Fran wondered in astonishment.
    As she was taking off her coat, steps sounded on the stairs. A moment later, Molly came into view and hurried across the foyer to greet her.
    For a moment they studied each other. Molly was wearing denim jeans and a blue shirt with the sleeves rolled to her elbows. Her hair was twisted up and casually pinned so that tendrils fell around her face. As Fran had noticed at the prison, Molly looked too thin, and fine lines were starting to show around her eyes.
    Fran had worn her favorite daytime outfit, a well-cut pin-striped pants suit, and she felt suddenly overdressed. Then she brusquely reminded herself that if she was to do a good job on this assignment, she had to separate her present self from the insecure adolescent she’d been all those years ago at Cranden.
    Molly was the first to speak: “Fran, I was afraid you’d change your mind. I was so surprised to see you at the prison yesterday and so impressed when I saw you on the news last night. That’s when I got this crazy idea that maybe you could help me.”
    “Why would I have changed my mind, Molly?” Fran asked.
    “I’ve seen the
True Crime
program. In prison it was very popular with all of us, and I could tell they don’t do many open-and-shut cases. But obviously my fears were unfounded-you’re here. Let’s get started. Mrs. Barry made coffee. Would you like some?”
    “I’d love a cup.”
    Dutifully, Fran followed Molly down a hallway on the right. She managed to get a good look at the living room, noticing the quiet, tasteful, and obviously expensive furnishings.
    At the door of the study, Molly stopped. “Fran, this was Gary ’s study. It’s where he was found. It just occurred to me that before we sit down, I’d like you to see something.”
    She walked into the study and stood beside the couch. “ Gary ’s desk was here,” she explained. “It was facing the front windows, which means his back was to the door. They say that I came in, grabbed a sculpture from the side table that was there”-again she pointed-“and smashed Gary ’s head with it.”
    “And you agreed to a plea bargain because you and your lawyer felt a jury would convict you of doing just that,” Fran said quietly.
    “Fran, stand here where the desk used to be. I’m going to the foyer. I’m going to open and close the front door. I’m going to call your name. Then I’m going to come back here. Please, just bear with me.”
    Fran nodded and walked into the room, stopping at the spot Molly had indicated.
    The hallway was not carpeted, and she could hear Molly’s steps as she went down the hall, and a moment later she heard Molly calling her name.
    What she’s saying is that if Gary had been alive, he should have heard her, Fran thought.
    Molly was back. “You could hear me calling, couldn’t you, Fran?”
    “Yes.”
    “ Gary phoned me at the Cape. He begged me to forgive him. I wouldn’t talk to him then, though. I said I’d see him Sunday night at about eight. I was a little early, but even so he would have been waiting for me. Don’t you think if he had been able, he would have gotten up or at least turned his head when he heard me? It doesn’t make sense that he would have ignored me. The floor wasn’t covered with wall-to-wall carpeting the way it is now. Even if he hadn’t heard me call his name, he absolutely would have heard me once I was in the room. And he would have turned around. I mean, who
wouldn’t?”
    “What did your lawyer say when you told him that?” Fran asked.
    “He said that Gary might simply