Just Take My Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

close friend of both Gregg and Natalie even before they were married. He had spoken eloquently at Natalie's memorial service and had frequently invited Gregg and his daughter, Katie, to his skiing lodge in Vermont on weekends during the two winters since Natalie's death.
    I always believed that the cops rushed to judgment by publicly referring to Gregg as "a person of interest," Michael thought, as he absentmindedly glanced at and pushed aside the newspapers on his desk. What do I believe now? I just don't know.
    Gregg had called the same day he was indicted. "Mike, I assume you'll be covering the trial on your program?"
    "Yes."
    "I'm going to make it easy for you. I'm not going to ask you if you believe Easton's story. But I think it best if we avoid each other until after the trial."
    "I think you're right, Gregg." An uncomfortable silence settled between them.
    They had not seen each other much in these past six months. Occasionally they'd been in the theatre or at a cocktail party and had only nodded in passing. Now the trial was scheduled to start on September 15th, next Monday. Mike knew he would cover it the usual way, highlights of the day's testimony every evening, followed by discussion with his panel of legal experts. It was a real break that the judge was allowing cameras inside the courtroom. Clips of the actual proceedings made for good viewing.
    Knowing Gregg, he was sure that on the surface he would be composed no matter what accusations the prosecutor threw at him. But Gregg's emotions ran deep. At the memorial service he had been composed. Later that evening in his apartment, with only Natalie's mother and Katie and Mike present, he had suddenly started sobbing inconsolably, then, embarrassed, had rushed from the room.
    There was no question he had been crazy about Natalie. But had that outburst been pure grief, or had it been remorse? Or was it terror at the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison? Mike wasn't sure anymore. For some reason the image of Scott Peterson tacking up posters with pictures of his missing wife when he had in fact murdered her and tossed her body in the Pacific Ocean surfaced whenever he thought of the evening that Gregg had broken down.
    "Mike."
    His secretary was on the intercom. Startled out of his reverie, Michael said, "Oh, uh, yes, Liz."
    "Katie Aldrich is here. She'd like to see you." "Katie! Of course. Send her in."
    Mike rushed to get up and around his desk. As the door opened, he greeted the slender, golden-haired fourteen-year-old with open arms. "Katie, I've missed you." He could feel her trembling as he embraced her.
    "Mike, I'm so scared. Tell me there's no way they'll find Daddy guilty."
    "Katie, your dad has a good lawyer, the best. Everything rests on the testimony of a convicted crook."
    "Why haven't we seen you in six months?" She searched his face carefully.
    Mike led her over to the comfortable chairs in front of the windows that overlooked the Rockefeller Center skating rink. After they were both seated, he reached over and took her hand. "Katie, that was your dad's idea, not mine."
    "No, Mike. When he called you with that suggestion, it was his way of testing you. He said that if you were convinced he was innocent, you wouldn't have taken him up on that offer."
    Mike realized he was ashamed to see the anger and hurt now in her eyes. Was she right? "Katie, I'm a journalist. I should not be privy to your dad's defense and if I were in and out of your apartment, it might be inevitable that I hear things that I shouldn't know. As it is, I will have to tell my audience repeatedly that I am and have been a close friend of your dad, but will not speak to him until the proceedings are over."
    "Can you help influence public opinion so that if he is acquitted" --Katie hesitated --
    "when he is acquitted, people will understand he is an innocent man who was unfairly accused?"
    "Katie, the public will have to make that decision for themselves."
    Katie Aldrich