was the answer, and in those first years after Kathleen was gone, he had worked almost constantly. As much as possible, he handled things from home in the morning until Katie went to nursery school at noon. Then he arranged his hours to be with her in the late afternoon. He'd go to cocktail parties and first nights, and film openings with clients, only after they'd had a good amount of time together.
Then when Katie was seven, he had met Natalie at the Tony Awards. She was a nominee and was wearing an emerald green gown and jewelry that, she confided to him, was purely on loan from Cartier. "If I lose this necklace, promise to shoot me," she'd joked.
Promise to shoot me. Gregg felt his guts twist with pain.
She didn't win that night, and the guy who escorted her got drunk. I took Natalie back to her place in the Village, he remembered. I went upstairs for a nightcap and she showed me the play she'd been asked to read. I knew it and told her to forget it, that it had been bounced off half the major actresses in Hollywood and it was a lousy script. She told me her agent was really pushing her to sign for it and I told her in that case to drop her agent, then I finished my drink and gave her my card.
Two weeks later Natalie had called for an appointment, he recalled. And that was the beginning of a whirlwind romance that cul-minated in the Actors' Chapel of St. Malachy's Church. Three months after their first meeting, he and Natalie were married. By then he had taken over as her agent. In the four years we were together, I did everything I could to help her make her big break-through, Gregg thought. But didn't I always suspect that our marriage couldn't last?
He circled around the reservoir and began to run south. How much of trying to reconcile with her had to do with real love and how much did it have to do with obsession? he asked himself. I was obsessed with her. But I was also obsessed with the idea of recaptur-ing what I had, a wife who loved me, a good mother for Katie. I didn't want to lose Natalie and begin all over again.
I didn't want Natalie to throw away her career and it was going to happen. Leo Kearns is a good agent but he would have tried to cash in on her, do what her first agent was doing all over again.
Why did I follow her to Cape Cod? What was I thinking? What was I thinking the morning that she died?
Without realizing it, Gregg had run all the way to Central Park South and started north again.
When he got back to the apartment, he found Katie, dressed and frantically worried.
"Daddy, it's seven thirty. We've got to leave in ten minutes. Where were you?"
"Seven thirty! Katie, I'm sorry. I was thinking things through. I had no idea of the time."
Gregg rushed to shower. That's what happened the morning Natalie died, he thought. I had no idea of the time. And I didn't drive to New Jersey then any more than I drove there now.
For the first time he felt certain of it.
Almost certain! he corrected himself.
24
At nine o'clock Emily called the first of her two corroborating witnesses. Eddie Shea was a representative from Verizon, who testified that their records showed that a call had been made from Gregg Aldrich's cell phone at 6:38 p.m. to Natalie Raines on the evening of March 2nd two and a half years ago and a call to Jimmy Easton was made that same evening at 7:10 p.m.
The second witness was Walter Robinson, the Broadway investor who had spoken to Gregg at Vinnie's-on-Broadway and remembered seeing Easton sitting next to him at the bar.
When Robinson left the witness stand, Emily turned to the judge. "Your Honor, the state rests."
The courthouse is packed, she thought, as she took her seat at the prosecutor's table. She recognized some familiar faces in the audience, people whose names popped up on Page Six of the New York Post. As usual the proceedings were being videotaped. Yesterday she had been stopped in the corridor by Michael Gordon, the host of Courtside, complimenting her on the job
Then when Katie was seven, he had met Natalie at the Tony Awards. She was a nominee and was wearing an emerald green gown and jewelry that, she confided to him, was purely on loan from Cartier. "If I lose this necklace, promise to shoot me," she'd joked.
Promise to shoot me. Gregg felt his guts twist with pain.
She didn't win that night, and the guy who escorted her got drunk. I took Natalie back to her place in the Village, he remembered. I went upstairs for a nightcap and she showed me the play she'd been asked to read. I knew it and told her to forget it, that it had been bounced off half the major actresses in Hollywood and it was a lousy script. She told me her agent was really pushing her to sign for it and I told her in that case to drop her agent, then I finished my drink and gave her my card.
Two weeks later Natalie had called for an appointment, he recalled. And that was the beginning of a whirlwind romance that cul-minated in the Actors' Chapel of St. Malachy's Church. Three months after their first meeting, he and Natalie were married. By then he had taken over as her agent. In the four years we were together, I did everything I could to help her make her big break-through, Gregg thought. But didn't I always suspect that our marriage couldn't last?
He circled around the reservoir and began to run south. How much of trying to reconcile with her had to do with real love and how much did it have to do with obsession? he asked himself. I was obsessed with her. But I was also obsessed with the idea of recaptur-ing what I had, a wife who loved me, a good mother for Katie. I didn't want to lose Natalie and begin all over again.
I didn't want Natalie to throw away her career and it was going to happen. Leo Kearns is a good agent but he would have tried to cash in on her, do what her first agent was doing all over again.
Why did I follow her to Cape Cod? What was I thinking? What was I thinking the morning that she died?
Without realizing it, Gregg had run all the way to Central Park South and started north again.
When he got back to the apartment, he found Katie, dressed and frantically worried.
"Daddy, it's seven thirty. We've got to leave in ten minutes. Where were you?"
"Seven thirty! Katie, I'm sorry. I was thinking things through. I had no idea of the time."
Gregg rushed to shower. That's what happened the morning Natalie died, he thought. I had no idea of the time. And I didn't drive to New Jersey then any more than I drove there now.
For the first time he felt certain of it.
Almost certain! he corrected himself.
24
At nine o'clock Emily called the first of her two corroborating witnesses. Eddie Shea was a representative from Verizon, who testified that their records showed that a call had been made from Gregg Aldrich's cell phone at 6:38 p.m. to Natalie Raines on the evening of March 2nd two and a half years ago and a call to Jimmy Easton was made that same evening at 7:10 p.m.
The second witness was Walter Robinson, the Broadway investor who had spoken to Gregg at Vinnie's-on-Broadway and remembered seeing Easton sitting next to him at the bar.
When Robinson left the witness stand, Emily turned to the judge. "Your Honor, the state rests."
The courthouse is packed, she thought, as she took her seat at the prosecutor's table. She recognized some familiar faces in the audience, people whose names popped up on Page Six of the New York Post. As usual the proceedings were being videotaped. Yesterday she had been stopped in the corridor by Michael Gordon, the host of Courtside, complimenting her on the job
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