Talk by Laura van Wormer Page A

exandra's library and looked around on the shelve^j Ah, Vanity Fair. Surely Thackeray had been dead lo '" enough that no publicist would be trying to book h on her show.
    Jessica poured her hot chocolate in a mug, set t saucepan in the sink with some water in it, picked iq her book, turned out the lights and went upstairs to her room. She turned on the bedside lamp, put down the mug of hot chocolate and went back to the door to turn the overhead light. She closed the drapes, went into bathroom and washed up, slipped into her nightie an<|| came back to slide under the sheets. As she was puffing up the pillows, her hand felt something undemeaa|| She closed her fingers around it and pulled. It was a fAg packet of hot chocolate and a note.
    Dear Jessica, Sleep well, my precious. I hold the vision of you in my heart, of your body against mine.
    Love, Leopold
    Jessica cried out, clawing her way out of the bed covers and flying out of the bedroom, nearly falling over Wendy in the hall.
    "How the hell did he get in here?" she asked as Wendy rushed into her room.
    Alexandra came running down the hall, hastily tying a silk robe around her.
    Wendy came back out of Jessica's bedroom, barking into a walkie-talkie.
    Georgiana appeared next, knotting her robe securely around her waist.
    "What's happened?" she asked, taking Jessica's elbow in hand.
    "That freak's been in my room!" Jessica said.

"God damn it!" she cried, slapping her hand against the wall.
    "The son of a bitch has been in my bed!" A stalker was one thing, but a creep actually touching her things, her private places. Her bed! Here!
    The front door opened and Slim came barreling up the stairs.
    "Are you all right?"
    "Find him!" Jessica yelled, crossing her arms over her chest.
    "Shoot the son of a bitch, I don't care, just get this guy out of my life and out of my stuff!"
    Slim went into the bedroom with Wendy. Alexandra went in, too. When she came back out she handed Jessica's robe to her.
    "Come on, come downstairs to the kitchen. They're going to be a while."
    "I'm not going back in that bedroom, Alexandra. I'm sorry, but there's no way until you fumigate it!"
    "No, no, of course not," the anchorwoman said, lead ring her friend downstairs.
    "We'll go back to New York. We'll have some hot chocolate" -- "That's what he left me under my pillow!" Jessica shrieked.
    "I'm never having hot chocolate again!"
    "Come downstairs, Jessica," Alexandra urged, pulling her along.
    "I'm telling you, I'm getting a gun," Jessica declared.
    "And if that guy comes near me, I swear I'm blowing his head off. How dare he trespass on my private life!"
    Alexandra left Jessica under Georgiana's care in the kitchen and returned to Jessica's room.
    "How is she?" Wendy asked her.
    "Furious. She says she's going to get a gun and blow his head off."
    "Scared to death, then," Wendy said.
    "It gets real when it gets personal." She turned to Slim, who was bagging the note.
    "So what do you think?"
    "I think we better bring her back to New York."
    "That's what I think, too," Alexandra said. She drew her robe closer around her, giving a slight shiver, and looked to Wendy.
    "You know how this house is wired. How did he do it? How did he get in here?" She noticed something funny in Wendy's expression and asked, "What? What's wrong?"
    "It's just that Slim got some news," Wendy said.
    "He was on the phone when he heard Jessica scream."
    Alexandra turned.
    "What news?"
    "It's about Jessica's secretary," he said solemnly.
    "Bea? What about her?"
    "They just found her body," he said.
    "At West End. She's been murdered."
    Jessica, Alexandra, Will and Jessica's bodyguards were back at West End on Sunday morning to meet with police.
    "I'm fine, just numb," Jessica said to Cassy on her way into the network president's office.
    "Tell me what to do and I'll do it."
    "If you're up to it," Cassy said gently, "the police would like to ask you some questions."
    "Sure." Jessica looked to Alexandra.
    "I'll stay with you,"