When Day Breaks
Page 24
“I don’t know, Linus. I really like the people I work with on the Evening Headlines. They would be tough to leave.”
“Well, bring ’em with you,” said Linus. “I’ll do everything possible to get Range to release the ones you want.”
“Starting with Annabelle and B.J.?” asked Eliza.
Linus shrugged. “If that’s what you want. I didn’t want to fire them anyway. Lauren insisted.”
Eliza smiled wryly as she noticed the stage manager gesturing frantically for her to reattach her microphone. “I’ve known you long enough to know that you don’t do anything you don’t want to do, Linus.”
“To get you, believe me, I’d hire them back.”
At the end of the program, Eliza interviewed Dr. Margo Gonzalez about the kind of person who could commit such crimes, speaking in generalities, careful not to mention Lauren by name. When the interview was done, Margo reached over to Eliza.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“I think so.” Eliza nodded. “I just want to go home, hug my child, and take a hot bath.”
B.J. stood out of camera range with Annabelle Murphy, who had come up to the Cloisters the minute her husband got home from his night shift at the firehouse. As soon as the program went off the air, they joined Eliza and Margo.
“If only we’d figured things out earlier, Eliza, you would never have had to go through that nightmare with that monster,” said Annabelle. “I should have done research on Lauren sooner.”
“Well, I certainly should have taken note of the look in Ursula’s eyes the first time I saw that video, back on Saturday,” said Margo. I should have realized she was scared to death because Constance’s killer was right there, interviewing her.
“Yeah, and any six-year-old could have figured out that poem,” said B.J. “But I was looking for something much more complicated.”
Eliza shook her head. “We were all looking for something more complicated. Don’t you dare beat up on yourselves,” she said. “We figured this out together. You all are the best, and there’s nobody I’d rather have on my team.” She glanced around to see where Linus was. Not finding him, she whispered, “Linus just suggested that I come back to KTA.”
“That man has no shame,” said Annabelle. “He’s jettisoned Lauren like yesterday’s trash.”
“Well?” said B.J. “Are you tempted?”
“Maybe,” said Eliza. “But if I do decide to go back to KTA, I’d want you guys to come with me.”
“That would go over real well with Linus,” said Annabelle sarcastically.
“He already agreed,” Eliza said with a smirk. “So with you two doing the investigative legwork and Margo here to help us understand how the human mind ticks, we should be able to handle anything that comes our way in the early-morning hours.”
Annabelle laughed. “Our own little Sunrise Suspense Society.”
The blue sedan sped over the George Washington Bridge. Eliza leaned back against the leather seat and closed her eyes. She was dozing when she felt her cell phone vibrate.
“I just heard. Are you all right?”
“Yes, Mack. I’m fine. Really fine.”
“God, Eliza. If anything ever happened to you…”
“It’s over now, Mack, and everything is all right.”
“I never liked Lauren, but I can’t believe that she killed Constance—and the others,” said Mack. “I don’t get it.”
“She said she killed Constance because she was the competition. That everyone would watch Constance on Daybreak and no one would watch her. The other murders were committed to cover the first.”
“Sick.”
Eliza was tired, and she ached to stop thinking for a while about all the ugliness of the past week. But she didn’t want to get off the phone with Mack.
“How’s the weather over there?” she asked.
“Glorious,” he answered. “Perfect Rome weather.”
Eliza looked out the window. The sun was shining, a few wispy clouds punctuating the bright blue sky.
“It’s beautiful here, too,” she said.
“Great,” he said, “because I’m coming back to New York next weekend.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In a world where energy is increasingly precious, it never ceases to amaze me how many people are willing to lend me their power, supplying the current to get the book written and published.
This time around, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh and Joni Evans delivered the voltage to inspire a series with a fresh take on KEY News, conveying the idea to a new publisher and leaving us all revved up at the prospects of the Sunrise Suspense Society. Their verve and excitement is contagious.
At William Morrow, Carrie Feron, my supportive editor, provided her unique electrical charge, generously offering her editorial wisdom and publishing acumen, conducting When Day Breaks on the trip from manuscript to bound book. I’m new to the HarperCollins world, but I know that so many others infused their talent, including Tessa Woodward, Lisa Gallagher, Jane Friedman, Michael Morrison, and Liate Stehlik. Many, many thanks to Tavia Kowalchuk, Adrienne DiPietro, and Lynn Grady for their marketing expertise; to Barbara Levine, Richard Aquan, and Ervin Serrano for the “electrifying” jacket; to Josh Marwell, Brian Grogan, Mike Spradlin, and Carla Parker for stimulating sales; and to Sharyn Rosenblum and Debbie Stier for zapping up the all-important publicity buzz.
A special thanks goes to Maureen Sugden, who copyedited this book with such exacting care. Her corrections were actually a pleasure to behold.
Walking the grounds and touring the halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Cloisters jolted my brain and stirred my thinking as I worked on the plot. The Cloisters is a magical place and spending time there stimulates the imagination.
Rob Shafer has helped me in the past. He came through again, this time providing a clear explanation of electrocution and how to make it happen in a home swimming pool.
Beth Tindall and Colleen Kenny provide their resourcefulness and artistic dynamic to www.maryjaneclark.com.
The zest and sensitivity Peggy Gould brings to her job moves me, reassures me, and enables me to write.
There have been many who have bolstered me on, each helping with this story in some particular way: Louise and Joel Albert, Doris and Fred Behrends, Joy Blake, B.J. D’Elia, Elisabeth Demarest, Liz Flock, Roberta Golubock, Cathy Haffler, Katharine and Joe Hayden, Elizabeth Kaledin, Linda Karas, Norma and Norman Nutman, Steve Simring, and Frances Twomey.
From beginning to end, the input of Father Paul Holmes cannot be overestimated. He contributed his creative intensity and burning enthusiasm every step of the way. My continuing gratitude, Paul, for making the journey with me.
As always, the driving forces are Elizabeth and David. Every day that breaks is brighter because of them.
So, if I’ve left anyone out, I’m truly sorry. Another Sunrise Suspense Society story will be out next year. I’ll make it up to you then.
About the Author
MARY JANE CLARK is the bestselling author of ten novels including Do You Want to Know a Secret?, Nowhere to Run, and Dancing in the Dark. A longtime writer and producer at CBS News’ New York headquarters, she knows intimately the world about which she writes. She lives in New Jersey.
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ALSO BY MARY JANE CLARK
Lights Out Tonight
Dancing in the Dark
Hide Yourself Away
Nowhere to Run
Nobody Knows
Close to You
Let Me Whisper in Your Ear
Do You Promise Not to Tell?
Do You Want to Know a Secret?
Credits
Jacket design by Ervin Serrano and Barbara Levine
Jacket photographs: water by Tetra Images/Jupiterimages; patio by Sam Diephuis/Getty Images
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dia
logue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
WHEN DAY BREAKS. Copyright © 2007 by Mary Jane Clark. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Mobipocket Reader May 2007 ISBN 978-0-06-145630-5
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