Free You belong to me by Mary Higgins Clark

talk to her that afternoon, she might have drawn the sketch for them. It would have been in all the papers tomorrow.
    As he walked, his right foot began to feel heavier and heavier. It felt almost as if Hilda Johnson's thick-fingered hand were still lying on it.
    Had her dying words put a curse on him? he wondered. They had reminded him of the mistake he had made earlier today-the mistake that Susan Chandler, with her trained prosecutor's mind, might just possibly uncover.
    He knew he couldn't let that happen.
    20
    Susan's sleep was restless, filled with troubling dreams. When she awoke she remembered fragments of scenes in which Jane Clausen and Dee and Jack and she were all present. She remembered that at one point Jane Clausen had been pleading, "Susan, I want Regina," while Dee stretched out her hand and said, "Susan, I want Jack."
    Well, you had him, Susan thought. She got out of bed and stretched, hoping to relieve the familiar clutch at her heart. It bothered her deeply that after all these years, a dream like that could bring all the memories flooding back. Memories of herself at twenty-three, a second-year law student working part-time for Nedda. Jack, a twenty-eight-year-old commercial photographer, just beginning to make a name for himself. The two of them in love.
    Enter Dee. Big sister. Darling of fashion photographers. Sophisticated. Amusing. Charming. Three men in line, wanting to marry her, but she had wanted Jack.
    Susan went into the bathroom and reached for the toothpaste. She brushed her teeth briskly, as if by that action she could obliterate the bitter aftertaste she always experienced when she remembered Dee's tearful explanation: "Susan, forgive me. But what is between Jack and me is inevitable-maybe even necessary."
    Jack's agonized non-excuse: "Susan, I'm sorry."
    And the crazy part, Susan thought, is that they were right for each other. They did love each other. Maybe even too much. Dee hated the cold. If she hadn't been so in love, and such a good sport, she would have insisted Jack quit dragging her to ski slopes. If she had succeeded in keeping him at home, he wouldn't have been caught in the avalanche. And maybe he would be alive today.
    On the other hand, Susan thought as she turned on the hot water in the shower, if Jack and I had ended up together, I might be dead too, because I surely would have been on that slope with him.
    Her mother had understood. "I realize that if it had been the other way 'round, Susan, if you'd been attracted to someone Dee cared about, you would have removed yourself from the picture. But something you have to accept, even if you find it hard to understand, is that Dee always has been somewhat jealous of you."
    Yes, I would have removed myself from the picture, Susan thought as she slipped off her robe and stepped under the steaming water.
    By seven-thirty she was dressed and was having her usual breakfast of juice, coffee, and half an English muffin. She turned on Good Day, New York to catch the news. Before she could see more than the opening montage, however, the phone rang.
    It was her mother. "Just wanted to catch you before you got too busy, dear."
    Pleased to hear that her mother sounded upbeat, Susan pressed the mute button of the TV remote control. "Hi, Mom." And thank God she still expects to be called Mom, she thought, and not Emily.
    "Your program yesterday was fascinating. Did that woman who phoned show up at your office?"
    "No, she didn't."
    "Not surprising. She sounded pretty worried. But I thought you'd be interested to know that I once met Regina Clausen. I was with your father at a stockholders' meeting; that was in the B.B. days, so it would be about four years ago."
    B.B. Before Binky.
    "Needless to say Charley-Charles was trying to impress Regina Clausen with the terrific investments he'd made, a fact I reminded him of during our financial settlement, but which, of course, he then tried to deny."
    Susan laughed. "Mom, be charitable."
    "Sorry,