Do You Want to Know a Secret?
Read Do You Want to Know a Secret? Online
Authors: Mary Jane Clark
Something to hide
. . .
“I wanted to show you this before someone else did.” Harry slowly unrolled the newspaper. Eliza saw the blazing masthead of
The Mole
, the most popular of the nation’s supermarket tabloids. At the side of the front page sat an inky black rodent with oversize teeth; next to it was the slogan “We dig it all up.”
Beneath that was the gigantic headline. Eliza stared at it, feeling her chest tighten. She let her telephone buzz insistently as she scanned the story about the most painful period of her life. Harry rambled on in outrage.
“Everyone knows these tabloid stories aren’t worth the paper they’re written on! Nobody pays any attention to them!”
“You did,” she said . . . .
“Secrets . . . ambition . . . intrigue . . . Mary Jane Clark knowingly seduces you in this intensely suspenseful behind-the-media-scenes thriller.”
—Joan Rivers
“Clark . . . spins a tightly knit whodunit with engaging characters and a suspenseful plot.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“Behind-the-scenes rivalries of national television news furnish an energetic and interesting background for a thriller that is well-structured and fast-paced.”
—
Sullivan County Democrat
Do You
Want To
Know
A Secret?
M
ARY
J
ANE
C
LARK
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
Chapter 121
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
Chapter 125
Chapter 126
Chapter 127
Chapter 128
Chapter 129
Chapter 130
Chapter 131
Chapter 132
Chapter 133
Chapter 134
Chapter 135
Chapter 136
Chapter 137
Chapter 138
Chapter 139
Chapter 140
Chapter 141
For Elizabeth Higgins Clark and
David Frederick Clark
I tried to
keep this book a secret, wanting to reserve the right to fail in private.
But I am weak, and the road from idea to publication is long and lonely. I needed moral support. So I told a few people . . . or now, as I list them, I realize, more than a few people . . . people who were there, pulling for me during a very rough period of my life.
It is my sincere pleasure to thank Louise and Joel Albert, Regina Blakely, Beth Boyle, Joy Blake, Eileen Winters Chiocchi, Bunny Colburn, Pat Cunningham, B. J. D’Elia, Elizabeth Demarest, Roberta Golubock, Amy Guttman, Cathy White Haffler, Randi Hagerman, Cathy and David Holmes, Caroline Leiber, Katharine and Joe Hayden, Elizabeth Kaledin and Jon Dohlin, Judy Keegan, Linda Karas, Hal Leibowitz, Walt Leiding, Susie Marshall, Tina McEvoy, Jim McGlinchy, Marcy McGinnis, Norma and Norman Nutman, Louise Ryan, Steve and Susie Simring, and Frances Twomey. I am truly blessed to have you as friends and confidantes. You guys are much better at keeping a secret than I am!
Dan Rather, you probably had no idea what an emotional boost you gave me each time you asked how the book was coming.
Joni Evans, you were the first to make me believe that my dream could come true. Thank you for your nurturing energy; you made me feel very special.
Liz Mullen, you rooted for me, hoped with me, and led me to Laura Dail, my wonderful agent. Laura, I’m convinced, wanted this to be successful as much as I did . . . and believe me, that’s saying something!
Thanks to my editor, Jennifer Weis, and her editorial assistant, Kristen Macnamara, for believing in this project and for skillfully shepherding it along the path to publication.
Thanks to George Condouris, M.D., of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Department of Toxicology for his expert advice on what would and wouldn’t kill somebody.
Very special thanks to Father Paul Holmes, brainstormer extraordinaire, who asked all the right questions, had a great sense of fun, and knew that genius lay in the details. Thank God for Paul.
And finally, Doris and Fred Behrends, my parents, and my sister, Margaret Ann Behrends. Without your support I couldn’t have done it. Thank you for helping me and loving my children.
