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The Hidden Assassinsby: Robert Wilson |
I'll Be Seeing Youby Mary Higgins ClarkI'll Be Seeing You is classic Mary Higgins Clark – an excellent story with the requisite surprise twist at the end revealing the real culprit. Ms. Clark has made her fame and reputation on her ability to give us a good narrative. When you first begin to read the work of Mary Higgins Clark, however, you might realize she'll never win the Pulitzer for literary excellence. Ms. Clark's writing tends to be clipped and terse too often. But as you get into the story you get so caught up in it that her writing simply becomes a vehicle to push the account forward, allowing you to easily overlook any lack in the area of literary composition.I'll Be Seeing You centers around Meghan Collins, a newspaper reporter who happens to be in the emergency room of a local hospital when a female stabbing victim is rushed in on a stretcher. The victim is dead, and when Meghan stares down at her it's as if she's seeing herself in a mirror. Meghan's father is at first presumed to be dead in a bridge traffic accident ten months earlier, but the divers cannot find any trace of either his car or his body, and the insurers will not release any money until there is proof of his death. The insurance would have provided financial support for Drumdoe Inn (owned by both parents) when her father no longer had his job at Collins and Carter Executive Search Offices. When Meghan's mother, Catherine, asks Phillip Carter if there's anything her husband Edwin had coming to him in the way of finances, he not only tells her no, but that her husband had also borrowed heavily on his insurance before his disappearance. Then Meghan is told that the dead girl who looks so much like her had a piece of paper clutched in her hand, with Meghan's name and number on it. Meghan is instructed by her boss to do a piece on the Manning Clinic, where in vitro fertilization is offered to women who are unable to conceive otherwise. Her father's firm had provided them with their embryologist. Meghan interviews George Manning, the clinic's director, and he explains IVF to her and agrees that a videotaped piece would not only be interesting to the public, but would give them good publicity. She calls Mac (Dr. Jeremy MacIntyre) who is a specialist in genetics, for additional information. She's fond of his seven-year-old son, Kyle, but on the phone Kyle seems less than pleased with her. Bernie Hefferman works in the parking garage where Meghan parks her car. He lives alone with his mother, and unknown to her, has accumulated a number of expensive electrical accessories in a room in the basement, where his mother never goes. Bernie gets off on threatening calls to various girls, although he never follows them up. At the moment he has a fixation on Meghan. Bernie spies on her whenever he can. A number of odd things happen. A late-night phone call and a fax seem to indicate that Meghan's father is still alive – but both Meghan and her mother know that Edwin would never treat them that way. Then Helene Petrovic, the embryologist in the lab at the Manning Clinic, suddenly disappears, and just as suddenly George Manning reverses his decision to allow Meghan her interviews and videotaping. Since at first he'd been so ebullient about a TV Special featuring his clinic, Meghan knows there must be something else behind his weak reasons for canceling. What eventually surfaces is the fact that Helene had absolutely no experience, and all her records were falsified, putting Collins and Carter in a very bad position. Victor Orsini, employed at Collins and Carter, offers to help Meghan go through her father's files in an effort to locate anything that might help the situation. Phillip Carter has already been through them, but Meghan feels there's something that may have been overlooked. All of the above events are discovered to be related. As Mary Higgins Clark deftly switches back and forth among the characters, creating increasing suspense, the novel gradually unfolds to its terrifying climax, with Meghan barely escaping death. I'll Be Seeing You was first published in 1993, but it remains a fine example of the way Mary Higgins Clark can spin a complicated tale of mystery and murder. Alan Paul Curtis |
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