Through the Heart

Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

KATE MORGENROTH is the author of the bestselling Plume book
They Did It with Love
, two thrillers,
Kill Me First
and
Saved
, and two YA novels,
Echo
and the Edgar-nominated
Jude
.

“A delightfully perverse whodunit . . . Morgenroth’s greatest accomplishment is the ease with which she describes a certain kind of ennui and aimlessness—and the kind of fatal betrayals that can lurk beneath all that suburban gloss.”

—
Washington Post

 

“[I]f you like a sexy mystery, Morgenroth keeps the finger of suspicion rotating faster than a game of Spin the Bottle.”

—
Marie Claire

 

“The character development and local color are so strong that this would be a hit even without the dazzling surprise ending.”

—
Publishers Weekly
(starred review)

 

“A deliciously entertaining romp through the thickets of sububan marriage and murder.”

—Carol Goodman, author of
The Lake of Dead Languages

 

“Compulsively readable. Filled with wonderfully wicked characters and brilliant twists and turns.”

—Lisa Lutz, author of
The Spellman Files

 

“[A]uthor Kate Morgenroth pulls out all the stops in this sophisticated tale of deceit, passion, and murder.”

—
BookLoons

“Mesmerizing. I am as delighted by Kate Morgenroth’s nerve as much as by her skill.”

—Toni Morrison

 

“Written in full-throttle style, Morgenroth . . . delivers a penetrating character study of a woman.”

—
The New York Times Book Review

 

“I read
Kill Me First
in one sitting. Kate Morgenroth has created an exciting and formidable character in Sarah Shepard.”

—Lisa See, author of
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

 

“Compulsively readable.”

—
Entertainment Weekly

 

“Nearly impossible to put down.”

—
Time Out New York

 

“Riveting . . . Morgenroth writes with quick, razor strokes.”

—
New York Post

 

“Intensely absorbing.”—
Publishers Weekly

 

“One knockout story . . . Morgenroth succeeds not only in creating something different but in doing it well.”—
St. Petersburg Times

 

“An appealing heroine supported by savvy plotting. Morgenroth’s second outing, [
Kill Me First
,] proves again that she knows how to weave a spell.”—
Kirkus Reviews
(starred review)

 

“A must-read for those who like their women tough but vulnerable.”

—
USA Today

PLUME

Published by Penguin Group
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

 

First published by Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

First Printing, January

Copyright © Kate Morgenroth, 2010

All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

 

Morgenroth, Kate.
Through the heart / Kate Morgenroth.
p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-15958-3

I. Title.
PS3563.O871497T48 2010
813’.54—dc22 2009028616

 

 

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

 

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

 

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for love

One learns people through the heart, not the eyes or the intellect.

—Mark Twain

 

 

 

 

It happened on a Monday morning.

It
.

The thing we’re all looking for. Love. On a Monday morning.

My mother always called it heart-attack Monday because more people have heart attacks on Mondays than on any other day. (She loved to share cheerful little facts like that with me.)

So it was strangely fitting that it happened then, since love is a kind of heart attack. I’m sure it hurts as much as one sometimes—and the pain lasts for a whole lot longer.

My mother was right about the statistics on heart-attack Monday, but when I looked it up online, even though my mother was right, I discovered that the second most likely time for a heart attack was Saturday morning. That made perfect sense to me—for some people the thought of going back to work on Monday was enough to bring on a heart attack. For others it was the thought of a whole two days at home with the family.

The second one sounded about right to me—especially when my mother told me for the bazillionth time that if I didn’t meet a man soon, I would be alone forever, because it was more likely that a woman would get murdered by terrorists than get married over the age of forty. She’d read that fact in
Newsweek
decades ago, and even though I told her that they’d gotten their facts wrong, she seemed to think that since it was in print it was the gospel truth.

Speaking of murders, Saturday also happens to be the day when the most murders are committed. But people tend to worry more about heart attacks than murder. The thing is, they both happen. The only difference is that one is something you can imagine, the other is beyond imagination. Murder is something that happens in the news, in horror movies, to other people—not something that might be a reality in your life. And if people do imagine getting murdered, it is usually by a serial killer or in a terrorist attack. But studies show that between 50 and 75 percent of murder victims know their killers.

In murder mysteries, to solve a murder we look to the past for clues. But if the clues are there in the past to be found, they must have been there all along—we just didn’t know how to read them.

My own personal heart attack happened on a Monday. And, right in line with all the statistics (which we often don’t like to think about—probably because we all become one at some point), it was on a Saturday that the dream ended.