by Amanda Lamb
“Her [Ann’s] love is a thin mask that hides a very monstrous creature on the inside, a creature that is totally self-consumed and self-involved, and that’s not the way we were meant to live,” Morgan concludes as he dissected Ann’s personality one sharp country-road curve at a time.
It was on that lonely stretch of road from the Midwest to the Southeast that the idea of sharing his story first came to Morgan like one of his many big ideas that never became reality. But this time, this time he would make it happen. He would share this story so that everyone, including Clare Miller, would know.
“I believe to this day that Ann Miller sleeps every night quite peacefully because I don’t think she ever shed a righteous tear or spent a sleepless night worried about what she’d done to Eric,” Morgan says scornfully.
Good homicide detectives know that why a crime is committed is something they may never fully discover, and they don’t need to. What they need to know is who and how, period. Despite all of this wisdom, Morgan is a man who gave up on the why. And there’s only one person who knows the answer he longed for—Ann Miller herself. Chances are it’s a secret she’s not planning on sharing with anyone, ever, especially not Chris Morgan.
“It’s one of those mysteries that I’ll never be able to fully grasp or understand,” Morgan says regretfully. Yet even so, he now sleeps better than he has in years. Just knowing that Ann Miller is behind bars is enough for him.
As Morgan stands up from the old leather recliner, it’s like a weight has suddenly lifted from his shoulders. He stretches and looks out the window as the rising sun peeks through the pine trees at the edge of his yard. He has a feeling of great relief and accomplishment. He did what he had set out to do. He finished the story. He finished it for himself, but most of all, he finished it for Clare.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my collaborators, especially Chris Morgan, for sharing his unbelievable story with me, and Dr. Michael Teague for sharing his expertise and insights. I would also like to thank the Raleigh Police Department and the Wake County District Attorney’s Office for their professionalism and their assistance. I thank WRAL-TV for allowing me to cover this very fascinating story and giving me the resources to do it right.
I would like to thank the Millers for sharing Eric with me and most of all for giving me their blessings to write this book.
To my agent, Sharlene Martin—for your constant support and your tireless pursuit to make sure this story got published. To Shannon Jamieson Vazquez, my editor, for her hard work, patience, and understanding.
To my photographer, aka “work husband,” Chad, thanks for the title and for putting up with me while I was writing and promoting two books. And to my real husband, Grif, my daughters, and my parents, thanks for always believing in me.
Amanda Lamb is a veteran television reporter for an award-winning CBS affiliate in the Southeast. She covers the crime beat for WRAL-TV. Her first book, Smother-hood: Wickedly Funny Confessions from the Early Years (Globe Pequot, August 2007) is a collection of nonfiction, humorous anecdotes about parenting. Amanda, her husband, and two daughters live in North Carolina. For more information about Amanda’s writing go to www .DeadlyDoseBook.com.