Mary, Mary

"Mary, Mary" is the eleventh book by James Patterson featuring the former Washington DC homicide detective and forensic psychiatrist and current FBI agent Alex Cross.

Plot Overview

Somebody is killing Hollywood's A list. FBI agent Alex Cross is on holiday with his family in Disneyland when he gets the call. A famous actress has been shot outside her home in Beverly Hills. Shortly afterwards, an editor for the Los Angeles Times receives an e-mail recounting the murder in shocking detail, signed Mary Smith. More killings follow, with emails immediately after. Mary Smith is targeting Hollywood stars and powerbrokers, and improving with every kill. From the beginning, this case is like nothing Alex has ever confronted. People make enemies easily in Hollywood. Is this the plan of an obsessed fan or a spurned actor, or is it part of something much more terrifying? 'You've got mail' Members of the A-list fear they're Mary's next target, and the case grows into blockbuster proportions as Cross and the LAPD scramble to find a pattern before Mary can send one more chilling update.

Plot summary

The book begins in New York City with a person called "The Storyteller", who is now ready to kill a complete stranger. He's in a movie theatre and sees a man getting up. He decides to follow the man into the bathroom, where he shoots the man. When two employees finds him, he kills the employees as well. He committed three murders. He waited five months to kill again. This time he was about to begin his story. He was now in a movie theatre in Westwood, Los Angeles, California. He followed a movie producer named Patrice Bennett, who likes to go to movies with real people every once in a while. He waits for the movie to start before going toward her and shoots her in between the eyes. His story has begun.

Arnold Griner, a reporter for the "Los Angeles Times" has received another email from the killer known as Mary Smith, who is taking credit for killing actress Antonia Schifman. She waited until her limousine driver picked her up at 4:30 am and sneaks in on foot right after the Limo. Schifman is not out so Mary knocks on the driver's window and tells the driver that Antonia will be right down and she shoots the driver in the head. The gun has a silencer. Mary makes her way inside the limo, and waits till Antonia gets inside, locks the doors and shoots her twice. The email makes reference to Antonia's children and mentions the kids by name.

Mary Smith's alarm clock rang at 5:30am. She gets up and makes a mental to do list: her grocery list, make a costume for her daughter, make breakfast and take the kids to school.

Alex and his entire family, Nana, Damon, Janelle, and little Alex are on vacation in Disneyland in California. He is happy and looking forward to his week off.

James Truscott is a reporter from the "New York Times" assigned to do a piece on him. Alex is upset he's following his family around on their vacation. Alex became hostile when Trescott's photographer started taking pictures of his family.

After a fun day with his family, Alex spends the afternoon with his girlfriend, Jamilla Hughes, a San Francisco, California homicide detective. The two spend the afternoon together and fall asleep after making love. Alex is awakened when his beeper rings. FBI Director Ron Burns wants Alex to look into the actresses’ murder for a few hours. Antonia had been a friend of the US President. Burn promises Alex that it's only for a few hours that the case was simple and Burns just wanted Alex's impressions on the murder.

The Storyteller is right outside the gates of Antonia's house, watching the scene unfold.

Fifteen minutes after the call, Special Agent Karl Paige picks Alex up in front of the hotel and briefs Alex en route. He tells Alex about the emails from Mary Smith and that this is the 2nd murder. Alex curses at Burns under his breath and feels lied to. The case was going to be more complicated than he’d been led to believe.

When he arrives, Alex notices Truscott and his photographer at the scene. Alex looks around the scene and notices that Antonia's face had been destroyed and wondered if this was personal. Alex finds children stickers on the limousine's door. The stickers were also left at the murder of Patrice Bennett. Each of the stickers were marked with capital letters, 2 with an A one with a B. Alex knows this is going to involve a few hours so he calls the hotel and tells Nana and Jam and tells them he won’t be back ‘till late. He tells Page to tell whoever is in charge that Alex is taking over the case and he's now in charge.

Alex interviews Griner. They’re not able to find a reason why he's receiving the emails from Mary Smith. He then meets with an LAPD tech who is trying to trace the emails origins. They came from 2 different proxy servers, 1 from a cybercafé in Santa Monica, California and another from the library at University of Southern California and she has 2 different addresses.

Alex reads the first email. He notices the children were also named.

Alex meets with Detective Jeanne Galleta. They talk about the stickers and about the kids' names on both emails. They think Mary might be a mother herself, and probably loves the attention the case is getting.

Its midnight before Alex gets to his hotel. Christine had made a surprise visit, and when she saw Alex was working she took little Alex home two days early. Alex is very upset.

Fred Van Allsburg, the deputy director of the LA FBI office calls Alex the next morning. He wants Alex involved in the case. Alex says no several times before hanging up and has his children hide his pager.

Griner checks his email again and calls 9-1-1. He tells the operator that he's received an email from Mary Smith and writer/director MARTI LOWENSTEIN-BELL has been murdered at her home.

When the police arrive, the maid is frantic. They found Marti's body was floating in the pool. Mart's office was also trashed and her computer was on and the email was still on the screen. The email mentions Marti's children.

Alex goes to his offices and there were about nine messages, two from Tony Woods, telling Alex the story about the emails has been broken, two from Director Ron Burns, telling Alex to meet with him for a few minutes before Monday so he can be prepared for a conference call and to call Galletta. One call was from his lawyer, Ben Abaijan, who informs Alex that Christine moved the custody date forward and is no longer allowed to see little Alex.

A few days later Alex and his family head to Seattle, Washington, they are going to the court hearing on little Alex's custody. When Christine shows up Alex is worried, she looks like she could be a lawyer herself by the way she's dressed. Everyone was polite to her except Nana. As the hearing begins, Christine's lawyer As the hearing begins, Christine's lawyer ANNE BILLINGSLEY has Christine tell the court about her abduction during "Pop Goes the Weasel" at the hands of Geoffrey Shafer and of the murder of her husband during "Jack & Jill". Alex stated during his time with little Alex, Christine waited seven months to call the first time and six months before she called the second time. Alex tells the court how much he loves his son. Alex did well and Ben is convinced there is a great chance for Alex getting his son back.

The judge rules in favor of Christine but allows Alex visitation rights. Afterwards Alex and Nana confront Christine, who begins to cry. As he leaves the courtroom, Truscott is outside trying to interview Alex while his photographer takes pictures. Alex warns them but they don’t listen. Alex takes the camera away.

The Storyteller was in the San Diego Freeway and was casually driving during rush hour. He was daydreaming a bit and it looks like the person in the car behind him got upset. He passes the storyteller, curses at him and gives him the finger. The Storyteller follows the car out the exit and honks his horn at him for over five minutes. He then goes to pass the car, takes out his gun and shoots the man in the face, causing the car to crash.

Galletta is speeding toward a cybercafé. The LAPD believes Mary Smith is inside. The police is there and everyone inside has been detained and all exits sealed. They are going to look into the credit card swiper required to use the internet. tHey are looking into the half written email that Mary was writing to CARMEN D'ABRUZZI, a famous cook that has her own show. D'Abruzzi is still alive and currently under police protection. The credit card belonged to an elderly woman in her 80s. There was nothing else to go on and Galeeta reached a dead end.

Alex, who's back in Washington DC, is meeting with his best friend and former police partner John Sampson about what happened at the hearing.

Alex is returning to Los Angeles. He rents a car and goes to headquarters and starts working right away. He wonders how the killer was able to get inside Lowenstein's house, does the killer have a hit list and are there connections to the victims. He wondered if the emails really showed Mary Smith's true personality or was it all misdirection. He then wonders about Truscott and what is he really up to.

Cross is meeting Professor Debprah Papadakis at UCLA to go over the emails. After reading them, the professor gives her 1st impressions. The openings are active and attention grabbing. The words are being used carefully and there is a sense of detachment except when she talks about the children. Papadakis wonders if this is the real person or a character created by the killer.

He goes to Lowenstein's house and Alex talked with Marti's husband Michael Bell. He tried to ask questions but Michael broke down and cried. Alex said they'll do this another time and asked to look around. Alex spent about 20 minutes in Marti's office. He wondered why the destroyed pictures in the office. Alex wondered if Mary Smith was losing control.

Alex is in bed but can't sleep. The background check on Truscott came back and nothing unusual. Alex misses his family. He calls Jam who doesn’t have time to talk and then calls little Alex.

Mary Smith sat on a bench and journals in a playground while her youngest daughter played. Another woman approaches her and says hello. The woman is not from the LA area and talks about the murder of those women to which Mary replies that the saddest part will be the children.

At the FBI headquarters, Agent Page tells Alex that ballistics on the weapon that is 25 years old, a Walther ppk. Alex likes agent Page and admires his dedication for someone so young.

The next day Alex attends the briefing room at the LAPD and it was packed. Leading the meeting was Galleta, Fred Van Allsburg from FBI, Chief of Police Alan Shrewsbury and Deputy Mayor Michael Corbin. As Galleta starts, Corbin shakes Van Allsburg's hand and leaves, which surprises Alex. They talk about the stickers and the gun. Galletta then gives Alex the floor. Alex tells everyone he's not convinced Mary Smith is a woman. Alex uses “she” as a default for the sake of argument. Alex says she's white, mid 30s- mid 40s, drives her own car, probably a nice car that wouldn’t get notice in the nice neighborhoods, educated and is likely non professionally employed. At the end, Alex meets with Galletta who yells at Alex for suggesting Mary Smith was a man and Alex responds by telling her that she was the one that put him in the spot. She apologizes and asks Alex out for a drink but he politely declines.

For the next few hours Alex searches and finds a triple murder 6 months ago in a NYC movie theatre. Alex notices that there was no motive and that the weapon was a Walther ppk and it was in a men's room. The crime was still unsolved.

Nana calls Alex later that night and tells Alex that this job is worse than his last one and that she had another fainting spell. Alex tries to call Dr. KAYLA COLES, but only got her voicemail. He calls Sampson later and he offers his help.

Jamilla is in LA and meets Alex in a restaurant. She tells Alex that she's seeing another man, a prosecutor. Alex is hurt and politely leaves.

Alex flies to Seattle to see little Alex. Christine invites Alex inside for coffee. Alex then takes him to the aquarium. Afterwards Christine tells Alex that she's sorry about everything and she's thinking about moving back east, to Virginia. Alex was completely taken by surprise.

The Storyteller was in Vancouver and he met with a friend, actress of his, TRACEY WILLETT. They were supposed to meet for dinner but her movie went late and met late at his room. The two did drugs and had sex. Afterwards he confesses he's Mary Smith, to which she laughs. He then tells her he was joking. The storyteller asked about her son and felt uneasy on as he drove her home. He yells at her to get out of the car. He drives off but turns around and apologizes to her before he shoots her in the throat. He gets out of the car and shoots her in the head. The Storyteller felt he made a mistake telling Tracey he was Mary and wondered if he made any more mistakes.

Alex is returning from Seattle. At LAX he catches a news report about the murders. The press had a lot of information, some that he didn’t even know himself. According to the media, there was a kill list and that anyone in the list can buy out of the list for $100 thousand and they believe the police are intentionally keeping the list secret. Alex calls FBI LA and talks with DAVID FUJISHIRO, who tells Alex that it's just a rumor. Van Allsburg comes on line and orders Alex to go to the LA times and talk with Griner, who received another email from Mary, Alex says he has to check the crime scene first and hangs up. He calls Agent Page and has him put him on hold and get back to him.

Suzie Cartoulis was pulling out of her driveway on her Mercedes-Benz station wagon. Her nine-year-old son, Zachary, was in the back seat. She almost hit a car that was idling and parked close to the driveway. She ignores the car and drives off without noticing the car was following her. Suzie's mind was on the new uncompleted pool cabana being built on her home, and meeting her lover, BRIAN CONVER, and checking to see when her husband was coming back. She was worried about becoming pregnant, now that she was the local lead anchor and was up to go to New York to be the national anchor.

In Mary Smith's email, she takes responsibility for killing Suzie and Brian.

There were actually a third victim: Mariah Alexander, a college student who worked at the hotel cleaning rooms. Alex was heading to the scene. He flashes his badge and walks in before the LAPD officer can really stop him. Inside he notices that Suzie's face was cut with a blade multiple times, the sticker were on the door. The maid was in the bathtub, and had been shot in the throat. Susan and Brian lay naked on a made bed. Alex wonders why Mary made the bed before putting the couple in the bed.

Galletta talks quietly with Cross. She tells him an eyewitness saw a blue Chevy Suburban leaving the hotel parking lot in a big hurry around 2pm. Galletta asks Cross to interview the woman. Alex noticed Galletta was looking very stressed and worn out.

Bettina Rodgers, whose face was covered with piercings and had foot long snake tattoos on both arms told Alex she was trying to start her car when she saw the SUV tearing out behind her. Cross and Galletta meet again and a hotel employee had also seen the speedy suburban at around 2pm. They decide to go public with this information. Later that night Galleta and Cross go out to dinner.

A 22-year-old woman from Las Vegas, Nevada, Alicia Pitt, who is trying to be an actress was murdered. She drove a dark blue Suburban and was murdered because three young hoodlums believed her to be Mary Smith.

Jean Galletta had been reassigned from the Mary Smith case. She was blamed for going public about the Suburban. Chief Shrewberry was now personally in charge. Maddux Fielding would replace Galletta as Galletta was on leave pending an investigation. Jean was inconsolable and felt she was made into a sacrificial lamb.

When Alex gets back to his room there is an envelope from James Truscott. The subject was Women on death row in California. There were 15 of them and Truscott wrote briefly about each.

Agent Page calls Alex at 3:30 am. Griner and his boyfriend were Mary Smith's latest victim. The murder was brutal and they wondered if maybe Griner was always an intended victim. They watch as the email from Mary Smith comes in.

The Storyteller decides to stop killing, celebrating by going to see a movie.

Alex returns home. That night, Billie, John and their three-month-old daughter Djakata, as well as Alex's aunt Tia, her son Carter, as well as Kayla Coles come to visit. Alex tells John that Burns wants him to join the FBI. John said he’ll think about it. John also invites Cross to rejoin the DCPD because, "we got to work together again".

The night after the party Alex and Kayla go on a date. They had a splendid date and promised to have a second date.

Alex returns to LA. Another email arrives, but it was different, this one came with a warning. Van Allsburg runs a briefing and tells his agents to cooperate with the LAPD, even if the LAPD doesn’t want to cooperate. Van Allsburg shares the email with the team. The email does not state who the victim is going to be, but that she sees the future victim in the gym and at the daycare. The email was daring almost as if to say “come and get me”. Alex believes Mary wants to be caught because she can’t stop herself.

Mary Smith was at Disneyland with her children. After a ride her children wanted to ride again but the attendant told her that's not allowed and if she wants to ride again she has to go on line. She begins to get angry but her oldest son begs her not to make a scene. Later the kids are eating lunch and her youngest daughter does not want to eat. Mary loses her cool and takes the food and throws it on the floor.

The LAPD and the FBI cooperated and a tip came in of a blue Suburban owned by a Mary Wagner, a virtual unknown with no driver's license in California or any other state. The plates on the car are from California, but were stolen. Her address is within 10 blocks of the cybercafé the emails were sent from. She works housekeeping at a the Beverly Hills hotel. She is thin and about 45 years old. Cross remembered the bed had been made when Susan and Brian were murdered.

That night, Alex and his partner Manny Baker were about a block away. The SUV was still in the driveway and Mary was getting out and carrying to bags in. Once Mary goes inside, the agents go closer for a better look. For several hours they just watch the house, but both Cross and Baker jump out of their seats when they see the reporter, Truscott, approaching the house. Alex orders him to stop but Truscott starts running and Alex goes after him and tackles him down. Truscott threatens to sue, his camerawoman is taking pictures, and Alex has the other agents take her camera and arrests them for obstruction of justice.

The next morning Alex is at the hotel to meet with the security chief. Mary was a model employee, but her social security number was fake and her references all had fake or disconnected phone numbers.

Alex faxes a copy of Mary's time sheet to the FBI. He then dresses up as maintenance custodian. He waits for the 7:30 shift to start and sees a couple of women arrive and Mary was among them. She was tall and looked physically strong. He watches her and she kept to herself and worked well. Alex's beeper goes off. He calls Karl Page who tells Alex that Mary was gone from work at least two hours before or after each murder and that the next murder was scheduled for the next day which was her day off.

Alex wants to interview Mary before she makes her move but the LAPD will not allow it. Alex persists to Fielding and finally is told to be at her house by 6pm.

Alex is at her house and introduces himself. He tells her it's about the Suburban and she lets him in. They sit and he asks her if the car has been out of her possession or if she has lent the car to anyone. Alex is amazed by her intelligence and how cool she was under pressure. She tells Alex that she's originally from New England and is still not used to Los Angeles. He also saw the house was neat and orderly. As he's leaving the LAPD rushes in with their guns out and arrest her. Mary freaks out and gets scared and Alex tries to calm her down but the LAPD rushes her out. Alex demands to talk to Fielding.

Fielding and Cross get into an argument and then a fight. Fielding yells at Cross and tells him he doesn’t need a confession but won’t tell Cross why. Cross calls Galletta who tells him the hair they picked up from one of the stickers matched Mary Wagners hair pulled from her uniform at work.

After two days Alex was finally allowed to see Mary. She looks horrible and he takes pity on her. She tells Alex she didn’t commit those murders and begins to cry and tells him the police won’t tell her about her children. Alex asks her about the children, their ages and how old Mary is, and if they lived with her. She becomes agitated and tells Alex she's 26 years old and then Alex tells her she doesn’t have any children, which makes Mary go crazy and she reaches for Alex's gun. The two fight for it and she is overpowered when the guards come in. As she is taken away she yells and asks where her children are. Outside Truscott is there with other members of the press and he asks Alex how Mary got his gun.

The next afternoon the LAPD had all the evidence needed to convict Mary; they had the gun, the stickers, the stolen family photographs, Cartouilis’ purse.

Alex is on the way to airport when he thinks about the stickers, the 2 A's and 1 B. Mary's “children” Ashley, Adam, and Brendan. He calls it in out of LA.

The Storyteller was done killing now that his story was complete. He threw himself a party with close friends and told them he was celebrating getting a gig for writing a screenplay. When the party was done he was in his room and began to cry. He had to kill one more person.

He went to a Starbucks and was upset because the attendant kept him waiting for a few minutes. In fact the attendant doesn’t come up until one of his friends came to the line behind the Storyteller. He takes out a gun and shoots the attendant and then turns around and shoots the attendant's friend as well.

Alex has his weekend with his family mapped out. They go out to dinner and have fun together. On Tuesday and Thursday Alex goes out on dates with Dr. Coles. The two are getting very close.

Alex is returning to LA. The LAPD was unable to get Mary to talk after 5 days and the wanted Alex to have a crack at her. Alex decided he would start with her children. When he sees her, he has her write a letter to her children. Alex does some research and finds out that Mary Wagner used to be Mary Constantine, had lived in Vermont, and had killed three children when she was 26 years old. The murder weapon was a Walther PPK. She was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to a state mental hospital.

Alex flies to Vermont, and speaks with the sheriff. He learns that Mary used to be a waitress and her ex-husband used to take drugs and had left the family. Alex wants to speak to him, but no one knows where he is. Mary's parents had both died and she was involved with a man named John Constantine, but he left her after Mary became pregnant again. Alex learns she had actually escaped from the hospital she’d been in for 20 years.

Alex then goes to the hospital where Mary had been kept and meets Dr. Blaidale. The patients were able to earn day trips and she’d been out on several of them and that day they went to a lake. There was an outhouse and she said she had to go to the bathroom. The staff did not know the outhouse had 2 entrances. Dr. Blaisdale shows Alex her journals.

A porter brings Alex two boxes full of notebooks. Alex skims through them and notices no mention of the children and thinks she may have been in denial about the children’s murder. Alex then meets with Mary’s counselor. She doesn’t seem to believe Mary was capable of those gruesome attacks anymore. She also mentions a couple of studio executives had visited her a few years back interested in her story but did not remember who. Alex runs to records and looked through the last few years on the visitor’s log and recognized one of the names.

Alex calls Karl Page in LA and has him conference to Jean Galletta. He tells her to pick up Michael Bell (Marti Lowensteins’s husband) for questioning, that he knew Mary Wagner and had visited her in Vermont. He tells her that Mary had corresponded with Michael and he may have known she was in California. Galletta tells Alex that there was a murder in Vancouver. Alex tells her to pick him up and to be careful, Alex is convinced Michael Bell is the killer.

After a few hours Alex calls page again. Marti was going to divorce Michael and she had sold a show to HBO. Antonia Sciffman, after verbally committing to a project he had financed had backed out causing him to loose a half million dollars. Arnold Griner had thrashed one of his projects. It seemed that Michael Bell’s career was crashing. Alex goes inside a gas station and when he comes out Trescott is sitting in the passenger side of Alex’s rented car.

Alex gets in the car to yell at Trescott when he notices Trescott is dead. A voice from behind tells Alex to start the car and drive. It was Bell and he was holding a gun. He has Alex drive a few miles down the road and turn into a gravel road. Alex knows Michael is going to kill him so he speeds toward a cliff. Michael yells at Alex and shoots him in the shoulder. The car turns over and over on the way down the cliff. Both are alive but hurt and soon fight. Alex knocks Bell’s gun into a stream and picks it up as Bell charges toward him and he fires and kills Bell.

The next day Alex is in the hospital and Mama Nana visits him. She tells Alex to not make his children an orphan. Jeanne Galletta calls Alex and tells him Mary Wagner confessed to the murders and hung herself.

When Alex gets home to Washington DC little Alex is there and Nana tells him Christine dropped him off, and she changed her mind. She wants Alex to keep little Alex and she is staying in Seattle.

Trivia

*Title is from the rhyme "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary".
*In the custody case, Alex is angered and surprised Christine had a P.I. snap a shot of the family being evacuated; yet, in an earlier book, (The Big Bad Wolf) he sees the P.I.