Mary, Mary

Chapter 1 8

NINE O'CLOCK, and all was not well, to put it mildly. LAPD detective Jeanne Galletta's handshake was surprisingly soft. She looked as though she could give out bone-crushers if she wanted to. Her orange short-sleeved turtleneck showed off her biceps. She was slim, though, with a strikingly angular face and the kind of piercing brown eyes that could make you stare.

I caught myself midstare, and glanced away “Agent Cross. Have I kept you waiting?” she asked. “Not very long,” I told her. I'd been in Galletta's position before. When you're a lead investigator on a high-profile case, everyone wants a piece of your time. Besides, my day was almost over. Detective Galletta would probably be up all night. This case warranted it.

The mess had landed in her lap about twelve hours ago. It had originated at the West Bureau, in Hollywood, but serial cases were automatically transferred downtown, to the Special Homicide Unit. Technically, “Mary Smith” couldn't be classified as a serial killer until there were at least four attributed murders, but LAPD had decided to err on the side of caution. I agreed with the decision, not that anyone had asked me for an opinion.

The media coverage on this one, and the subsequent pressure on the department, was already intense. It could go from intense to insane soon, if the c-mails to the Times got out.

Detective Galletta led me upstairs to a small conference room turned crisis room. It acted as a makeshift clearinghouse for all information related to the murders.

One entire wall was already covered with police reports, a map of the city, sketches of the two crime scenes, and dozens of photographs of the dead.

A wastebasket in the corner overflowed with empty cups and greasy restaurant takeout bags. Wendy's seemed to be winning the battle of the burgers at this precinct.

Two detectives in shirtsleeves sat at a large wooden table, both of them bent over separate piles of paperwork. Familiar, depressing.

“We need this space,” Galletta said to the detectives. There was nothing overly aggressive about it. She had the kind of unassuming confidence that made bullying unnecessary The two men cleared out without a word.

“Where do you want to start?” I asked her.

Galletta jumped right in. “What do you make of the sticker thing?” She pointed to an 81/2 x 11 black-and-white photo of the back of a movie seat. It had the same brand of kiddie stickers on it as the ones left on Antonia Schifman's limo. Each sticker was marked either A or B.

One of the stickers showed a wide-eyed pony, and the other two a teddy bear on a swing.

What was with the killer and children? And mothers?

“It feels awfully heavy-handed to me,” I told her. "Just like everything else so far. The overwrought c-mails. The shootings at close range. The knife work. Hell, the celebrities.

Whoever's doing this wants to go big. Very high-profile."

"Yeah, definitely But what about the kiddie stickers themselves? I mean, why stickers?

Why that kind? What's with the A's and B's? Must mean something."

“She's mentioned the victim's kids both times. In the e-mails. Kids are a part of this puzzle, a piece. To be honest, I've never come across anything even remotely like it.”

Galletta bit her lip and looked at the floor. I waited to see what she would say next.

“We've got two threads here. It's all film industry, Hollywood, at least so far. But there's the mother thing. The kids. Never mentions the husbands in either e-mail.” She spoke slowly, mulling it over, the way I often did. “She's either a mother herself or has a thing for mothers. Mommies.”

“You're assuming Mary Smith is a woman?” I asked.