“Do you think that could be the connection? Maybe the killer reads my stuff. I mean, she must, right? This is 50 incredibly bizarre. How could I possibly fit into an insane murder scheme?”
Before I could say anything at all, he threw out another of his rapid-fire questions.
'Do you think Antonia's driver was incidental? In the e-mail it seems like he was just . . .
in the way.'
Griner was obviously hungry for information, both personally and professionally He was a reporter, after all, and already reasonably powerful in Hollywood circles. So I gave him my stock reporter's response.
“Ifs too early to say What about Patsy Bennett?” I asked. “Do you remember the last time you wrote about one of her films? Something she produced? She still produced films occasionally, right?”
Griner nodded; then he sighed loudly almost eatricahiy “Do you think I should discontinue my column for now? I should, shouldn't I? Maybe I better.”
The interview was like a Ping-Pong match against a kid with ADD. I eventually managed to get through all my questions, but it took almost twice as long as I thought it would when I had arrived at the Times. Griner constantly needed reassurance, and I tried to give it to him without being completely dishonest. He was in danger, after all.
“One last thing,” Griner said just before I left him. “Do you think I should write a book about this? Is that a little sick?”
I didn't bother to answer either question. He went to Yale - he should be able to figure it out.
Mary, Mary
Chapter 1 6
AFTER THE INTERVIEW I slouched out to Arnold Griner's desk to touch base with Paul Lebleau, the LAPD tech in charge of tracing Mary Smith's e-mails.
He tapped away on the keyboard of Griner's computer while he spoke to me in a rapid-fire patter. 'Two e-mails came through two different proxy servers. First one originated from a cybercafe in Santa Monica. That means Mary Smith could be one of a few hundred people. She's got two different addresses. So far.
Both just generic Hotmail accounts, which tells us nothing really, except we do know that she signed up for the first one from the library at USC. Day before the first message.'
I had to concentrate just to follow Lebleau. Did everybody out here have ADD? “What about the second e-mail?” I asked him.
“Transmission didn't originate in the same place as the first one. That much I can tell you.”
“Did it come from the L.A. area? Can you tell me that?”
“Don't know yet.”
“When will you know?”
“Probably end of the day, not that it's going to be much help.” He leaned forward and squinted at several lines of code on the screen. “Mary Smith knows what she's doing.”
There it was again - she. I understood why everyone was using the pronoun. I was doing it, too - but only for the sake of convenience.
That didn't mean I was convinced the killer was a woman, though. Not yet, anyway. The letters to Griner could repre sent some kind of persona. But whose?
Mary, Mary
Chapter 1 7
___________________ HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR VACATION sofai Alex? Having a lot of fun?
I took copies of both bizarre e-mails and headed out for a meeting with the LAPD. The detective bureau on North Los Angeles Street was only a quarter mile from the Times offices - a Los Angeles miracle, given the cliche that it takes forty-five minutes to get anywhere in the city.
