Mary, Mary

involving serial killers like Gary Soneji and Kyle Craig.”
    Something like a hundred pairs of eyes shifted to look at me. I had come to the briefing as an observer, I thought, but now I was going to be put on center stage. No sense wasting the opportunity, or worse, everybody’s time.
    “Well, let me start by saying that I’m not yet absolutely convinced Mary Smith is a woman,” I said.
    That ought to wake them up in the back rows.

Chapter 50
    IT DID, TOO. A ripple went through the room. At least I’d gotten everybody’s attention.
    “I’m not saying it’s definitely a male offender, but we haven’t ruled that out as a possibility. I don’t believe you should. Either way, though,” I said, raising my voice over the low rumble, “there are a few things I can say about this case.
    “I’ll use
she
as a default for now. She’s likely white, and in her midthirties to forties. She drives her own car, something that wouldn’t get too much notice in the upscale neighborhoods where the murders happened. She’s most likely educated, and most likely employed, nonprofessional. Maybe some kind of service position for which she may very well be overqualified.”
    I went on for a bit, then fielded some questions from the assembled team. When I was finished, Jeanne Galletta gave the floor over to ballistics for a gun report; then she wrapped up the meeting.
    “Last thing,” she said. “Kileen, sit down, please. Thank you, Gerry. We’re not done. I’ll tell you when we’re done.” She waited for quiet, and she got it.
    “I don’t need to tell you about the kind of ridiculous press coverage this is getting. I want
everyone
thinking and acting as though there’s a camera on you at all times, because there probably is. Absolutely no shortcuts out there, people. I’m serious as lung cancer on that last point. S.O.P. should be a nonissue.”
    I noticed Galletta’s eyes shift toward Van Allsburg while she spoke. Procedure had probably been the topic of their closed-door meeting with the deputy mayor. It occurred to me that this was an election year. The mayor needed a clean result on this one, and a fast one. I doubted it was going to happen that way.
    “Okay, that’s it for now,” Galletta said, and the room came alive. She caught my eye and nodded her head toward the conference room in the back.
    I had to push through the crowd to get there, wondering what she wanted to talk about.
    “How’s it going?” I asked as she closed the door behind us.
    “What the hell was
that?
” she snapped.
    I blinked. “What the hell was what?”
    “Contradicting me, talking about Mary Smith as a man, confusing the issue at this time. I need these people focused, and you need to keep me informed before you start reviving dead issues out of the blue like that.”
    “Dead issues? Out of the blue? We talked about this. I told you my feeling.”
    “Yeah, and we put it away.”
    “No. We didn’t put it away.
You
did. Jeanne, I know you’re under pressure —”
    “Goddam right I am. This is Los Angeles, not D.C. You have no idea.”
    “I
do
have some idea. In the future, if you want me to present at a briefing, and avoid any surprises, you should check in with me ahead of time. And try to remember what you said up there, about how I caught Gary Soneji and Kyle Craig.”
    I tried to stay calm and even supportive with my tone, but I also wasn’t going to cave because of anyone’s bullying.
    Jeanne gritted her teeth and stared at the floor for a second. “All right. Okay. Sorry.”
    “And for the record, I’m not saying you need to check in with me. This is your case, but with something so big and unwieldy, there’s only so much control you can have.”
    “I know, I know.” She breathed a big sigh, not one of relief, more like a cleansing breath. Then Jeanne smiled. “You know what, how about I make it up to you? You like sushi? You have to eat, right? And I promise we won’t talk about work.”
    “Thanks,” I said. “But I’m not done for the day. Unfortunately. I need to head back to the office from here. Jeanne, I
don’t
think this killer is a woman. So, who is it? Some other time for a bite, okay?”
    “Some other time,” Jeanne Galletta said; then she walked away hastily, the same way she’d entered the conference room earlier.

Chapter 51
    FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL HOURS I stayed focused, one of those very productive work states I wish I could put myself in every time I sat down at a desk.
    I ran