Mary, Mary

months. It looks like she was legitimately laid off from a Marriott downtown before that. But I made some calls on the earlier stuff, and it’s all wrong numbers or disconnected. Her social security number’s a fake, too. Not all that unusual for a maid or porter.”
    “Is there anyone who can say for sure that she was actually on the premises during all of her shifts?” I asked.
    Perkins shook his head. “Just the cleaning records.”
    He looked over his papers again.
    “She definitely keeps up with her quotas, which she wouldn’t be able to do if she was ducking out a lot. And her comment cards are fine. She’s doing a good job. Mary Wagner is an above-average employee here.”

Chapter 89
    PERKINS LET ME USE HIS FAX MACHINE to send copies of Mary Wagner’s time sheets over to the Bureau for cross-referencing. Then he set me up with a maintenance uniform and a name tag that said “Bill.”
    Bill stationed himself in the basement, within sight of the stocking area where housekeeping loaded up on paper products and cleaning materials. Just after 7:30, the new shift filtered in.
    All of them were women, all in the same pink uniform. Mary was the tallest in the group.
Big-boned,
that’s what some people would call her. And she was white, one of the few on the housekeeping staff.
    She certainly looked strong enough for the physical work Mary Smith had done—manipulating Marti Lowenstein-Bell’s body in the swimming pool, moving Brian Conver from the hotel room floor to the bed.
    Bill stood maybe twenty yards away from her, facing a fuse panel, his face partially hidden behind its door.
    Wagner went about her work quietly and efficiently while the others chatted around her, most of them talking in Spanish. She stuck mostly to herself, just as Perkins had described. Hers was the first cart onto the freight elevator.
    I didn’t follow her upstairs. The hotel corridors would offer no cover, and my priority was to interview her at home later, as myself. That meant a limited surveillance for Bill at the hotel.
    My best opportunity came during the lunch hour, when the staff cafeteria was filled to capacity. Mary sat by herself at a table near the door, eating a tuna salad sandwich, writing in a clothbound book, presumably a journal of some kind. I wanted to see that journal. Her conversations with the people around her seemed to be little more than polite hellos and good-byes. The perfect employee.
    I decided to pull myself out at that point, and went back to Perkins’s office in the basement. I gave him a courtesy debriefing. As we were talking, my beeper went off.
    “Excuse me.” I got Karl Page in the crisis center.
    “I thought you’d want to know right away—yeah, just a second, I’ll be there—her time sheets check out perfectly. Mary Wagner
wasn’t
at work for at least two hours before and two hours after every estimated time of death. No exceptions. Cha-ching!”
    “Okay, thanks. I’m out of here. She’s working today.”
    “When did you last see her?”
    “About ten minutes ago. I have to go, Page.” Perkins was looking at me expectantly, and I didn’t want him asking too many questions. The receiver was halfway back to the cradle when I heard Page shout, “Wait!”
    I gave Perkins a
sorry
with my eyebrows. Sometimes Agent Page could be a little exasperating, almost as if he was trying too hard.
    “What, Karl?”
    “Mary Smith’s last e-mail, Alex. The murder that’s supposed to happen by twelve tomorrow.”
    “Yeah, I got it,” I said, and hung up the phone. I already knew what Page was trying to tell me.
    Tomorrow was Mary Wagner’s day off.

Chapter 90
    I WAS ALREADY CONVINCED it was crucial that I try to speak with Mary Wagner before the trauma of an arrest. That was my strong gut response on this strange case. I knew LAPD was going to be under a lot of pressure to move quickly, though. It meant I had to move even faster if I could.
    I hurried back to the Bureau and found Van Allsburg in his office. “Don’t ask me. Not my call,” he said, after I’d made my case for the interview. “If Maddux Fielding wants to move in on her —”
    “Then do me one favor,” I said.
    Minutes later, we were on the phone in Fred’s office. I knew Maddux Fielding probably wouldn’t take my call, but Van Allsburg got patched through right away.
    “Maddux, I’ve got Alex Cross here. He’s making a pretty good argument for holding off on Mary Wagner, just long enough to interview