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    End of Watch: A Novel
    End of Watch: A Novel
    End of Watch: A Novel
    Ebook463 pages8 hours

    End of Watch: A Novel

    By Stephen King

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Now an AT&T Audience Original Series

    The fabulously suspenseful and "smashing" (The New York Times Book Review) final novel in the Bill Hodges trilogy from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers!

    For nearly six years, in Room 217 of the Lakes Region Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, Brady Hartsfield has been in a persistent vegetative state. A complete recovery seems unlikely for the insane perpetrator of the “Mercedes Massacre,” in which eight people were killed and many more maimed for life. But behind the vacant stare, Brady is very much awake and aware, having been pumped full of experimental drugs...scheming, biding his time as he trains himself to take full advantage of the deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room. Brady Hartsfield is about to embark on a new reign of terror against thousands of innocents, hell-bent on taking revenge against anyone who crossed his path—with retired police detective Bill Hodges at the very top of that long list....
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherScribner
    Release dateJun 7, 2016
    ISBN9781501134159
    Author

    Stephen King

    Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. Among his most recent are 11/22/63, Under the Dome, and the Dark Tower novels Cell, From a Buick 8, Everything's Eventual, Hearts in Atlantis, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, and Bag of Bones. His acclaimed nonfiction book, On Writing, was also a bestseller. He is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

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    Reviews for End of Watch

    4/5

    1,054 ratings82 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be a solid read, with characters that ring true and great storytelling. While some parts may be slow and the writing can be wordy, it is still a perfect title that made readers cry. It is considered the best book of the trilogy and the story takes readers where they need to go without being obvious. Overall, it is a great work of storytelling that can be enjoyed by all."

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I didn't like this as much as the other two books in the series but it was still a good read. Although the villain is the same, his powers are now supernatural and so the book moves more into the usual Stephen King territory. I did like the fact that the plot was very relevant in today's world of online access and mobile devices. King again demonstrates his power to write horror that unsettles and makes food for thought.
    • 4/5
      King's books have run hot and cold the past few years. This book ranks among the 'hot.' King has the readers on the edge of their seats, eying their iPads and old Game Boys with a wary eye.
    • 5/5
      Payback is a bitch and the bitch is me! Great ending to a great series. There's just something about King that makes it possible for him to write a believable story about and unbelievable subject, and this series just proves my point.
    • 5/5
      End of Watch brings the trilogy full circle with a showdown of Brady Hartsfield vs. Hodges and friends. The novel starts off with a suicide of a survivor of the City Center Massacre. Hodges gets involved after he receives a phone call from his old partner. After looking over the crime scene Hodges and his partner find the scene odd. This sets Hodges off to piece together what's behind the suicides plaguing those connected to Hartsfield into a thrilling finish. Perspectives switch between Hartsfield, Hodges, and Hartsfield's victims. The action moves somewhat quickly but there are many instances when the action stops and there is an explanatory section. I really enjoyed the book and have very few issues. My biggest problem was the ending. It ended the way I thought it would but I feel like there was a better ending already in it.
    • 5/5
      This last book of the trilogy didn't disappoint. It was as tightly woven and suspenseful as the first two in the series. The characters were consistent and the details were beautifully crafted. Stephen King at his best. Loved it.
    • 5/5
      It has been a while since I have read any Stephen King, and as always when I return after 6 months of reading other books, it is like coming home. I find his style flows as do his characters and storylines. And End of Watch is no exception.

      The third in a trilogy of a gripping detective story, End of Watch brings final closure to the sick minded individual at the centre of the stories: Brady Hartsfield. In this installment Stephen King stretches the realms of possibility by bringing the concept of telekinesis and even taking over someone's mind. But he weaves it so well into the story and plot, offering the possibility through experimental medications that the reader can accept it and stay connected with the plot and the characters.

      This novel can also be read as a standalone as Stephen King masterfully intertwines a recap of events in the opening chapters to bring the reader up to speed.

      I would recommend this book and this series to not just those who love Horror but also those who love Crime Fiction too. It will definitely thrill.
    • 3/5
      As I've mentioned before, I didn't read Stephen King's work until this year, and I lucked out in starting with Mr. Mercedes, which was book one in this trilogy. End of Watch is the final book, and explores more supernatural themes than the previous two.

      If you've read the first two: so Retired Detective Hodges is not feeling good, and we find out that has pancreatic cancer. Not a great diagnosis. He and his partner Holly are still running their private investigation business, and Jerome is at Harvard, but taking the semester off to build homes. Meanwhile, mass murderer (and attempted GIANT mass murderer) Brady is still in the forensic brain injury unit at the local hospital. But as hinted at in the last book, he isn't in a persistent vegetative state after all - and his injury might have given him some special powers, a la Carrie.

      I appreciate Mr. King's writing, and I'm glad I finished the series. It was an interesting book, and I found myself wanting to keep reading to find out what would happen next. But even though it was handled very well, I'm still not super excited about this type of book. I don't mind magic or supernatural, but I like it when that's the world people live in - like Harry Potter. I'm not a big fan of mixing it into books that are ostensibly based in the real world. So while I loved Misery, maybe I'm not going to enjoy It that much.

      Anyway, if you've read the first two books, I think it's definitely worth finishing out the series. Not a bad book, just not my favorite.
    • 5/5
      An exciting conclusion to what has been a great series. The one does not disappoint with great characters and an excellent story line.

      5 Stars and a must read Steven King!!!
    • 4/5
      Classic New King. Still the smooth writing and good story telling but the books are thin and predictable, still enjoyable, but not as dense as they once were.
    • 4/5
      I've loved this trilogy, and End of Watch is definitely an excellent conclusion to the series. As always, King manages to combine suspense, great characters and a plot with a hint of the supernatural almost without trying. I think the Hodges books would make a great introduction to King's work for those who want to ease themselves into his love of the uncanny gently but still want a cracking mystery to solve.
    • 5/5
      I'm still reeling from the end of this trilogy. It's a hangover and a half, and I am very thankful for making the journey.

      Notes:

      Brady Hartsfield is one of the sickest, most terrifying baddie that I've ever encountered.

      The relationships in this series of books are some of the unique I've ever seen, outside of Harry Potter, perhaps. You truly feel what these characters feel and, without sounding too cheesy, you find yourself rooting for them.

      End of Watch is a brilliant bookend, satisfying and exhilarating.
    • 4/5
      When I read some books, I think "This is well written". When I read Stephen King books I never think that....because King's books are so well written, you don't notice the writing. King is a true master at his craft, which holds true with the Bill Hodges Trilogy.
    • 5/5
      Whew, I finally finished End of Watch and man... It's been more than twenty-four hours and I'm still messed up about it. King definitely has a way of drawing the reader in, even if said reader is as nihilistic as me when it comes to developing character attachments. Unlike Finders Keepers, book two of the trilogy, King dives right into continuing the story with our main characters, Bill, Holly, and Jerome rather than beginning from the left field as he had with the Saubers family and the Rothstein manuscripts.

      The Mercedes Killer himself, Brady Hartsfield, is back thanks to the help of Dr. Babineau. Desiring to truly earn his name as the Suicide Prince, he continues on his rampage of convincing people to kill themselves. His bitterness towards Hodges is stronger than ever and our trio of heroes soon find themselves within the scope of Harsfeild's thirst for blood.

      This time around, we aren't really introduced to a whole ton of new characters. In fact, the majority of characters in End of Watch we've already met. Because of that, King is able to jump right into the action and wastes no time in doing what King does best: keeping the reader on the edge of their seat. (Not counting From a Buick 8, of course, but let's not get into that. I'd review it, but I don't even want to pick it up again, let alone buy it.)

      Other than that I really don't have a whole lot to say about the final installment in this series that I haven't already said on the books before it. I loved the fact that we were able to immediately return to the story that was left open ended at the conclusion of Mr. Mercedes, rather than being dragged through the filler episode that was Finders Keepers. (I couldn't think of a much better way to word that because before I turned to reviewing books, I spent quite a bit of time reviewing anime and if you've ever watched the mainstream, popular series you know exactly what I mean.) I would have felt alright for the most part if I had skipped Finders Keepers, as it plays a very small role outside of the company being created.
    • 5/5
      Nicely written Stephen King suspense novel. Rather short by SK standards.
    • 5/5
      wow.. this man can write like no other. He is a true genius, this is a very well done story.

      I love the way that.. as a courtesy to new readers and old readers alike... if he's referring to an incident from an earlier book, he presents it from the POV of a different character. He gets new readers up to speed on the backstory, without boring old readers. Beyond that, I'll say nothing more, other than
      READ THIS BOOK!
    • 2/5
      I think I liked the first two books better. I didn't really buy into the supernatural aspect which wasn't in the first two books and this book seemed too rushed as if King wasn't really into it and just had to complete the trilogy. I'd have to say that it was just OK and nothing really to write home about!
    • 4/5
      Hmmm...about as enjoyable as Finders Keepers, but not as enjoyable as Mr. Mercedes. I'm content with the way this trilogy ended, but feel it was missing a bit of something.
    • 3/5
      This was a very odd series. I enjoyed it, but it really didn't fit together. The middle book seemed to have been written just to make this a trilogy and we know that people love trilogies, but it was almost unnecessary. I enjoyed the story of Bill Hodges more than anyone else, but I also liked getting to see into the mind of the bad guy. I feel like some of the language was inappropriate and racist, but it did really set the tone for how horrible of a person he was. I still enjoyed the second book the best, but I'm not sorry I read/listened to this series.
    • 2/5
      I'm a huge Stephen King fan - but, I'm sorry, I'm just not buying what he's selling here. Normally, King is at his best when dealing with the supernatural, but this story was really lame and disappointing. I miss the days when I would get chills up and down my spine while reading a new King book - not any more. Very disappointing.
    • 5/5
      "End of Watch" sees Kermit Bill Hodges, retired detective and owner of the "Finders Keepers" investigative agency, battle major health issues to once again take on the evil Brady Hartsfield. Hartsfield appears to have found a way to manipulate people from his comatose state. Hodges, assisted by the ever reliable Holly and Jerome, must solve the mystery and save the day. End of Watch did not disappoint. I love the combination of detective novel and minor supernatural elements and hope that King writes more novels along this line. I almost prefer his detective style novels over the horror stories.
    • 4/5
      This is a trilogy and I am sad to see it end. Loved the main characters, Bill Hodges and Holly, who together run the detective agency, Finder's Keepers. The villain remains the same as the other books and he is one twisted and evil man. Brady now resides in a geriatric ward, taken care of by the hospital staff because he is what they call a "gork." There ain't nobody home inside. And yet....a neurosurgeon has been secretly giving him "vitamins" to see if they help his brain recover and the nurses now swear Brady is moving things with his mind. Brady is fascinated with death and suicide and as his mind awakens, he is once again on the prowl for victims. And revenge. Typical Stephen King. Translation: awesome! Also kudos to Will Patton for the great job on audio.
    • 4/5
      This is the final book in the trilogy that began with Mr. Mercedes. The characters have grown and become more complex as the series progressed so that I hate to see them go. Hodges and Holly are still doing battle with the evil Brady Hartsfield. Jerome comes back to help them end Hartsfield's reign of evil. It is a scary and satisfying conclusion to the trilogy.
    • 4/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed this trilogy and will sorely miss the characters.
    • 4/5
      Well written, great plot and dialogue. A little far out, but readable.
    • 4/5
      It got a little confusing towards the end, but I enjoyed this last in the Trilogy very much.
    • 5/5
      End of Watch is the final installment of Stephen King's Bill Hodges Trilogy. I loved the flow of the story, and the characters were well known after reading the first two books. This trilogy was slightly different than King's usual works, and he touches on the subject of suicide, which needs to be addressed in this country. Well done Sai King!
    • 4/5
      A fitting conclusion to the Bill Hodges trilogy. Everyone got their just desserts in the end. As I was reading though I couldn't help but feel that King was recycling some of his previous books. Firestarter: medical experimentation resulting in telekinetic abilities. Cell: a device that can cause it's user to do things (in this case commit suicide), and The Shining: snowmobile rescue. There were probably more but these were just a few that sprang to mind while I was reading the book. Oh well, I guess when you have published 55 novels ideas are bound to be regenerated into other works. All in all I did enjoy this series even if it does not rank up there with my favorite King novels. These are perfect for a summer beach read though. Kudos to King for providing the suicide hotline number in the book and I appreciate that he took the time to speak on the subject.
    • 3/5
      Third in King’s trilogy about the Mercedes killer and the small group of misfits who stopped his second massacre, this time adding in a bunch more supernatural elements, in the form of a Firestarter-like experimental drug that lets the killer hop into the bodies of people who are in a suggestible state. A bit padded at times; serviceable King but not memorable.
    • 4/5
      Seven years have passed since Brady Hartsfield drove a stolen Mercedes through a crowd of people, killing many, and paralyzing one survivor by the name of Martine Stover. Despite her disability, she still lives a peaceful life with her mother who is her primary caregiver. That is until the day the police are called to her residence in what appears to be a murder/suicide, but is in all actuality anything but. This crime has Brady Hartsfield written all over it, but he’s in a mostly vegetative state in the Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, how could such a thing even be possible? But when more and more suicides begin popping up, the only thing that connects them is Brady and Bill Hodges just might be the only one that could believe such an impossibility.“End of watch is what they call it, but Hodges himself has found it impossible to give up watching.”The gang is all back together for one last hurrah: Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robinson. Hodges and Holly were doing their fair share of investigating the strange evidence piling up around the recent increase of suicides, but it’s not until one of these attempted suicides hits close to home that the ante has been upped. Despite the impossibility of Brady being the backstage conductor, readers that have been with this series from the beginning will have been given a glimpse at where King was heading at the end of Finders Keepers. Mr. Mercedes, the first installment, seemed to at first be a bit of a departure from King’s typical style, going for your basic mystery/detective thriller, yet slowly but surely he deftly infused it with his trademark supernatural horror. Whether it’s due to the blow that Holly landed or the experimental drugs being delivered by his doctor, Brady has developed the ability to influence the minds of others. With his technological genius, he manages to find a way to increase the way he spreads his infectious thoughts so that he can finally commit the massive crime he was prevented from carrying out before.Despite the fact that King doesn’t fully flesh out the supernatural aspects of the novel, it doesn’t take much suspension of disbelief for it to still work. The powerful effects of video games are evident in society even without the supernatural aspects involved and King uses this to bring that effectiveness to life in this novel of horror. Suffice it to say, the cover may have been intriguing before reading the story, but after? You won’t want to maintain eye contact for long. And this song is definitely ruined. So, King subsequently ruined the ice cream man and a Mickey Mouse song in one fell swoop with this series. A most impressive feat.The initial working title for this book was The Suicide Prince and while I was disappointed when it was announced it would actually be End of Watch instead, it’s so much more fitting. King didn’t disappoint with this ending, not leaving us hanging with unresolved questions but not coating the ending in unlikely perfection. I may have started this trilogy skeptical that King could pull off a convincing mystery but by the end I’m hoping that he experiments with this genre more in the future.
    • 4/5
      A satisfying and inventive conclusion to the Bill Hodges trilogy. Brady Hartsfield (our villain from the first in the series, Mr. Mercedes) isn't completely braindead. Thanks to some highly illegal drugs provided by an overzealous doctor, Brady is coming to. His body will remain broken but he's discovered telekinesis and the ability to enter into other people's minds. Over the years he has been honing his talents in order to exact vengeance on Bill Hodges for thwarting his master plan. Brady finds a way to manipulate a hand held game to make it a hypnotic entrance into unsuspecting minds. His sinister pleasure is convincing them to kill themselves. No one could ever believe what he is capable of, perhaps not even Bill Hodges; it's an evil so deep that it almost escapes detection, almost. A sad, but believable ending. Stephen King at his best!

    Book preview

    End of Watch - Stephen King

    Z

    January 2016

    1

    A pane of glass breaks in Bill Hodges’s pants pocket. This is followed by a jubilant chorus of boys, shouting "That’s a HOME RUN!"

    Hodges winces and jumps in his seat. Dr. Stamos is part of a four-doctor cabal, and the waiting room is full this Monday morning. Everyone turns to look at him. Hodges feels his face grow warm. Sorry, he says to the room at large. Text message.

    And a very loud one, remarks an old lady with thinning white hair and beagle dewlaps. She makes Hodges feel like a kid, and he’s pushing seventy. She’s hip to cell phone etiquette, though. You should lower the volume in public places like this, or mute your phone entirely.

    Absolutely, absolutely.

    The old lady goes back to her paperback (it’s Fifty Shades of Grey, and not her first trip through it, from the battered look of the thing). Hodges drags his iPhone out of his pocket. The text is from Pete Huntley, his old partner when Hodges was on the cops. Pete is now on the verge of pulling the pin himself, hard to believe but true. End of watch is what they call it, but Hodges himself has found it impossible to give up watching. He now runs a little two-person firm called Finders Keepers. He calls himself an independent skip-tracer, because he got into a little trouble a few years back and can’t qualify for a private investigator’s license. In this city you have to be bonded. But a PI is what he is, at least some of the time.

    Call me, Kermit. ASAP. Important.

    Kermit is Hodges’s actual first name, but he goes by the middle one with most people; it keeps the frog jokes to a minimum. Pete makes a practice of using it, though. Finds it hilarious.

    Hodges considers just pocketing the phone again (after muting it, if he can find his way to the DO NOT DISTURB control). He’ll be called into Dr. Stamos’s office at any minute, and he wants to get their conference over with. Like most elderly guys he knows, he doesn’t like doctors’ offices. He’s always afraid they’re going to find not just something wrong but something really wrong. Besides, it’s not like he doesn’t know what his ex-partner wants to talk about: Pete’s big retirement bash next month. It’s going to be at the Raintree Inn, out by the airport. Same place where Hodges’s party took place, but this time he intends to drink a lot less. Maybe not at all. He had trouble with booze when he was active police, it was part of the reason his marriage crashed, but these days he seems to have lost his taste for alcohol. That’s a relief. He once read a science fiction novel called The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. He doesn’t know about the moon, but would testify in court that whiskey is a harsh mistress, and that’s made right here on earth.

    He thinks it over, considers texting, then rejects the idea and gets up. Old habits are too strong.

    The woman behind the reception desk is Marlee, according to her nametag. She looks about seventeen, and gives him a brilliant cheerleader’s smile. He’ll be with you soon, Mr. Hodges, I promise. We’re just running a teensy bit behind. That’s Monday for you.

    Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day, Hodges says.

    She looks blank.

    I’m going to step out for a minute, okay? Have to make a call.

    That’s fine, Marlee says. Just stand in front of the door. I’ll give you a big wave if you’re still out there when he’s ready.

    That works. Hodges stops by the old lady on his way to the door. Good book?

    She looks up at him. No, but it’s very energetic.

    So I’ve been told. Have you seen the movie?

    She stares up at him, surprised and interested. "There’s a movie?"

    Yes. You should check it out.

    Not that Hodges has seen it himself, although Holly Gibney—once his assistant, now his partner, a rabid film fan since her troubled childhood—tried to drag him to it. Twice. It was Holly who put the breaking pane of glass/home run text alert on his phone. She found it amusing. Hodges did, too… at first. Now he finds it a pain in the ass. He’ll look up how to change it on the Internet. You can find anything on the Internet, he has discovered. Some of it is helpful. Some of it is interesting. Some of it is funny.

    And some of it is fucking awful.

    2

    Pete’s cell rings twice, and then his old partner is in his ear. Huntley.

    Hodges says, Listen to me carefully, because you may be tested on this material later. Yes, I’ll be at the party. Yes, I’ll make a few remarks after the meal, amusing but not raunchy, and I’ll propose the first toast. Yes, I understand both your ex and your current squeeze will be there, but to my knowledge no one has hired a stripper. If anyone has, it would be Hal Corley, who is an idiot, and you’d have to ask hi—

    Bill, stop. It’s not about the party.

    Hodges stops at once. It’s not just the intertwined babble of voices in the background—police voices, he knows that even though he can’t tell what they’re saying. What stops him dead is that Pete has called him Bill, and that means it’s serious shit. Hodges’s thoughts fly first to Corinne, his own ex-wife, next to his daughter Alison, who lives in San Francisco, and then to Holly. Christ, if something has happened to Holly…

    What is it about, Pete?

    I’m at the scene of what appears to be a murder-suicide. I’d like you to come out and take a look. Bring your sidekick with you, if she’s available and agreeable. I hate to say this, but I think she might actually be a little smarter than you are.

    Not any of his people. Hodges’s stomach muscles, tightened as if to absorb a blow, loosen. Although the steady ache that’s brought him to Stamos is still there. Of course she is. Because she’s younger. You start to lose brain cells by the millions after you turn sixty, a phenomenon you’ll be able to experience for yourself in another couple of years. Why would you want an old carthorse like me at a murder scene?

    Because this is probably my last case, because it’s going to blow up big in the papers, and because—don’t swoon—I actually value your input. Gibney’s, too. And in a weird way, you’re both connected. That’s probably a coincidence, but I’m not entirely sure.

    Connected how?

    Does the name Martine Stover ring a bell?

    For a moment it doesn’t, then it clicks in. On a foggy morning in 2009, a maniac named Brady Hartsfield drove a stolen Mercedes-Benz into a crowd of job-seekers at City Center, downtown. He killed eight and seriously injured fifteen. In the course of their investigation, Detectives K. William Hodges and Peter Huntley interviewed a great many of those who had been present on that foggy morning, including all the wounded survivors. Martine Stover had been the toughest to talk to, and not only because her disfigured mouth made her all but impossible to understand for anyone except her mother. Stover was paralyzed from the chest down. Later, Hartsfield had written Hodges an anonymous letter. In it he referred to her as your basic head on a stick. What made that especially cruel was the radioactive nugget of truth inside the ugly joke.

    "I can’t see a quadriplegic as a murderer, Pete… outside an episode of Criminal Minds, that is. So I assume—?"

    Yeah, the mother was the doer. First she offed Stover, then herself. Coming?

    Hodges doesn’t hesitate. I am. I’ll pick up Holly on the way. What’s the address?

    1601 Hilltop Court. In Ridgedale.

    Ridgedale is a commuter suburb north of the city, not as pricey as Sugar Heights, but still pretty nice.

    I can be there in forty minutes, assuming Holly’s at the office.

    And she will be. She’s almost always at her desk by eight, sometimes as early as seven, and apt to be there until Hodges yells at her to go home, fix herself some supper, and watch a movie on her computer. Holly Gibney is the main reason Finders Keepers is in the black. She’s an organizational genius, she’s a computer wizard, and the job is her life. Well, along with Hodges and the Robinson family, especially Jerome and Barbara. Once, when Jerome and Barbie’s mom called Holly an honorary Robinson, she lit up like the sun on a summer afternoon. It’s a thing Holly does more often than she used to, but still not enough to suit Hodges.

    That’s great, Kerm. Thanks.

    Have the bodies been transported?

    Off to the morgue as we speak, but Izzy’s got all the pictures on her iPad. He’s talking about Isabelle Jaynes, who has been Pete’s partner since Hodges retired.

    Okay. I’ll bring you an éclair.

    There’s a whole bakery here already. Where are you, by the way?

    Nowhere important. I’ll get with you as soon as I can.

    Hodges ends the call and hurries down the hall to the elevator.

    3

    Dr. Stamos’s eight-forty-five patient finally reappears from the exam area at the back. Mr. Hodges’s appointment was for nine, and it’s now nine thirty. The poor guy is probably impatient to do his business here and get rolling with the rest of his day. She looks out in the hall and sees Hodges talking on his cell.

    Marlee rises and peeks into Stamos’s office. He’s sitting behind his desk with a folder open in front of him. KERMIT WILLIAM HODGES is computer-printed on the tab. The doctor is studying something in the folder and rubbing his temple, as though he has a headache.

    Dr. Stamos? Shall I call Mr. Hodges in?

    He looks up at her, startled, then at his desk clock. Oh God, yes. Mondays suck, huh?

    Can’t trust that day, she says, and turns to go.

    I love my job, but I hate this part of it, Stamos says.

    It’s Marlee’s turn to be startled. She turns to look at him.

    Never mind. Talking to myself. Send him in. Let’s get this over with.

    Marlee looks out into the hall just in time to see the elevator door closing at the far end.

    4

    Hodges calls Holly from the parking garage next to the medical center, and when he gets to the Turner Building on Lower Marlborough, where their office is located, she’s standing out front with her briefcase planted between her sensible shoes. Holly Gibney: late forties now, tallish and slim, brown hair usually scrooped back in a tight bun, this morning wearing a bulky North Face parka with the hood up and framing her small face. You’d call that face plain, Hodges thinks, until you saw the eyes, which are beautiful and full of intelligence. And you might not really see them for a long time, because as a rule, Holly Gibney doesn’t do eye contact.

    Hodges slides his Prius to the curb and she jumps in, taking off her gloves and holding her hands up to the passenger-side heating vent. It took you a very long time to get here.

    Fifteen minutes. I was on the other side of town. I caught all the red lights.

    "It was eighteen minutes, Holly informs him as Hodges pulls into traffic. Because you were speeding, which is counterproductive. If you keep your speed to exactly twenty miles an hour, you can catch almost all the lights. They’re timed. I’ve told you that several times. Now tell me what the doctor said. Did you get an A on your tests?"

    Hodges considers his options, which are only two: tell the truth or prevaricate. Holly nagged him into going to the doctor because he’s been having stomach issues. Just pressure at first, now some pain. Holly may have personality problems, but she’s a very efficient nagger. Like a dog with a bone, Hodges sometimes thinks.

    The results weren’t back yet. This is not quite a lie, he tells himself, because they weren’t back to me yet.

    She looks at him doubtfully as he merges onto the Crosstown Expressway. Hodges hates it when she looks at him that way.

    I’ll keep after this, he says. Trust me.

    I do, she says. I do, Bill.

    That makes him feel even worse.

    She bends, opens her briefcase, and takes out her iPad. I looked up some stuff while I was waiting for you. Want to hear it?

    Hit me.

    Martine Stover was fifty at the time Brady Hartsfield crippled her, which would make her fifty-six as of today. I suppose she could be fifty-seven, but since this is only January, I think that’s very unlikely, don’t you?

    Odds are against, all right.

    "At the time of the City Center event, she was living with her mother in a house on Sycamore Street. Not far from Brady Hartsfield and his mother, which is sort of ironic when you think of it."

    Also close to Tom Saubers and his family, Hodges muses. He and Holly had a case involving the Saubers family not long ago, and that one also had a connection to what the local newspaper had taken to calling the Mercedes Massacre. There were all sorts of connections, when you thought about it, perhaps the strangest being that the car Hartsfield had used as a murder weapon belonged to Holly Gibney’s cousin.

    How does an elderly woman and her severely crippled daughter make the jump from the Tree Streets to Ridgedale?

    Insurance. Martine Stover had not one or two whopping big policies, but three. She was sort of a freak about insurance. Hodges reflects that only Holly could say that approvingly. There were several articles about her afterward, because she was the most badly hurt of those who survived. She said she knew that if she didn’t get a job at City Center, she’d have to start cashing her policies in, one by one. After all, she was a single woman with a widowed, unemployed mother to support.

    Who ended up taking care of her.

    Holly nods. Very strange, very sad. But at least there was a financial safety net, which is the purpose of insurance. They even moved up in the world.

    Yes, Hodges says, but now they’re out of it.

    To this Holly makes no reply. Up ahead is the Ridgedale exit. Hodges takes it.

    5

    Pete Huntley has put on weight, his belly hanging over his belt buckle, but Isabelle Jaynes is as smashing as ever in her tight faded jeans and blue blazer. Her misty gray eyes go from Hodges to Holly and then back to Hodges again.

    You’ve gotten thin, she says. This could be either a compliment or an accusation.

    He’s having stomach problems, so he had some tests, Holly says. The results were supposed to be in today, but—

    Let’s not go there, Hols, Hodges says. This isn’t a medical consultation.

    You two are more like an old married couple every day, Izzy says.

    Holly replies in a matter-of-fact voice. Marriage to Bill would spoil our working relationship.

    Pete laughs and Holly shoots him a puzzled glance as they step inside the house.

    It’s a handsome Cape Cod, and although it’s on top of a hill and the day is cold, the house is toasty-warm. In the foyer, all four of them put on thin rubber gloves and bootees. How it all comes back, Hodges thinks. As if I was never away.

    In the living room there’s a painting of big-eyed waifs hung on one wall, a big-screen TV hung on another. There’s an easy chair in front of the tube with a coffee table beside it. On the table is a careful fan of celebrity mags like OK! and scandal rags like Inside View. In the middle of the room there are two deep grooves in the rug. Hodges thinks, This is where they sat in the evenings to watch TV. Or maybe all day long. Mom in her easy chair, Martine in her wheelchair. Which must have weighed a ton, judging by those marks.

    What was her mother’s name? he asks.

    Janice Ellerton. Husband James died twenty years ago, according to… Old-school like Hodges, Pete carries a notebook instead of an iPad. Now he consults it. According to Yvonne Carstairs. She and the other aide, Georgina Ross, found the bodies when they arrived this morning shortly before six. They got paid extra for turning up early. The Ross woman wasn’t much help—

    She was gibbering, Izzy says. Carstairs was okay, though. Kept her head throughout. Called the police right away, and we were on-scene by six forty.

    How old was Mom? Hodges asks.

    Don’t know exactly yet, Pete says, but no spring chicken.

    She was seventy-nine, Holly says. One of the news stories I searched while I was waiting for Bill to pick me up said she was seventy-three when the City Center Massacre happened.

    Awfully long in the tooth to be taking care of a quadriplegic daughter, Hodges says.

    She was in good shape, though, Isabelle says. At least according to Carstairs. Strong. And she had plenty of help. There was money for it because—

    —of the insurance, Hodges finishes. Holly filled me in on the ride over.

    Izzy gives Holly a glance. Holly doesn’t notice. She’s measuring the room. Taking inventory. Sniffing the air. Running a palm across the back of Mom’s easy chair. Holly has emotional problems, she’s breathtakingly literal, but she’s also open to stimuli in a way few people are.

    Pete says, There were two aides in the morning, two in the afternoon, two in the evening. Seven days a week. Private company called—back to the notebook—"Home Helpers. They did all the heavy lifting. There’s also a housekeeper, Nancy Alderson, but apparently she’s off. Note on the kitchen calendar says Nancy in Chagrin Falls. There’s a line drawn through today, Tuesday, and Wednesday."

    Two men, also wearing gloves and bootees, come down the hall. From the late Martine Stover’s part of the house, Hodges assumes. Both are carrying evidence cases.

    All done in the bedroom and bathroom, one of them says.

    Anything? Izzy asks.

    About what you’d expect, the other says. We got quite a few white hairs from the tub, not unusual considering that’s where the old lady highsided it. There was also excrement in the tub, but just a trace. Also as you would expect. Off Hodges’s questioning look, the tech adds, She was wearing continence pants. The lady did her homework.

    Oough, Holly says.

    The first tech says, There’s a shower chair, but it’s in the corner with extra towels stacked on the seat. Looks like it’s never been used.

    They would have given her sponge baths, Holly says.

    She still looks grossed out, either by the thought of continence pants or shit in the bathtub, but her eyes continue to flick everywhere. She may ask a question or two, or drop a comment, but mostly she’ll remain silent, because people intimidate her, especially in close quarters. But Hodges knows her well—as well as anyone can, at least—and he can tell she’s on high alert.

    Later she will talk, and Hodges will listen closely. During the Saubers case the year before, he learned that listening to Holly pays dividends. She thinks outside the box, sometimes way outside it, and her intuitions can be uncanny. And although fearful by nature—God knows she has her reasons—she can be brave. Holly is the reason Brady Hartsfield, aka Mr. Mercedes, is now in the Lakes Region Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic at Kiner Memorial. Holly used a sock loaded with ball bearings to crush in his skull before Hartsfield could touch off a disaster much greater than the one at City Center. Now he’s in a twilight world the head neuro guy at the Brain Injury Clinic refers to as a persistent vegetative state.

    Quadriplegics can shower, Holly amplifies, but it’s difficult for them because of all the life-support equipment they’re hooked up to. So mostly it’s sponge baths.

    Let’s go in the kitchen, where it’s sunny, Pete says, and to the kitchen they go.

    The first thing Hodges notices is the dish drainer, where the single plate that held Mrs. Ellerton’s last meal has been left to dry. The countertops are sparkling, and the floor looks clean enough to eat on. Hodges has an idea that her bed upstairs will have been neatly made. She may even have vacuumed the carpets. And then there’s the continence pants. She took care of the things she could take care of. As a man who once seriously considered suicide himself, Hodges can relate.

    6

    Pete, Izzy, and Hodges sit at the kitchen table. Holly merely hovers, sometimes standing behind Isabelle to look at the collection of photos on Izzy’s iPad labeled ELLERTON/STOVER, sometimes poking into the various cupboards, her gloved fingers as light as moths.

    Izzy takes them through it, swiping at the screen as she talks.

    The first photo shows two middle-aged women. Both are beefy and broad-shouldered in their red nylon Home Helpers uniforms, but one of them—Georgina Ross, Hodges presumes—is crying and gripping her shoulders so that her forearms press against her breasts. The other one, Yvonne Carstairs, is apparently made of sterner stuff.

    They got here at five forty-five, Izzy says. "They have a key to let themselves in, so they don’t have to knock or ring. Sometimes Martine slept until six thirty, Carstairs says. Mrs. Ellerton is always up, gets up around five, she told them, had to have her coffee first thing, only this morning she’s not up and there’s no smell of coffee. So they think the old lady overslept for once, good for her. They tiptoe into Stover’s bedroom, right down the hall, to see if she’s awake yet. This is what they find."

    Izzy swipes to the next picture. Hodges waits for another oough from Holly, but she is silent and studying the photo closely. Stover is in bed with the covers pulled down to her knees. The damage to her face was never repaired, but what remains looks peaceful enough. Her eyes are closed and her twisted hands are clasped together. A feeding tube juts from her scrawny abdomen. Her wheelchair—which to Hodges looks more like an astronaut’s space capsule—stands nearby.

    "In Stover’s bedroom there was a smell. Not coffee, though. Booze."

    Izzy swipes. Here is a close-up of Stover’s bedside table. There are neat rows of pills. There’s a grinder to turn them to powder, so that Stover could ingest them. Standing among them and looking wildly out of place is a fifth of Smirnoff Triple Distilled vodka and a plastic syringe. The vodka bottle is empty.

    The lady was taking zero chances, Pete says. Smirnoff Triple Distilled is a hundred and fifty proof.

    I imagine she wanted it to be as quick for her daughter as possible, Holly says.

    Good call, Izzy says, but with a notable lack of warmth. She doesn’t care for Holly, and Holly doesn’t care for her. Hodges is aware of this but has no idea why. And since they rarely see Isabelle, he’s never bothered to ask Holly about it.

    Have you got a close-up of the grinder? Holly asks.

    Of course. Izzy swipes, and in the next photo, the pill grinder looks as big as a flying saucer. A dusting of white powder remains in the cup. We won’t be sure until later this week, but we think it’s oxycodone. Her scrip was refilled just three weeks ago, according to the label, but that bottle is as empty as the vodka bottle.

    She goes back to Martine Stover, eyes closed, scrawny hands clasped as if in prayer.

    Her mother ground up the pills, funneled them into the bottle, and poured the vodka down Martine’s feeding tube. Probably more efficient than lethal injection.

    Izzy swipes again. This time Holly does say Oough, but she doesn’t look away.

    The first photo of Martine’s handicap-equipped bathroom is a wide shot, showing the extra-low counter with its basin, the extra-low towel racks and cabinets, the jumbo shower-tub combination. The slider in front of the shower is closed, the tub in full view. Janice Ellerton reclines in water up to her shoulders, wearing a pink nightgown. Hodges guesses it would have ballooned around her as she lowered herself in, but in this crime scene photo it clings to her thin body. There is a plastic bag over her head, secured by the kind of terrycloth belt that goes with a bathrobe. A length of tubing snakes from beneath it, attached to a small canister lying on the tile floor. On the side of the canister is a decal that shows laughing children.

    Suicide kit, Pete says. She probably learned how to make it on the Internet. There are plenty of sites that explain how to do it, complete with pix. The water in the tub was cool when we got here, but probably warm when she climbed in.

    Supposed to be soothing, Izzy puts in, and although she doesn’t say oough, her face tightens in a momentary expression of distaste as she swipes to the next picture: a close-up of Janice Ellerton. The bag had fogged with the condensation of her final breaths, but Hodges can see that her eyes were closed. She also went out looking peaceful.

    The canister contained helium, Pete says. You can buy it at any of the big discount stores. You’re supposed to use it to blow up the balloons at little Buster’s birthday party, but it works just as well to kill yourself with, once you have a bag over your head. Dizziness is followed by disorientation, at which point you probably couldn’t get the bag off even if you changed your mind. Next comes unconsciousness, followed by death.

    Go back to the last one, Holly says. The one that shows the whole bathroom.

    Ah, Pete says. Dr. Watson may have seen something.

    Izzy goes back. Hodges leans closer, squinting—his near vision isn’t what it once was. Then he sees what Holly saw. Next to a thin gray power cord plugged into one of the outlets, there’s a Magic Marker. Someone—Ellerton, he presumes, because her daughter’s writing days were long over—drew a single large letter on the counter: Z.

    What do you make of it? Pete asks.

    Hodges considers. It’s her suicide note, he says at last. Z is the final letter of the alphabet. If she’d known Greek, it might have been omega.

    That’s what I think, too, Izzy says. Kind of elegant, when you think of it.

    Z is also the mark of Zorro, Holly informs them. He was a masked Mexican cavalier. There have been a great many Zorro movies, one starring Anthony Hopkins as Don Diego, but it wasn’t very good.

    Do you find that relevant? Izzy asks. Her face expresses polite interest, but there’s a barb in her tone.

    There was also a television series, Holly goes on. She’s looking at the photo as though hypnotized by it. It was produced by Walt Disney, back in the black-and-white days. Mrs. Ellerton might have watched it when she was a girl.

    Are you saying she maybe took refuge in childhood memories while she was getting ready to off herself? Pete sounds dubious, which is how Hodges feels. I guess it’s possible.

    Bullshit, more likely, Izzy says, rolling her eyes.

    Holly takes no notice. Can I look in the bathroom? I won’t touch anything, even with these. She holds up her small gloved hands.

    Be our guest, Izzy says at once.

    In other words, Hodges thinks, buzz off and let the adults talk. He doesn’t care for Izzy’s ’tude when it comes to Holly, but since it seems to bounce right off her, he sees no reason to make an issue of it. Besides, Holly really is a bit skitzy this morning, going off in all directions. Hodges supposes it was the pictures. Dead people never look more dead than in police photos.

    She wanders off to check out the bathroom. Hodges sits back, hands laced at the nape of his neck, elbows winged out. His troublesome gut hasn’t been quite so troublesome this morning, maybe because he switched from coffee to tea. If so, he’ll have to stock up on PG Tips. Hell, buy stock. He’s really tired of the constant stomachache.

    Want to tell me what we’re doing here, Pete?

    Pete raises his eyebrows and tries to look innocent. Whatever can you mean, Kermit?

    You were right when you said this would make the paper. It’s the kind of sad soap-opera shit people love, it makes their own lives look better to them—

    Cynical but probably true, Izzy says with a sigh.

    —but any connection to the Mercedes Massacre is casual rather than causal. Hodges isn’t entirely sure that means what he thinks it means, but it sounds good. What you’ve got here is your basic mercy killing committed by an old lady who just couldn’t stand to see her daughter suffer anymore. Probably Ellerton’s last thought when she turned on the helium was I’ll be with you soon, honey, and when I walk the streets of heaven, you’ll be walking right beside me.

    Izzy snorts at that, but Pete looks pale and thoughtful. Hodges suddenly remembers that a long time ago, maybe thirty years, Pete and his wife lost their first child, a baby daughter, to SIDS.

    It’s sad, and the papers lap it up for a day or two, but it happens somewhere in the world every day. Every hour, for all I know. So tell me what the deal is.

    "Probably nothing. Izzy says it is nothing."

    Izzy does, she confirms.

    Izzy probably thinks I’m going soft in the head as I approach the finish line.

    Izzy doesn’t. Izzy just thinks that it’s time you stop letting the bee known as Brady Hartsfield buzz around in your bonnet.

    She switches those misty gray eyes to Hodges.

    Ms. Gibney there may be a bundle of nervous tics and strange associations, but she stopped Hartsfield’s clock most righteously, and I give her full credit for it. He’s zonked out in that brain trauma clinic at Kiner, where he’ll probably stay until he catches pneumonia and dies, thereby saving the state a whole potful of money. He’s never going to stand trial for what he did, we all know that. You didn’t catch him for the City Center thing, but Gibney stopped him from blowing up two thousand kids at Mingo Auditorium a year later. You guys need to accept that. Call it a win and move on.

    Whew, Pete says. How long have you been holding that in?

    Izzy tries not to smile, but can’t help it. Pete smiles in return, and Hodges thinks, They work as well together as Pete and I did. Shame to break up that combination. It really is.

    Quite awhile, Izzy says. Now go on and tell him. She turns to Hodges. "At least it’s not little gray men from The X-Files."

    So? Hodges asks.

    Keith Frias and Krista Countryman, Pete says. Both were also at City Center on the morning of April tenth, when Hartsfield did his thing. Frias, age nineteen, lost most of his arm, plus four broken ribs and internal injuries. He also lost seventy percent of the vision in his right eye. Countryman, age twenty-one, suffered broken ribs, a broken arm, and spinal injuries that resolved after all sorts of painful therapy I don’t even want to think about.

    Hodges doesn’t, either, but he’s brooded over Brady Hartsfield’s victims many times. Mostly on how the work of seventy wicked seconds could change the lives of so many for years… or, in the case of Martine Stover, forever.

    They met in weekly therapy sessions at a place called Recovery Is You, and fell in love. They were getting better… slowly… and planned to get married. Then, in February of last year, they committed suicide together. In the words of some old punk song or other, they took a lot of pills and they died.

    This makes Hodges think of the grinder on the table beside Stover’s hospital bed. The grinder with its residue of oxycodone. Mom dissolved all of the oxy in the vodka, but there must have been plenty of other narcotic medications on that table. Why had she gone to all the trouble of the plastic bag and the helium when she could have swallowed a bunch of Vicodin, chased it with a bunch of Valium, and called it good?

    Frias and Countryman were the sort of youngster suicides that also happen every day, Izzy says. The parents were doubtful about the marriage. Wanted them to wait. And they could hardly run off together, could they? Frias could barely walk, and neither of them had jobs. There was enough insurance to pay for the weekly therapy sessions and to kick in for groceries at their respective homes, but nothing like the kind of Cadillac coverage Martine Stover had. Bottom line, shit happens. You can’t even call it a coincidence. Badly hurt people get depressed, and sometimes depressed people kill themselves.

    Where did they do it?

    The Frias boy’s bedroom, Pete says. While his parents were on a day trip to Six Flags with his little brother. They took the pills, crawled into the sack, and died in each other’s arms, just like Romeo and Juliet.

    Romeo and Juliet died in a tomb, Holly says, coming back into the kitchen. In the Franco Zeffirelli film, which is really the best—

    Yes, okay, point taken, Pete says. Tomb, bedroom, at least they rhyme.

    Holly is holding the Inside View that was on the coffee table, folded to show a picture of Johnny Depp that makes him look either drunk, stoned, or dead. Has she been in the living room, reading a scandal sheet all this time? If so, she really is having an off day.

    Pete says, Have you still got the Mercedes, Holly? The one Hartsfield stole from your cousin Olivia?

    No. Holly sits down with the folded newspaper in her lap and her knees primly together. I traded it last November for a Prius like Bill’s. It used a great deal of gas and was not eco-friendly. Also, my therapist recommended it. She said that after a year and a half, I had surely exorcised its hold over me, and its therapeutic value was gone. Why are you interested in that?

    Pete sits forward in his chair and clasps his hands together between his spread knees. Hartsfield got into that Mercedes by using an electronic gizmo to unlock the doors. Her spare key was in the glove compartment. Maybe he knew it was there, or maybe the slaughter at City Center was a crime of opportunity. We’ll never know for sure.

    And Olivia Trelawney, Hodges thinks, was a lot like her cousin Holly: nervy, defensive, most definitely not a social animal. Far from stupid, but hard to like. We were sure she left her Mercedes unlocked with the key in the ignition, because that was the simplest explanation. And because, on some primitive level where logical thinking has no power, we wanted that to be the explanation. She was a pain in the ass. We saw her repeated denials as a haughty refusal to take responsibility for her own carelessness. The key in her purse, the one she showed us? We assumed that was just her spare. We hounded her, and when the press got her name, they hounded her. Eventually, she started to believe she’d done what we believed she’d done: enabled a monster with mass murder on his mind. None of us considered the idea that a computer geek might have cobbled together that unlocking gizmo. Including Olivia Trelawney herself.

    But we weren’t the only ones who hounded her.

    Hodges is unaware that he’s spoken aloud until they all turn to look at him. Holly gives him a small nod, as if they have been following the

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