James PATTERSON ke. That’s it. In order to make money, you do, the more you ma take your na have to go up there. Youre gonna youre gon more you make.” She clothes off. But the more you do, is the walked out of there with $300. So she obviously and evi- dently let him do a little more. Plus, on our way home, she kinda told me what she did. RECAREY: Which was? Give the DOBBS: She gave the massage, an h her, down there. Basically. massage. ... d she basically let him, like, touc RECAREY: Did he touch her with hi DOBBS: All with his hands. And then From what she told me. s hands? he brought out the mas- sager. RECAREY: How old were you when you were approached to see Jeffrey? DOBBS: Um, I think 1 was seventeen? RECAREY: Seventeen. DOBBS: Sixteen or seventeen. RECAREY: Okay. When was the last time you talked to him? DOBBS: It’s been a while. I can honestly say it's probably been about close to a year. About a year. L actually stopped work- ing for him. | RECAREY: Who was the las DOBBS: The last girl I brought over was RECAREY: Okay. You got paid two hundred b girl you brought over? [redacted]... over? DOBBS: Yes. RECAREY: Okay. [Redacted] knew... DOBBS: She knew everything. RECAREY: That she'd have to massage him, and 58 ucks for taking het ; the more she did— } DOBBS: The more she’d RECAREY: The more sh DOBBS: Yeah. | RECAREY: So, she had i DOBBS: Um, | don’t knx ent stories on that. | But when I was first who introduced me | slept with him and r or secre

JAMES PATTERSON RECAREY: It’s up to you. If you wanted one, you can have one. I can’t tell you yes or no on that. That’s totally [up] to you, Tm only — DOBBS: I'm not gonna get in tro RECAREY: Right now, youre just a witness. a witness.... That's totally up to you. You wann you everything | know. I’m a uble for anything | say, right? I'm talking to you as a talk to me? DOBBS: I have no problem telling very cooperative person. RECAREY: Okay. How did you first meet, um— DOBBS: I first met Jeffrey —I was at a beach resort on Singer Island, and I was approached by this girl I went to school with. Her name was [redacted]. And she was asking me, you know, “Oh, you need extra money, | know this guy....” I thought about it and I finally gave her a call, and her and her friend [redacted] met up with me. Lactually picked them up and we drove down to Jeffrey's house. She introduced me, whatever. RECAREY: Okay. Now, what how do you make money with Jeffrey? DOBBS: Um, there's two ways. There’s two ways you can make money. He'll, all right— RECAREY: That’s all right. nothin. DOBBS: How d RECAREY: No. Go ahead. Talk to me. DOBBS: Every girl that meets Jeffr massage. The more you do with him, t Basically, if you take off your clothes, you're gonn If you let him do things to you, youre gonna make more. RECAREY: Like “do things” you mean, touch you? [do] you mean by making money, 56 Talk to me. Talk to me like, like : o Isay —this is going to sound really sleazy, but— § ey starts

JAMES PATTERSON After the massage Epstein stated to [Dobbs] that he understood she was not comfortable, but he would pay her if she brought over some girls. He told her the younger the bet- ter. [Dobbs] stated she once tried to bring a 23-year-old female and Epstein stated that the female was too old. [Dobbs] stated that in total she only remembers six girls that to see Epstein. Each time she was paid $200. she brought these girls to Epstein's [Dobbs] said at the time she brought house they were all 14 through 16 [years] of age. she says about Mary’s lready told the police. up, too, But Wen- Wendy Dobbs keeps talking. What visit lines up neatly with what Mary’s a Wendy’s own experience with Epstein syncs dy’s not a victim, as Mary is. After all, she’s been playing on Epstein’s team. Team predator. A police sergeant enters the room. What he wants to know is, does Wendy realize that she’s implicated herself in Epstein's crimes? Beads of sweat form on Wendy’s forehead, and now the police know they’ve really got her. She gives them phone numbers to g0 with the young girls she’s named. She provides addresses. But no, Wendy doesn't quite get it. she brags in the backseat: “~m like a Heidi Fleiss,” she tells the escorting officers. On the way home, in a police car, 5 : : Wendy Dobbs, inter Sergeant Frick, Octc video (excerpts) RECAREY: Okay. Your | of all, | know you're Okay? I want to thar door’s closed, you're 4 you know, it’s only c. q DOBBS: That’s fine. e RECAR

JaMES PATTERSON only in me for, like Like, I’ve gotten thousands of dollars worth of shit. Man, the , could say that lon: underwear I’m wearing right now he gave me. Like, ’d—Yd whatever the fuck go over there and there'd be a bag of Victoria’s Secret under- | you doing?” [gig al wear, like, waiting for me, like, talking, like, fifteen hundred j “Oh, I just wanted dollars’ worth of stuff. I got 4 plane ticket from him once. I got a Car, I got Christmas bonuses, | got movie tickets. Like, hed buy me movie tickets —like, he'd say, “Hey, have you gone to the movies lately?” I'd be like, “I dunno, ch—not | really,’ [and] he goes, “Do you want to go?” He'd give me, q 3 like, eight movie tickets. 1 got show tickets; 1 went and J | saw, like, David Copperfield. | had, like, VIP tickets or some- , r | thing like that. a : I need to show you, like, what I'm talking about, like, the posi- tioning that we were—it was like, okay, here’s the thing: there's the, like, little flower thing, then here’s the massage table. | was right here, he was right here, [and] she was here. Um. And I was standing up, and he just pushed me ovet the table, and he did his thing with me. D: Okay. Were you facing the table? Were you? Vy: I was. | was facedown on the table. Like, facedown, hands, like, on my head, holding—! don't, | don't mean—I wasnt | | fighting, really. So I dont know if he was holding me down to | kinda stop me from fighting or what he was doing. He's just a really weird—he's into re

JAMES PATTERSON and he told me that it wasn't good enough. 50 I filled it out | V: Sometimes he got vic again, and it was like three times. So I’m pretty sure he wasnt : D: Violent as in what? A checking into it, he was Just telling me that he was. But | { V: He pulled my hair think that had a lot to do with the reason I stayed there so | pulled. Like, he—o n front of me, you know? ' you're all, like os long, ‘cause my dream was right 1 mean, like, if you're And it’s so far...- D: Aside from having been with [redacted], was there anybody | like, my ponytails— else that you brought to the house? would pull it to wher V: I brought a few people. ... Because it got out that I did this. my hair, and then so. Like, everyone at school knew. You re <r oe know, everyone talks — throw me whichever m ¢ so —" et ah D: It wasa circle, and— just like use a toy or hat I would want anybody penis, though, ever. ] V: It was a little circle, yeah....Nott to get involved....1 brought girls I didn't like and, frankly, did not give a shit about. Girls that I knew were skanks. That 2 throw, obviously it’s ust, like, suck dick in a would do anything. Girls that would j . 2 the bathroom at school. Like, not even people I was friends . I mean, there’s been able to walk, um, ft I'd just hear a rumor about a girl and be like, “Hey, 1 “3a with. know a way you can make two hundred dollars. How about...” 1 would tell them flat out, like, “This is what youve got to do. Are you cool with th

JAMES PATTERSON Vy: I dont know. I don't know, I heard those conversations, I assumed me and my just don’t know what, specifically, you all [want to know]. | esol? and he ; : goes, “C D: Everything. I said, “No, we did n . 5 c Vv: Lused to go there every day, like I w—lI dont, I don’t know ‘ uh, and then he j Ps > e how many other girls he was saying, “You're my favorite, and . why don’t I just re , , } : . st give y { want you to live with me’ to, but I was in about as deep as ; out?” And’ waste no to. I don’t know if; you can get. D: He had quite a few girls he would say that to. i - 7 3 Oh, yeah. Well, if yo D: Do you have any formal massage training? L tries to control the si e sit V: [Giggles.] Hell, no. out of your mouth, i D: Allright, I was just asking. going to say. Like, tl Likest a money is knowi too. | remember that. Andwhen §§ Bi off he would, like, rub him- 4) ———-‘D:_ What did he tell you k 7 ©: - Well, there’s a coupl. V: He would kiss me and stuff, ple are gonna do. he kissed me, if he was jerking self on my breasts. And 1...1 was extremely uncomfortable. I would maneuver myself away from that activity. 'd get up myself, things I looke and I'd move somewhere else, or 'd—1 don't even remember. “9 cally told me when I I would stop whatever was going on without saying, “Can Pe ema ntict? ; 7 scientist.” And | you get the fuck off me?” I would stop it without saying stuff q He” 1 was like. “Th ft cal i +o like that. | But anyway... his expl D: Okay

JAMES PATTERSON D: Well, here’s the thin going to sit down, w ead wr EE mn SO a eee ee y: ...and the little steps that things progressed? D: Right. V: Well, 1 went and I wouldnt take off my panties at first. And he did to you is a cri then he got me to get naked. Then he got me to let him rub me. V: Would you consider Then he got me to let him stick his fingers in me. Then he got be rape, what he did: me to let him go down on me. Then, um—that was pretty D: Ifhe put himself insi e, where he bent me over V: I didn't say that, or a much the gist of it, except this one tim the table and put himself in me. Without my permi flipped out. I'm sorry, I didn’t ask you, but I don't count that as | D: That, that is a crime. me having sex with him.... ‘Cause I just told you that I never , V: I don’t want my fan had sex with him. I never did. Even though, I don’t know what doesn’t know any of t youd consider that. But he then—l go, “What are you doing?” ; for two years, or how He goes, “Oh, I just wanted [redacted] to see this.” thinks I made phone D: Okay. Let me back you up. When you were completely naked, ‘ ing my [unintelligibl the same things happened? You went in, you massaged him? q ¥ know anything es 1 didn't even do that. Sometimes he just asked me : 3 D: Well, you're an adul he'd have to do work, he'd be a done with this interv V: Sometim to take off my clothes and— sitting at his desk or something, and I’d just be naked there, a A decide the best course watching te

James PATTERSON - How many times would you say you went? - Hundreds. Hundreds. I was—he used to tell me | was his favorite. He bought me a car. He bought me— - This Jeep that youre driving? - No. I had a brand-new Dodge plane ticket to New York; I got spending money whenever wanted. Like, 1 was in there deep. 1 was—he asked my par- ents to emancipate me so | could live with him. Or he didn't o ask my parents, I'm sorry. He Neon. I got a plane—lI got a ask my parents, he asked me t actually wanted me to come live with him. . As, like, a girlfriend? . Sex slave, whatever you want escalated—he, he just increased my pay, aS touch me. I wouldn't let him put anything inside of me. And then one day he just did, one day he just put his hand, like, to call it. Yeah. Um, but it long as he could his fingers—and, um... - How long, would you say, from the very first time you went? ike, of, of what happened - Months. Honestly, I never kept track, l when. | just can tell you in which order things progressed. It was—it was, like, towards the middle and end of my school year. But I remember that for the last, like, six or eight weeks of high school, I didn’t have a car ‘cause I gave it back have sex with him and, like, no. to him. Because he—he asked me to like, like suck him and stuff [giggles], and 1 was just Definitely not. I was like, “T'1] let you touch me, but I’m not gonna do that." Yeah, the car was a Dodge Neon 2005. He got i the New Year, because I remembe 42 t fo

JAMES PATTERSON my underwear off: I told him no. And he still paid me the same amount. And that was that. | went home. D: So, in other words, he— , V: Finished with himself and that was it. Yeah, he ejaculated. Specifically. D: That was the first time you went there? Vv: Mm-hmm. D: And—!I know, take a deep breath, I know, | can see it in your eyes already. From then on, you went there multiple times? V: [had problems with it. [With] what happened the first time. But three hundred dollars for forty minutes—that was a lot for a sixteen-year-old girl making six bucks an hour. D: So you're saying youre sure you were sixteen now? Vy: Um, 1 don’t want to say I'm sure of my age. I was under seven- teen, one hundred percent. D: Okay. Um, when you— the first time you went, when he masturbated, did you see? V: [giggles] D: His member? Vy: Oh, 1 thought you were going to ask me if I saw, like, his come. D: No. V: I saw all of the above. D: You saw him naked, fully naked? Fully naked? Vy: Yeah, a hundred percent naked. He had a towel on for some of it, but that doesn’t mean anything. Like, he was naked. D: He took off the towel? V: Lsaw everything, yeah. i I mean, I'm sorry, cised, a hundred a has some sort of bi | it is [giggles]; I've n ; done anything wh: it—out of the who | his penis. Like, he- but I’ve never ever | or “I’m gonna do tk I don’t know—do 5 ’'m just really emb : drop of water. It’s r ; top, where it’s attac . Like, I just could te i” can obviously t

D: Well, ah, start from, like, how yo JAMES PATTERSON u met him, and then ru— (ll take you through. - Okay. Um, we [Alison and a female friend] worked at Hollister together in the Wellington Green mall,.and I was mentioning y to go to Maine.. | wanted to go camping for the summer, and | couldn't afford a plane ticket. And—she goes, “Oh, well, you can get a plane ticket in ” 1 said, “What are you talking about?” Like, what are you—that didn't make any sense to me, 4 plane ticket in two hours, what are you talking about? And she goes, “Oh, we can go give this guy a massage, and, um, he'll pay two hundred 5 or an hour.” And that’s all dollars for, like, forty-five minute she told me—no details, no nothing. to her how I wanted extra mone two hours. She said that he wanted cute girls, so | looked cute, did my best. I didn't —1 didn't think that it was what it was. I wasnt naive enough to think that he was gonna pay me two hun- for nothing—l, I don't know, like, I dont my head. | absolutely don't d was thinking, oh, well, thinking, you know, at y? Like, this guy's nol not letting him dred dollars just know what was going through know, And I—the back of my min +t could be legitimate, but I was also the same time, is she fucking craz gonna pay you money for not doing anything, cop a feel or nothing. You know? So I didn’t know what to think, I was like, “Oh.. if he does something that I have a problem with, then I'll leave.” D: Who were you introduced to? Vv: One of hi

James PATTERSON “Where, exactly?” a producer asks. “He didn't say, exactly,” an intern replies. “He said that a very rich man was involved.” “Who?” “Didn't say.” “Did he leave a call-back number?” “No. The kid sounded really young. Fo old.” The producer thinks for his dog-eared notepad. “Okay,” he says. “Pm not sure what we can the moment.” At some point, some enterprising journalist will put enough f the picture. Sooner OF later, aybe a cop's girlfriend gets nd mentions it to her hus- buddy in turn. Maybe the urteen, fifteen years a moment, makes a few scratches in pieces together to get a sense O someone will talk. Maybe a parent. M giddy at lunch. The girlfriend's girlfrie band, who says something to a golfing golfing buddy knows a reporter. Or maybe some lawyer goes off the rez, at the Palm Beach Grill. alk. At that point, Chief Reit- blitzed off those mar- tinis they serve Sgoner or later, there’s always t er’s job will get much, much harder — with Epstein on one side, the press on the other, and the chief taking flak from all sides. But right now, two months into Reiter’s investigation, the press is still speaking 10 whispers. Right now, Reiter wants to keep it that way- And, in the meantime, new into place. do with that for - pieces of the puzzle keep falling - On September 11, over by the police. : The patrol officer | | vehicle. But Alison she’s cocky and c: from the dime bag | remarkable story a ties with high sch: says. She's been gi was

James PATTERSON a— other victims had to be s neighbor reported: m as quickly as pos- And—Reiter can’t shake the ide out there. That lined up with what Epstein e were many girls. He needed to find the Ce ge pe et ee ee ee warts - 5 a al ther sible. It was a race against time. As long as Epstein was free in Palm Beach, arrive at the side of the house on El Brillo Way. more girls were 4 sure to i Alison: September 11 | t might start with th ba covers charity balls, Reporters there woul so juicy. On top of that, ¢ freelance paparazzi and : They'd kill for the stc Heat. Over at WPTV, the one day. It's a tip from a kid, s« from a local high school. , There’s a prostitution > The tip gets brought _ the Producers divvy up 'hewscasts. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_009183

ss 2 ‘ ee a! pe ore James PATTERSON > oop Something an old cop would notice. nineteen-year-old bez Reiter’s officers had told him about compl a few months earlier — young women hanging of the block or coming and going at all hour house. “There was some follow-up to that,” Reiter said in a depo- a victim, that h sition for B.B. vs- Epstein, a civil suit, brought by “| think we may have encountered one Jeffrey eventually settled. or two of them. [We] may have done a little bit of surveillance Or arms simulator yet? aints they'd gotten , described, by anothe around at the end : tive Recarey, as one 0: s from Epstein’s In September, sever ee ee eS calls Reiter directly < talked to neighbors as to whether or not they had seen that. I Cautiously, Reiter think we were of the general understanding that, yes, there were } If the departmen men coming and going from Mr. { happy to provide ther very attractive young W° Reiter thanks hir Epstein’s residence. “We did some level of further inquiry, and we were of the 4 now that Epstein knc belief that they were all adults. And [we] were also of the belief q Epstein’s crimes in P that there was a possibility that there could be prostitution. But | ! { knows, if the charge mean that’s just not something that we heavily pursued— a public. prostitution in private residences; it's common everywhere in . Cops like Reiter America. We didn't believe that they were underage at that point, = : that they’re no longe: and so we had n

SS JAMES PATTERSON Jeffrey Epstein'’s garbage will never arrive at Mount Trashmore. Pierre thinks about As he drives to the police station, St. hat he’s been told. It’s a wonder to him that Ameri- d do what the police say these kids have done. e rich, after all. Some of them just don’t know it, Epstein and w can kids woul American kids at he guesses. Americans always want more than they have. dren do stupid things. They do Then again, chil better. And St. Pierre’s trips to the house make one t These girls are young. Really young. “I hope you can stop this man,” St. Pierre tells the cop. The detective shoots him a sharp look, and St. Pierre nods. “Please,” he says, more softly this time. “Can we count on seeing you here tomorrow?” y, impatient again. In his hand he’s t Noel St. Pierre has pulled from s name is on it. Mary's name is on n't know any hing clear. The detective looks ants holding a scrap of paper tha <p at ie a ee pang al Michael Reiter: Sep here’s a sense Ir foundation. Fro Epstein trash. Wendy Dobbs’ : it as well. a residents will w The detective can’t wait to get it to Chief Reiter's office. 2 ‘a How much more wot a remarkably safe comm “As long as it takes, sir.” St. Pierre tells him. “Tomorrow, the next day. Whenever you need me.” uy ‘tee ey A tax write-off? Su genuine gesture. One 0 the department's effort ciously, gratefully. In 2 Jeffrey Epstein—the : Beach PD—for ninety | generous standards of 4 delivered personally, w . ulator.

JAMES PATTERSON they were nothing like the demons he’d heard about in church. Noel had never forgotten the way those kids looked. The way they'd turned into old men and old women. They were like zom- bies trapped in children’s bodies. And now, in America, Noel's been given a chance to help other kids. That’s what the police have told him, at least. Noel is a sanitation worker. Still strong at fifty, and lucky enough to have found his way to Palm Beach, he gets in to work else and keeps his white compactor truck clean, before anyone His pickup route runs hot and cold with the almost glistening. seasons. But even in the summer, with much less to do, he’s on the job early, braced for a six-hour shift that would break a lesser ck. In the winter, the job gets even harder. The Estate busy. Some of the parties have hundreds man’s ba Section gets especially of guests. They leave behind mountains of refuse. That garbage gets picked up daily, or twice a day when requested. It’s carried ~ by workers who slip, silently, under the porte cocheres. Then it gets whisked twenty miles away to a landfill that the garbage- men call Mount Trashmore. Noel’s stretch of the Estate Section runs from the Everglades Club to the southernmost tip of the island. It encompasses Ban- yan Road, Jungle Road, El Bravo Way, and El Brillo Way. His pert- formance record is spotless. As far as the Palm Beach PD is concerned, he’s the perfect man for the job. Chief Reiter’s authorized a “trash pull’ —a l

| | | James PATTERSON “Nothing,” says Mary. «t talked to Jeffrey, and I'm going to his house tomorrow morning, says Wendy. “I’m going to set something up for you.” “Cool. Like, what do you think?” “1 don’t know. I’m going to talk to him tomorrow morning when I go to his house about it.” “Um, how much would | get paid?” “Talk to him. I'll talk to him tomorrow, and then [ll bring you in the next day. You can talk to him about it.” So far, so good, thinks Officer Pagan. But she needs more. She looks at Mary expectantly, but not too expectantly, she hopes. She can imagine how hard it must be for the girl. Or maybe she cant imagine it at all. But either way, Mary seems [Oo have gotten the message. Straightening up in her chair, she begins to press Wendy. “| don’t know,” Wendy says In response. “t don't know. Youre going to have to talk to him about it. I mean, | don't really work tor him like that. I just bring girls to him and they work for him... . You can ask him, like, ‘What can 1 do to make more money?’” Mary keeps pressing. | “The more you do, the more you get paid,” Wendy says finally. “want me to bring my sister for you? So that we can get paid. more or something?” “Well, yeah. That’s what [’m saying. I’m working tomorrow, and me and him are going to put a schedule together for you and your sister. SO I'll call you tomorrow when 1 leave Jeffrey with a schedule.” “Okay, well, I dont have a phone. So if you guys call me, I'd have to know what time so I could ge

James PATTERSON “We're here to see Jeff,” says Wendy. The guard nods—of course you are—and leads them to the side door. They're in the kitchen now. Mary, Wendy, some middle-aged man. The man has a long face, bushy eyebrows, and thick-silver hair—and he’s fit. As fit as the jocks that Mary goes to school with. Not attractive, exactly. He’s way too old for that. But confi- dent, in a way that makes an impression. Standing behind the man there's a woman. She’s blond, very pretty, much taller than Wendy. What a strange scene, Mary thinks. She can't shake the feeling that the man is studying her. Then he nods, and he and Wendy walk out of the kitchen. A little while later, they’re back. “Sarah.” the man says to the tall woman. “You can take Mary upstairs.” Sarah takes Mary up a wide winding staircase carpeted in pink. Together they walk down a hall that’s got photographs on the wall_-naked women. Long curtains cover windows and don't let in much light. In the air, there’s a strong lavender fragrance. Then they come to a room containing a green-and-pink sofa. There’s a large bathroom off to one side and doors on either side of the sofa. There’s a wooden armoire with sex toys on it. There's a massage table, too, and a mural of a naked woman. «Wait here.” says Sarah. “Jeff will be up in a moment.” Mary’s too freaked out to do anything else. Fidgeting with her belt loops, she sits on the sofa, jumps up again. 16 — . : ala POA Pa Awe 2") £5rr A, pe 7 . 7 ——- nahin, eee *

} bd | A oe James PATTERSON making,* And it’s not like she’s running off to do something crazy. After all, Wendy's assured her already that there’s nothing to worry about. Mary’s father is Cuban—an immigrant—a self-made man who runs a contracting business. He’s wise to the ways of the world and highly protective of his two daughters. They're good girls, he knows. Almost angels. As far as he knows, they don’t drink. They've never tried drugs. They love clothes and, especially, music—Britney Spears, Nelly Furtado, Maroon 5, the boy band with that dreamy lead singer. Mary loves California, which she's never seen but daydreams about. She just knows she'll live there someday—a plan that’s okay with her father as long as Mary keeps up with her homework and chores. What he worries about, in the meantime, is the crowd that Mary runs with. Joe is a fine boy. More responsible than most American boys his age. But Joe’s cousin, Wendy, is another story. Mary’s father doesn’t like Wendy at all and would have liked her even less had he known about Wendy’s intentions. In just one hour, Wendy’s told Mary, she can make more money than her father makes in a day: “This guy in Palm Beach. He’s rich. Very rich. He has an airplane. He owns an island, you know?” Like a lot of kids who live inland, away from the Florida coast, Mary’s dreams reach way beyond the dull, scrubby flat- * Wendy Dobbs’s name, some identifying details, and dialogue have been changed. 10 ee ae rt lands and str

JAMES PATTERSON But is Jeffrey thinking about that trip now? is due that morning at nine, and that leaves His first guest few phone calls him enough time for a shower, a lunch, and a before the second girl arrives. Sarah has scheduled that girl for one. | For Jeffrey, it’s just part of the daily routine. But on this day, there’s a delicious twist. One of the girls is a first-timer. Mary: February 200: ownstairs, the dc | gruffly: | “Ella esta aqui | “She’s here. Your frie Mary runs down the got the TV on. Her steprr sister has gone out, too, I “Going shopping,” sh | Bubble into her mouth. ‘ % “éDice quién?” - “Says who?” : Mary’s already halfv : et again, but on Sundays t. - Besides, Mary knows he she’s made. Real mone} i ee tee == Pe a wk* Sle i Setup te Fe —_ Win: 5 << Co } . 7 LN) a HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_009157

Se Sees Seed RRL ee ee i 1 Sai JAMES PATTERSON come up, and Mary’s head drops dramatically in anticipation. Then a loud, sexy throb spills out of the earbuds: Britney Spears. The bass line takes over, and she starts to dance, moving her hips as she lip-synchs the lyrics: With a taste of a poison paradise... Mary’s swept away by the song. She's twirling around and around, flinging her arms out to grab the clothes hanging up in her closet —it’s like embracing ten thousand fans! Then she stops and pulls out the earbuds. Suddenly she’s become fourteen again. Just a girl, jittery, nervous. What she’s thinking about now is what she will wear to the big fancy house. Mary desperately wants to make an impression. This will be her first trip to the house. She does not want to look like a child on this outing. She picks out a pair of skinny white jeans, puts on a freshly washed halter top that leaves her flat stomach bare. The cross that Joe gave her last Christmas hangs from her neck. Think of the money, she thinks. For Mary, it’s incredible money. Several weeks’ wages at Mickey D’s. And just for giving some old man a massage? She twists the earbuds back in, dives into the closet, sings along with Britney Spears: Don’t you know that you're toxic? The tight white jeans fit Mary perfectly. She turns to check herself out in the mirror, cropping the scene with her fingers to x os + = — 6343 add OT ee Cee ere — = anes ot ~ Sa ve wa ae 8 =~ a es oe a r ' \ na, ge AF el eee r