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

block out the Barbies b
in big, high-ceilinged be
with natural smiles, per
dolls are beautiful. The
if Mom and Dad are w
mothers and fathers are
you get Barbies- passe
sister to sister. They're ra
of knowingness to the c
American Girl dolls are
Barbie's dangling her lo
from women.

Be like Barbie, Mary t
She can't be nervous.
What she tells hersel
a deal.

But, of course, it is a
big fancy house will bec
police investigation-a
the Palm Beach PD-ar
the home's owner, Jeffrey

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{"people":["james patterson","britney spears","jeffrey epstein"]}