Chapter Text
Mary sat down before the Parole Board.
Miss Blue said, "Good morning. Please state your name for the record."
Mary said, "Good morning. Mary Morstan."
Mr. Green said, "The purpose of this hearing is to determine if you're likely to break the law again."
It wasn't a question.
Green found her attractive. Mary crossed her legs.
Doctor Black said, "You were implicated though never charged in dozens of confidence schemes before your conviction."
"As you said Doctor, I was never charged." Mary put a dollop of penitence in her smile."
"We're trying to determine if you were caught up in circumstances, or," Miss Blue didn't like Mary, "if you were merely caught."
Mary folded her hands. "My wife left me." She looked down. "I went through a bad period. I got into a pattern of self-destructive behavior."
"Do you think you're likely to get into the same pattern?" asked Green.
"She left me once. I doubt she'd do it again for kicks." Mary saw she had them.
She walked into the world a somewhat free woman. She couldn't leave the state.
She did that almost immediately.
She didn't go to the Bellagio where her ex-wife worked, managing the art collection. Dating Charles Magnussen, the owner.
Her plans had nothing to do with Janine.
But Mary was planning on robbing the Bellagio.