Mr. Mercedes

Two days after Janey’s mother’s death, Hodges is with Jerome and Janey. Hodges is wearing a Humphrey Bogart fedora Janey bought for him. He warns them they need to be on the lookout for anyone who might seem to be following them. As they are leaving, Jerome remarks that his mother has been roped into taking Barbara and her friends to the ‘Round Here concert.

Hodges is planning to go with Janey to the viewing of her mother’s body at the funeral parlor. Janey considers this a vulgar “pagan” ceremony, but Holly and Charlotte insisted. Janey describes Charlotte as a pain and her cousin Holly as “weird” (259). She is afraid Holly—who has similar psychiatric conditions to Olivia—will have a breakdown during the viewing.

Brady is working on a plan to get into the ‘Round Here concert with his explosives; he means to go out with a bang and take thousands of teenage girls with him. After that, he’ll be with his mother again. Brady is currently living and sleeping in his basement control room while his mother’s body decomposes upstairs. The basement is where his little brother, Frankie, died. Frankie had brain damage, and his care expenses kept the family in poverty. One day, Frankie was playing at the top of the basement stairs. Brady and his mother exchanged a look, and she gave him a tiny nod. Then, Brady pushed Frankie down the stairs. With Frankie gone, Brady’s mother began referring to Brady as her boyfriend.

Brady is lying in wait when Hodges and Janey arrive for the viewing, which takes place two days after the funeral. Brady is infuriated to see Hodges and Janey together and Hodges looking happy; Brady’s plan was for Hodges to be sitting in front of his television thinking about suicide, not sleeping with a beautiful blonde woman. Brady uses his homemade gadget to capture the radio signal from Hodges’s remote key fob.

Hodges feels out of place at the viewing. He walks out to the visitors’ parking lot and encounters Holly. He asks if he can sit down beside her. She looks him over and asks if he and Janey are lovers, saying it’s fine with her. The remark makes Hodges want to laugh.

Holly reminds Hodges of Olivia. They have some of the same nervous mannerisms. Holly hasn’t been inside because she doesn’t want to see a dead body; it would give her nightmares. She is pale and shaking, and Hodges puts his arm around her. She rests her head on his shoulder. Hodges thinks to himself that Holly has nothing going for her—nothing to make her special. This is a gross misperception, and he will come to regret that once more, he has misjudged someone based on superficial prejudice. For now, he thinks of Olivia and how the cops, including himself, misjudged her.

Remembering how Olivia was manipulated by the Mercedes killer into stopping her medication, Hodges asks Holly if she has taken her own medication. She is startled and confesses that she hasn’t taken it today. While Hodges is fetching a glass of water for Holly, he mentions to Janey that Holly is upset about the thought of seeing a dead body. Janey is disgusted to realize that her aunt Charlotte doesn’t even seem to notice that Holly is not in the room. She promises to make sure the coffin will be closed at the funeral. Hodges brings Holly the water to take her Lexapro that helps manage her OCD and anxiety. Holly tells him she likes him. Hodges musters up a lie and assures her that he likes her too.

Brady is scoping out the auditorium where the concert will be held. It happens to be near City Center, the site of his first killing spree. At first, it looks like it will be impossible to get into the concert with a bomb, but then he notices the handicapped entrance. He buys a wheelchair and sets to work loading it with concealed plastic explosives.

The next day, he parks around the corner from the funeral parlor. When Hodges and Janey have gone inside, he uses his homemade gadget to unlock Hodges’s car. He then plants a bomb on the floor behind the driver’s seat.

The service is over, and Hodges is leaving with Janey when he sees Holly ahead of him. Her knees buckle and she starts to faint, but he catches her. Holly’s mother snaps at her to stop and accuses her of doing it to get attention.

Outside in the parking lot, Janey and Hodges are heading toward his car when Holly asks to ride with them. Charlotte protests and accuses Holly of over dramatizing; Holly doesn’t even know Hodges. Holly seizes Hodges’s hand and begs to go with him, causing Charlotte to burst into tears. Hodges realizes he may have misjudged Holly’s mother the same way he misjudged Olivia.

Janey suggests that Hodges ride with Holly and her mother, and Janey will drive Hodges’s car. She takes Hodges’s hat and puts it on her own head. When Brady sees Hodges’s car drive by and recognizes the hat, he sets off the bomb in the backseat.

Hodges is riding with Holly when he hears the explosion. They stop, and Holly is the first one out with Hodges right behind her. When they turn the corner and see Hodges’s Toyota burning, Hodges’s first thought is that he should have died by suicide two weeks ago. If he had, Janey would still be alive. He shoves the thought aside with an effort. Then, he telephones Jerome and tells him to go to the Blue Umbrella site and leave a message for the killer, telling him Hodges is still alive.

Brady is in his control room, celebrating Hodges’s permanent retirement when the message comes through on his computer: “You missed.”

Jerome goes to Olivia’s house where Holly is waiting for him. He is looking for audio files on Olivia’s computer. With Holly’s help, he finds a sound file of a crying baby and another one of a woman accusing Olivia of letting “him” murder her baby. Holly finds the program that would allow a hacker to run the computer and play the files remotely. They realize the files and the program must have been installed by the IT specialist who fixes Olivia’s computer, but they can’t find a number or receipt for her computer tech. Later, Hodges realizes if Olivia’s IT specialist worked for a big company, she wouldn’t need his personal number.