Literature / Two Little Girls in Blue

Two Little Girls in Blue is a crime suspense novel by Mary Higgins Clark, first published in 2006.

Margaret and Steve Frawley are living the dream: a hard-working, happily married couple who both have successful careers in law. Steve has just begun a lucrative new job with global investment firm C.F.G.&Y, the couple have used most of their savings to buy an old farmhouse they intend to renovate, and they have beautiful twin daughters, Kathy and Kelly. However, their dream becomes a nightmare when on March 24th, the night of the twins' third birthday, Kathy and Kelly are snatched from their home.

The lead kidnapper, known only as the Pied Piper, demands that the Frawleys hand over $8 million if they want to see their daughters again, even though the Frawleys don't remotely have that kind of money. With the help of Steve's company and the FBI, the Frawleys produce the ransom and prepare to exchange the money for the girls. However, something goes horribly wrong; although Kelly is rescued, one of the kidnappers is found dead, claiming in a note to have committed suicide after accidentally killing Kathy and dumping her body in the ocean, while the other kidnappers remain at large.

As the investigation continues, Margaret begins to notice Kelly saying strange things about Kathy. The twins have always shared a close bond, one that potentially transcends distance. Margaret starts to wonder if Kathy is still alive and communicating with Kelly, who may be the key to finding her. But with everyone else certain that Kathy is dead and that Margaret is a grieving mother futilely clinging to hope, Margaret will have a hard time convincing investigators and even her own husband. And time is something both Kathy and her captors are running out of.

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Contains examples of:

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After Clint is arrested, Margaret insists on seeing him, falls to her knees and begs him to tell her where to find her remaining daughter, vowing she will forgive him for kidnapping her and will even speak for him at his trial if he does.
• All for Nothing: Gregg Stanford's kidnapping scheme turned out to be pointless; he did it because he got the feeling his current wife Millicent would file for divorce before their seventh anniversary, meaning he would get nothing from her as per their pre-nuptial agreement, and he has no money of his own to fund his lavish lifestyle. However, Millicent later announces she wants to celebrate their seventh anniversary and she apparently either doesn't know or doesn't care about his affairs, so Gregg would never have needed to worry about the money. And eventually his involvement in the kidnapping is discovered (partly because of his own attempts to conceal his involvement), which utterly ruins him.
• Always Identical Twins:
  • Kathy and Kelly are identical twins. They look very similar and have similar interests, although there are differences in their personalities: Kelly is more outspoken and defiant, while Kathy is quieter and more timid. Kathy also gets sick more easily, quickly developing a bad cold within days of being kidnapped. It's mentioned they were technically conjoined twins as well; they were born with a thin membrane attaching their thumbs to each other, which was removed, and they still have a tendency to hold hands.
  • Norman and Theresa had identical twin sons who unfortunately died at birth, with Steve's twins reminding Norman of his boys. It's mentioned that when she disappeared Theresa was expecting twins again, though it's not known if they were identical or fraternal.
• Asshole Victim:
  • It's hard to feel too bad for Lucas when Angie kills him, given he's established to be a greed-driven criminal who willingly went along with the scheme to kidnap two three year olds, was preparing to screw the Pied Piper over to keep more money for himself, and manipulated his well-meaning employer into taking part in the scheme.
  • One also doesn't feel too bad for Angie when Clint kills her to cover his own tracks, given she'd been planning on screwing Clint over herself and plans to leave Kathy to drown when she dumps her van in the sea (especially as her decision to keep Kathy was what led to this mess in the first place, when she could've just given her back with Kelly). In fact, Clint leaves Angie to die in the driver's seat, doing to her what she planned to do to Kathy.
  • Norman spitefully murdered his pregnant ex Theresa out of jealousy and let her new husband, her family and her friends suffer for nearly two decades, not knowing what happened to her. While trying to evade the FBI, he unknowingly runs out in front of a truck and is fatally struck, dying a nasty death from internal injuries; even in his dying moments he futilely attempts to conceal the evidence of his crime. He fails and is posthumously confirmed to be Theresa's killer.
• Ax-Crazy: Out of all the villains, Angie is easily the most unhinged and unpredictable. She completely throws off the plan when she shoots Lucas, takes back Kathy to keep her and plants a note on Lucas claiming he killed himself after killing Kathy. None of her accomplices ever dreamt she would do something like this and it ends up causing them all a lot more problems. Angie also quickly becomes frustrated and makes attention-drawing mistakes trying to look after Kathy while evading the authorities, which doesn't bode well for poor Kathy.
• Baby Be Mine: Although Kathy and Kelly were initially kidnapped just to extort money, Angie - who has always desperately wanted a child of her own - decides to keep Kathy for herself, only leaving Kelly behind at the drop-off and faking her death. It's also revealed she was committed to a psych ward in the past for attacking the mother of a child she was babysitting when she came to collect him, implying it's not the first time Angie has tried something like this.
• Badly Battered Babysitter: Trish Logan, the Frawleys' 19 year old babysitter, is grabbed from behind and knocked out with chloroform by the kidnappers; she wakes up tied and gagged, alone in the house and having no idea what happened, which is how her father finds her after Margaret can't get through to her. Luckily, she makes a full recovery.
• Big Bad: The Pied Piper is the mastermind behind the scheme to kidnap and ransom the Frawley twins, with Lucas, Clint and Angie doing all the heavy-lifting. The Piper's identity remains hidden from the reader until near the end. He's revealed to be Gregg Stanford, the chief financial advisor of C.F.G.&Y.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: The Frawley twins are kidnapped on the night of their third birthday. This has some significance to the plot, in relation to Margaret having bought dresses for the twins' birthday party at the same store one of the kidnappers visited, also looking for twin outfits.
• Bluffing the Authorities: Angie tries to when a police officer in the Cape Cod asks her why she's driving around with a kid and no car seat. She claims she's on her way to buy a new one because her old one was stolen while she was staying at a motel. She lies that she didn't report it because the seat was old anyway, but the officer mentions it to the motel owner, who is understandably concerned about thieves breaking into his guests' cars and questions Angie. She tells the same story but the motel owner doesn't buy it, assuming she was just trying to get out of a fine. He subsequently tells his suspicions to the police.
• Cassandra Truth: Initially, no one believes Kelly and her mother about Kathy potentially still being alive, believing that Kelly is being Innocent Inaccurate and that her mother desperately wants it to be true because she can't bear to lose her child. Unbeknownst to everyone but the reader and kidnappers, Kathy is still alive and in growing danger.
• Connected All Along: Franklin Bailey, who became acquainted with the Frawleys after they moved into the neighborhood and tried to help retrieve the girls, lost $7 million in a money-laundering scam several years ago. It turns out that Steve Frawley's half-brother Richie was the man behind the scam, which neither Steve or Bailey apparently knew beforehand. The coincidence makes the FBI suspicious, especially as the Pied Piper wanted $8 million - $7 million wired to a bank account and $1 million in cash. The connection turns out to be just a coincidence, with neither Bailey or Richie being involved in the kidnapping.
• Coordinated Clothes: Kathy and Kelly tend to wear similar or identical-looking outfits, which becomes a plot point. Margaret went to a store named Abby's to buy matching blue dresses for her daughters to wear at their birthday party. The clerk, Lila Jackson, mentions that coincidentally another woman came in earlier looking to buy matching outfits for twin girls, though she was unsure of the size. Both Lila and Margaret realize it's too much of a coincidence and that the woman was buying clothes for Kathy and Kelly in preparation for kidnapping them.
• Death Faked for You: Angie fakes Kathy's death so she can keep the girl as her own daughter, shooting Lucas and leaving behind a note in which 'Lucas' confesses to accidentally smothering Kathy with a gag and killing himself from guilt. Lucas had earlier been seen going out flying with a large box and not returning with it, so it's naturally assumed he was disposing of Kathy's body in the ocean (he was actually getting rid of some evidence tying him and his accomplices to the abduction).
• Didn't Think This Through: Angie practically lives and breathes this trope. She's pretty good at coming up with solutions and schemes on the fly to get herself out of immediate trouble or achieve her immediate goals, but she rarely plans ahead for the long-term and her ideas tend to make things worse for her and accomplices down the road. A major example is her decision to kill Lucas and set it up like a suicide to keep Lucas' share of the $1 million and Kathy for herself. She then finds herself having to find a way to lie low with $1 million in cash on her person that she reasonably shouldn't have and a frightened little girl whose face has been shown all over the country. She later whines to Clint that she didn't think her actions would cause all this extra trouble: she just wanted more money and a kid.
• Dissonant Laughter: When Steve is told that his daughters' kidnappers are demanding $8 million in exchange for their safe return, Steve begins laughing hysterically and sarcastically remarks "Eight million? Why not eighty million?" Neither he or his wife remotely have that kind of money, they recently used what savings they do have to buy an old fixer-upper farmhouse, and Margaret later says she expects to be paying off her student loan for the next ten years. A little later when the FBI agents ask Margaret if she or Steve have any wealthy relatives, Margaret starts laughing too, before both she and Steve break down in tears. They subsequently explain they both come from working-class backgrounds, their parents are either retired or work low-paying jobs (Margaret's father actually died when she was fifteen), and Steve's brother could only find work as a baggage handler because of his criminal record. They're not personally connected to anyone who has access to $8 million, not even collectively.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Lila, a clerk at Abby's clothing store, thinks it's a strange coincidence that the same day she sold Margaret Frawley twin outfits, she also served another woman looking for twin outfits who didn't know what size she was looking for beyond "average three year old". Lila takes the time to look up who bought the outfits and learns the name and address of Angie and Clint, who are currently holding the twins hostage at their cottage. Lila brings it up with a family friend who is a retired cop, but he dismisses it as mere coincidence and discourages Lila from reporting it, because he knows Clint and Angie and thinks they're harmless, or at the very least too unorganized and dim-witted to pull off something like this. While Lila does eventually take her findings to the feds, if she'd not been talked out of it the first time the twins could've potentially been found much sooner.
  • When he follows Angie to the Cape Cod, Clint steals a car belonging to some teenagers from a cinema parking lot to get around in, figuring it will be hours before they realize it's missing. When he's trying to make a getaway, he's quickly pulled over by the cops and arrested, as the car had already been reported stolen quite some time ago; it just so happened the teens didn't care for the movie and left the cinema early.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Steve Frawley was a studious and sensible child, got a law degree and went on to have a successful career, a happy marriage and two kids. His half-brother Richie Mason "always had a bit of a wild side", got a juvenile record, dropped out of school, is twice-divorced and got into trouble for a money-laundering scam several years back. Steve says that Richie always resented him for being more successful personally and professionally. Although Steve doubts Richie would do something so horrible, the FBI believe Richie could potentially hate his half-brother enough to be involved in his nieces' kidnapping. Richie isn't involved in the kidnapping but he is discovered to have been smuggling cocaine.
• Foreshadowing: The Frawleys and Dr Harris discuss how Kathy was discovered to be allergic to penicillin via an allergen test, and that it's just as well they learned this early on before she was ever given any, as it could make her extremely sick. A little later, a clueless Angie decides to try and give Kathy penicillin to treat her fever...
• Grief-Induced Split: Norman Bond's ex-wife Theresa moved across the country to California, filed for divorce and got remarried after their twin sons died at birth. It's hinted that there were already problems in their marriage - such as having little in common and Theresa inadvertently exacerbating Norman's insecurities - and that the death of the twins was the final straw, with Norman recalling Theresa saying that "maybe it was for the best" the twins didn't live shortly before leaving him (presumably because it would've made the divorce harder).
• Hide the Evidence: Angie puts all the stuff she got for the twins into a large box and gives it to Lucas to dump in the sea. Consequently, it's later assumed that he was disposing of Kathy's body in the box, with it being hinted this is the reason Angie insisted on packing everything into one big box.
• If I Can't Have You…: Norman didn't take his wife, Theresa, leaving him well, believing she thought he was never good enough for her; it was further exacerbated by the fact she left him shortly after their newborn twins died and married another, more successful man a year later. After learning she was pregnant again by her new husband - with twins no less - Norman abducted and murdered Theresa while she was on her way to a baby shower.
• Imminent Danger Clue: In the opening scene, Trish the babysitter goes to check on the twins after she thinks she hears one of them cry out. She realizes something is off because the door to the twins' bedroom is closed and she's sure she left it open to listen out for them in case they woke up. Then Trish realizes that if the door was always closed, how would she have heard the twins crying while she was downstairs? Trish begins to panic at this point; seconds later she hears and smells someone right behind her...
• Imperiled in Pregnancy: Norman Bond's ex-wife Theresa was a few months pregnant with twins when she went missing; she actually vanished on her way to her baby shower. Given the circumstances and that it happened seventeen years ago, many people naturally assume something terrible befell her. It's revealed Norman murdered her; he recalls that she pleaded with him to spare her for the sake of her unborn children, which didn't work; given that their own twins died at birth, it's implied this only made Norman want Theresa dead even more.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: When the FBI interview Norman Bond about the twins' kidnapping, they bring up his currently missing ex-wife, to which he snaps he had nothing to do with his "late" wife's disappearance. The feds take note of this, pointedly asking how he knows she's dead. While someone missing for seventeen years without a trace probably is dead in all likelihood, it makes Norman nervous. It's later revealed he was responsible for his ex-wife's disappearance.
• Inside Job: The FBI start to believe that the girls were kidnapped by someone who knew the Frawleys didn't have much money but that Steve Frawley had started working for a wealthy investment firm, leading them to suspect it was set up by someone high up in the company who knows how to move and hide large sums of cash. Suspicion particularly falls on chief financial advisor Gregg Stanford - who is vying for the top job, has never been afraid to step on people to achieve his ambitions and may be in need of cash quickly if his wife divorces him - and director Norman Bond - who also covets the CEO position, hired Steve at the company above all other candidates, and had an acrimonious divorce from his ex-wife who subsequently went missing. It's Gregg, although Norman's hands aren't clean either.
• Internal Reveal:
  • The reader is told in the first chapter the identities of the three primary kidnappers, with a lot of the plot being dedicated to the Frawleys and the FBI trying to discover who they are and where they are now.
  • Likewise, the reader is made aware that Kathy is still alive and with the kidnappers, while almost everyone else thinks she died and was buried at sea. A big source of tension and suspense in the novel is whether Margaret can convince everyone else that Kathy is still alive and track her down before it's too late, as the reader knows Kathy is getting sicker by the day, is currently in the dubious care of the increasingly erratic Angie, and is definitely a threat to the kidnappers' plan.
• Jerkass: All three kidnappers working for the Pied Piper are extremely unpleasant people; they're all motivated by greed, willing to screw over each other to save their own skins and don't show a shred of empathy for the Frawleys. They only care about the twins' well-being so far as their plan is concerned.
  • Lucas Wohl constantly insults Angie and Clint (even though he's often right in his criticisms), is planning to blackmail the Piper for more money and has no sympathy for the Frawleys; while discussing the case with Bailey, who expresses how awful Margaret and Steve must feel, Lucas privately snarks he hopes they feel bad enough to cough up $8 million (which he knows the Frawleys don't just have lying around).
  • Clint Downes is slovenly, bad-tempered, borderline abusive towards Angie and frequently irritated at the two terrified children he helped kidnap.
  • Angie Ames is extremely self-absorbed, manipulative and lacking in empathy, not caring how any of her actions affect others (even including her boyfriend), and terrorizing and mistreating the twins for not 'loving' her. She's also willing to use violence to get revenge on people for even petty slights, including the kids.
• Just in Time: Kathy is found and rescued from the back of a sinking van before she drowns; she's also taken to hospital in time to treat her for pneumonia and an allergic reaction to penicillin.
• Law of Inverse Fertility:
  • Angie says she always wanted children but was told by doctors she couldn't have any biologically (and she'd likely never qualify as a foster / adoptive parent). She tries to substitute babysitting for motherhood instead. In Angie's case, it's made clear that wanting kids and actually be equipped to care for them are not mutually inclusive and that it's probably a blessing she was never able to have kids of her own, based on how she treats the twins. Her desire for a child leads her to keep Kathy rather than return her with Kelly as planned, but motherhood quickly loses its novelty for her, to the point she goes off the idea altogether.
  • Amy Lindcroft miscarried her first and only pregnancy, and had to have a hysterectomy to treat the resultant complications. Her sadness when talking about it with the FBI makes it clear she wishes she'd been able to have children, even though she's largely content with her life now.
• The Lost Lenore: After Theresa disappeared without a trace, her second husband spent seventeen years mourning his loss and clinging to a sliver of hope she might still come back someday, even though in all likelihood she's dead (she appeared to be happy with her life, nor has she ever made contact with any of her friends and family, so running away seems unlikely). It's made worse by the fact she was pregnant with twins at the time she disappeared, so he never knew what happened to their unborn children either. It's discovered in the end that Theresa's first husband murdered her, with her second husband long having suspected he might be involved, so he may finally have some closure.
• Meaningful Name: Angie is given the name Mona to use during the kidnapping. Lucas says it's a good name because it sounds close to Momma, which might help soothe the girls. He snarkily adds that it also suits Angie "because [she's] always moaning" about something or other.
• Missing Child: The central focus of the novel is the kidnapping of three year old twin sisters, with both their parents and the FBI doing everything they can to find the girls and get them home safely. One twin is returned while the other is presumed dead, but her mother is convinced she's still alive and continues to search for her, trying to get the FBI onboard too.
• More Deadly Than the Male: Angie ends up being the first member of the gang to inflict fatal violence, shooting Lucas so she and Clint can keep their share of the money for themselves (as well as keep Kathy). Clint is genuinely shocked by what Angie did, not realizing she was capable of such violence.
• Never Suicide: The FBI realize relatively early that Lucas' supposed suicide is suspicious. They note that most people who shoot themselves put the barrel of the gun in their mouth or to the side of their head, but Lucas appears to have shot himself in a downwards angle, which is far more unusual.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: After Lucas is killed and Angie goes off-script, the Pied Piper starts to become paranoid that Lucas may have told Clint and Angie his identity, prompting him to travel to the Cape Cod where his accomplices are staying to deal with them if necessary. This ends up drawing more suspicion on him and turns out to be pointless, because Clint and Angie have no idea who he is. After Clint meets the Piper in person, he still doesn't recognize him but gives a description to the feds in an attempt to get leniency, directly leading to his capture. Both the Piper and the feds state that if he'd just stayed away he might've gotten away with it, with the feds saying they're sure Gregg Stanford will be "kicking himself" over that mistake every day for the rest of his life.
• Not Me This Time:
  • Norman Bond did murder his ex-wife seventeen years ago but he had nothing to do with the twins' kidnapping. Nevertheless, the investigation into the kidnapping and the fact he was the one who hired Steve Frawley causes him to come under the FBI's scrutiny again, ultimately leading to his downfall.
  • Richie Mason is a crook and doesn't much care for his half-brother, but his family is actually correct in believing he isn't involved in the kidnapping. In the process of investigating him, the FBI discover he's actually smuggling cocaine, which is why he's been evasive about his movements.
• Outliving One's Offspring:
  • Margaret and Steve are led to believe one of their daughters, Kathy, was accidentally killed by the kidnappers and buried at sea, meaning they can't even bring her body back for a funeral. Monsignor Romney lampshades that no matter how old the child, it's one of the most devastating losses a person can go through. Of course, we're aware that Kathy is currently still alive, with Margaret quickly coming to believe this too, though her belief is initially dismissed as grief.
  • Norman and Theresa had twin sons, but they were born too early and died soon after. They were both devastated and Theresa ending up leaving Norman. Norman later learned that Theresa was pregnant with twins again by her second husband, while he never remarried or had more kids, and still mourns what he could've had, musing that his sons would be twenty-one years old now if they'd lived. It takes an even darker turn when it's revealed he murdered Theresa after learning of her new pregnancy.
• Papa Wolf: When Steve realizes Kathy is in the back of a rapidly sinking van and he's unable to open the door because of the water, he breaks his hand punching out a window to pull his daughter to safety. He also tells Clint to his face that if he had a gun he'd use it on him.
• Ransom Drop: After the $8 million ransom is raised, the Pied Piper instructs the FBI to put $7 million in a bank account and then have family acquaintance Franklin Bailey deliver $1 million in cash to a specific location. The feds try to discreetly follow Bailey to the drop-off, but end up losing track of him due to the convoluted instructions of the Piper. Once the money is collected, the Piper calls back to tell the FBI where Kathy and Kelly can be found: sitting in a car in the carpark of an abandoned restaurant. However, when the feds arrive they discover one of the kidnappers dead from a gunshot and only Kelly in the vehicle.
• Reverse Whodunnit: Two Little Girls in Blue is a partial example; the reader knows who the kidnappers are, with the protagonists trying to figure this out and hunt them down. However, the identity of the mastermind behind the kidnapping is hidden for most of the novel.
• Rich Jerk: Gregg, the chief financial advisor of C.F.G.&Y, is a selfish, greedy, arrogant jerk who flaunts his wealth while looking down upon and taking advantage of those less fortunate. He mistreated and cheated on all three of his wives (whom he mostly married for their money and connections), votes against paying the ransom purely because his rival Geisler thinks they should (while publicly claiming it's because he refuses to cooperate with criminals to make himself look better) and generally tries to take advantage of the situation to improve his chances of becoming CEO, and overall displays little sympathy for the Frawleys, even calling their home a dump. And that's before he's revealed to be the Pied Piper.
• Ring on a Necklace: Norman keeps his ex-wife's wedding ring - which she put on their dresser when she left him - on a chain and wears it constantly around his neck. It's also revealed he keeps the ring Theresa's second husband gave her on the chain too, which he took from her when he murdered her. When both rings are found on his body, it proves he was responsible for his ex-wife's disappearance, providing her second husband with some closure.
• Serial Spouse:
  • Gregg Stanford has been married three times; as his first wife Amy states, he's "incapable of being faithful to any woman". He also tends to marry women to further his career; he dumped Amy for her friend Tina Olsen after he starting working for her father's company (with Amy suspecting Gregg mostly stayed with her as long as he did to ingratiate himself with the Olsens), then married heiress Millicent when his marriage to Tina fell apart.
  • Gregg has met his match in wife no. 3 Millicent, who has been married four times and doesn't play around when it comes to the legal side of marriage. Her third husband didn't know he was being served divorce papers until he tried to get into their apartment, only to be told he couldn't come in because Millicent had kicked him out. Millicent also forced Gregg to sign a pre-nup stating that if their marriage lasted less than seven years, he wouldn't see a penny of her fortune. As the anniversary date creeps nearer, she starts making Gregg nervous by spending extended amounts of time in Europe and barely contacting him.
• Shout-Out:
  • To The Pied Piper of Hamelin, with the leader of the kidnappers using the Pied Piper as a code name. In this case, rather than taking children in revenge for being denied payment, the Piper demands payment in exchange for the children's return. Some versions of the story also imply that the Piper drowned the children just like the rats; in this novel little Kathy is believed to have been dumped in the ocean and later nearly drowns for real.
  • Lucas and Clint use the code names Bert and Harry, respectively, in reference to the mascots of the Piels Beer adverts.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Angie forces Kathy to pretend to be a boy, including cutting her hair short, dressing her in boys' clothes and calling her Stevie, so that they can travel without raising suspicion. Kathy is young enough that most people are fooled, though some get suspicious due to Kathy and Angie's strange behaviors.
• Synchronization: Kathy and Kelly can sense how the other is feeling; their pediatrician Dr Sylvia Harris observed that when she gave one twin a shot, the other twin in next room shrieked in pain. After Kelly is rescued, she begins developing bruises with no obvious cause, along with cold symptoms and a rash. Margaret and eventually Dr Harris realize she may be experiencing Kathy's pain and illness, meaning she's still alive.
• Twin Banter: Kelly and Kathy engage in "twin talk"; they have their own private language only they understand and they often babble away to each other. They even do this when they're far apart, which becomes a plot point when Kelly starts talking to Kathy as if she's still alive and speaking about things Kelly herself seemingly couldn't know.
• Twin Telepathy: A more mundane example. Three year old twins Kathy and Kelly seem to be able to sense what the other is thinking and feeling. This forms a plot point, as Kathy is apparently killed by the girls' abductor, but the way Kelly keeps talking about her leads their mother to believe Kathy is still alive.
• Twin Theme Naming: The Frawley twins both have names starting with K and ending with Y.
• Where Did We Go Wrong?: Steve's mother laments that she doesn't know what she did wrong when the family finds out her eldest son Richie has been arrested for drug smuggling, after already having been to prison for money laundering. Her husband assures her she didn't do anything wrong, bluntly stating his opinion that Richie is "just a bad apple". From what we see, Mrs Frawley genuinely did try her best, has always tried to support Richie in spite of his continual screw-ups and her other son turned out fine, so her husband may have a point.
• Woman Scorned: Neither of Gregg Stanford's ex-wives have anything nice to say about him because of how he treated them. He cheated on Amy Lindcroft with Tina Olsen - her best friend - and revealed this shortly after Amy learned she was pregnant; the shock caused Amy to have a miscarriage and she needed an emergency hysterectomy. Tina later found out the hard way that Gregg only married her for her money and her father's business connections, divorcing him after he also cheated on her and wracked up phony expenses on her father's dollar. Tina and Amy both gleefully tell the FBI that Gregg knows Lucas Wohl through Tina (whom the FBI now know was involved in the twins' kidnapping) and that his pre-nuptial agreement with his current wife (who has been married more times than even Gregg) states he gets nothing if the marriage lasts less than seven years; with the seventh anniversary only weeks away, Gregg may be concerned his wife will file for divorce and be in desperate need of cash. Gregg cites this trope by name when questioned by the feds, trying to dismiss his exes as petty and vengeful. The agents themselves are more sympathetic to the women, especially Amy.
• Would Hit a Girl:
  • Clint is the one who grabs and chloroforms Trish, the Frawleys' babysitter. He later punches Angie in the face to incapacitate her and leaves her to drown in a sinking van; the feds later state he punched her so hard she was likely dead before the van even went into the water.
  • Norman murdered his ex-wife, who was also pregnant at the time. It's not mentioned exactly how he did it, only that she begged for her life.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Angie pinches Kelly hard on the arms and legs to get her to shut up; she also ties a gag on her face so tightly it bruises her. She starts pinching and manhandling Kathy too, ties her to a bed and tries to gag her. She later intends to dispose of Kathy by putting her into the back of a van and dumping it in the sea.
  • Clint pushes Angie's van off a jetty into the sea, knowing Kathy is still in the back, to dispose of any witnesses.
  • The Piper orders Clint and Angie to "get rid" of Kathy once she becomes a liability.
• You Remind Me of X: It's strongly implied Norman Bond hired Steve Frawley at the company because he reminds him of himself when he was younger; a hopeful and ambitious young man in love with his wife, with a home in Ridgefield and twin children. Norman later muses that in some ways he sees Steve as being everything he could've (and should've) had.

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