Take Down: Spoilers for the Ending

In Take Down by James Swain, the portion of the ending which surprised me related to Maggie.  I liked her character through most of the novel, though when she was relegated to being chained up in the truck I thought it didn't fit her character.  She's a con woman, has been all her life, and she can't make the cops buy the fact that she's prepared to turn in Billy, so they handcuff her in the truck while she stares impotently at the monitor.  It didn't fit the character for me.
 
I think Mr. Swain was trying to show she was reckless and desperate, but I think there were more subtle ways of showing that.


In any event, Billy finally gets together with Maggie, his crush from the time he was a teenager.  He sleeps with her and then decides he's done with her, that she's no further use to him.  He doesn't say goodbye, doesn't talk to her, instead he leaves some cash on the pillow as he leaves the room, telling himself that she'll get the message and be grateful for the cash.


It's pretty hard to take from a character who has been the protagonist, and there's very little way to justify it, beyond the recognition that he sees people as things to be used. 


It goes to the heart of the cruelty of a con man, and what the con man takes.  The confidence man earns people's confidence and trust, then exploits it.  In so doing, he takes not just the money, but the trust and faith that people have in humanity, and leaves them poorer, not just in their wallet, but also in spirit.


For Billy, the rest of the world are either grifters or marks and marks are meant to be used and left behind.  In leaving the money for Mags on the pillow, he didn't just use her, he wanted her to know she had been used, that she was a mark, and he was leaving her behind.  He wanted her to know that she had no hold over him, and he had conned her into thinking she did.  It occurs to me that it's similar in attitude to Michael of The Reader,


Read While Walking: The Reader, Exploitation and Victimization


and I wonder if Maggie will react in the same way as Hannah.