Brady Hartsfield

"Most people are fitted with Lead Boots when they are just little kids and have to wear them all their lives. These Lead Boots are called A CONSCIENCE. I have none, so I can soar high above the heads of the Normal Crowd."

- Brady, in his letter to Ret. Detective Hodges

Brady Hartsfield, also known as Mr. Mercedes and The Mercedes Killer, is the titular antagonist of the 2014 Stephen King novel Mr. Mercedes. Prior to the main events of the novel, Brady stole a Mercedes-Benz and used it to murder eight individuals waiting for a job opportunity. And after the case has gone cold, he has sent a note antagonizing retired detective Kermit William "Bill" Hodges in his failure to catch him. He also represents himself with a twisted smiley face icon, eyes obscured by sunglasses and showing its teeth.

Background
Brady grew up with his mother Deborah Ann and his brother Frankie after his father had been killed in a tragic electrocution. Despite having funds from the insurance to keep them afloat, Deborah ultimately squandered much of the money. Things were made worse as Frankie choked on an apple slice and fell into a coma, eventually waking up brain-damaged. Eventually, unable to further put up with the stress of raising a mentally afflicted child, Deborah kicked Frankie's toy firetruck into the basement and nodded at Brady. Taking this cue, Brady kicked his brother down the stairs, killing him in the process. They covered up the incident by claiming Frankie fell, and remained fairly (and disturbingly) close, although Brady considered killing her many times.

Over the years, Brady tinkered with various gadgets and technology, developing remotes that could alter traffic patterns and capture PKE signals to unlock/relock cars (dubbed "Thing One" and "Thing Two", respectively). He used these to cause havoc and steal from others, getting a thrill out of the misfortune he caused. Eventually, he put these to use when, using one of his day jobs as a computer technician for Discount Electronix, he collected the PKE signal of affluent Olivia Trelawney's Mercedes-Benz and stole it. With said Mercedes-Benz, he drove into the City Center and attacked multiple persons awaiting potential job opportunities, killing eight in the process, including a mother and her baby. He wore a clown mask to obscure his identity and cleared away all DNA evidence with bleach. Brady abandoned the Mercedes with a smiley akin to what he would later use in his letter to Hodges.

At a later point, he disguised himself as Frankie and spoke to Olivia Trelawney over a social network site called Debbie's Blue Umbrella, a private site for picture-less, allegedly stress-free chats. However, by doing so, he encouraged Trelawney to stop taking her medication and planted a looping sound file called "SPOOKS" (consisting of a recording of screaming and a woman angrily accusing Trelawney of killing her child) that ultimately drove her to suicide out of guilt. Brady considered it a triumph and moved on, until the events of the novel.

Mr. Mercedes
Seeking to antagonize the detective who failed to solve the murder, Brady drops a letter in for Hodges, detailing his confession to the Mercedes killings (albeit with exaggerated and/or falsified details to throw Hodges off), in the hopes that the letter would drive Hodges to commit suicide (as the retired detective had considered). Unfortunately for Brady, Hodges decides to once again investigate the case, prompting Brady to take action. In the letter, Brady provided Hodges with a Debbie's Blue Umbrella account. In the game of cat-and-mouse that ensues, Hodges riles up Brady by accusing him of and mocking him for attempting serial confession. In revenge, Brady attempts to prepare poisoned hamburger meat to feed to the pet dog of Hodges' friend and ally Jerome. However, Deborah unwittingly prepares and consumed of the meat, dying from the inevitable poisoning. This prompts Brady to retreat from his home and seek a way to "go out in a blaze of glory".

Prior to the events of the novel, Brady had planned to attach homemade plastic explosives inside a vest and commit a suicide bombing, aspiring to take out as many people with him as he could. Once Hodges and his allies get closer to discovering his identity, Brady, feeling more vengeful due to his mother's death, plants an explosive in Hodges' car. The bomb kills Trelawney's sister Janey, who had developed a sexual friendship with Hodges and was taking his car while he looked over her mentally challenged niece Holly. Determined to go out in a bang after all this, Brady purchases a ticket to the 'Round Here concert at the performing arts center and reattaches the explosives from his vest into various pieces of a disguise, including a catheter and a cushion. Taking on the appearance of a bald, bespectacled man in a wheelchair, Brady attends the 'Round Here concert with full intent to blow up the numerous young female members of the audience, as well as himself, in his final "blaze of glory".

Hodges, Jerome, and Holly manage to decipher Brady's plot after they find his house and manage to access his computers. Taking the same Mercedes used for the murders, now cleaned up and in the possession of Holly's mother, the trio rush to the performing arts center to stop Brady. Ultimately, due to being the only one of the three Brady would not recognize, Holly makes her way inside and incapacitates Brady before he can set off the bombs hidden on his person. The trauma he endures in the process puts Brady into a coma. By the end of the novel, he awakens in a mental treatment ward, asking for his mother and suffering mental damage.

Finders Keepers
Brady reappears in Finders Keepers, the sequel to Mr. Mercedes, as a hospital patient. Hodges periodically visits him, working under the suspicion that Brady is faking his brain-dead state. Brady seemingly demonstrates that he is still impaired, but a picture of Brady and his mother falling over arouses Hodges' suspicions. A nurse tending to Brady commits suicide, much in the same manner as Trelawney. Unfortunately, at the end, it is revealed that Brady is indeed faking. To make matters worse, he has developed telekinesis. This likely sets him up as the main antagonist of the future sequel.

Aspects
Brady is a sociopath, encouraged by his mother's entitlement and considering himself free to do as he pleases due to what he's gotten away with. He also demonstrates nihilistic tendencies, believing there is no God in a world that "allowed" him to do what he's done and that everyone will just die and enter the same "darkness". This has led to emphasized sadistic and suicidal tendencies as well, given his final act of attempting to increase his kill count and add himself into the mix. In his other job as an ice cream man, Brady considers poisoning his supply and killing numerous children, but refrains due to concerns of being found out. Also adding to his character is a level of racism, especially directed at blacks such as Jerome, who he despises for "having a white person's name" and wants to see suffer.

Despite this, Brady seems to have some form of affection for his family. He considers Frankie useless and that killing him was a good idea, yet feels an "authentic" sadness when he recalls Frankie. He also seems to value his relationship with his mother Deborah and is disturbed by his indirect murder of her. However, this "affection" is suspect in itself, due to how often it seems Brady only cared for his family as much as they could and would benefit him in some way. Such as noted in how he used Frankie's memory and identity to push Olivia Trelawney to suicide and to claim he was attending the 'Round Here concert in memory of his "son". Or how he only seems to really care about his mother inasmuch she can "help" him through incestuous relations. Nevertheless, Brady is plagued with headaches that arise from his situation, and they return in full force once he awakens from the coma.