They All Ran After the President's Wife

“They All Ran After the President’s Wife” is the second of four stories presented in My Gal Sunday, a 1996 collection by bestselling mystery and suspense writer Mary Higgins Clark. Known as the “Queen of Suspense,” Clark has penned more than 50 novels and earned many accolades, including a 2000 Edgar Grand Master Award, which, according to the Mystery Writers of America, “represents the pinnacle of achievement in mystery writing.” The stories in My Gal Sunday feature wealthy former president, Henry Parker Britland IV, who partners with his beautiful young wife, Sandra “Sunday” O’Brien, to unravel mysteries and solve political crimes. When Sunday is kidnapped in “They All Ran After the President’s Wife,” Henry races against the clock to rescue Sunday before time runs out. In the Acknowledgements to My Gal Sunday, Clark writes that her favorite radio show when she was a child, Our Gal Sunday, inspired her to create her contemporary husband-and-wife detective team. Clark introduces her sleuths in the first story of the collection, “A Crime of Passion.”

Henry Parker Britland IV is 44 years old and has just finished his second term as a highly popular president of the United States. Henry, consistently “at or near the top of the list of the list of America’s sexiest men,” is independently wealthy, intelligent, and charming. Blonde-haired, blue-eyed Sunday is a new Congresswoman and 12 years Henry’s junior. Sunday worked her way through law school and served as a public defender before joining Congress. She is smart, witty, and compassionate. Henry and Sunday met the night before Henry left office and married six weeks later.

Alone at Drumdoe, their posh country estate in New Jersey, Henry longs for Sunday, who is away in Washington, DC for a few days. Desmond Ogilvey, Henry’s former VP, now president, calls with bad news: Sunday and her entire Secret Service detail were knocked unconscious with nerve gas. Now, Sunday is missing.



With the senior agent of his own Secret Service detail, Jack Collins, and his “right-hand associate,” Marvin Klein, Henry rushes to the White House. He learns that Sunday’s kidnappers are demanding the release of Claudus Jovunet, “a heartless terrorist; a former mercenary; a paid assassin,” who is serving time in federal prison. The kidnappers want Jovunet placed on a supersonic transport plane (SST) and flown out of the country, after which they promise to release Sunday. If their demands are not met, the kidnappers threaten, the government can start “dragging the Atlantic” for Sunday’s body. Henry is distraught. Ogilvey promises the help of the entire government.

Sunday awakens in a cold concrete room with her head covered and her arms and legs bound. A voice ominously whispers that Henry and the Secret Service are all searching for her, but she won’t be found “until the tide comes in.” Dressed in a monk’s robes, Sunday’s captor has a “crafty, malevolent expression.” Sunday feels that he is toying with her. When he puts his monk’s hood over her head, Sunday notices a distinctive gold signet ring that she knows she has seen before. She racks her brains and connects the ring to a case from her public defender days. She also recognizes her captor’s voice: It belongs to the brother of Sneakers Klint, a murderer whom she successfully defended on a lesser charge of manslaughter. The brother, Wexler Klint, was angry his brother still had to go to prison. Sunday realizes that Wexler is her captor.

Henry visits Jovunet in prison. The terrorist is a cherubic-faced, blue-eyed 56-year old with a passion for designer clothes. Although confused by Henry’s offer of release, Jovunet agrees to Henry’s terms, demanding a designer wardrobe, champagne, and lots of caviar. Henry can’t understand what international organization or nation would want Jovunet in their country.



Wexler makes an audio recording to prove Sunday is still alive. By tearfully alluding to Henry’s shoes on their first visit to Drumdoe and pleading for Henry to defend her, Sunday slips clues to Wexler’s identity into the recording. Sunday’s kidnapper bundles her into the trunk of a car and drives away.

Henry puts Sunday’s hints together, and a team fruitlessly interrogates Sneaker Klint. Henry confronts Jovunet, who admits he has never heard of Klint but has been enjoying his day of freedom—and all the clothes and delicacies. Henry and Jack locate the home of Klint’s mother and discover evidence that Sunday was held in the basement. Klint’s elderly and confused mother reveals that her son had a lady friend visiting but has recently taken her swimming in New Jersey.

In order to buy time, Henry has Jovunet board the SST and enjoy a long, gourmet lunch. Newscasters begin to think the government is stalling for time. Henry desperately calls Sneakers to find out where his brother may have gone: Sneakers points the rescue team towards Long Beach. Henry and his team board helicopters and fly there.



Wexler gets fed up waiting for Jovunet’s plane to take off. He forces Sunday across the beach and out into the cold Atlantic. He plans to drown her and float her body away, but his wet suit and diving mask block the sound of the approaching helicopters. Henry spots Wexler holding Sunday underwater. Henry jumps from the chopper, knocks out Wexler, and carries Sunday to the beach. Henry comes close to shedding tears, but Sunday laughs, saying it is a chilly time of year for the two of them to be acting out the beach scene in From Here to Eternity.

“They All Ran After the President’s Wife” is followed in My Gal Sunday by the stories “Hail, Columbia!” and “Merry Christmas/Joyeux Nöel.”