Patterson, James - Alex Cross 1 - Along Came A Spider

“About a dozen,” I told him. “Can you tell me a little about Maggie? It could help. The more we know, the better will be our chances of finding Maggie.”

Katherine Rose nodded. “Of course we will, Detective Cross. We've tried to bring Maggie up to be as normal as possible,” she said. “That's one of the reasons we finally decided to move East.”

“I don't know if I'd call Washington a normal place to grow up. This isn't exactly Mayberry R.F.D.” I smiled at the two of them. For some reason, that statement started to break the ice between us.

“Compared to Beverly Hills it's pretty normal,” Tom Dunne said. “Believe me, it is.”

“I'm not even sure what 'normal' means anymore,” Katherine said. Her eyes gave the appearance of being grayish blue. They penetrated when you got up close to her. “I guess 'normal' corresponds to some old fashioned image in the rear of our minds, Tom's and mine. Maggie isn't spoiled. She's not one for 'Suze got this' or 'Casey's parents bought her that.' She doesn't have a big head about herself. That kind of 'normal.' She's just a little girl, Detective.”

As Katherine Rose lovingly talked about her daughter, I found myself thinking of my own children, but especially Janelle. Jannie was “normal,” too. By that, I mean that she was in balance, definitely not spoiled, lovable in every way. Finding parallels between our daughters, I listened even more carefully as they spoke of Maggie Rose.

“She's a lot like Katherine.” Thomas Dunne offered a point he felt was important for me to hear. "Katherine is the most egoless person I've ever met. Believe me, to live through the adulation a star can get in Hollywood, and the nasty abuse, and to be the person she is, is very hard.

“How did she come to be called Maggie Rose?” I asked Katherine Rose.

“That's all my doing.” Thomas Dunne's eyes rolled back. He liked to talk for his wife, I could see. “It was a nickname that just caught on. It started the first time I saw the two of them in the hospital.”

“Tom calls us 'The Rose Girls,' 'The Rose Sisters.' We work out here in 'The Rose Garden.' When Maggie and I argue, it's 'The War of the Roses.' It goes like that. ”

They loved their little girl very much. I sensed it in every word they said about Maggie.

Soneji, whatever his real name was, had chosen wisely in their case. It was another perfect move on his part. He'd done his homework. Big-name movie star and a respected lawyer. Very loving parents. Money Prestige ' Maybe he liked her movies. I tried to remember if Katherine Rose had played any part that might have set him off. I didn't remember seeing her picture up in his apartment.

“You said you want to know how Maggie might react under these terrible circumstances,” Katherine continued. “Why is that, Detective Cross?”

“We know from talking to her teachers that she's well behaved. That may have been a reason for Soneji choosing her. ” I was candid with them. “What else can you think oP Free-associate all that you can. ”Maggie's mind seems to shift between being serious-very strict and rule abiding-to having a lot of fantasies,“ Katherine said. ”Do you have children?" she asked me.

I flinched. I'd been thinking of Jannie and Damon again. Parallels. “Two children. I also do some work with kids in the projects,” I said. “Does Maggie have many friends at school?”

“Tons of them,” her father said. “She likes kids who have a lot of ideas, but aren't too self-centered. All except Michael, who's intensely self-absorbed.”

“Tell me about the two of them, Maggie and Michael. ”

Katherine Rose smiled for the first time since we'd been talking. it was so strange, this smile that I had seen many times in movies. Now I was seeing it in person. I was mesmerized. I felt a little shy, and embarrassed that I was having that kind of reaction. “They've been best friends ever since we moved here. They're the oddest couple, but inseparable,” she said. “We call them Felix and Oscar sometimes.”

“How do you think Michael would react@under these circumstances?” I asked.

“Difficult to judge. ” Thomas Dunne shook his head. He seemed to be a very impatient man. Probably used to getting what he wanted, when he wanted it. "Michael always has to have a 'plan.' His life's very orderly, very structured.

“What about his physical problems?” Michael had been a “blue baby,” I knew. He still had a slight problem with a heart murmur.

Katherine Rose shrugged her shoulders. Apparently it wasn't much of an issue. “He tires sometimes. He's a little small for his age. Maggie's bigger than Michael. ”

"They all call him Shrimpie, which I think he likes.

It makes him a little more of the gang,“ said Tom Dunne. ”Basically, he's a whiz-kid type. Maggie calls him a brainiac. That's fairly descriptive of Michael."

“Michael is definitely a brainiac.” “How is he when he gets tired?” I went back to something Katherine had said, maybe something important. “Is he ever short-tempered?”

Katherine thought about my question before answering. “He just gets pooped. Occasionally, he'll take a nap. One time-I remember the two of them asleep near the pool. This little odd couple sprawled out on the grass. Just two little kids. ”

She stared at me with those gray eyes of hers and she started to cry. She had been trying hard to control herself, but finally had to let go.

However reluctant I may have been at first, I was becoming a flesh-and-blood part of the terrible case. I felt for the Dunnes and the Goldbergs. I'd made connections between Maggie Rose and my own kids. I was involved in a way that isn't always useful. The anger I had felt about the killer in the projects was being transferred to the kidnapper of these two innocent kids.

Mr. Soneji... Mr. Chips.

I wanted to reach out, to tell both of them everything would be okay, to convince myself everything would be okay. I wasn't sure it would be.

Along Came A Spider

CHAPTER 16

AGGIE ROSE Still believed she was in her own

It was beyond being creepy and horrible.

It was a million times worse than any nightmare she'd ever imagined. And Maggie knew her imagination was a good one. She could gross out or amaze her friends, pretty much at will.

Was it nighttime now? Or was it daytime?

“Michael?” she moaned weakly. Her whole mouth, her tongue especially, felt like a lot of cotton swabs. Her mouth was unbelievably dried out. She was so thirsty. Sometimes she would gag on her tongue. She kept imagining that she was swallowing her tongue. Nobody had ever been this thirsty before. Not even in the deserts of Iraq and Kuwait.

Maggie Rose kept drifung in and out of sleep. Dreams came to her constantly. Another one had just started.

Someone was pounding on a heavy wooden door nearby.

Whoever it was called out her name. “Maggie Rose... Maggie Rose, talk to me!”

Then Maggie wasn't sure that it was a dream at all.

Someone was really there.

Was someone breaking into her grave? Was it her morn and dad? Or the police, finally?

Suddenly light from above blinded her! Maggie Rose was sure it was really light.

It was as if she were looking straight into a, hundred flashbulbs, all of them going off at once.

Her heart beat so fast and so hard that Maggie Rose knew she must be alive. In some terrible, terrible place. Someone had put her there.

Maggie Rose whispered up into the light, “Who is it? Who's there? Who's up there right now? I see a face!”

The light was so very bright that Maggie Rose couldn't really see anything.

For the second-or third-time, it had gone from pitch-black to blinding, blinding white.

Then someone's silhouette blocked out most of the light. Maggie still couldn't see who was there. Light radiated behind the person.