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

Idn't help too much. She told me I was probably ng in the wrong place with the Secret Service agents. She said that Chakely was an excitable type who just might blow up over a call to Arizona. She told me he was bitter on the job, so he'd probably be bitter off it. In her opinion, Mike Devine and Chakely were both good, but not great, agents. If something was worth noting during the Goldberg family surveillance, they would have seen it. Their logs would have been accurate. Neither of them was clever enough to pull off a cover-up. Jezzie was sure of that.

She didn't doubt that Nina Cerisier had seen a car parked on her street the night before the Sanders murder, but she didn't believe that somebody had been watching Soneji/Murphy. Or even that Soneji had been down near the projects himself.

“I'm not on the case anymore,” Jezzie finally said to me. “I don't represent the interests of Treasury or anybody else. Here's my honest opinion, Alex. Why don't you just give it up? It's over. Let it go.”

“I can't do that,” I told Jezzie. “That isn't how we do things at King Arthur's Round Table. I can't give up on this case. Every time I try, something pops up and changes my mind.” t

That night we went to bed fairly early. Nine, ninefifteen. The Chassagne-Montrachet, Premier Cru did its job. There was still passion, but there was also warmth and tenderness between us.

We cuddled, and we laughed, and we didn't go to sleep early. Jezzie dubbed me “Sir Alex, the Black Knight of the Round Table.” I called her “Lady of the Lake.” We finally fell asleep whispering like that, peaceful in each other's arms.

I don't know what time it was when I woke up. I was on top of ruffled bed covers and comforter, and it was very cold.

There was still an orangish glow from the fire, a quiet crackling noise. I wondered how it could be so cold in the bedroom with the fire still going.

What my eyes saw, what my body was feeling, didn't add up. I mulled on that for a few seconds. I crawled under the covers and pulled them up to my chin. The glow reflected against the windowpane looked strange.

I thought about how odd it was to be there with Jezzie again. In the Middle of Nowhere. I couldn't imagine ever not being with her now.

I was tempted to wake her. Tell her that. Talk to her about anything and everything. The Lady of the Lake. And the Black Knight. Sounded like Geoffrey Chaucer for the 1990s.

Suddenly I realized it wasn't a glow from the fireplace that was flickering against the window.

I jumped out of bed and ran to take a look. I was witnessing something I had heard about all of my life, but had never expected to see.

A cross was burning very brightly on Jezzie's lawn.

Along Came A Spider

CHAPTER 73

MISSING LITTLE GIRL named Maggie Rose.

Murders in the projects. The thrill-killing of Viv ian Kim. A psychopath. Gary SonejilMurphy. An “accomplice.” A mystery watcher. A fiery cross in North Carolina.

When would the pieces finally fit together? Would the pieces ever fit? From that moment in Jezzie's cottage until the end of everything, my head was filled with powerful, disturbing images. I couldn't give up the case, as Jezzie had suggested. Events the following week added to my paranoia.

I came home late from work on Monday. Damon and Janelle swarmed all over me as I stomped the dozen paces from the front door to the kitchen.

“Phone! Phone! Phone!” Damon chanted as he romped along at my side.

Nana was holding the phone out to me from the

400 kitchen. She said it was Wallace Hart calling from Fallston Prison.

“Alex, I'm sony to bother you at home,” Wallace said. “Could you swing by here? It might be important. ”

I was trying to peel my jacket off. I stopped-one arm in, one out. The kids were helping me. Sort of helping me; sort of trying to get me to throw out my back.

“What is it, Wallace? I've kind of got my hands full tonight.” I stuck my tongue out at Damon and Jannie. “Couple of little problems around the house. Nothing I can't handle, though.”

“He's asking for you. He wants to talk to you, and only you. Says it's very important.”

“Can't it hold until morning?” I asked Wallace. I'd already put in a long day. Besides, I couldn't imagine anything new Gary Murphy could tell me. I “He's Soneji,” Wallace Hart said over the phone. “Soneji wants to talk to you now.”

I was speechless. Then I managed, “I'm on my way, Wallace. ”

I arrived at Fallston in under an hour. Gary was being housed on the prison,building's top floor. High-profile patients like Squeaky Fromme and John Hinckley had spent time up there. It was the high-rent district, just the way Gary wanted it. When I arrived at his cell, Gary was lying face up on a narrow cot without sheets or a blanket. A guard watched him continuously. He was on “specials,” as one-to-one surveillance is called.

Wallace Hart said, “I was thinking of putting him in quiet room for the night. Keep him on specials and lusion for a while. Until we know what's up with him. He's flying, Alex.”

“One of these times he'll fly apart,” I said, and Wallace nodded agreement.

I entered Gary's cell and sat without being asked. I was tired of asking for permission from people. Gary's eyes were pinned to the ceiling. They seemed pushed back into his skull. I was certain he knew that I was there. Heeere's Alex!

“Welcome to my psikhushka, Doctor,” he finally said in an eerie, gravelly monotone. “Do you know psikhushka?” It was Soneji all right.

“The prison hospitals in Russia. It's where they put political prisoners in the Soviet Union,” I said.

“Exactly so. Very good.” He looked over at me. “I want to make a new deal with you. Clean slate.”

“I'm not aware of any deal,” I told him.

“I don't want to waste any more of my time here. I can't keep playing Murphy. Wouldn't you rather find out what makes Soneji tick? Sure you would, Dr. Cross. You could be famous yourself. You could be very important in whatever circle you choose to participate in. ”

I didn't believe this could be a fugue state, one of his escapes. " He appeared to be very much in control of what he was saying.

Had he been Gary Soneji all along? The “Bad Boy”? Right from the first time we'd met? That had been my diagnosis. I held to it.

“Are you with me so far?” he asked from his cot. He stretched his long legs out in a leisurely manner and wriggled his bare toes.

“You're telling me now that you were fully conscious of everything you did. There was never a split personality. No fugues. You played both parts. Now you're tired of playing Gary Murphy - ”

Soneji's eyes were focused and extremely intense. His gaze was colder and more penetrating than usual. Sometimes, with severe schizophrenics, the fantasy life becomes more important than the real one.

“That's right. That's the ticket, Alex. You're so much brighter than the others. I'm very proud of you. You're the one who keeps things interesting for me. The only one who can hold my attention for long stretches at a time.”

“And what do you want from us?” I tried to keep him on track. “What can I do you, Gary?” “I need a few little things. But mainly, I just want to be myself. So to speak. I want to be recognized for all my achievements.”

“Do we get anything in return?” Soneji smiled at me. “I'll tell you what happened. From the beginning. I'll help you solve your precious case. I'll tell you, Alex.”

I waited for Soneji to go on. I kept going back to the pronouncement over Gary Soneji's bathroom mirror: I want to be somebody! He had probably wanted to take credit from the very beginning.

“I had always planned to murder both children. I couldn't wait. I have this love-hate thing with childhood, you know. Cut-off breasts and shaved genitals, so my adult victims are more like kiddies. Anyway, killing the little bunions would be the logical and safe conclusion of the whole affair. ” Soneji smiled again. It was such a weird, inappropriate smile, as if he were confessing a white lie. “You're still interested in why I really decided on the kidnapping, aren't you? Why I chose Maggie Rosebud and her friend Shrimpie Goldberg?”