Along Came a Spider

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 kitchen. She said it was Wallace Hart calling from Fallston Prison.
    “Alex, I’m sorry 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.
    “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 a quiet room for the night. Keep him on specials and seclusion 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