Along Came a Spider

the main building. I’m one of a hundred living people who knows how to play Parcheesi.”
    Jezzie craned her neck so she could see out the window. “Or, we could hike down by the lake. Sing ’Winter Wonderland.’ ”
    “Yeah. We could do some ice-skating. I ice-skate. I’m a wizard on skates. Was that in my FBI report?”
    Jezzie grinned and slapped her knees. “That I’d like to see. I’d pay real good money to see you skate.”
    “Forgot my skates, though.”
    “Oh, well. What else? I mean, I like you too much, I respect you too much, to let you think I might be interested in your body.”
    “To be absolutely truthful and frank, I’m a little interested in
your
body,” I said. The two of us kissed, and it still felt pretty good to me. The fire crackled. The champagne was ice-cold. Fire and ice. Yin and yang. All kinds of opposites attracting. Wildfire in the wilds.
    We didn’t get to sleep until seven the following morning. We even walked down to the lake, where we skated on our shoes in the moonlight.
    Jezzie leaned in and she kissed me in the middle of the lake. Very serious kiss. Big-girl kiss.
    “Oh, Alex,” she whispered against my cheek, “I think this is going to be real trouble.”

CHAPTER 46

    GARY SONEJI/MURPHY was remanded to Lorton Federal Prison in the northern part of Virginia. We began hearing rumors that something had happened to him there, but no one from the Washington Police Department was allowed to see him. Justice and the FBI had him, and they weren’t letting go of their prize.
    From the moment it was revealed that he was being kept at Lorton, the prison was picketed. The same thing had occurred when Ted Bundy was imprisoned in Florida. Men, women, and schoolchildren assembled outside the prison parking area. They chanted emotional slogans throughout the day and night. They marched and carried lighted candles and placards.
    Where Is Maggie Rose? Maggie Rose Lives! The Beast of the East Must Die! Give the Beast the Chair or Life!
    A week and a half after the capture, I went in to see Soneji/ Murphy. I had to call in every chip I had in Washington, but I got in to see him. Dr. Marion Campbell, the warden at Lorton, met me at a row of gunmetal elevators on the prison’s sixth floor, the hospital floor. Campbell was in his sixties. He was well preserved, with a flowing mane of black hair. He looked very Reaganesque.
    “You’re Detective Cross?” He extended his hand and smiled politely.
    “Yes. I’m also a forensic psychologist,” I explained.
    Dr. Campbell seemed genuinely surprised by that information. Evidently, no one had told him. “Well, you certainly have some pull to get in to talk with him. It’s gotten rather complicated. Visiting rights with him are a precious commodity.”
    “I’ve been involved with this since he took the two kids in Washington. I was there when he was caught.”
    “Well, I’m not sure if we’re talking about the same man now,” Dr. Campbell said. He didn’t explain. “Is it Dr. Cross?” he asked.
    “Doctor Cross, Detective Cross, Alex. You pick.”
    “Please come with me, Doctor. You’re going to find this most interesting.”
    Because of the gunshot wound Soneji got at McDonald’s, he was being kept in a private room in the prison hospital. Dr. Campbell led me down a wide corridor inside the hospital. Prisoners occupied every available room. Lorton’s a very popular place, long lines at the door. Most of the men were black. They ranged in age from as young as nineteen to their mid-fifties. They all tried to look defiant and tough, but that is a pose that doesn’t work well in a federal prison.
    “I’m afraid I’ve become a little protective of him,” Campbell said as we walked. “You’ll see why in a moment. Everybody wants to, needs to, see him. I’ve received calls from all over the world. An author from Japan had to see him. A doctor from Frankfurt. Another from London. That sort of thing.”
    “I get the feeling there’s something you’re not telling me about him, Doctor,” I finally said to Campbell. “What is it?”
    “I want you to draw your own conclusions, Dr. Cross. He’s right here in this section near the main ward. I would very much like your opinion.”
    We stopped at a bolted steel door in the hospital corridor. A guard let us through. Beyond the door were a few more hospital rooms, but rooms for maximum security.
    A light burned brightly inside the first room. It wasn’t Soneji’s. He was