I was the lucky one. At times Nana Mama was a super queen bitch because she knew what was good for me. She had seen my type before. She knew my father, for good and bad. She had loved my mother. Nana Mama was, and is, a talented psychologist. I named her
Nana Mama when I was ten. By then, she was both my nana and my mama.
Her arms were folded across her chest now. Iron will. “Alex, I believe I have some bad feelings about this relationship you're involved in,” she said.
“Can you tell me why?” I asked her.
“Yes, I can. First, because Jezzie is a white woman, and I do not trust most white people. I would like to, but I can't. Most of them have no respect for us. They lie to our faces. That's their way, at least with people they don't believe are their equals.”
“You sound like a street revolutionary. Farrakhan or Sonny Carson,” I said to her. I started to clear the table, carting plates and silverware to stack in our old porcelain sink.
“I'm not proud of these feelings I have, but I can't help them, either.” Nana Mama's eyes followed me.
“@is that Jezzie's crime, then? That she's a white 'woman?”
Nana fidgeted in her chair. She adjusted her e eglasses, which were hung around her neck by twine. "Her crime is that she goes with you. She seems willing to let you throw away your police career, everything you do here in Southeast. All the good that's been in your life - Damon and Jannie.
“Damon and Janelle don't seem hurt or concerned,” I told Nana Mama. My voice was rising some. I stood there with a stack of dirty dishes in my arms.
Nana's palm slammed down on the wooden armrest of her chair. “Well dammit, that's because you have blinders on, Alex. You are the sun and the sky for them. Damon is afraid You'll just leave him.”
“Those kids are upset only if you get them upset.” I said what I was feeling, what I believed to be the truth Nana Mama sat all the way back in her chair. The tiniest sound escaped from her mouth. It was pure hurt.
“That is so wrong for you to say. I protect those two children just like I protected you. I've spent my life caring for other people, looking out for others. I don't hurt anyone, Alex.”
“You just hurt me,” I said to her. “And you know you did. You know what those two kids mean to me.”
There were tears in Nana's eyes, but she held her ground. She kept her eyes locked tightly onto mine. Our love is a tough, uncompromising love. It's always been that way.
"I don't want you to apologize to me later on, Alex. It doesn't matter to me that you'll feel guilty about what you just said to me. What matters is that you are guilty. You are giving up everything for a relationship that just can't work.
Nana Mama left the kitchen table, and she went u Pstairs. End of conversation. Just like that. She'd made up her mind. Was I giving up everything to be with Jezzie? Was it a relationship that could never work? I had no way of knowing yet. I had to find thatout for myself.
Along Came A Spider
CHAPTER 59
PARADE of medical experts now began to testify at the Soneji/Murphy trial. Assistant medical examAiners took the stand, some of them strangely quirky and flamboyant for scientists. Experts came from Walter Reed, from Lorton Prison, from the army, from the FBI.
Photos and four-by-six-foot schematic drawings were displayed and overexplained; cnme-scene locations were visited and revisited on the eerie charts that dom.inated the trial's first week.
Eight different psychiatrists and psychologists were brought to the stand to build the case that Gary Soneji/ Murphy was in control of his actions; that he was a deviate sociopath; that he was rational, cold-blooded, and very sane.
He was described as a “criminal genius,,, without any conscience or remorse; as a brilliant actor, ”worthy of Hollywood," which was how he'd manipulated and fooled so many people along the way.
But Gary Soneji/Murphy had consciously and deliber: ly kidnapped two children; he had killed one or both of them; he had killed others-at least five, and possibly more. He was the human monster we all have nightmares about.... So said all the prosecution experts.
The chief of psychiatry from Walter Reed was on the stand for most of one afternoon. She had interviewed Gary Murphy on a dozen occasions. After a long description of a disturbed childhood in Princeton, New Jersey, and teenage years marked by violent outhursts against both human beings and animals, Dr. Maria Ruocco was asked to give her psychiatric evaluation of Gary Murphy.
“I see someone who is an extremely dangerous sociopath. I believe Gary Murphy is fully aware of all his actions. I absolutely do not believe he is a multiple personality. ”
So it was that Mary Warner artfully laid out her case every day. I admired her thoroughness, and her understanding of the psychiatric process. She was assembling a terribly complex jigsaw puzzle for the judge and jury. I'd met with her several times and she was good.
When she was finished, the jurors would have an exquisitely detailed picture in their minds... of the mind of Gary Soneji/Murphy.
Each, day of the trial she would concentrate on one new puzzle piece. She would show them the piece. She would explain it thoroughly. She would then insert the piece into the puzzle.
She showed the jury exactly how the new piece related to everything else that had gone before. Once or twice, spectators in the courtroom audience were moved to applaud the soft-spoken prosecutor and her impressive performance.
She accomplished all of this while Anthony Nathan was objecting to virtually'every point she attempted to make.
Nathan's defense was simple enough, and he never wavered from it: Gary Murphy was innocent because he had committed no crime.
Gary Soneji had.
Anthony Nathan paced the front of the courtroom with his usual swagger. He wore a fifteen-hundred-dollar tailored suit, but didn't look at all comfortable in it. The suit was cut well, but Nathan's posture was i ' ble-it was like trying to dress a jungle gym. mpossi “I am not a nice person.” Anthony Nathan stood before the jury of seven women and five men on the Monday of the second week. “At least not in the courtroom. People say that I have a perpetual sneer. That I'm a pompous man. That I'm an insufferable egomaniac. That I'm impossible to be around for more than sixty seconds. It's all true,” Nathan said to his captive audience. "It's all true.
"And that's what gets me into trouble sometimes. I do tell the truth. I'm obsessed with telling the truth. I have no patience, none at all, with half truths. And I have never taken a case where I cannot tell The Truth.
"My defense of Gary Murphy is simple, perhaps the least complex and controversial I've ever delivered to any jury. It is about Truth. It is all black and white, ladies and gentlemen. Please, listen to me.
7 “Ms. Warner and her team understand how stron g the defense is, and that's precisely why she has just laid before you more facts than the Warren Commission used to prove exactly the same thing-ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. If you could cross-examine Ms. Warner, and she would answer honestly, she would tell you that Then we could all go home. Wouldn't that be nice? Yes, that would be very nice.”
There were snickers from around the courtroom. At the same time, some members of the jury were leaning in closer to listen and watch. Each time that Nathan passed by, he got a half step closer to them.
"Someone, several someones, asked me why I took this case. I told them, as simply as I'll tell you now, that the evidence makes this a certain winner for the defense. The Truth is overwhelming for the defense. I know you don't believe that now. You will. You will.
"Here's a stunning statement offact. Ms. Warner did not want to bring this trial to jury at this time. Her boss, the secretary of the treasury, forced this case to trial. He forced the trial to take place in record time. Never have the wheels of Justice moved so fast. Those same wheels never would have moved this fast for you or your family. That is the truth.
"But in this particular instance, because of the suffering of Mr. Goldberg and his family, the wheels have moved very fast. And beca
use of Katherine Rose Dunne and her family, who are famous and rich and very powerful,. and who also want their suffering to end. Who can blame them for that? I certainly don't.
"But NOT AT THE EXPENSE OF THE LIFE OF
AN INNOCENT MAN! This man, Gary Murphy, does not deserve to suffer as they have suffered.
Nathan now walked over to where Gary sat. Blond, athletic-looking Gary Murphy, who looked like a grown-up Boy Scout. "This man is as good a man as you will find anywhere in this courtroom. I'll prove it to you, too.
"Gary Murphy is a good man. Remember that. There's another fact for you.
"It is one of two facts, just two, that I want you to remember. The other fact is that Gary Soneji is insane.
"Now, I must tell you, I am a little insane, too. Just a little. You've seen that already. Ms - Warner has drawn your attention to it. Well, Gary Soneii IS A HUNDRED TIMES MORE INSANE THAN I AM. Gary So@ji is the most insane person I've ever met. And I've met Soneji. You will, too.
"I promise you this. You will all meet Soneji, and once you have, you will not be able to convict Gary MurPhy. You will end up liking Gary Murphy, and rooting for him in his personal battle with Soneji. Gary Murphy cannot be convicted of murders and a kidnapping... that were committed by Gary Soneji....
Anthony Nathan now proceeded to call character witness after character witness. Surprisingly, they included staff members at Washington Day, as well as some students. They included neighbors of the Murphys from Delaware.
Nathan was always gentle with the witnesses, always articulate. They seemed to like Nathan and to trust him.
“Would you please state your name for everyone?”
“Dr. Nancy Temkin.”
“And your occupation, please.”
“I teach art at Washington Day School.”
“You knew Gary Soneji at the Day School?”
“Yes I did.”
“Was Mr. Soneji a good teacher during his time at Washington Day School? Did you ever observe anything that would make you think he wasn't a good teacher?”
“No, I did not. He was a very good teacher.”
“Why would you say that, Dr. Temkin?”
“Because he had a passion both for his subject matter and for communicating it to the students. He was a favorite teacher at school. His nickname was 'Chips,' as in 'Mr. Chips.' ”
“You've heard some medical experts say that he is insane, a severe split personality? How does that strike you?”
“Frankly, it is the only way I can comprehend what happened.”
“Dr. Temkin, I know this is a hard question under the circumstances, but was the defendant a friend of yours?”
“Yes. He was a friend of mine.”
“Is he still a friend of yours?”
“I want to see Gary get the help he needs.”
“And so do 1, ” said Nathan. “So do 1. ”
Anthony Nathan fired his first real salvo late on Friday of the trial's second week. It was as dramatic as it was unexpected. It started with a side-bench conference Nathan and Mary Warner had with Judge Kaplan.
During the conference, Mary Warner raised her voice for one of the few times during the trial.
I object! I must object to this.. "Your Honor,
- stunt. This is a stunt!"
The courtroom was already buzzing. The press, in front-row seats, was alert. Judge Kaplan had apparently ruled in favor of the defense.
Mary Warner returned to her seat, but she had lost some of her composure. “Why weren't we informed of this beforehand?” she called out. “Why wasn't this revealed in pretrial?”
Nathan held up his hands and actually quieted the room. He gave everyone the news. “I call Dr. Alex Cross as a defense witness. I am calling him as a hostile and uncooperative witness, but a witness for the defense nonetheless. ”
I was the "stunt.,,
T'
Part Four remember
Maggie Rose i I a
Along Came A Spider
CHAPTER 60
ET'S WATCH the movie again, Daddy,“ Damon said to me. ”I'm serious about this now."
“Shush up. We're going to watch the news,” I told him. “Maybe you'll learn something about life beyond Batman.”
“The movie's funny.” Damon tried to talk some sense into me.
I let my son in on a little secret. “So is the news.”
What I didn't tell Damon was that I was unbelievably tense about testifying in court on Monday, testifyingfor the defense.
On television that night, I had seen a news piece reporting that Thomas Dunne was expected to run for the Senate in California. Was Thomas Dunne trying to piece together his life again? Or could Thomas Dunne somehow be involved in the kidnapping himself? By now I was ruling nothing out. I'd become paranoid about too many things related to the kidnapping case. Was there more to the report from California than what
321 seemed? Twice, I had requested permission to go to alifomia to investigate. Both times the request was denied. Jezzie was helping me out. She had a contact in California, but so far nothing had come of it.
We watched the news from the living-room floor. Janelle and Damon were snuggled up beside me. Before the news, we had reviewed our tape of Kindergarten Cop for the tenth, or twelfth, or maybe it was the twenti- eth time.
The kids thought I should be in the movie instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger. I thought Arnold was turning into a pretty good comic actor myself. Or maybe I just preferred Schwarzenegger to another turn with Benji or The Lady and the Tramp.
Nana was out in the kitchen, playing pinochle with Aunt Tia. I could see the phone on the kitchen wall. The receiver was dangling off the hook to stop calls from coming in from reporters and other cranks du jour.
The phone calls I had taken from the press that night all eventually got around to the same questions. Could I hypnotize Soneji/Murphy in a crowded courtroom? Would Soneji ever tell us what had happened to Maggie Rose Dunne? Did I think he was psychotic, or a sociopath? No I wouldn't comment.
Around one in the morning, the front doorbell sounded. Nana had gone upstairs long before that. I'd put Janelle and Damon to bed around nine, after we'd shared some more of David Macaulay's magical book Black and White. I went into the darkened dining room and pulled back the chintz curtains. It was Jezzie. She was fight on time.
I went out to the porch and gave her a hug. “Let's go, Alex,” she whispered - She had a plan. She said her plan was “no plan,” but that was seldom the case with Jezzie.
Jezzie's motorcycle truly ate up the road that night. We moved past other traffic as if it were standing still, frozen in time and space. We passed darkened houses, lawns, and everything else in the known world. In third gear. Cruising.
I waited for her to slip it up into fourth, then fifth. The BMW roared steadily and smoothly beneath us, its single headlamp piercing the road with its beckoning light.
Jezzie switched lanes easily and frequently as we hit fourth, then rose to the pure speed of fifth gear. We were doing a hundred and twenty miles an hour on the George Washington Parkway, then a hundred and thirty on 95. Jezzie had once told me that she'd never taken the bike out without getting it up to at least a hundred. I believed her.
We didn't stop hurtling through time and space until we came down, until we landed at a run-down Mobil gas station in Lumberton, North Carolina.
It was almost six in the morning. We must have looked as crazed as the local gas jockey ever got to see. Black man; blond white woman. Big-assed motorcycle. Hot time in the old town tonight.
The attendant at the station looked kind of out of sorts himself. He had skateboard pads over his farrner-gray blue jeans. He was in his early twenties, with one of those spiked or “skater” haircuts you're more likely to see on the beaches of California than in this part of the country. How had the hairdo gotten to Lumberton, North Carolina, so quickly? Was it just more madness in the air? Free flow of ideas?
“Morning, Rory.” Jezzie smiled at the boy.
She peeked between two of the gas pumps and winked at me.
“Rory's the e to-seven s i here. Only station open for fifty miles either way. Don't tell anybody you're not sure about.” She lowered her voice. “Rory sells ups and downs around these parts. Anything necessary to get you through the night. Bumblebees, black beauties, diazepam?”
She had slipped into a slight drawl, which sounded pretty to the ear. Her blond hair was all blown out, which I liked, too. “Ecstasy, methamphetamine hydrochloride?” she went on with the menu.
Ror. y shook his head at her, as if she were crazy. I could tell that he liked her. He brushed imaginary hair away from his eyes. “Man oh man,” he said. A very articulate young man.
“Don't worry about Alex.” She smiled again at the as jockey. His spiked hair made him three inches taller. 1g, He's okay. He's just another cop from Washington."
“Oh, man! Jezzie, goddamn you! Jee-zus! You and your cop friends. ” Rory spun on his engineer's boot heels as if he'd been burned by a torch. He'd seen plenty of crazy out here, working the emergency-room shift off the interstate. The two of us were crazy for sure. Tell me about it. What other cop friends?
Less than fifteen minutes later, we were at Jezzie's lake house. It was a small A-frame cottage sitting right on the water, surrounded by fir and birch trees. The weather was near perfect. Indian summer, later than it ever ought to come. Global warming marches on.
“You didn't tell me you were landed gentry,” I said as we sped down a picturesque winding road toward the cottage. - “Hardly, Alex. My grandfather left this place to my mother. Grandpop was a local scoundrel and thief. He made a little money in his day. The only one in our family who ever did.. Crime seems to pay.”
“So they say.”
I hopped off the bike, and immediately stretched out my back muscles, then my legs. We went inside the house. The door had been left unlocked, which stretched my imagination some.
Alex Cross 1 - Along Came A Spider Page 21
