After a few, long minutes, the two had returned – Maiezza had shaken his head lightly, to warn the others that he hadn’t found what he was looking for.
“No, he wasn’t Riondino,” Maiezza explained to Sensi. “He was nearly two metres tall and pretty chubby. He coughed the whole time.”
“Are you sure that Riondino wasn’t hiding somewhere?” Sensi asked.
“Both of us inspected the whole apartment with the excuse of checking the electric sockets. Unless the invisible man is one of Riondino’s personalities, there was nobody else in the apartment.”
“We’ll find him… it’s just a matter of time.” Sensi looked disappointed, but he was still determined. “To start with, let’s play the same electricity game with all the other friends from Milan on Facebook. Let’s make three squads – by tonight, I want to know if he’s hiding at any of his online friends’ places.”
12
Claps had convinced Greta that it would be better for him to visit Rinaldi by himself. “He’s certainly under pressure with everything that has happened lately. You’re a journalist and he wouldn’t speak as openly with you by my side.”
Rinaldi welcomed Claps rather indifferently. He was about fifty years old, bald, with a well trimmed dark beard. He was wearing a black suit and his eyes betrayed a hint of anxiety.
“I’m shocked by what has happened.” His voice was deep and soft. “I have taken a long period off work.” A bitter smile appeared on his face. “I’m so glad that I was granted this leave.”
Claps was trying to avoid looking into his eyes, it wasn’t necessary after all. Rinaldi also did the same.
“The media attack me all the time. My colleagues have turned their backs on me. I was told this morning that a committee from the professional association of psychiatrists has gathered to evaluate my actions.”
“Do you feel responsible?”
“I have a fifteen year old daughter who lives with my ex-wife.” Rinaldi ignored Claps’ question. “A difficult relationship – I see her once every two weeks. She called me to tell me that she doesn’t feel like seeing me at the moment.”
“Do you feel… responsible?” Claps repeated.
“Everyone is responsible, do you not think? What does it matter what I think?” Rinaldi lit a cigarette nervously and then glared at Claps. “If you’re here, the magistrate must think that I’m responsible. Is that correct? Do I have to go and find a lawyer?”
“I’m just an advisor… and a colleague. I’m here to understand better.”
“To understand what? My degree of culpability? Maybe just 95 per cent as opposed to the full 100?”
This time, Claps chose to look into Rinaldi’s eyes. “One of your patients has just killed six people… and he’s now roaming free. We don’t know who he is any more. We know a version of Riondino from seven years ago, but not who he is nowadays. I’m here to understand this… not to judge your work.”
Rinaldi looked back into Claps’ eyes for a few seconds, then he sighed and sank into his armchair.
“I met Riondino for the first time about two years ago, when I took over Professor Reti’s work. As you can imagine, I had to win the patient’s trust over time.”
“Who were you talking with initially?”
“Jack. The process of merging was well underway and many of his personalities were fading away. I knew that shortly they would disappear completely.”
“Who are you referring… to in particular?”
“The Earl, the Actor and the Fox.”
“Was the Wimp still there?”
“Yeah, and so was the Professor, but they were all artificial personalities… like different coats that Riondino chose to wear every now and then. ‘I play the Wimp to avoid getting into trouble,’ he would say. ‘And I found out that I like reading about science just like the Professor.’ Do you understand? I play, not I am.”
“What about Hannibal?”
“Hannibal? I’ve never spoken to him and neither has my retired colleague. This personality hasn’t showed up for seven long years.”
“Until a few days ago…” Claps observed, in a sombre tone.
“An unexpected relapse.” Rinaldi slowly extinguished his cigarette and lit a new one. “Nobody could have predicted it, it was impossible to foresee.”
‘Impossible?’ That was what Claps immediately wanted to ask, but he chose a less direct path. “There were a lot more… personalities. As far as I know, those were far from merging with Jack.”
“Julia, Little and the Rebel. They disappeared gradually during the last few months that Riondino spent in Montelupo.”
“Did their memories merge with those of Jack?”
“Most likely – they wouldn’t have disappeared, otherwise.” Rinaldi answered nervously.
“What did… Jack tell you about those memories?”
“What did he tell me… that he wished that those things had never happened to him, that they should not happen to anyone. That he knew why he had wanted to keep those memories at bay for such a long time.” Rinaldi’s voice sounded a little impatient now. “Listen, Jack made some incredible progress during the few months before he was moved to a rehabilitation centre, and…”
“Jack?” Claps interrupted him abruptly. “Do you mean Riondino? If it’s true that his personalities had me… had merged together, that is.”
“Yeah, I mean Riondino… In any case, I signed a document to confirm that he wasn’t a danger to himself or anyone else only when I was completely sure that all of his personalities had merged together. Hannibal had been gone for years. There was no reason to prevent his move to a centre for social rehabilitation.”
“Did you keep seeing him even when he moved to the… rehabilitation centre?”
“Monthly visits just to check his health.”
“Did you ever notice anything alarming?”
“No, never.”
“When was the last time that you saw him?”
“Three weeks ago – he was perfectly normal. As I said, what has happened is due to a sudden relapse and could not be foreseen in any way.
“Who did you think was perfectly normal?” Claps couldn’t help himself asking sarcastically. “Riondino or Jack?” Claps stood up and walked towards the front door. He didn’t have anything else to ask, but he stopped by the front door anyway.
“One last thing – did you use hypnosis or pentothal during… therapy… in order to talk to Jack?”
“I never used either of them. Jack and the other personalities showed up spontaneously.”
Claps walked out without saying a word.
‘What an idiot,’ he thought.
*
“There has been no relapse at all.” Claps put his hands on his face wearily, he was speaking to Greta. “It’s worse than we thought – Riondino has never fully merged his personalities. He did so only partially… just like the professor told us. He pretended to be recovering to get away from the unit.”
Greta was shocked. “How do you know? And how did he manage to fool everybody?”
“Prof… Professor Reti has never been fooled by him… he used hypnosis to call out the different personalities and talk to each of them. Rinaldi has never done that. It wasn’t difficult to make him believe that the process of merging was complete.” Claps paused for a moment. Greta was listening attentively. “Hannibal has never disappeared… Riondino has kept some of the most dominant personalities hidden, one especially.”
“Jack.”
“Jack,” Claps nodded.
“That’s the most dominant personality, the one who knows about everybody else. The one who takes decisions for everyone else. The one… the one who has a degree of control over which of the personalities will show up. The one who didn’t allow Julia and the others to show up when he was around people… only when the professor put him under hypnosis was he able to find out about the other personalities. Jack was the… the one who knew since he was a child that he had to keep his illness
a secret… the one who has organised his life to be able to keep it a secret.”
“Then Hannibal took over.”
“Yes, then Hannibal defied Jack’s control. Jack didn’t have any mercy… any compassion for the victims. The professor said that he only had one… obsession… that of being free again.”
“But…”
“During the first months that he spent at the rehabilitation centre, Riondino realised that fooling Reti and his therapy was… a shortcut to getting out of there. Only then did Hannibal show up. And that’s when all of the other personalities showed up too. He pretended for a long time that Hannibal and all the others weren’t there any more… and that it had all happened progressively.”
“Why is the hypnosis so important? Why were you upset that the professor had used it and that Rinalidi hadn’t?”
“Only through hypnosis was the professor able to let Julia and some of the others show up. Rinaldi didn’t hypnotise Riondino and, consequently, Jack let him believe that all of the other personalities had disappeared… because they had merged into one.”
“So he tried to fool both Professor Reti and Doctor Rinaldi?”
“He only partially fooled Professor Reti… for he never agreed to move him out of the unit. Julia, Little and the Re… the Rebel were living proof that Hannibal hadn’t disappeared. The professor also had a feeling that Jack was hiding a lot about himself. With Rinaldi, however…”
Greta looked very thoughtful. “There’s something that I still don’t fully understand… I’m going to ask the same question that you dodged yesterday – why would he escape by committing atrocious murders that would throw him into jail for good, if he was getting close to being free anyway? He was in a rehabilitation centre, one step away from freedom.”
“I don’t know. Maybe he feared that they would find out that he was pretending. Or feared that Hannibal would take over… as had happened seven years before. Anything that could throw him back into the unit.” Claps stopped talking, but he carried on thinking. ‘Perhaps there is a reason, after all. Maybe there was something that he had to do as soon as possible… something that he couldn’t do as a half free man.’ Claps carried on talking. “Or maybe… he had simply had enough of being kept in custody… and the opportunity to be free immediately tempted him.”
“All those murders… all that violence… only Hannibal could do something like that. Do you suggest that Jack used Hannibal to escape?”
Claps nodded gravely. “Do you remember what… Professor Reti told us? Jack partially merged with members from one of the two groups – the Wimp, the Fox, the Actor, the Earl, the Professor… and with Hannibal. Yes, Hannibal has hidden for seven years, but he showed up when Jack needed him. He had to use him to find… a way out.”
“Oh shit.”
“Jack has been thinking about his plans for seven years.” Claps felt his hand shake lightly. “And it’s difficult to imagine that he didn’t think about how to remain free once he was out. Jack is Riondino’s most complete personality and he’s very dangerous.” Claps sounded incredibly tired and his face showed all his exhaustion. “It’s a lot worse than just a relapse.”
‘And I don’t feel that I’ll be able to carry on with this investigation,’ he almost said.
*
Sensi turned off the lights in his office and closed the door behind him.
He walked towards the internal car park – it was raining lightly. He was so immersed in his thoughts, he wasn’t aware of the rain. Another day had gone – the second day since Riondino had arrived in Milan. Still no trace of him. The investigation of all of his friends on Facebook had not proved fruitful – Riondino wasn’t hiding away at any of their houses. Sensi decided to call off the stakeout of each of Riondino’s friends’ homes. Telephone and Internet surveillance would be sufficient. He would ask Claps to interrogate them though. There had to be a reason why he had selected them.
All hotels, hostels, residences and homeless shelters had been inspected, with no results. The train stations, the bus stations and the airport were being kept under surveillance. Some underworld informants had been interrogated and nobody had noticed anything – Sensi had anticipated that, considering the fact that Riondino had never had ties with the criminal fraternity.
Sensi pressed his remote and the lights of his car began to flash in the darkness of the car park. He almost fell into the driver’s seat. He was exhausted. It had been forty-eight hours since Riondino had escaped without leaving a trace – this was a sign that he had almost certainly found a safe hideout and it wouldn’t be easy to find him. How much money did he have with him? He couldn’t have more than a few hundred Euros. He would be needing more money soon. How would he go about finding it?
The guard lifted the barrier at the entrance to the car park lot to let Sensi out; he thanked him with a distracted wave of his hand and merged into the night traffic. He wondered yet again whether he was really doing all that he could to find the man. Of course, the net had been cast, but the net was too loose to prevent Riondino sneaking through it. Sensi stopped at the red lights and rubbed his eyes wearily.
Claps. Claps might be able to help him out of this situation.
*
Riondino was laying supine on the bed.
The lights were turned off. The blinds were closed.
He was still.
Only his left thumb and index finger rubbed against each other, describing a continuous, circular movement.
No rest.
“We’ll have to get out tomorrow, Fox. We need that stuff.”
“I can’t wait! It feels more like a prison here than back in the rehabilitation centre. Why didn’t we go out today?”
“Let’s wait as long as we can… even if it’s going to be a while until they forget about us. We need that stuff, though. It’s going to rain tomorrow.”
“We should be less noticeable under the umbrella.”
“Exactly, Fox.”
“A quick run?”
“Yes. We’re going to need the Actor’s help.”
“Jack…”
“What?”
“I feel a lot of concern around us. The sudden liberty… it makes everybody nervous. I’m worried, Jack.”
“I don’t want to hear this shit, I don’t give a fuck. We’ll follow the plan as agreed.”
“There’s agitation around us. Are you sure that you’ll be able to keep everything under control? Julia? If she showed up, she could fuck up our plans.”
“Don’t worry – I’ll keep her hidden away.”
“You won’t be able to do that for long, she’ll force her way out sooner or later.”
“She has already, if that’s what you want to know… but we have an agreement. We just need some time to do what we have to do. Then we’ll have a new life – each of us will have their own space. Like in the good old days.”
“What about Hannibal? He’s free again now, after so long… Will he also have his own space? He’s going to cause us a lot of trouble.”
“I have him well under control – he’s satisfied for the time being.”
“He’s never satisfied. He has tasted blood after a long time and now he wants a woman.”
“We’ll give him a woman, if that’s what it takes to keep him quiet, Fox.”
13
Greta had risen very early that morning. While she was under the warm jet of her shower, she looked at her reflection in the mirror. This time, her vacant eyes didn’t worry her. It was different, this time… it was as if she had discovered that morning that she didn’t know who she was any more.
Her brown hair was impersonal, her haircut ordinary and careless. Her light coloured eyes now had a watery nuance; her expression lacked the pride that used to be part of her personality.
The woman she was staring at in the mirror was the woman she had chosen to become. Greta Lafenice, a reborn version of Greta Alfieri, the famous journalist who used to appear on TV daily. The woman who gave a voice t
o people’s opinions and feelings, the queen of the breaking news, one who never had enough of publicity and success.
The steam from the hot water jet was beginning to steam up the mirror. Her facial features became progressively more blurred.
Greta Lafenice – a blog writer, an expert in cinema reviews and fashion; far from the real news, from real life; a signature without a face. Did she still have a soul?
Was she really a better version of what she had been?
Maybe she was only wearing a comfortable mask, a shelter where she could hide from her old self.
She rubbed the back of her hand on the mirror, clearing the mist away.
She pulled up her hair, she tried to imagine it ginger, as it used to be a long while ago.
She tried to remember if that was the person she used to be.
*
The new day was a day full of grey clouds and rain, which had begun to fall about 10 a.m. – the rain fell restlessly, at times violently. It was one of those days where people run quickly under their umbrellas, keeping their heads down to avoid stepping into puddles rather than looking into the faces of others. It was the perfect time for Riondino to make the bold step out of his hideaway.
The big supermarket was close by and he was there in a few minutes. As soon as he entered the place, he closed his umbrella and looked around. He hadn’t seen such a huge supermarket for a long time. The aisles were crowded with people behind their shopping trolleys. He didn’t remember how to deal with so many people all at the same time… for a moment, he felt light-headed and a cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He shook himself and inhaled deeply. One of his unwanted characters could have used this moment of distraction to show up, and it was not the right moment to let that happen.
“Are you there, Actor?”
“I’m here, Jack – at your disposal, sir. Oh good grief, what kind of place is this?”
“Stop being so theatrical, it’s not the right moment to play around. In fact, it’s not the right moment to do anything just yet. You’ll have to play one of your characters, maybe even more than one. We’re here for you to buy the necessary stuff for the disguise.”
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