Logan watched the cadaver dog and handler sniffing their way around the next set of foundations and thought about lying. What the hell. ‘I’ve been having that dream again.’
‘Which one: giant lizards, or the talking shark that steals all your clothes?’
‘Severed heads.’ Logan could hear his own voice echoing back at him. Dr Goulding must have put him on speaker-phone.
‘I see…’ Pause. ‘We’ve not had that one for a while.’
Logan could hear him scribbling something down.
‘You know, I have a recurring nightmare where all the people turn into frogs, and all the frogs turn into people. And the people forget that they used to be frogs, and the frogs forget they were ever anything else. And I’m the only one who knows. Living, surrounded by reptiles…’
Logan didn’t know what to say to that. ‘Erm, did you get a chance to look at the assessment matrix for Richard Knox?’
‘You know, the fact that you’ve not had the severed heads dream for a while probably means something’s unresolved in your psyche. Is there anything causing you stress?’
Logan rubbed a hand over his bruised face. ‘Everything causes me bloody stress. Everyone causes me stress. It’s like they’re holding a competition to see who can piss me off the most.’
‘I see…’ More scribbling. ‘Have you been doing your breathing exercises?’
‘Course I have.’ Which was a lie.
‘Knox strikes me as a rather conflicted character.’
‘No shit.’
‘He’s got this deep-seated religious belief system which has to be in complete contradiction to his psycho-sexual landscape.’
Logan watched Wardrobe drag his handler on to the next plot. ‘You don’t think the whole God-bothering thing is just a front?’
‘Don’t see what he’d gain from it. To be frank, I’m more worried that he’s gone out and got himself an omnipotent invisible friend.’ There was a pause. ‘Who’s stressing you the most?’
‘Bloody DI Steel. She’s got it into her head that I’ve got an attitude problem. That I’m too cynical. That I drink too much.’
Silence.
Logan scowled. ‘What?’
‘And how does that make you feel?’
‘Stressed. Remember? That was the point of the—’
‘Do you drink too much?’
‘No! OK, so I have the odd glass of wine, but—’
‘Maybe you’re angry with her because you think she’s right.’
‘She is not right!’
‘Well, we can always talk more about that at your next session.’ There was a click and line became a lot clearer – Goulding must have taken him off speaker-phone again. ‘The thing about religious obsessives – I mean the proper card-carrying have-you-accepted-Jesus-into-your-life neurotics – is that they’re often buying into a belief system that justifies their lifestyle choices. Homophobia, misogyny, exclusion. For Knox to join in, given his past is…well, let’s call it “worrying”.’
‘I mean, I don’t wake up wanting to get blootered, do I? Just been under a lot of pressure recently.’
‘I think there’s a very real chance he’s going to offend again and sooner rather than later.’
‘It’s not like I’m an alcoholic or anything.’
‘Can you get me in to see him?’
‘What? Oh, erm…possibly. I’ll have to check.’
‘Good. Now you and I need to get a proper session organized. I’ve got a cancellation on Monday you can have.’
‘Do we have to?’
