Jogging Memories Ch. 04

Nurse Ben was standing in the doorway, little ever escaped his attention within his domain.

"Excuse me, I have prepared a flask of coffee and have some mugs here if anyone is int'rested," he offered.

"You are definitely in the right job, son," grinned Mike, "You're a lifesaver!"

This had the immediate effect of lightening the mood again. Ben fetched the flask from the nurses' station. Mike accompanied him to help fetch mugs, sugar and milk.

"This is the nurses' supply, strictly unofficial," Ben confessed, "We chip in a few quid each when supplies are running low. We need all the decent coffee we can get on night shift an' that stuff from the machine just ain't drinkable."

"Your secret's safe with me, sunshine," Mike assured him, pressing a fiver on him for replenishing the kitty, "Sounds like you'd better join us, Ben, it'll save someone telling you the story all over again later, if you can get away, that it."

"Thanks, officer, I appreciate that," Ben grinned, "I've ... er, got nursin' cover already sorted as soon as I heard you was comin'."

"Thought you might have! I'm Mike, by the way," he smiled, "The old man back there is Ralph, my Dad, who has been involved in this case pretty well since it started all those years back, and Tommy's Mum's name is Ann."

"Thanks, Mike, I do appreciate this. I'd like to see Tommy sorted."

CHAPTER SEVEN: Injured party

Rachel resumed her speech once they had all had their coffees poured, with Ben scooting off especially for the cup of tea preferred by Ann. Apparently the nurses' coffee club also ran to tea and, as a bonus, one of the off-duty nurses had a bone china cup and saucer stored in their cupboard too, which Ben borrowed for Ann.

"Helen called for the emergency paramedics and they were on scene at 12.59, arriving here at Royal Hospital with Tommy at 13.23. Tommy was admitted wearing only a running vest, shorts, underpants, socks and trainers. He wore a watch, an old and fairly unremarkable Seiko, and a plain thin gold wedding ring. He has no tattoos or distinguishing marks on his person.

"His injuries were numerous. Of most concern was the fact that he was in shock, due to severe dehydration and a large amount of blood lost, both externally and through internal bleeding. He also had a recent wound on his arm, which had previously received twelve stitches. The wound was opened up sometime prior to his altercation and he had been losing blood while he was running. Sorry to refer to you in third person, almost as if you weren't here, Tommy."

"That's alright, Rachel, you carry on. It does feel as though this was happening to someone else, anyway."

Rachel smiled at him, looked around at her audience once more, resting her eyes on Ann, who sat with rapt attention, holding tightly onto Tommy's hand with both her hands.

"The cut was cleaned up and the stitches removed and replaced by twelve fresh stitches. The other wound causing concern was a blow to the head consistent with several kicks from a steel toe-capped working boot. The hospital scanned his head and drained off a considerable amount of fluid, which was putting pressure on the brain. Fifteen stitches to seal up the head wound this time. He also had two broken ribs, one of which had punctured his lung. It had to be drained using a..." Rachel paused while she flicked over a couple of pages of her notes.

"Using a tube lung insertion," Ben offered with a smile. "It's a fairly straightforward procedure, Rachel."

"Thanks, Ben," Rachel smiled sweetly. "Due to the dehydration and the particularly strong sunlight that morning, Tommy's eyes were badly affected..." She looked up at Ben with her eyebrows raised for assistance at this point.

"Photokeratitis, overexposure to UV light." Ben smiled, "Tommy's sight is virtually back to normal. He may just have a few black spots in front of his eyes for a few days, otherwise there should be no long term problems."

Tommy nodded from his chair, with a smile.

"So, Tommy was on the receiving end of a considerable kicking by his assailants." Rachel continued. "This is the point where the uniform branch called my department in and I was assigned to the case. Naturally, in cases of foul play, we assumed that the subject might have some form, a criminal record, so we took Tommy's fingerprints and cycled them through the usual suspects but no priors came up that we could see."

"Phew!" grinned Tommy. "Thought I might have a 32-year library fine outstanding!"

"From his jogging clothing, all basic High Street sports shop stuff, we knew he was a keen jogger, especially as his trainers were at the high quality end of the market and had been well used. I contacted all the running clubs in Chesterfield but nothing came up, no one recalled ever seeing him jogging in the usual places. We drew another blank in sports shops that stock the trainers. At that point we assumed therefore that Tommy either wasn't a local or had ordered the shoes on-line. We thought online less likely as trainers need to be checked for fit. We formed the theory that he was a stranger to the district, on a short stay, perhaps a truck driver, who had been beaten up, robbed of his mobile and wallet and left for ... well left anyway."

Mike slightly nodded his approval at Rachel's methodology, which she took reassurance from as she continued.

"The recently-stitched arm wound caused us some headaches. It was professionally done, judging by the fragments remaining. We checked here at the Royal and other emergency hospitals as far away as Derby, Nottingham, Mansfield, Sheffield and Doncaster, drawing blanks all round. Again, this reinforced the impression of someone who was passing through rather than a local. I had uniform check the normal lorry parks for trucks that hadn't moved for a day or two, but nothing out of the ordinary came up. We had our police artist make an artist's impression of Tommy, using the photos that the first cop on the scene had taken with his own mobile phone, knowing that the scene was soon going to be chewed up by the medics. He got there just precious few minutes before them and thought this was a life-threatening consequence of an unprovoked attack. We circulated the pictures with the local and regional press, and eventually someone came forward, although not family."

She looked around the room. They were all hooked on her documentary. Mike smiled again as her glance reached him and he nodded for her to continue.

"A Mrs Alicia Knight called the county police control room here and they got in touch with me. This was on Wednesday 30th of October, I went round to speak to her at 16.09 that afternoon. I'll give you a copy of all the contacts Mike, for your file, in case you want to follow any of them up. Mrs Knight told me that her daughter had been attacked on Sunday morning, sometime between about 11 and 11.15, by two men, clearly intent on abducting her for purposes we are still investigating. Mrs Knight is absolutely certain though that her daughter was going to be raped by these two individuals. I waited with her for a few minutes for Hannah Knight to get home from college. Hannah wasn't shy in telling me what she knew and giving me pretty good descriptions of the two attackers. The two men were loitering by a tree as she ran by. They jumped her and pulled her off the main path to this clearing. Suddenly, Tommy seems to have appeared in their midst out of nowhere. The men dropped their grip on Hannah and started beating Tommy up. In all the confusion she was able to run clean away with barely a bruise to show for her ordeal. She didn't even think to tell her Mum about the attack because she thought her Mum would stop her going out and she is determined to carry on running, trying to lose weight apparently for a Christmas party she has been invited to. She only mentioned it when Tommy's picture appeared on the news and the girls at school mentioned it."

"So Tommy's a real hero, then?" Ann chipped in, her face brightening, "Saving that girl."

"You could say so, yes," Rachel agreed with a smile.

"Now come on, look at the evidence," Tommy insisted, "I've been thinking about this. It seems like I was running by and had been jogging for a long time. I was almost certainly out of me head with the loss of blood and stuff, without taking on any fluids. I must've just stumbled into this little incident. I probably didn't even have a clue what was going on before suddenly being punched and kicked to the ground for no reason. I certainly can't remember anything, other than a few flashing lights and rolling about, oh, and the pain in my head and ribs. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Well, Hannah was full of praise for what you did," smiled Rachel, "To her and her Mum especially, you are Superman and Captain America all rolled up in one package!"

"That's too much, girl," grinned Ben, "You carry on praising Tommy like that, we'll never get his inflated head through the ward door! Rather than wreck the place we might have to put up with his sorry compa'ny for a lot longer than we may have planned to!"

They all laughed.

"From Hannah's excellent descriptions, we managed to pick up one suspect immediately, but he's not admitting to anything so far. We got enough forensics off his boots and clothes to convict him of GBH anyway, even if we can't pin the abduction charge on him. We've charged him and he's not been bailed. We think his accomplice heard about the arrest and scarpered abroad. They are foreign nationals working illegally over here. Again, I won't name names here but I'll send the details on to you Mike, a little later."

"Appreciate that, Rachel," Mike smiled warmly.

"That brings us to when Tommy first woke up. To this point we just referred to him as 'John Doe'. Because of his injuries and shock, the doctors had decided to keep him sedated until his fluid intake was back up to the mark and breathing unaided. He was soon back to near enough normal. The induced coma was ended on Wednesday night, when the sedatives were stopped but Tommy didn't actually wake up until Thursday at about 12.05. That's when Tommy informed us who he was. But he couldn't remember anything that would be helpful to our enquiries - not just what happened to him last Sunday - but anything at all from the last 32 years."

Ann stood and embraced her son and cried. Everyone looked away at everybody else.

Ben excused himself to check back at the nurses' station, bumping into Sharon, who was standing just outside Tommy's little room, listening to Rachel's summary without being noticed by anyone.

"You should go in, Sharon," Ben said, "You and Helen have been involved in this since the beginning."

Sharon tried to shut him up before the rest could hear, "His family are back involved now, Ben," she whispered, "It was good to feel useful to Tommy while he was all alone, but the situation has changed now. I think Helen and I should bow out gracefully. I just got curious once Rachel got into her stride telling the story, and I couldn't tear myself away."

"Mmm," Ben shook his head, "You may think that Tommy doesn't need you any more, but I don't read it that way at all, girl. You should at least say goodbye for now and exchange contact details. You can't deny it, Sharon, you an' Helen are his good friends now."

"I will speak to him, Ben, but not quite now," Sharon said, "Not with his family here," as she walked down towards the exit. Ben followed her; the nurses' station was also in the same direction.

Meanwhile, back in Tommy's room, Rachel continued without letting up, conscious that she had another appointment to go to afterwards.

"I got in contact with CID at Nottingham but Tommy's case was so old it wasn't loaded on the computer and the old addresses he had given me for both his wife and parents drew complete blanks. I was about to get someone to check the voters' lists when Mike here called me back saying he knew Ann personally. She used to baby-sit him as a child and he was well aware of the original missing person's case. That brought me to realise that we had a case of two missing persons, well, the same person, only they had gone missing 32 years apart. Where had he been all this time? We put out another appeal on Saturday morning, which has drawn another blank so far. However, the day before that, on Friday, Buxton Nick had a call from a Mrs Jennifer Morris about her husband, Robert Neil Morris, who had been missing since Sunday. What got my attention, when it came to my notice, was that he left his house wearing his running gear. Mrs Morris went into the station at Buxton yesterday morning with a photo for identification of her missing husband and the officer there sent that photo to me."

Rachel pointed to a colour photo printed out on copy paper, which Tommy had on his bedside table. Tommy passed it around.

"The photo was taken at a wedding reception about three or four years ago, showing Robert Morris, his wife Jennifer and their three children. The children are all teenagers now. Mrs Morris told the officer at Buxton that the reason she had not reported her husband missing earlier was because they had a minor domestic row on Sunday, with Mr Morris storming out of the house to run off his anger. She had assumed he would come back that day or if he was still sulking, in a day or two at most. It was only when she withdrew some money from their account on Thursday that she realised from the mini-statement that he hadn't withdrawn any money in the meantime, you know, for hotel bills and meals. So she searched at home and found his wallet and credit cards still in his bedside cabinet."

"So," spoke up Mike, "Are we sure this Robert Morris and Tommy Barlow are one and the same person?"

"I've already discussed all this with Tommy. He accepts that this photo is his likeness but he cannot remember these people at all. To confirm his identity, before Mrs Morris is invited to see Tommy here, I have arranged an appointment with her at her home in Buxton later this morning."

"Will you be able to fill me in on that interview, Rachel?" asked Mike, "When you get a chance, of course. Although I am satisfied that we have found Tommy and can close our old missing person case, I am intrigued as to what happened to Tommy thirty odd years ago. That incident is likely to have happened back on my patch."

"Do you have any objection to that line of enquiry, Tommy?" Rachel asked.

"No, no of course not, I am as curious as you are and keen to get this thing resolved. I am happy to see this Mrs Morris, after you've had your initial meeting with her. I just can't face these three kids, though, when I don't know them at all. I can imagine myself being in that position, having a beloved parent who doesn't even know you. It must be hard enough for an adult who has to cope with the agony of that hurt, but a child shouldn't have to."

"I agree, Tommy," Mike commented, "Let Rachel suss Mrs Morris out first, then if she's happy that Mrs Morris does indeed know you as her husband, then you should meet up and see if that meeting sparks off any memories of your own."

"Yeah, that's what Doctor Phoebe thought, too," Tommy said, then turning to his mother, asked, "Changing the subject, Mum, after I disappeared what happened to my Sally?"

"She had a bad time of it, Tommy, losing you. Sally suddenly found herself pregnant with your baby and all on her own - all in the same week, and soon had to move in with her father and step-mother. She had a boy, Brett..." She opened a photo album and showed him baby pictures and many images of a child growing up. There were also some loose photos of a tall, well-built young man messing about on sailing boats.

Tommy soon had tears of his own in his eyes. "Oh, my God, a boy! And I never knew anything about him. Sally didn't say anything."

"She didn't know for sure, Tommy. She didn't see the doctor until a week after you left."

"What's Brett like?"

"He's a lovely boy, who writes to me all the time, I've brought his letters in for you to read, as well. This is his lovely wife Katie, and my great grandchildren Owen and Nellie." The photographs were full of sun and sea and sandy beaches, or sailing boats anchored in coves.

"It looks beautiful. Where are they living, Mum?"

"They live in Melbourne, Australia, Tommy. Sally and Brett moved there in 1986. Sally remarried, twice, the last time just two years ago, I think. Brett doesn't really know any other life than out there, the harbour, the sea and all that lovely sunshine."

"Sorry, I've got to go now, I'm running late for my meeting in Buxton," Rachel said.

"Good luck, Rach, let me know how you get on, will you?" grinned Tommy, looking up from the photos.

"Of course," Rachel replied.

She took her leave then, Mike following Rachel out to the empty corridor.

"Nice work, Rachel," he said as they walked along, "You've done well in this case, with very little to go on. I'd be interested to know what that little tiff Mr and Mrs Morris had that was serious enough to go almost a week without her reporting her husband missing."

"Me too," grinned Rachel, "There's something nagging me there."

"Yeah, me too," Mike nodded. Keeping his voice low, he asked, "You've been conversing with Tommy for three days now, right?" Rachel nodded, he continued, "What do you think, Rachel, is Tommy the genuine article or not?"

"Yes, I think he genuinely can't remember the events of last weekend. I am also pretty confident that he has lost the memories of the last 32 years, too. I am curious why he changed his identity though... Perhaps he had been leading a double life for a while until he decided to stick with one and drop the other? I don't know. I can't help it, though Mike, but I really like the guy, I think he's the real deal that he seems to be but I really want to know what happened to him back in 1981."

"Me too. What does your boss think about the case?"

"Huh! He prefers to have me looking into a series of burglaries and has already told me he wants me off this case as soon as I report back from Buxton."

"Pity. He seemed a bit 'stiff' when I spoke to him earlier. Want me to have a word in his shell-like?" he grinned.

"No, not yet, anyway," she smiled back, "He's ... well, let's just say he's not like you. If you asked him to allow me more time to dig deeper into this case he would probably agree with you to your face and then make my life even more miserable than it is by making sure I have no time left to work on it at all. And if it turns out much more interesting, he'd pull the plug and take it off me like a shot."

"Softly, softly, it is then," Mike nodded, smiling, "I'll poke around at my end and let you know what I find. What you got on this Robert Neil Morris, so far?"

Rachel flipped her notepad over and flicked back through a couple of pages, "Born Nottingham, 30 November 1958. Jennifer told the officer in Buxton that she never knew his parents, they died while he was quite young apparently. I have his birth certificate and passport, I'll send you copies."

Mike noted the dates in his pad. Then shook her hand before she departed. He watched her as she made her way gracefully but full of purpose down the corridor.

<<<>>>

"So why the long face, Tom?" Susannah asked, "You've hardly said a word all through lunch, while I've been talking about the wedding arrangements."

"Just worried, Suze."

"About your Dad?"

"Yeah, that and if he leaves Mum, what will happen to the start-up money he promised us? Without a decent deposit we definitely can't buy a flat and we may even find it difficult to raise enough to pay rent on a decent flat."

"You worried about moving in with my Mum and Dad, honey?"

"Quite frankly, yes."

"Me too," she said, "Mum can be difficult at times."

"I make that all the time, where I'm concerned, especially since you fell pregnant."