Mother Be The Judge

by O'Brien, Sally

Mary flicked through the paperwork in front of her. "No Guv. There's just that sexual touching when he was a kid."

  Todd sighed and sat back in his chair, it was so frustrating for him to believe he knew someone had committed an offence but to have his hands so tied by rules of evidence that he couldn't bring him to justice.

  "Let's keep an eye on missing girls again," he said, "I know we've been lucky lately and not had any go missing for more than twenty four hours, but we still need to make sure we class all of them as High Risk. If a girl goes missing, I want to know about it straight away, especially if she goes missing from the Elisworth area. If a girl goes missing from there I want a full area search immediately."

  "Yes Guv." Mary agreed and made a note to include the instruction on the following briefing of officers, both plain clothed and uniformed.

  "Right come on hairy Mary; let's look at the next one."

  "Oh goody, what have we got?"

  Todd lifted the lid on the second box, "Graveyard robberies." He announced.

  "Oh I was dying to do that one," Mary said.

  "Mary that's terrible, stop it or I might die laughing." Todd countered.

  They both chuckled and then lost themselves in another hour of reading paperwork.

  Chapter 22

  'Some mothers are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same and most mothers kiss and scold together.'

  Pearl S. Buck

  Monday 21st May 2012

  08:30 hours

  Jocasta arrived at the doctor's surgery in her new work clothes. She felt a bit uncomfortable as the waistband was digging into her stomach. The events of last week had caused her eating to go into overdrive where she constantly tried to keep food in her mind instead of Adrian's evil.

  Adrian had been true to his word and had removed the computer from the house. He smashed it up in front of her and put it in a black bag along with the magazine which he ripped up. Jocasta had disposed of Savannah's underwear, wrapping them in kitchen roll and stuffing them at the bottom of the bin bag which she put down the rubbish chute of their flat.

  Although Adrian had honoured his promise, Jocasta knew it could not be that simple. When somebody was evil and had lusts, they could not just be switched off. Jocasta had made up her mind that she was going to find a way to keep Adrian at home. Whilst in the doctor's surgery Jocasta would have access to medical books, doctor's notes and prescription paperwork. She intended on researching everything she could on a drug which would replicate the symptoms of M.E. as she knew this was an illness which caused the patient to feel tired all the time and unable to move. Jocasta felt if she could keep Adrian in this frame of mind then he would become housebound and she would be able to protect any further girls from getting hurt.

  "Jocasta; hi," Mable, the head receptionist greeted her at the door of the surgery.

  "Hi," said Jocasta and held out her hand in greeting. Mable shook her hand but her smile didn't reach her eyes as she took in Jocasta's appearance. Jocasta knew she wasn't the prettiest woman in the world but she was clean and presentable, she objected to the way Mable was looking at her. She hadn't expected a middle-aged woman like Mable to be bothered with a person's appearance.

  "Is there a problem?" Jocasta asked, breaking Mable's gaze.

  "No, no, sorry Jocasta, I was just admiring your top. It's very pretty." Mable said, the smile now showing in her eyes. This took Jocasta by surprise and she silently scolded herself for jumping to the worst conclusion so readily. She had been right, Mable wasn't interested in looks; she had just liked the top Jocasta was wearing. Jocasta realised it was the first compliment that had been paid to her in a very long time. She felt her self-confidence grow and pulled back her shoulders so she could show off her top in full effect, it was very pretty; navy blue with little white stars dotted about the flowing material.

  "Thank you very much," Jocasta said, "I got it in Primani."

  "Well its lovely, come on then let's get you started. If you wouldn't mind filing the medical notes for now, that would be great." Mable led Jocasta to the rear of the surgery and took her into a dingy room lined with shelves which seemed to contain thousands of paper files, stuffed into every available space. Mable pointed to a small wire trolley containing more of the files, piled haphazardly on top of each other.

  "It's an easy system." Mable advised Jocasta, "This number is our starting point," she pointed to a number in the top right hand corner of the file; "We then look for the alphabetical surname in the corresponding numbered shelf. Come with me, I'll do the first few for you and then you can get on with it."

  Mable picked up the first file, hurried over to a shelf, flicked deftly through the files there and stuffed the new file in amongst the papers. Jocasta didn't see exactly how or where the file had disappeared to and was about to ask for another demonstration when Mable stated, "So that's it, it's easy. I have to go on reception now, let me know when you're finished or if you need any help."

  She smiled once again and practically skipped out of the room, obviously happy to leave the mundane task to somebody else; leaving Jocasta in the middle of shelves, papers and files with no real idea of what she was doing. Jocasta gave a sigh and picked up the nearest file to her on the trolley. At least keeping busy would take her mind off her problems, there didn't seem to be any time limit to the task so Jocasta resolved to take her time and do the job well. The first file was number fifty so Jocasta found the corresponding shelf and began the working day.

  -x-

  12:30 hours

  After nearly four hours of working hard, Jocasta felt ready for lunch. Her thighs were hurting where she had squatted many times to reach the bottom shelves. She had to walk slowly to try and stop the burn and wondered how she would ever be able to finish her day if she was forced to return to filing once her lunch was over.

  "Jocasta, would you like to join us for lunch?" Mable called to her as she left the filing room. The offer made Jocasta nervous; she was unaccustomed to company and was concerned she may say or do the wrong thing and spoil her chances of friendship. She retrieved the packed lunch she had made for herself and went to sit at the staff table where Mable already sat with the two other staff. They introduced themselves to her as Karen and Leanne.

  Karen was another middle aged lady; Jocasta guessed about fifty years old. She told Jocasta all about her new granddaughter, showing her pictures of a chubby little baby with a shock of blonde hair. Jocasta made all the right noises and actually had a physical pang of desire for a grandchild of her own. Karen seemed pleased with Jocasta's responses and sat back to look at her own photos again; obviously wishing she was at home with her granddaughter instead of at work.

  Leanne took over the conversation; she was a much younger woman, only twenty years old. She was only using the doctor's surgery as a stop-gap whilst she waited to bag herself a footballer. Leanne looked like a typical W.A.G; big blonde hair, five layers of makeup, stinking of perfume and eyelashes three times longer than they should be. She regaled them with tales of her night clubbing exploits and how she had almost managed to speak to a footballer who was on the Brentford reserve team, but how she had been prevented by going into the V.I.P. area by the bouncer whose advances she had spurned the week before. Although this type of conversation was completely alien to Jocasta, she enjoyed how Leanne spoke with so much enthusiasm and lust for life. Jocasta envied Leanne her age, beauty and ambition.

  Mable didn't have much to say about herself, preferring instead to ask Jocasta about her own life. Jocasta gave a very brief account of how she was a single mother with a son and how no, she didn't know where her name came from because she had been in care as a child and had never known her parents. She told them Adrian worked in Big Value and threw in a bit about him having a girlfriend as she was desperate to portray him as normal. The three ladies appeared genuinely interested in Jocasta and she thoroughly enjoyed her first real conversation in many years. Jocasta almost forgot the problems she
had waiting for her at home, but she could just feel them hovering in the back of her mind, waiting for her to stop and think about them.

  "Right, we better get some work done," said Mable. Jocasta's heart sank at the prospect of returning to the dreary filing room. "But no more filing today," smiled Mable almost as if she had read Jocasta's mind. "Now we need to do the photocopying."

  Whoop de do Jocasta thought to herself; hardly delighted she was moving from one dull chore to another.

  "Don't worry, it won't take long and then I will show you the phone system so you can do the afternoon reception," said Mable, "We all take turns doing the shitty work; you won't have to do any filing or photocopying tomorrow." Jocasta gave a mental cheer of joy then followed Mable to the photocopier. She wondered when she would get the opportunity to start the research she so desperately needed to do.

  -x-

  16:00 hours

  Jocasta now sat in place at reception waiting for the afternoon's patients to come and go. She read each patient's file as she pulled it out, looking for any illness akin to M.E. or for anything which would help her discover a medication that would help Adrian. The afternoon was now just full of coughs and colds, however, people looking for medical certification which would get them a week off work and other mundane illnesses, none of which served Jocasta any purpose. She sat and smiled her way through the afternoon but felt scared inside that whilst she sat there Adrian was in the world unchecked, possibly preying on another girl or at the very least, considering it. Jocasta knew she could not afford to waste any time and needed to find something soon which would solve her problem.

  Just as the day was coming to an end, a dishevelled male stumbled through the surgery door. He was either sun tanned or incredibly dirty, his hair was grey, shoulder length and greasy and his blue eyes shone out of red bloodshot sockets.

  "Is doctor 'ere?" he slurred at Jocasta, his movements were very slow and deliberate and it seemed to take a lot of concentration just to put one foot in front of the other. Eventually he lowered himself into a chair in the waiting room and immediately began to snore, now apparently fast asleep.

  Jocasta looked to Mable who was sitting beside her and waited for instructions on what to do next.

  "Temazi Terry." Mable said.

  "Eh?" Jocasta didn't understand the reference Mable used.

  "Temazi Terry." Mable repeated and then chuckled, "He takes Temazepam for his depression." She made air quotation marks around the word 'depression', "He hasn't really got it, he just pretends so he can get the meds. He loves walking around like a zombie."

  "Is that what it does to you then?" asked Jocasta.

  "Yeah," Mable said, "I think they make you so dopey you forget to be depressed. I shouldn't be mean; I'm sure he has got depression, I'm just getting cynical in my old age." She got up and went over to shake Temazi Terry on the shoulder. "Ter-ry," she sang at him, "Ter-ry." He shook his head slowly then opened his eyes.

  "Wha?"

  "Your appointment is tomorrow Terry." Mable informed him, "You can't see the doctor now."

  "Where's my script?" he asked, dragging himself out of his chair.

  "You'll get it to-mor-row." Mable spoke slowly so he would take it all in. "Ok Terry? Come back to-mor-row."

  "Eh? Ok." He said and stumbled back out of the front door. Jocasta thought she had just discovered the perfect medicine for what she had to do.

  -x-

  Tuesday 22nd May 2012

  Jocasta returned to work the following day and asked Mable to take her through all the different forms used in the office and where they were all kept. Mable was happy to oblige and went through every drawer and filing cabinet with Jocasta, showing her x-ray requests, blood test sheets, etc. Jocasta wanted to shout at Mable to hurry up and show her where the blank prescriptions were but instead nodded with each form and kept her face interested. Finally after what seemed an eternity, Mable showed Jocasta where the blank prescription forms were kept along with the doctor's signature stamp.

  "We don't really use these anymore," explained Mable, "These are just kept here in case the computer breaks down. We have the doctor's signature on a stamp so we can get them done for him. But it's very rare so you don't have to worry about remembering where they are. I think we've only used them once since we put them there." Mable replaced the forms in their relevant drawer and moved onto other forms and documents.

  Jocasta spent the rest of her day going through the motions of work. At the first opportunity she got, she grabbed a prescription pad and the signature stamp, secreting them in her bag before she was seen. She was certain that her theft would not be discovered if the forms were so rarely used. Jocasta then spent a short while looking up Temazepam in the pharmaceutical brochure, which discussed dosages, side effects etc. She ripped out the page she needed so she could be sure of what she was doing; Jocasta didn't want to make any mistakes and hurt Adrian.

  When the end of her working day came, Jocasta bid her new found friends a fond farewell. She was saddened that she would not be returning to the doctor's surgery, but her most important work now lay at home. She had to be sure Adrian was safely ensconced in their flat as her conscience would not allow her to expose any more children to the evil he had inside him.

  Before getting home, Jocasta stopped at Big Value; she went into the customer toilets and wrote out a prescription for the Temazepam, enough for a month. She couldn't chance asking for any more than that as Jocasta didn't want to draw any suspicion on herself. She intended to visit chemists through the next day to collect as many tablets as she could hope to get with the prescriptions that she had. Jocasta didn't know what she would do once the tablets ran out; she would cross that bridge when she came to it. She took the prescription to the twenty four hour pharmacy inside Big Value and stood with her heart in mouth, to await the delivery of the tablets. She got bored of waiting and decided to go and pick a strongly flavoured dinner for Adrian that evening, one which would mask the taste of the Temazepam, although she didn't know whether it had any taste to it or not. Wondering around the aisles, she decided on a fish pie; there was so much cream and fish in the dinner she felt sure it would hide any taste one small pill would provide. Eventually she went back to the pharmacy and continued to wait for what seemed a very long time, expecting an accusing hand on her shoulder with every second that ticked by. Finally the cashier began to hand her a large paper bag with a smile.

  "Can you just confirm your name and address?" she asked Jocasta.

  "Georgina Perkins; 123 Wilmington Crescent," Jocasta repeated the false name and address she had written on the prescription.

  "There you go Mrs Perkins."

  "It's Miss," Jocasta gave her automatic reply. The cashier gave a look which said, 'Whatever' and handed the bag over. Jocasta took it, turned on her heel and marched out of the store. She knew the hard part was now to come; it was all very well hatching a plan to keep Adrian in his room but he wasn't just going to swallow tablets at her request. She now had to find a way to administer them without him knowing; she hoped the fish pie lived up to her expectations.

  Chapter 23

  'Often even a whole city suffers from a bad man who sins.'

  Hesiod

  Wednesday 23rd May 2012

  Adrian was due to go to Big Value and would usually be up by 6am to get ready for his shift. Jocasta had ground a Temazepam tablet into Adrian's fish pie the evening before and he had eaten the meal without any complaint. Jocasta was thankful that Adrian was used to her meals never tasting quite right as she had never been a proficient cook and he had learnt early in his life to eat quickly before taste became a factor.

  Jocasta waited until 7am before deciding to enter Adrian's room to check on him. She had been debating doing this for the last hour but she had been so frightened she may have killed him that she kept putting it off. Holding her breath as she walked through Adrian's door and hoping she would see the rise and fall of his chest when she got to his bed, Jocasta wa
lked in the room and over to Adrian's bed. Adrian lay spread-eagled on top of his bed covers in just a pair of boxer shorts and a t-shirt. Jocasta looked down on her son of twenty one years; he didn't seem to be moving at all and Jocasta's heart was in her mouth at the thought she may actually have put an end to her son's life. Thankfully she saw a line of dribble escape from Adrian's mouth and his tongue run around his dry lips.

  "Adrian." Jocasta put her hand on his shoulder and gave a small nudge. "Adrian, are you getting up for work?"

  Adrian didn't respond to Jocasta's query. He turned over and buried his head into his pillow. Jocasta left him in his bed and went back out to the kitchen. She was pleased to know that the tablets had had the desired effect on Adrian; he didn't seem harmed but was obviously very tired and it was not too late for him to go to work. She picked up the telephone and dialled the number for Adrian's manager at Big Value.

  "Hello?"

  "Yes, hello, I'm Adrian Brown's mother, Jocasta. I'm afraid he won't be coming into work today, he's not well."

  "Oh sorry, you need to speak to the manager, hold on I'll get her for you," came the reply. Jocasta waited patiently for another two minutes, listening to an unknown pop tune playing merrily down the phone line.

  "Hello?" a female voice came on the phone.

  "Yes, hello, I'm Adrian Brown's mother, Jocasta, I'm afraid he won't be in today, he's not well."

  "What's the matter with him?"

  "Oh he's been vomiting all night; I think he may have food poisoning." Jocasta said the first thing that came into her mind; it wasn't far off the truth. She didn't think that to say, 'he hasn't got up yet' would be enough to justify him not getting to work.

  "Is it self-certified?" enquired the manager. Jocasta noticed the manager did not seem concerned for Adrian and was not showing any regret for Adrian's illness. In fact, the manager seemed very cold and indifferent towards Adrian. Jocasta felt her normal distaste for the way people treated her son.