by David Archer
"Hi, yourself, how are you?" he asked, nuzzling her neck gently. She stepped back out of the hug, stroking his arm. He smiled, first at Tina, and then lifted his head to include Carol in his reply too.
"I'm better. At least, I think I am," he said, grinning. "Thanks." He acknowledged Carol with a nod, hesitating for just a moment before saying, "Hello." He paused for just a beat before adding, "Carol."
She nodded happily. This was the fastest he'd been able to recognize her, and without being prompted, either.
"Tina here tells me you remember some things."
"Mostly events. And stuff I've read.” He gestured towards the books on the table behind him. "Like those. Thanks for bringing them, by the way. I was going through the two amnesia books you included, and as I was reading the first one, I realized I've already read it once before. But it was helpful; it triggered a few other memories. I remembered doing magic tricks for kids in someone's yard. Tina had a card behind her ear. The Queen of Hearts, appropriately enough." He smiled. "And I think I've always liked magic. I've had snippets, little images of other magic tricks in the past. Physics magic comes to mind…" He trailed off.
"Oh, that was hilarious, Jake. I don't know what exactly your magic was—"
"A magician never tells!" he interrupted her, a smile emerging at the corner of his mouth. "I remember all sorts of things, but they're so disorganized, so disjointed. Like, I remember—" He paused for a moment to sort through several memories occurring to him all at once. "I borrowed a car once, but it had a stick shift. You all made fun of me because I couldn’t drive a stick." He looked at Tina and Carol and said, "Carol, was it your car?"
"Yes,” she said. “My Toyota. You wanted to go somewhere and yours was in the shop, that was just a few weeks ago. You remembered my name today without any hints. So you’re definitely getting better. The rest will come back to you. It will," Carol assured him. He nodded, still holding Tina close.
Suddenly, Jake started shaking. He clung to Tina as he did so, and Carol excused herself to wait outside, in case her presence was somehow agitating him.
"Sorry," he whispered into her hair when he managed to bring himself back under control several minutes later. "I'm sorry—"
"Shh, shhhhh. No. No apologizing. It's okay. I can't imagine how difficult this all must be for you."
They sat together on his bed, remaining in a tight hug for a long while, until Jake collected himself. Finally, he released her from the embrace, taking her hand instead.
"Do you have any photos on your phone?" he asked, a look of fresh resolve crossing his face.
"I—I do." She nodded, reaching for her purse. She drew the device from the purse's depths and clicked it on.
"What did you want to see, Jake?"
"Things. Places. People I should recognize," he suggested.
"Okay, okay." She swiped through the photos, took several images from various Internet sites and quickly put them all together in a folder which she then presented to Jake.
He looked at the first one, furrowed his brow and shook his head. "Sorry, don't know her," he said as he looked at a photograph of Chance’s grandma. The old woman always said she was going to adopt Jake as a spare grandson, and he loved the attention.
"Okay," Tina replied, and swiped through to the next picture. Again he shook his head, not recognizing several other people whose lives had crossed his own at some point. Then she showed him a picture of the Statue of Liberty, and he lit up in a smile.
"I've, I've been there," he whispered as the famous landmark filled the screen. "I was there with…" He paused, closed his eyes to concentrate and while he did so, Tina quickly pulled up another photo on the screen. “I can’t remember.”
"Okay, but you're getting there, you're getting better!"
He seemed to be contemplating something and Tina was torn between asking him about it and just relishing his successful memory recall.
"Yeah," he said finally. Looking around the room, he realized Carol had left. "Where did, uh, Carol go?"
"She thought it best to give you some privacy when you were distressed," Tina said softly.
He smiled slightly, acknowledging Carol's tact and consideration. Tina watched him carefully as his face registered he was remembering something else.
"What is it, Jake?"
The door to his room opened again and Carol reappeared, balancing a cardboard coffee tray and a take out box. Jake's face reflected surprise and disbelief.
"I—wow—this is amazing," he exclaimed.
Carol made a face. "It's just coffee and doughnuts," she protested, setting the coffee tray down on the patient tray table.
"No, I mean…" His face bore an enormous smile. "I just thought about this one time you came into—I guess it must be our office—with doughnuts. Chocolate with sprinkles!"
Carol broke into laughter. "Look!"
She opened the box and both Jake and Tina joined the laughter. The box was full of doughnuts, and Carol had remembered to include Jake's favourite.
* * *
The team members were all already sitting at the round table when Carol arrived the next morning. She greeted them all and then picked up the remote. Eyeing it for a moment, she pursed her lips and set the device back down on the table.
"We have a few things to talk about, but first things first. I want to remind all of you that Jake and Tina are still going through some rough times. I know you all want to see them, but for now it’s not a good idea.”
“Last time I stopped in,” Chance said, “Jake wanted to have me thrown out a window. Swears he doesn’t know who I am, and he thinks I'm some kind of a threat.” He sighed. “I really can’t get over that kid. To go through everything Batts did to him and still end up breaking him and Angela out of there… Kid is a hero, I’ll say that. I just hope he gets over being scared of me sometime soon.”
"Well,” she said, “Tina is fine. She was discharged from the hospital yesterday, but has elected to stay there for now. The doctor says three more weeks before she can come back to work anyway." She paused and looked at Pete. "She wants to stay near Jake, to try and help him recover. As you all know, they were both injured in the wreck. As I said, Tina's okay. Jake, however, suffered a series of injuries and several blows to the head. He's got trauma-induced amnesia. He is recovering; just yesterday he actually remembered something that happened here in this office a month ago. Doughnuts, of all things, but we take what we can get."
Gabriella broke out laughing and quickly assured the others that she'd explain later.
"But that's a good sign," Pete observed.
"It is indeed. He's recalling both long ago memories and more recent things. His doctor says the swelling on his brain—that's what's causing the amnesia—is down considerably from the first couple of days. He’s due to have another MRI today, which will tell us more. Dr. Peterson is cautiously optimistic that in time, Jake will regain his memory completely. Although, apparently, quite often amnesia patients may never remember the events immediately leading up to the amnesia, or immediately afterward."
"So he won't remember the crash at all?" Chance asked.
"Maybe not. At the moment, he knows he and Tina were in the wreck, but he doesn't know the circumstances. He's still confused about a lot of things, and he stresses about that, which is why I've asked you all to stay away. I know you all wanna see him and I'm sorry, but even I managed to trigger him the other day, so I'm keeping my own visits to a minimum now, too. He's comfortable around Tina and his health is the priority, so I hope you all continue to understand and respect what's best for him at the moment. This is a difficult and stressful time for Jake, and he needs to be able to process what's happening to him."
"Whatever he needs," Gabriella spoke in a low voice, fighting tears. Carol covered Gabriella's arm with one hand, squeezing gently. “Believe me, I know what he’s going through.”
Carol waited for a moment, giving everyone time to absorb and accept what she'd just imparted
. Satisfied their heads were on the job, she picked up the remote, pointed it at the smart board and began, "Okay. Let’s move on."
She nodded to Josie, who pointed to the monitor on the wall. A picture of Alan Batts appeared.
“I’ve been doing a lot of digging on our pal Alan,” she said, “trying to get some idea of where he might go to hide. The more I learn about this psycho, though, the more I think he’s still around here and that we haven’t heard the last of him. For example, I went through every social media account he had and set up a program to monitor everyone on his friends lists to see if he tried to get in touch with them, but no joy on that so far.”
“He could always set up a new profile,” Carol said, “use that to make contact.”
“I watch for new contacts on all his friends. The only thing I’ve actually seen is a lot of people shocked about finding out he was the killer all along. On the other hand, I did find out that a few of his friends might have had some doubts about him. There’s one guy who claims he suspected Alan, but nobody else believes him.”
“Who was that?” Chance asked. “I want to talk to him.”
“His name is Carl Ingraham,” Josie said. “He’s a cook at a restaurant down the street from Caffeine Alley, and they’ve known each other since high school. I’ll send you his address and everything.”
* * *
Chance pulled up at the apartment building where Ingraham lived only a half hour later, and found the buzzer for his apartment.
“Yeah?” came through the intercom.
“Mr. Ingraham? My name is Chance Reddick. I’m a private investigator, and I’d like to talk to you about Alan Batts.”
“About Alan? Why?”
“Because he’s still running loose, and he’s still dangerous,” Chance said. “I’m hoping you might be able to help me track him down.”
There was no answer for a moment, but then the door buzzed and Chance stepped inside the building. He found the right apartment a moment later and Carl Ingraham opened the door for him.
“I don’t know how much help I can be,” he said. “I haven’t seen or heard from Alan since this all blew up last week.”
“I understand that,” Chance said. “Would you be able to guess where he might go to hide, though? He’s holed up somewhere, and we need to find him before he can hurt anyone else.”
Ingraham led Chance into his living room and offered him a seat on the couch, then sat down in a chair opposite him. “I wouldn’t even have a clue,” he said. “About the only place he ever went was to work. I don’t think I ever saw him anywhere else.”
“The coffee shop, you mean?” Chance asked. “We’ve already searched it thoroughly, and there’s no sign he’s been there.”
Ingraham grinned. “Well, there, yeah, but I was actually thinking of where he worked before. He was only at the coffee shop for a few weeks, but before that, he worked for the parks department. He took care of all the old buildings and equipment, making sure they were secure and nobody was gonna get hurt on any of them.”
Chance raised his eyebrows. “Are there a lot of abandoned buildings in the parks?”
Ingraham shrugged. “No, not really. I mean, it isn’t likely he could hide out there, but I was just syaing that he didn’t really have any kind of social life. He was always either at work or at home, til his mom died, and then he was out at the ranch a lot.”
“We’ve kept an eye on his places,” Chance said, “and there hasn’t been any sign of him. Can you think of any way to get in touch with him, maybe?”
“Get in touch with him? Well, if I was stupid enough to want to, which I’m not, I’d just post a message on his Facebook. He may be out of sight, but I guarantee he’s checking in somehow.”
Chance frowned. “We’ve been watching his social media, and he hasn’t logged in.”
“Yeah, but that’s the thing,” Ingraham said. “You don’t have to log in to see something posted on your page. It’s there for everyone who looks at it, even you.”
Chapter 28
The door to Jake's room opened and Tina walked in, carrying a takeout bag. Jake had slept most of the afternoon, and after taking a nap of her own, Tina had run several errands.
He was sitting up in his bed, reading one of the many books that Carol had fetched from his apartment days earlier. Tina smiled widely as she watched him read. She stood there for several minutes just watching him, and it wasn't until he was interrupted by a sneeze that he was even aware that she was there.
"I'm sorry." He closed the book and set it aside as soon as he realized he wasn't alone.
She shook her head, dismissing the need for apology, and set the takeout bag down on the rolling tray table.
"We're gonna eat dinner and watch some TV," she said. "You, dear one, need to relax for a bit."
She set the bag on his bed and opened it. She passed him utensils and a napkin, then opened one of the two containers and offered it to him.
"Beef stew," she said. “From the diner down the street.”
He nodded appreciatively. "Thank you," he said, unwrapping the utensils and preparing to dig in to the food.
"You must be so sick of hospital food," she ventured.
"You know it!" he agreed. "This is so good, thank you!" He ate several bites, then looked at her again. "Can we look through more photographs?"
She nodded, grabbing her phone, and told him, "Just give me a minute to put some together."
It only took her a few minutes to gather some of the people they knew. That was probably the safest course, she thought, and maybe it would help him recall other things. When she was ready, she held it where they both could see it and swiped up the first photo.
"That’s Gabriella," he said as the first picture came up.
Tina nodded. The image of their friend and coworker dissolved into the next picture, two young boys sitting together on ponies that were walking in circles.
"They’re so cute," he commented. After a moment's reflection, his eyes met Tina’s. "Gabriella's sons, right?"
"Yep." She brought up the next photo, of a tall, young man.
Jake thought for a long moment before venturing, "Chance, right? He’s married to Gabriella."
"Yes," she said happily, squeezing his arm. "But you're tired. It's been a long day, lots of excitment."
He nodded and yawned. Tina slipped off the bed, hustled him under the covers and lowered the bed back down to the sleep position. She walked over to the window and drew the curtain closed and then returned to his bedside. Brushing his hair off his face, she bent to kiss him goodnight and left the room to go report on their evening to the nurse.
Gina asked Tina to wait for her at the nurses' station while she checked on her patient. After securing the rails around his bed, the nurse took his vital signs, leaving him undisturbed, and then she took his chart from the foot of the bed, dimmed the room lights and returned to the station.
"Okay, let's sit over here." Gina indicated a small table and chairs away from the noise of the nurses’ station. Opening the chart, she made notes as Tina related the events of Jake's evening.
A tap on the door caught their attention, and Tina looked up to see Angela Lambert standing there with Jason McCoy and Steve Winters beside her. She broke into a smile and hurried over to hug the girl.
“Hey, it’s good to see you,” she said. “How are you doing?”
Angela smiled. “I’m coping,” she said. “I wanted to stop and see how Jake is, and maybe thank him for saving my life.”
Tina grimaced. “Yeah, well, he doesn’t actually remember any of that,” she said. “You can come in, but I can’t guarantee he’s gonna know who you are, and sometimes—sometimes he gets pretty defensive.”
“Defensive how?” Jason asked.
“Well, he and Chance were good friends,” Tina said, “but since the accident, he doesn’t know him and doesn’t trust him. I don’t know why, but he gets very hostile when Chance comes into the room. We had to ask hi
m to stay away for now.”
Jason scowled, but Angela pushed him away and went into the room. Jake looked up at her, and his expression became confused.
“Hey, Jake,” Angela said. “Remember me?”
He stared at her for a moment, and suddenly broke into a smile. “Yeah,” he said, and Tina stared wide-eyed. “Yeah, I know you. You were the girl who made my coffee at work one day, right?”
Angela blinked, but then nodded. “Yeah, I did that once,” she said. “But do you remember me from anywhere else?”
Jake crinkled his eyes. “No. Should I?”
Angela licked her lips. “You saved my life, Jake,” she said. “When I had been kidnapped, you came and saved my life. It’s part of how you got hurt.”
Jake frowned for a moment, then shrugged. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I mean, I’m not sorry if I did, I just don’t remember that.”
He looked back at the book he was reading and Angela stared at him for a moment. Tina slipped up beside her and gently guided her back out of the room.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “We’re hoping his memories will come back, but we don’t know if or when they ever will.”
Angela nodded. “Well,” she said. “If there’s ever anything I can do...”
Fifteen minutes later, Tina moved down the hall to sit in the visitors' area by the elevator banks and spend the next hour playing games on her phone. Despite repeated earlier pleas from almost everyone—the nurses, Carol, her own doctor and most vehemently, Jake himself—to go home and get some proper sleep in her bed, just before 11 p.m., Tina made her way back to Jake's room and settled into the chair she'd slept in for the last few nights.
* * *
"I think that would be all right, Tina. I'm pretty sure Dr. Peterson would be okay with this, but I can't seem to reach her." Katie motioned to the phone as she replaced it in its cradle and rose from her seat at the nurses' station. "I’ll stick my neck out to okay it. Just stay close the hospital grounds and don't be gone for too long, okay?"
"Thank you, Katie. I think some outside air and sunshine, not to mention the change of scenery, would be good for him. He must be going stir crazy; he's been in that room and in bed for over a week now."