by David Archer
Josie nodded. “I agree,” she said. “I’m almost surprised he hasn’t grabbed one already.”
“He’s probably still dreaming about Angela,” Chance said, “but she’s got a whole detail of cops watching over her. He’d never get close enough...”
A look come over his face and Josie looked at him with curiosity.
“What are you thinking, Chance?” she asked. “I’ve seen that look on your face before.”
“Facebook,” he said. “What if we gave him a reason to think he could get close to her?”
The two of them talked for several minutes, and finally agreed on a plan.
* * *
Jake woke up early the next morning, a smile stretching across his face as he found himself weighted down by Tina's head resting on his chest. Very carefully, he managed to lift it up and then he slid aside out of her way, laying her back down gently on the bed. How devoted she is, he thought with a smile. He stood up, rolled his shoulders and neck and then walked over to the bathroom. Splashing water on his face, he reached for a towel and remembered. Yesterday, I flipped out when I did this. And I remember that!
"Oh man, wow," he exclaimed excitedly but quietly. He draped the towel over the edge of the sink and made his way over to the night table.
Spying Tina's phone on the tray table, he picked it up. It made him wonder where his own phone was, and he set hers back down on the table and made his way to the closet to look for it. The closet was empty. Another memory occurred to him. His patient belongings bag was missing. His clothes, his shoes were in there and he wondered what happened to them. I remembered that! he thought happily, recalling that he'd worn those clothes when Tina took him for a walk. Yesterday morning, he remembered.
Stepping carefully past the still sleeping Tina, he took his medical chart off its hook at the foot of the bed. He flipped through it, reading about the most recent week of his life. He didn't remember Carol visiting him, although he recognized her name and realized to whom the notes were referring.
Jake read through all the notes about his memory loss and the progress of recovery as it occurred. He saw notations about his medications and their dosages. He read about the dressings on his injuries and observations on their healing. Pretty standard stuff, he decided.
He flipped back to the first page and a notation by his nurse, Katie, caused him to stifle a gasp of surprise.
He read the notation Katie made on the first day he'd been moved to this room: Mr. Claridge keeps asking for his wife.
"Whoa! Wife? News to me," he mused under his breath. "What the hell?"
He continued reading silently. Checked with Dr. Peterson. Intake papers indicate his marital status as single. Jake's eyebrows rose, and he referred to the notes for his third day, where again he read Katie's notation: Mr. Claridge asked for his wife again. Visited by Tina Reynolds today. Mr. Claridge appears to believe they're married. She was good enough to play along, for the moment. Seems to help him keep calm.
"Oh my God," he breathed quietly, astounded at the revelation. Stealing a glance over his shoulder, he saw that Tina was still sleeping. For a moment he stared at her, shaking his head in disbelief at the lengths she was apparently willing to go to in order to help him. Several feelings washed over him: admiration, appreciation and amazement at this selfless friend.
He blinked away the tear that formed in his eye, deeply moved by her generosity.
Collecting himself, he hurried over to the night table and picked up one of the amnesia medical texts. Quickly, he perused it, looking for a specific section. Finding what he was searching for, he read the entire chapter and then set the book down and headed out the door in his bare feet, clad in just his hospital gown.
Just before reaching the nurses' station, he ran into Katie, who was carrying a patient breakfast tray.
"Mr. Claridge!" she exclaimed as he followed her back down the hallway. She stopped in front of the room several doors down from Jake's and said, "I'll just be a minute." Indicating he should wait for her there, she entered the room and set the breakfast tray down on the table, then hurriedly rejoined Jake in the hallway.
"Okay, what are you doing out of bed?"
"I know everything," he told her without a hint of acrimony in his voice.
Smiling, Katie replied, "Yes, both Carol and your wife have mentioned you're pretty smart," she started and as she spoke, she noticed the change in his demeanour when she said the word 'wife'.
"That's not what I meant. And, well, you can end the pretense now. I know I'm not married. I remembered this morning."
She made a move to speak and he held up a hand to stop her.
"I remember a couple of different things from yesterday. And the day before. I remember going for a walk in the park behind the hospital yesterday morning. I remember what I had for dinner last night—the fried chicken tenders. And I remember that I hate spinach." The corners of his mouth betrayed a smile as he mentioned the spinach and Katie grinned at him happily.
"The short term memory, Jake!"
He nodded. "Yeah, it's coming back." He smiled brightly.
They walked as he spoke, and Katie steered him back toward his own room.
"Anyway. I know I'm not married. I read all about amnesia and I figure my mind manufactured the idea of being married based on the fact that the last thing I do remember from before the accident was that I was with Tina, and she was actually bringing me to the hospital. She kept telling me she was going to take care of me, and that she’d do whatever it took. I don't quite remember everything, but I do remember the impact, falling into the ravine and being injured. And Tina was there with me, trying to comfort me before everything went dark."
He stood in front of the door, one hand on the handle, and continued, "When I came to, most everything was blank. You and Dr. Peterson called me Jake and somehow that did seem familiar. I didn't recognize either of you, obviously. But you kept telling me 'Jake, you're gonna be okay'. When Tina came to see me, the only memory I had was you guys telling me I'm gonna be okay. And when I saw her face looking down at me telling me I was gonna be okay, it jogged the memory of her saying exactly that in the wreckage."
Katie made a sound of sympathy and he took a breath before continuing. "The textbook says it's not unusual for an amnesia patient to manufacture false memories. A defense mechanism, maybe a coping mechanism or perhaps a comfort measure. Generally, when the patient recovers their actual memory, they don't remember the manufactured one. But in my case, I do. So once again, I'm weird."
"I believe the word you're looking for is ‘exceptional,’ Jake."
Their eyes locked and a small laugh escaped his lips.
"I'll be back in a little bit with your breakfast," Katie told him, then nodded at the door.
He acknowledged her with a nod of his own and then his attention turned to his room. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door just as Tina lifted her head up from the bed.
She immediately stood up and moved to gather him in her arms. After hugging him, she ran her hands through his hair and kissed his cheek.
"Good morning!" she began and whatever else she planned to say died on her lips as she saw the expression on his face. "Jake?"
"I remember," he said, pausing for emphasis. "Everything."
"Oh!" she said, her eyes growing wide. She was holding his hands in hers and felt his grip tighten.
"Everything, Tina. I remember going for a walk yesterday morning. Sitting in the swing, and calling up a childhood memory of swinging. I remember reading that book. I remember all my friends at Dixon Investigations. I remember that I hate spinach, even though that's what I got for dinner last night."
She grew excited. "Your short term memory!" she bubbled. "This is fabulous. Wondrous! Fantastic! Your short-term memory! Oh, Jake—"
He nodded and released her hands from his hold. A look of confusion crossed her face briefly before he slid his arms around her and kissed the top of her head, then held her away from him to make e
ye contact.
"And I remembered something else."
"Which is?" she prompted when he stalled.
"I'm not married. We're not married."
She bit her lip, unable to discern whether he was angry with her about that for a second before he shook his head slightly and opened and closed his mouth wordlessly.
"I—um—I—we…" she stuttered.
"I know, Tina. I thought you were my wife, I'd been asking for my wife. And you… " He paused to take a breath and stroked her hair. "You did the most incredible thing. You played along, to help me. To make my recovery more comfortable." There was a catch in his voice and he struggled against tears.
He held her close and sensed she'd started to cry.
"I don't even know where to start," he confessed. "That was an extraordinary thing to do."
She sniffled. "You're not mad at me?"
"Mad?" he asked, shocked at the question. "How could I be mad about that? I know you weren’t trying to fool me, Tina. You did it because I needed someone. I needed you."
Relieved, she was nodding as she ran her hands up his arms. "I did it because you're my friend. I would do anything for you, anything for a friend. You're my family. And I love you."
"And you're a caring and selfless, generous spirit. And I love you too," he told her. They stood together in a tight embrace for a moment and then she heard a small chuckle escape his lips as a thought occurred to him.
"What would you have done if I never remembered? When were you gonna tell me?"
"You were always gonna remember, Jake. I had faith in that. As smart as you are? Amnesia didn't stand a chance," she said with a sneer.
"And you are always such an optimist," he responded, stroking her hair again. "But what if I didn't?"
"Didn't remember?" she asked, and he nodded. "Carol asked the same thing. I'll tell you the same thing I told her. I'd do anything for you, Jake. And if you never remembered, well, like I told Carol, I'd be picking out furniture and paint colours for our place together."
She pulled him back into the tightest of hugs and whispered, "Because I would. I'd do anything for a friend."
Jake threw back his head and laughed, then looked at her again. “Can I tell you something?”
“Of course.”
He looked into her eyes for a long few seconds, and then said, “I’ve had a crush on you since the day we met.”
* * *
“Hey,” Carol said as she rushed into the office. “I just got off the phone with Tina. Jake remembers, he remembers everything!”
Pete, Josie and Chance were sitting around the table in the conference room, and all of them looked up with a smile. “It’s about time,” Chance said. “You mean I can go visit the kid again without getting my head shot off?”
“I’m pretty sure,” Carol said with a smile. “You guys look like you’re working on something pretty intently. What’s going on?”
“Chance came up with an idea on how to track down Alan Batts,” Pete said. “We’ve been putting it to work, and now we’re waiting to see if he takes the bait.”
“Bait?”
Pete nodded. “Josie hacked into Angela’s Facebook account and left a message on Alan’s. Basically, it says that she thinks he may have been right about the two of them belong together. If he responds, then we may have a chance to set a trap for him.”
“And, we have a hit,” Josie said. “Somebody is typing a comment.” They all watched the monitor for a moment, and then words suddenly appeared.
“I knew you’d see it sooner or later. But don’t worry, it will all work out soon.”
“That’s got to be him,” Chance said. “Ask him where to meet up?”
“Not this quick,” Josie said. “Let it sit there a while, and that’ll make it seem more realistic. Meanwhile, I’m going to see if I can figure out where he’s posting from.” She leaned into her computer and started tapping away at the keys. “He’s got Internet access somewhere, and there’s an IP address attached to it. If I can get that address, we can figure out where he’s at without having to resort to setting a trap.”
Chance looked at her for a moment, then turned to Pete. “I can’t sit around and wait,” he said. “Call me if she figures it out. I’m going to go on down and see Jake, give the kid a big pat on the back.”
He got up and left the office and arrived at the hospital a short time later. When he walked into the room, he found Jake and Tina sitting side-by-side on the bed, and the young man looked up and smiled when he entered.
“Hey, Chance,” Jake said. “Sorry about the way I treated you last time. I don’t know what it was, just something about you that made me worry a little bit.”
“I don’t take offense that easily,” Chance said. “So, you really got everything back together inside that noggin of yours?”
Jake shrugged. “Far as we can tell right now,” he said. “The doctor says the swelling is all gone, and I seem to be able to remember pretty much everything.”
“How goes the search for Alan?” Tina asked.
“We’re trying something new,” Chance said. “We might even know where to find him sometime soon.”
“That would be a relief,” Tina said. “I’m sure Angela would sleep a lot better.”
“So will I,” Chance said. “ Pete and I are fairly sure it was Alan Batts who knocked you off the road that night. He was probably trying to get rid of Jake, and we’ve been a little worried that he might try again.”
“That explains the security guards,” Jake said. “I take it there hasn’t been any sign of him trying so far?”
“Not yet,” Chance said, and then his phone rang. He glanced at the display to see that it was Pete calling him, and put it it on speaker. “Hello,” he said. “We got something?”
“We do indeed,” Pete said. “Callaway Park. That’s the park that’s right behind the hospital. It has an open Wi-Fi setup, so anybody can get online from anywhere inside the park. That’s where Alan posted from.”
“Oh, my goodness,” Tina said. “I took Jake walking over there yesterday. He could have been there then.”
“Then he is close by,” Chance said. “Any idea where at in the park?”
“No way to tell. I’ve already contacted Detective Lambert, and he’s got a detail headed that direction. They’re going to wander through the park in plainclothes, see if they can spot him.”
“He’ll spot them first,” Chance said. “Besides, he’s had days to change his appearance. God only knows what he looks like now, they might never see him at all.”
“So we don’t wait,” Jake said suddenly. “The one thing we know is that he wants to get rid of me, right? How about we see if we can’t draw him out into the open?”
Tina grabbed hold of his arm. “Jake, you can’t be serious,” she said. “If he spotted you…”
“Then he’ll have to show himself in order to get to me,” Jake said. He turned to Chance. “How long ago was he in the park?”
“Less than an hour,” Chance said.
“He’s still there,” Pete said. “Josie has been watching that IP address, and it’s crawling all over Angela’s Facebook page.”
“Then let’s go,” Jake said. “Chance, you get out there ahead of us. Try to avoid being noticed, but watch for when we appear. When he makes his move for me, I’m counting on you to keep him from accomplishing anything.”
“Carol and I are on the way,” Pete said. “Chance, don’t let anything happen to that kid.”
“I have no intention of it,” Chance said.
Fifteen minutes later, Chance was standing near a cottonwood tree on the edge of the park closest to the hospital. He was wearing a ball cap he had borrowed from somebody inside, and had ditched his jacket. With the sleeves rolled up, he looked quite a bit different from his normal private eye persona. He only hoped it would be enough.
Tina and Jake appeared a moment later, strolling hand-in-hand out into the park. Tina had a jacket slung over he
r shoulders, but the sleeves were simply dangling loosely. Chance watched as they walked along, chatting like any other couple, but then he forced himself to watch everybody else around them.
Nobody seemed to be paying attention, at least not at first. Chance had to move away from the tree to keep them in sight, vaguely following along behind them as they made their way toward some benches. He kept his eyes roving, looking for anyone who might be paying attention to them, but nobody stood out.
There were a number of people in the park, including several patients from the hospital. They were identifiable by the bathrobes they wore, the light blue standing out against the greens and browns of nature. There also quite a few children running around, most of them enacted to one of the groups visiting patients.
A man was walking along with a trash bag slung over his shoulder, using a stick to pick up trash that had been tossed on the ground. Chance look them over carefully and decided that he was way too old to be Alan, then spotted another man who seemed to be wandering alone around the park. He was too far away for Chance to get a good look, so he angled himself in that direction.
It took a minute for him to get close enough to the lone man, but it turned out not to be his quarry. He stopped and looked around, trying to figure out where Alan could be hiding, and trying to remember all of the positions of the different people he had seen. The children were still running wild around the playground, most of the patients were exactly where he had seen them, but something seemed out of place. He turned and headed back toward where Jake and Tina were now sitting on a bench.
A soft pop rang out, and Jake flinched. Tina leapt to her feet and threw Jake to the ground, throwing herself over him as Chance snatched the big Maxim out from under his shirt. Someone had fired a shot at Jake, but there was no one in sight who could have done it. Chance spun around, trying to look at everyone at once, and suddenly he noticed the park employee walking quickly toward where Jake and Tina were sitting. His pointed stick was tucked under his left arm, and his right hand was held out in front of him.
“Alan Batts!” Chance shouted, and Alan spun to look at him. The small pistol in his hand came up and let off another loud pop , and then Alan turned and ran. Chance took off after him as he dodged around bushes and behind trees, but he was having trouble gaining on him. Alan was running toward the outer edge of the park, away from the hospital, and Chance was giving it everything he had.