Inanimate (11 page)

“
Very shrewd Doctor” Jacobs
replied with a hint of sarcasm.

Ok Hunt,
go wait in the car.”

Hunt obliged
.

Crass
moved round the desk and sat in his
chair, thus asserting himself as dominant while MacNamee sat on the
back of the couch, thus asserting himself otherwise.

“
Sergeant, this is Doctor Greg
MacNamee, the other leading Doctor attached to Connor
Williams.”

The two men shook hands and Jacobs sat
down opposite Crass.

“
So what
can I do for you Sergeant? I assume
you didn’t come down here for the food, because I assure you, it
isn’t up to much.”

Jacobs’s
chuckled.

“
No, I didn’t come here for the
food.
Has
Andy Williams been in to see his son since he was
admitted?”

“
No, I don’t believe he
has been.
Why?”

“
He’s gone
missing
.”

Both
Doctors looked surprised.

“
Detective Hunt there went
round to the house a little while ago to pick up the toys and he
was gone, car too, door was wide open.”

“
Perhaps he went
out
, for
groceries or something” said MacNamee

“
I doubt it. A
neighbor was leaving
for work, told Hunt he saw him leave yesterday. Said he ran out the
door looking flustered.”

“
Well, I would probably be
flustered too, under the circumstances”
stated Crass.

Jacobs put
his hands up, showing Crass his
palms.

“
L
ook, I know, I would be too but I’m not
here to pass judgment, just to inform. I came over here straight
away, I thought since you were the ones looking after the boy, you
should be the ones to tell him his father isn’t coming to see
him.”

“
We don’t
know that yet sergeant. It would be
unwise to tell the boy anything until we have facts to back it up!”
disputed Crass

“
Look Doc, I interviewed Andy
Williams, the guy was a time bomb
. His emotions were all over the place. I
called his work on the way over here, he didn’t show up yesterday
or today and they haven’t heard from him.”

“
Would he be expected to go into
work after happened?” asked MacNamee

“
Come on guys” reasoned
Jacobs, “I’m not the
bad guy here. It seems pretty clear to me he’s fled. Call it a
hunch mixed in with, you know, facts!”

“
Are you going to look for him?”
Crass asked

“
Why would we? He’s done nothing
wrong. His only child has been passed over to state custody and he
was already cleared of involvement in his girlfriend’s death,
there’s nothing more we can do, except tell the boy.”

“
I don’t think that would be
wise”
said
Crass “the boy is already in a fragile state.”

“
Ok” relented
Jacobs “you’re the Doctors, I’m
just a humble cop but I just think it will be worse for him to keep
expecting a visit that never comes. It might be better if you get
the bad news out the way quick, like pulling off a band
aid!”

Crass
looked at Jacobs sternly.

“
You
will forgive me Sergeant if I don’t
defer to your medical expertise when I think about comparing a
child’s mental wellbeing with ‘pulling off a band aid’”

Jacobs
sighed.

“
Like I said, you’re the
Doctors; I’ll leave
it up to you, that’s just my two cents.”

Jacobs
got up.

“
I had Hunt in
ventory all the toys so you’ll
have a note for your records”

He pulled a note out his pocket and put it
on the table.

“
I’ll see myself out.
Y
ou know
where to reach me if you need to. Good luck gents”

Jacobs headed
out the office door
leaving Crass and MacNamee to ponder their next move, neither one
of them said goodbye to the sergeant as he left.

Connor lay
awake as the lock in his door
snapped open. The large orderly entered with a large black garbage
back in hand. Tim could barely make eye contact with the youngster
as he dropped off the bag and headed briskly back towards the exit.
When he had gone and the lock snapped behind him Connor got up to
rummage through his bag. They were all there. Bear, the Three
Dummies, his soldiers, his toy dog, Betsy and Basket. Seeing Basket
made him the happiest.
After giving the clown a hug the clown he put him aside while he
propped up all his dolls along the wall so they could watch him
sleep. Connor used to sleep soundly knowing he was under the
watchful gaze of his “friends”. MacNamee peered in through the
window sneakily, watching the boy arrange his toys in such a
way.

“
Thanks Tim
” MacNamee whispered.

“
No problem Doc”

Tim
replied just before he headed off
down the corridor.

“
Ok, we’ll give it a couple of
minutes and then go in” said Crass.

MacNamee
nodded in agreement as he watched
Connor finish lining them all up. Minutes later MacNamee knocked on
the door and then unlocked it. Knocking was an underestimated
technique in his books. By doing so he was trying to establish that
“room 101” was Connor’s own room where he could be safe. Entering
the room MacNamee tried to be cheery, despite his
trepidation.

“
Hey Connor. How’s my little guy
doing today?”

Connor
didn’t respond. Crass watched from
the doorway as MacNamee pulled up a chair and sat down beside the
boy.

“
Not talking much today
eh?”

Connor
sat with his back to him; he was
sorting the uniform on the large ventriloquist dummy meticulously.
With his hand round the back, he was trying to tuck the dummies
shirt into its trousers.

“
Not going
to talk to me today? Even after
I got you your toys?”

MacNamee
watched the boy try to tuck in the
shirt.

“
Why don’t you turn it
around Connor? It might be easier to...”

The dummies head
jerked to face
MacNamee, eyes fixed on his. As if shot, MacNamee pushed back on
his chair in fright. Connor didn’t flinch even when a high pitched
voice said loudly.

“
That’s the thing about
ventriloquist dummies, they move so smoothly you would almost think
they were real
.”

Connor
used his hand to make the dummies
mouth open and close, speaking words like they were coming from the
dummy’s mouth itself.

“
Hello Greg, I’m Dummyface.
Thanks for bringing me to Connor, but he still doesn’t want to talk
to you. He might talk to Paul though. That is, if he’s stopped
lying already, ha ha ha.”

Connor
’s screechy impersonation of what the
dummy might sound like gave MacNamee a shiver down his spine. The
doctor hated this feeling because he was not a coward. He did not
normally frighten so easily but something about this boy gave him
the creeps.

“
C
onnor, I do need to talk to
you.”

MacNamee
spoke gently

“
I
t’s about your dad.”

Connor
stopped messing around but didn’t
turn around.

“
What about my dad?”

The boy asked in his regular
voice.

“
I’m sorry son, but he
won’t be coming to
see you for a while. A long while.”

MacNamee
and Crass had decided to take the
sergeant’s advice and tell Connor. At the end of the day if he was
wrong then it could only turn out good for Connor but they weren’t
willing to take the chance. The doctors also decided on omitting
the fact that nobody knew where Andy Williams was, thinking it
would be easier on the boy. Connor was motionless for a time. With
his back to MacNamee he sat holding the dummy, not uttering a
word.

“
Connor?”

Connor
didn’t respond.

“
Connor, d
id you understand what I
said?”

Suddenly the screechy
voice
was
back, Connor made its mouth move again.

“
Of course he understands what
you said! Whad’ya you think he is a dummy?”

“
Look son I know it’s hard but
we’re here for you, all of us, we’re going to help you get
better!”

“
What if he doesn’t want to get
better?” Came the screechy voice “What if I think he’s fine the way
he is?”

“
I’d like to talk to Connor
please dummy.”

“
That’s Mr. Dummy to you
doc!”

MacNamee smiled out of a combination of
frustration and nervousness.

“
Ok Mr. Dummy you and Connor can
talk to Dr. Frieda then if you want. I promise he won’t lie to you
anymore. He only did so because he wanted to talk to
you.”

“
Beautiful words
doc
,” the
shrill voice rung out dryly.

With a smile MacNamee got up and turned to
walk out. It was then when he heard it, a snake-like hiss
whispering his name.

“
MacNamee!”

The doctor
turned around sharply, staring
at Connor with the Dummy staring straight at him.

“
Connor
…who said that?”

Without turning round Connor shrugged his
shoulders.

“
Crass? Did you hear that?”
MacNamee
whispered.

“
It was the boy Greg. He’s just
playing with you.”

“
But it didn’t sound like
him.”

Turning
to leave a second time he heard it
again.

“
MacNamee!”

This time MacNamee closed and locked the
door behind him without turning round. Before he set off down the
hallway he had a quick look back through the window, instantly
wishing he hadn’t. Connor still had his back to them but all the
dolls were staring at MacNamee.

CHAPTER 13

Andy slowly woke; the motel room was cold
around him. Heat regulation didn’t operate here, just manual
instruments to be turned on at the user’s convenience. Sitting up
on the side of the bed Andy couldn’t help notice the room was
bigger than it seemed last night. Not that he could remember much
from last night. A few steps into the bathroom and he was splashing
ice cold water on his face from the tap. No point in showering, he
never brought any clean clothes. The water woke him up fast. The
harsh cold liquid shot his brain into action like paddles on a
defibrillator. The mirror above the sink provided a sorry sight: a
broken man, miserable looking in sobriety. Andy never particularly
enjoyed sobriety and he especially didn’t enjoy it the last few
days. The tile floor was cold underneath his feet despite the fact
it was not especially cold outside. The room was getting little
sunlight in as the drapes were shut, so even the stained mahogany
carpet felt cool to the touch. After checking his watch Andy saw
the afternoon was wearing on and needed little excuse to leave
sobriety far behind him. Crossing the once rich colored carpet he
picked up his light brown jacket. Flicking up his collar and
stuffing his hands deep into his pockets Andy set out across the
car park. There would be a bar within walking distance he thought;
Staunton wasn’t that big of a place. Andy unintentionally looked
more conspicuous as he headed out of his room like a celebrity in
hiding. No sooner had he closed (but not locked) the door behind
him, Amanda’s gerbil like eyes spotted his movements. She had been
watching the parking lot for some time now and she was salivating
over the thought of being the first to pass on a little tidbit of
information to anyone who would listen. Hungrily watching the
direction he was moving in she scampered out into the parking lot
for a better look. As she watched Andy cross the street and
disappear through the doors of Earl’s bar her already over worked
heart raced. She had some juicy gossip at last. Waddling hastily
back in to the office she used her tiny chipolata like fingers to
dial up a friend. And, starting with her rhetorical “Guess what?”
intro, Andy was anonymous in Staunton no longer.

A quick measure of Kentucky’s finest woke
his brain up faster than the cold water did, at least initially.
The second: a large one over rocks had the opposite effect.
Although feeling the familiar pang of numbness which came from his
usual tipple he wasn’t drunk yet. His brain just knew what was
coming and prepared itself accordingly. Years of drinking to excess
had created a well prepared mind for it. Sitting at the bar, Andy’s
view was only of the rows of bottles in front of him and that was
the way he liked it. With a drink in his hand and a meaningless
view ahead of him he was amazed at how quickly he could ignore all
his troubles. Slowly, the rocks in his drink melted; the top one
shrunk in size and tumbled down beside the others. The familiar
jingling of cubes in the glass provided a comforting soundtrack to
his drinking. They never had enough time to melted fully however,
just enough to provide a little more water to the bourbon, giving
Andy the illusion that it tasted better the more he drank it. As he
sipped, quiet and alone, he thought about his son and if he did the
right thing leaving town.