Chapter 7: Injured Party

Rachel resumed her speech once they had all had their coffees poured, with Ben scooting off especially for the cup of tea that was 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.

“Helen called for the 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 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’s 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 a further twelve stitches, with a strong possibility of some scaring, the Doc tells me, I’m afraid. The other wound causing concern was a blow to the head consistent with a kick 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 in the head wound this time. He also had two broken ribs, one of which had punctured his lung, which 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.”

“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.

“Tommy was also on the receiving end of a considerable kicking by his assailants. 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 and assumed therefore that Tommy either wasn’t a local or had ordered the shoes on-line, which we thought less likely. 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.

“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 next, 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 seconds 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 and nodded for her to continue.

“A Mrs Marcia 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 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 school. 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.”

“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, “It looks like I was running by and had been jogging for a long time, and 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.”

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

“That’s too much, man,” grinned Ben, “You carry on praising Tommy like that, we’ll never get him through the ward door! Rather than wreck the place we might have to put up with his company for a lot longer than we want 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’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 and breathing unaided were 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 told us who he was, but that he couldn’t remember - 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.

“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 them, “His family are involved now, Ben,” she whispered, “It was good to feel useful to Tommy while he was alone, but he is not alone any more. 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 nodded, “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 and exchange contact details. You can’t deny it, Sharon, you and Helen are his friends now.”

“I will speak to him, Ben, but not quite now,” Sharon said, “With his family here,” as she walked down towards the exit. Ben followed, the nurses’ station was also in the same direction.

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