From An Education - Into the Woods...
Jack Hawkins is Alice’s father, and is indeed a police detective, so when he came in with two uniformed officers, and saw our unexpected guest on the couch, he rubbed the back of his head and said “You poor dumb stupid... Of all the houses out here, you picked this one?”
“She did,” Angela said as we looked in from the kitchen, “it’s good to see you again, Mister Hawkins.”
“Good to see you girls as well,” he said with a smile as the officers released the girl from the connecting chain, and frog marched her out of the house. “She was doing time for burglary and assault – and now for trying to escape as well. I take it she didn’t hurt either of you?”
“Come on Jack,” Brian said, “these two?”
“Point,” Jack said with a smile as Sarah came in with the twins.
“What did I miss this time?”
“Oh, just an escaped prisoner who thought this would be a good place to hide out and get some things to help her escape.”
“She did? Well, that must have made her day,” Sarah said as the twins came over to join us on the couch. “How about I fix some lunch?”
“No, let me,” Angela said as she stood up.
“I’ll see you guys around,” Jack said as he left the house, and I went to help Angela.
Thursday
Jack Hawkins looked up from his desk as Brian Holderness-Carter appeared in the doorway of the squad room.
“Hey,” he said as he looked at the tall Australian, “thanks for coming in. How are the girls?”
“Alicia’s recovering today – she’s gone to see Heather. I tell you, there must be something about that group of young ladies...”
“I know what you mean – look, you got some time to spare?”
“Sure – why?”
“Need to show you something first,” Jack said as he stood up, and collected a file from his desk, “let’s go into the interview room.”
As they walked in, Jack said “It’s about the girl who broke into your house on Monday – I wanted to let you have a look at her file, and then I figured you may want to talk to her.”
Brian raised an eyebrow, before he said “why do I get the feeling you have a reason for saying this.”
“I’ve got several reasons actually,” Jack said as he closed the door, “but have a look at the file first.”
Sitting down, Brian opened the file and looked at the photograph of the dark haired girl. “All right – her name’s Tamara Brooke. Sixteen years old, born in North Carolina, orphaned when she was eleven?”
“Yeah – no father around, and her mother was killed in a car crash.”
Nodding, Brian looked back at the file. “Put in an orphanage, but disappeared from there two years later. Next appears three months ago, when she is arrested breaking into the home of a Gerald McCabe, a used car dealer on the outskirts of Boston. Sentenced to three years for burglary and assault, but escaped last Friday...”
“And was found by you on Monday, having broken into your house and taped up the girls,” Jack said. You disturbed her in Angela’s room, and we brought her here.”
“So why call me?”
“Brian, you have some of the most sophisticated monitoring and electronic alarm equipment I know of at your place, and you were working in the shed on a repair job. What strikes you as funny about this situation?”
Sitting back, Brian rubbed his eyes and said “I must be getting old. Why the hell didn’t the alarms trip?”
“Exactly – how did you know which room she was in?”
“Well, I walked up the stairs, and everything seemed normal – but the only sensors in the house when we’re in residence are the pheromone detectors, and Sarah was out with the twins. Come to think of it – it was the gizmo that suggested Angela’s room.”
“The what?”
“I have an old seismometer – a clockwork one – on the upstairs hallway table. I saw it was moving, and that suggested a footfall in the room next to it. Angela’s room. Both Sarah and I are too light of foot for it to react to us, so I walked in, and paralysed her. But you’re right – how did she manage to bypass all the detectors?”
“Well, this might help,” Jack said as he handed another file over, “I got the records from the orphanage sent over. Have a look.”
As Brian flipped through, he raised an eyebrow and said “where is she now?”
“In a cell downstairs – I was going to ship her back to the prison yesterday, but she freaked out when she was told that.”
“Any chance of seeing that?”
“None – the recording equipment in the room failed. So I said I was going to bring a friend to talk to her – want to?”
“Let me get something from the car first,” Brian said as he stood up, “and then bring her in.”
As Tamara was brought into the room by Jack Hawkins, she looked at the tall man sitting at the desk, and wondered what was going on. She was wearing a grey sweatshirt and jogging pants, and sat on the other side of the desk as the other man looked at her.
“Tamara,” Jack said, “this is Brian, a good friend of mine who you met the other day. He has a few things he wants to ask you.”
“Hey,” Brian said, Tamara recognising the Australian accent, “First things first – how are you feeling?”
“Confused – what did you do to me the other day?”
“I’ll explain that later – maybe,” Brian said with a smile, “Jack has shown me your file, and also the records from the orphanage you ran away from. Must have been tough, losing your mother at that early age.”
“It was – we kept ourselves to ourselves, and never bothered anyone save to get supplies and things. Then there was the crash, and...”
“I understand,” Brian said quietly, “so you went to live in an orphanage, and that was when things started to get interesting. From what I’ve seen in this,” he said as he held up the orphanage records, “you didn’t exactly get on well with some of the other kids.”
“You mean the bullies – they blamed me every time something went wrong with their games machines or iPods, as if I was breaking them.”
Nodding, Brian said “seemed to happen a lot – and you fought back as well. So is that why you ran away – the bullying?”
“Yeah – I reckoned it couldn’t be any worse out there, so I left and struck out on my own.”
“You were only twelve at the time – how did you manage to survive?”
“I got by...”
“Tamara,” Brian said quietly, “how did you manage to survive?”
Looking at Jack, Tamara shifted in her chair and said “Well... I moved from place to place. I eventually realised somehow those fancy cameras and security systems places had stopped working if I was close to them, and – well, I took what I needed.”
“You stole things,” Jack said quietly.
“Only from those who could afford it,” Tamara said as she looked at him. “I used to hang around malls, and identify kids from rich families. I then followed them home, and when there was nobody home I’d walk in the front door. Their alarms and things switched off, and I’d take some food, some clothes, and some money – just what I needed to get by.
“Honest – I never took more than I needed, and they barely even noticed.”
Looking at Jack, Brian said “so what happened that you got arrested?”
“I got careless – I went into that house, thinking it was empty, and was literally drinking some water when that guy McCabe grabbed me. He dragged me into the drawing room, and held me in his arms, looking at me with a look I’d never seen in a man before. He then... He then...”
“Go on,” Jack said as he looked at the young girl.
“He said he was going to have me, and started to kiss – no, roughly suck and bite at my neck as he tried to pull my pants down. Well, I defended myself – I used my knee, then smashed a vase over his head before I ran from there as fast as I could. It was pure dumb luck that cop car was passing as I ran out of the house...”
“So he was going to rape you?”
Tamara looked up and nodded as Brian stared at her. “Okay – so you were convicted of burglary and assault. Did you tell the police your side, tell the courts?”
“I tried, but nobody believed me, and then I was sent to the local prison. That’s when I found out McCabe and the governor, they were in cahoots – treating the place like their own personal whorehouse.”
“How did you find this out?”
“The other inmates told me – and then I was tipped the wink I was going to be the main course last Saturday. No way I was going to allow that to happen, so – I walked out.”
“You just – walked out?”
“Honestly,” Tamara said as she looked at Jack, “I could have walked out of here any time. I almost did last night, but somehow you talked me down when you said I didn’t have to go back.”
Jack looked at Brian, who said “let me guess – it’s got to the stage now where you look at anything that conducts electricity, and you see things?”
Tamara stared back, and said “yeah – I eventually figured out that was why I could open doors, and things turned off.”
“So she’s like you,” Jack said as she looked at Brian.
“Not quite,” Brian said as he picked up a box wrapped in velvet. “In here,” he said as he looked at Tamara, “is a recording device, which has been recording our conversation.” He opened the cloth up and held it in his hand, rewinding and playing what he had just said. He then tossed it to Tamara, who caught it in her hand.
“Play it.”
Tamara pressed the rewind and play button – and no noise came out.
“Do you believe me?”
“Actually, I do,” Brian said as he stood up. “Tamara, I know you haven’t had much formal education, but you’ve taught yourself a few things, right?”
“I have,” Tamara said as she held the device and looked at the two men.
“Okay – we live in an electronic age, and there are some people who, for one reason or another, tend to find electronic equipment goes wrong when they’re around them. One example might be they naturally have more static electricity charge than others. You follow me?”
“I think so – you saying I’m one of those people?”
“Yes – and no, Tamara. We’d need to run some tests, but I think you’re a natural damper.”
“Come again?”
“I think, at an instinctive level, you somehow have the ability to disrupt electronic systems, or erase electromagnetic recordings. So you act like a damper device, which can prevent the detection of bugs and recording equipment.”
“Are you a spy or something?”
“Or something,” Brian said with a smile. “Ever have trouble watching TV?”
“No – I like TV,” Tamara said, “why?”
“Like I said, instinctive – it only kicks in when you think you need it, like when you broke into houses to steal things. With the device, you wanted to wipe the record, to defend yourself.”
“So when I look at a door handle or something, and know just where to touch...”
Nodding, Brian said “I have a similar gift, but one kink in that is I’m a natural lie detector – I can sense when someone’s lying, and you’re not lying.”
“Oh joy,” Jack said, “so if we sent her back...”
“Exactly – Jack, I need a favour. Can you call Anne, and ask her and Kayla to come down, and then release Tamara here into their authority?”
“Hang on – who are Anne and Kayla?”
“Friends – my wife and I work with them,” Brian said. “Want to make sure those bastards never hurt anyone ever again?”