Chris Collett - [Tom Mariner 01] by The Worm in The Bud (txt) Read Free Book Online Page B

from the centre on Friday afternoon as normal. Most of our clients travel on the centre transport, but for the last few weeks Eddie has been bringing Jamie in and fetching him himself.’
    ‘Why was that?’
    ‘I’m not really sure of the precise reason. I presumed that it fitted in more conveniently with Eddie’s working pattern. If he wasn’t home at the right time to receive Jamie…’
    ‘But I thought Jamie was going to Oakwood for the weekends to give Eddie some respite?’ said Anna. ‘That’s where he should have been.’
    Joyce looked embarrassed. ‘Not any more. Eddie withdrew Jamie from the Oakwood about two months ago.’
    ‘Oh.’ Anna reddened. So she really was that out of touch. ‘Why?’ she asked.
    ‘It was the medication, I think.’
    ‘Medication?’
    ‘They wanted to put Jamie on something to help his sleeping, but Eddie wasn’t keen. The next thing we knew, Jamie was back home at the weekends.’
    ‘How did Eddie seem on Friday?’ Mariner asked.
    ‘Oh, I didn’t speak to him myself. I only saw him briefly from a distance. You’d need to talk to Jamie’s key worker, Francine, although I’m afraid she’s tied up with supervising lunch at the moment. The last time I spoke to Eddie personally would have been a couple of weeks ago. We had been having some problems with Jamie’s behaviour, so he came in to discuss them.’
    ‘What sort of problems?’ Anna asked, warily.
    As they talked, people had wandered past them in the corridor and, realising they were being overheard, Joyce ushered them towards her office. ‘It might be better to continue in here, where it’s a bit more private,’ she said.
    ‘And if you can wait a moment, I’ll just go and settle Jamie with his group.’ She walked over to Jamie. ‘Lunch, Jamie,’ she said, gently touching his arm. And without a murmur, Jamie turned and followed her down the corridor. Mariner went with Anna into the cluttered office where Joyce returned to join them a few minutes later.
    ‘You were going to tell us about Jamie’s behaviour,’ Anna prompted, before Mariner could say anything.
    Joyce began cautiously. ‘Well, in recent months, it’s as if Jamie has suddenly developed some kind of sexual awareness,’ she told them. ‘Eddie had started having problems with Jamie exposing himself, masturbating publicly, that kind of thing. Only a week ago he walked up to a woman in the swimming baths and made a grab for her breasts. Eddie thought she was going to bring indecent assault charges.’
    ‘It must have been worrying for Eddie,’ said Mariner, seeing the alarm on Anna’s face and wanting to steer the conversation back round to Eddie.
    ‘It was,’ Joyce said. ‘We were all concerned. It’s not an uncommon situation with the young adults we work with here, a child’s mind inside an adult body and all that, but it doesn’t make it any easier. While it might be reasonable to ignore a three-year-old playing with his private parts in public, at twenty-nine it’s a different matter entirely. It’s vital for Jamie to learn about what is unacceptable social behaviour, so we discussed some strategies for managing it.
    Eddie took it very seriously. He even went as far as installing a video camera at home so that we could monitor progress.’ The camera. That knocked Knox’s theory on the head.
    ‘Jamie’s other obsessions were worsening too,’ Joyce continued. ‘For some time now he’s had a fixation with mobile phones. He recognises all the brand names and for months he made Eddie drive past the same billboard on the way to the centre because it displayed an advert for One to One. When they changed the poster for something different, Jamie got very distressed.’
    ‘He was like that with pylons and radio transmission masts when he was little,’ said Anna. ‘Insisted on Dad driving past them every time we went out. He could spot them from miles away.’
    ‘Will Jamie be staying with you now?’ Joyce asked.
    Anna’s