Mother Be The Judge (17 page)

"Can you just confirm your name and address?" she asked Jocasta.

"Georgina Perkins; 123 Wilmington Crescent," Jocasta repeated the false name and address she had written on the prescription.

"There you go Mrs Perkins."

"It's Miss," Jocasta gave her automatic reply. The cashier gave a look which said, 'Whatever' and handed the bag over. Jocasta took it, turned on her heel and marched out of the store. She knew the hard part was now to come; it was all very well hatching a plan to keep Adrian in his room but he wasn't just going to swallow tablets at her request. She now had to find a way to administer them without him knowing; she hoped the fish pie lived up to her expectations.

'Often even a whole city suffers from a bad man who sins.'

Hesiod

Wednesday 23
rd
May 2012

Adrian was due to go to Big Value and would usually be up by 6am to get ready for his shift. Jocasta had ground a Temazepam tablet into Adrian's fish pie the evening before and he had eaten the meal without any complaint. Jocasta was thankful that Adrian was used to her meals never tasting quite right as she had never been a proficient cook and he had learnt early in his life to eat quickly before taste became a factor.

Jocasta waited until 7am before deciding to enter Adrian's room to check on him. She had been debating doing this for the last hour but she had been so frightened she may have killed him that she kept putting it off. Holding her breath as she walked through Adrian's door and hoping she would see the rise and fall of his chest when she got to his bed, Jocasta walked in the room and over to Adrian's bed. Adrian lay spread-eagled on top of his bed covers in just a pair of boxer shorts and a t-shirt. Jocasta looked down on her son of twenty one years; he didn't seem to be moving at all and Jocasta's heart was in her mouth at the thought she may actually have put an end to her son's life. Thankfully she saw a line of dribble escape from Adrian's mouth and his tongue run around his dry lips.

"Adrian." Jocasta put her hand on his shoulder and gave a small nudge. "Adrian, are you getting up for work?"

Adrian didn't respond to Jocasta's query. He turned over and buried his head into his pillow. Jocasta left him in his bed and went back out to the kitchen. She was pleased to know that the tablets had had the desired effect on Adrian; he didn't seem harmed but was obviously very tired and it was not too late for him to go to work. She picked up the telephone and dialled the number for Adrian's manager at Big Value.

"Hello?"

"Yes, hello, I'm Adrian Brown's mother, Jocasta. I'm afraid he won't be coming into work today, he's not well."

"Oh sorry, you need to speak to the manager, hold on I'll get her for you," came the reply. Jocasta waited patiently for another two minutes, listening to an unknown pop tune playing merrily down the phone line.

"Hello?" a female voice came on the phone.

"Yes, hello, I'm Adrian Brown's mother, Jocasta, I'm afraid he won't be in today, he's not well."

"What's the matter with him?"

"Oh he's been vomiting all night; I think he may have food poisoning." Jocasta said the first thing that came into her mind; it wasn't far off the truth. She didn't think that to say, 'he hasn't got up yet' would be enough to justify him not getting to work.

"Is it self-certified?" enquired the manager. Jocasta noticed the manager did not seem concerned for Adrian and was not showing any regret for Adrian's illness. In fact, the manager seemed very cold and indifferent towards Adrian. Jocasta felt her normal distaste for the way people treated her son.

"Yes it's self-certified. If it becomes more serious then I will take him to the doctors." Jocasta poked her tongue out at the phone receiver hoping to send it along the line to the manager's ear.

"Ok well I suppose I will have to find someone else to do the cold room." The manager sighed. "When is he coming back?"

"I don't know, but when I do then you will know." Jocasta said. She was getting fed up of having this conversation, it should have been over after the first few seconds and she begrudged all the questions when she should be checking on how Adrian was doing. Jocasta started to hop from one foot to another in her frustration at being kept on the phone. The manager sighed again, "Ok well please phone tomorrow if he's not coming in."

"Yes ok, thank you." Jocasta gave the phone two fingers as she replaced the receiver in its cradle. "I hope he is ok." She said the words she expected the manager to have used, but never heard.

As Jocasta sat at the kitchen table eating scrambled eggs on toast, Adrian stumbled into the hallway of their flat.

"Mum." He called out, he held onto the hallway with one hand and his head with the other.

"Mum," he called again. Jocasta got up from her seat at the table and walked to Adrian in the hallway.

"What's the matter?" she asked him.

"I don't feel well." He told her. "My head is spinning. I feel like I need to go back to bed, can you phone work and tell them I won't be in?"

"Yes of course I can, go back to bed and I'll get you an aspirin."

Adrian turned and walked slowly back to his bed, then fell back onto the divan; groaning and rubbing at his forehead. Jocasta went back to the kitchen and broke another Temazepam out of its bubble packet. She poured a glass of water and took the tablet to Adrian.

"Here Adrian, here's an Anadin, take it for your headache."

Adrian pushed himself up into a sitting position and reached out for the cup Jocasta offered him. He swallowed the tablet, finished the water in the cup and then lay back down on the bed. Jocasta retrieved the quilt which was bunched up at the end of the bed and covered Adrian with it. She leant down to kiss him on the forehead. He didn't register the kiss at all and Jocasta felt a pang of guilt that she was the cause of his condition. She left the room and went into the front room, turned on the television and waited for Jeremy Kyle. She wished her problems were so trivial that she could afford to have them broadcast on national television, because she would have loved to have somebody to talk to and get some advice on what to do with Adrian. She could just picture Jeremy's face when she sat in one of the padded chairs on his stage. "Oh yes Jeremy, my son is a paedophile who raped and murdered a little girl and now I have him drugged up in his bedroom." Jocasta didn't think an hour's show would be any way near long enough to sort that kind of mess out. She knew she was on her own and would just have to deal with things the best way that she could. Remembering that she still had to visit different chemists to pick up further Temazepam prescriptions, Jocasta got up to take a shower and get dressed. She figured she had a good four hours, maybe more, before Adrian would wake up again which should be enough time to get around Elisworth and pick up the prescriptions and some ingredients for the soup she was hoping to secrete Adrian's next dosage in. He had taken the Anadin so readily however, she knew that it was not going to be a problem giving him any further doses, so long as he didn't realise that it wasn't Anadin she was giving him.

-x-

Jocasta quickly checked Adrian was still sleeping before she let herself quietly out of their flat. She walked briskly down the communal steps and out into the children's playground.

A young boy, no more than ten years old, sat on the bench; balancing on the two remaining wooden slats of the seat. Slumped over next to him was a body; Jocasta couldn't see if it was male or female as the dark grey clothing being worn was sports like; tracksuit bottoms with dirty white trainers and a hooded top which obscured any hair or facial features. The person's head was also hidden behind where the boy sat on the bench. Jocasta only meant to give the couple a fleeting glimpse as she wasn't nosy and was too wrapped up in her own problems to worry about anyone else's, but her glimpse triggered recognition and she stopped to look at the young boy properly.

The boy was looking despondently at the floor. Jocasta recognised the mousy brown hair and skeletal features of Andrew West. She supposed the slumped being behind him must be Mae, Savannah's mother, as she knew that the step-father Mike was no longer on the scene. Jocasta felt a pang of deep remorse that her son could have reduced this woman to being passed out in a children's playground. She was very aware that if Savannah were alive it was highly possible that Mae West would be passed out at home on the sofa as she was an alcoholic
before
Savannah died, however, being unconscious outside left Mae open to reports of neglect and would court attention from the Social Security. Jocasta didn't think she would be able to live with herself if Mae lost her second child, albeit he would be better looked after. Rather than walk away as would have been her usual behaviour, Jocasta decided to stop and help as she felt she had a responsibility now to care for this family; the victims of her son's evil, the people who were left behind to face the pain of losing their family member.

"Hello, its Andrew isn't it?" Jocasta approached the lad. He gave her a dirty look and shrank back into his mother's body.

"It's ok, I live up there." Jocasta gestured to her flat above. "Is that your mum?"

Andrew gave a nod. "She won't wake up," he said. Jocasta heard a grumbling coming from the boy's stomach. It was only 8 o'clock in the morning. Jocasta realised it was very possible that Andrew had been sitting with his mother throughout the night. She was glad that at least the weather was mild or Andrew might not have been so alive when she found him. He may not only be suffering from hunger, but exposure as well.

"Have you been here all night?" She asked him.

"Yeah, she won't wake up." Andrew gave the same reply.

Fearing that Mae may actually be dead, Jocasta rushed over to her slumped figure and gave Mae a push on the shoulder, bringing Mae's face into view. Mae's lips were blue but her face still had what Jocasta considered an 'alive' look about it. She shook Mae harder and shouted at her to wake up.

Mae opened her bloodshot eyes and looked up at Jocasta.

"What do you want? Fuck off." She shouted at Jocasta.

"It's Mae isn't it?" Jocasta asked her.

"What the fuck has that got to do with you?" Mae was obviously extremely annoyed at being disturbed from her drunken stupor. And drunk she was; she stank of stale alcohol, urine and vomit. Jocasta had to put her hand to her nose to shield herself from the smell Mae was giving off.

"Mae, you can't lie out here, if the police see you they'll phone the Social Services." Jocasta pleaded with her. She was hoping the threat of the Social would spur Mae into action.

"Fuck the police. They didn't help me, I'm staying here. Sav loved it here." Mae reached out and put her arms around Andrew, pulling him nearer to her and burying her head in his lap.

"My Sav loved this playground." She wailed and then began to cry in earnest.

Andrew looked pleadingly at Jocasta; she knew he must be cold, hungry and very tired. She could easily have walked away, but Jocasta was determined to help Mae and Andrew. She took Andrew's hand and extricated him from his mother's grip. Then sat where he had been sitting and put her arm around Mae's shoulders. "Come on Mae, let's get you home."

Mae continued to cry but despair had made her weak and she allowed herself to be manoeuvred off the bench by Jocasta. Mae stood up, but wobbled violently, so Jocasta put her arm around her and allowed Mae to lean heavily on her, then she led the way to where she knew Mae and Andrew lived. Andrew followed behind, kicking an empty beer can before him; one of many which had been discarded on the playground floor, next to food wrappers, an empty syringe and a large pile of dried up dog poo.

It was a short but arduous walk back to Mae's flat as Mae found it very difficult to put one foot in front of the other. Jocasta was sure Mae had ingested more than just alcohol; there was no way alcohol could have caused such huge impairment, especially as Mae had apparently been asleep for some time. Jocasta helped Mae through her front door, after she had spent a few minutes fumbling through Mae's pockets for the front door keys, only to be told that the key was under the door mat. Andrew retrieved it for Jocasta who then opened the door.

When Jocasta entered the flat, she found it in a terrible state. Rubbish, mainly empty and crushed beer cans, pizza boxes and dirty clothes, was scattered everywhere. It was difficult to find an empty patch of floor to put a foot in. Jocasta didn't think that Mae had cleaned or tidied the flat for a very long time; she obviously wasn't coping with the loss of her daughter. Andrew ran to the kitchen and returned; an embarrassed look on his face, with a roll of black bags which he handed to Jocasta.

"Is there any food in the house?" Jocasta asked him, he shrugged but looked hopeful at the prospect of food.

Jocasta led Mae to her bedroom, led by Andrew and helped Mae into her sheet-less bed. She found a blanket bunched up in the corner of the room and then went to the kitchen to find something for Andrew to eat, coming up with a box of cereal and some dubious milk. Andrew scoffed the food very quickly obviously glad for anything which he could put in his belly.

Jocasta picked up all the rubbish and Andrew showed her where everything was in the flat. There were no cleaning products to speak of so Jocasta made do with a bucket of warm water and a raggedy old dishcloth that had been in the sink. She worked hard for two hours, cleaning and making things right. When she entered Andrew's bedroom, Jocasta found Savannah's bed and belongings in immaculate condition. The bed was made and a small teddy bear sat propped up on the pillow. It was a grey bear with blue patches on it and was holding a banner saying 'Daughter', Photos of Savannah were stuck on the wall around the headboard; Savannah at the beach, school pictures and photo booth pictures of Savannah with her friends. Jocasta recognised Lacey in a couple of the pictures. They were happy photos, capturing moments in Savannah's life where she was growing up and experiencing new things. Jocasta was sad that there would never be a picture of Savannah as a grown woman, getting married, holding a child or grandchildren. No camera would ever capture Savannah's face again.