“there is a picture of the escapee in the file,” said the director.
“just one?” mr eggwhistle asked.
“well, two, just the mugshots when he was processed in. “
mr eggwhistle looked at the classic front and side shots in the small photo. they showed a completely nondescript young man with dark hair and and small features. he could have been seventeen, or thirty. no scars or distinguishing marks showed in the pictures.
“any scars or distinguishing marks?” mr eggwhistle asked.
“no.”
“this is awful thin,” mr eggwhistle said, as he considered the few pieces of paper in the file. “no police reports?”
“no, he was not brought here by the police. or by anyone claiming to be a family member. he was brought here by a man claiming to have picked him up as a hitchhiker. it is there in the file, on that green sheet. the man identified himself as matthew wilson, but we never heard from him again. there is an address on the green sheet, and of course we tried to contact him, but as you can guess, without success.”
mr eggwhistle unfolded the flimsy green sheet of paper and considered it as the director continued.
“he called himself johnny dark, and in that at least he never contradicted himself. we used that name, along with the number we assigned him. no one ever enquired about him. about him, personally. in the first few weeks he was here, we got routine enquiries from the police about possible suspects in various recent crimes, but nothing ever came of it. and the whole time he was here he never asked to contact anybody.”
“and he was here about three years, according to this.”
“yes.”
“and non-violent, the whole time?’
“yes, but highly delusional.”
“was there any question about letting him go?”
“that’s a good question. we had nobody to release him to. he had no family or references. we could not try to get him a job somewhere. he did not claim any skills, or show any interest in learning any. trying to place a patient in a job under such circumstances was out of the question.”
mr eggwhistle nodded. “but as long as he was harmless, you couldn’t just - let him go?”
“we don’t do that, if the patient has nowhere to go. and in any case, we could not say for sure that he was harmless. he acted harmless. his words were something else.”
“of course, you said that before.” mr eggwhistle continued to look at the green sheet and other small papers in the file. “what is this abut a war?”
“that was his main delusion. he was constantly talking about being in some war, but there was no war he was the right age to be in.”
“well, there are always wars here and there,” mr eggwhistle observed. “the united states army might not be involved and you might not read about them in the papers. did he have any kind of foreign accent?”
“no, he did not. he seemed as american as you or i. and his notion of warfare seemed very much derived from hollywood movies.”
“all right. you say he talked violently. about anybody in particular?”
“about people he said he had done jobs for but had not paid him. he often mentioned a man he called packy , whom he was particularly incensed against.”
“packy? any last name?”
“no, and no city or town either.”
“it’’s a big world, and there are a lot of guys named packy in it. i suppose it is better than nothing. i will try that, and mr matthew wilson. can i keep this file?”
“i will have a copy made for you.”
No comments:
Post a Comment