Read Chris Collett - [Tom Mariner 01] for Free Online

fully digest what she’d said, but gradually it began to add up. The kid’s raw terror, his apparent total lack of understanding of anything they’d said to him, the peculiar mannerisms. ‘Autistic. Christ,’ he said at last. ‘That’s why we couldn’t find any tracks.’
    ‘I’m sorry to disappoint you, Inspector, but Jamie won’t be “coming down” from anywhere. That’s the way he is all the time.’
    ‘We’re going to need to talk to him,’ Mariner reiterated eventually.
    ‘You can talk away,’ she said, with obvious amusement ‘Jamie will completely ignore you. His understanding of spoken language is virtually non-existent, and the only things he says are words and phrases that he’s learned, mainly from the TV. He just echoes what he hears.’
    ‘Echoes?’ It was out before he could stop himself Mariner groaned inwardly. This was worse than he’d thought. The video camera had proved a nil return there was no tape loaded, so finding Jamie Barham had been the next best thing. They were banking on him as a key witness. Mariner had felt confident that however stoned he might have been, he would be able to confirm at least some of the events of the previous evening. ‘Maybe if you talked to Jamie?’ he suggested, hopefully.
    ‘Me?’ Another wry laugh. ‘You must be joking. Eddie’s the one you need.’
    ‘We will have to interview Jamie, and the sooner the better. It will help if you can be there. And then you can take him home.’
    ‘Home?’
    ‘He’s not under arrest. We only held him for his own safety until after questioning. He’s free to go at any time.’
    ‘But not with me!’ And for the first time she seemed truly appalled. ‘I’m flying to Milan in a few days. I can’t look after him.’
    ‘So is there someone else we can contact?’
    ‘I don’t know. He goes into respite care at the weekends but the rest of the time…’ Her shoulders sagged as suddenly the fight went out of her and finally the tears looked as if they might come. ‘With Eddie gone there’s nobody. God, what a mess.’
    ‘What about your parents?’
    ‘My parents are dead.’
    So she could have been through this before. Shit. Nice work, Mariner.

Chapter Three
    From the mortuary it was a twenty-minute drive to Operational Command Unit 2, Granville Lane Police Station, where Jamie Barham was being held. The station was Monday-morning busy, nonetheless allowing the desk sergeant the opportunity to call out cheerily as they passed, ‘That bloke you brought in last night has been creating havoc in the cells, sir.’
    ‘Doing what?’
    ‘Trying to crack his head open on the walls, mainly Draper’s had him brought up here for his own safety.’
    Andy Draper, the station’s Forensic Medical Examine would be overseeing Jamie Barham’s detention.
    ‘Where is he?’ asked Mariner.
    ‘Observation Room Four. We’re keeping an eye on him. Draper says he can’t find any traces of drug use either He’s just your average nutcase.’
    ‘Cheers.’ Mariner flashed Anna an apologetic smile. So far, locking up Jamie Barham had been nothing more than a misunderstanding and he’d been hoping they could keep it that way. ‘Through here.’
    Moving swiftly on, Mariner led the way through a maze of brightly lit corridors until they reached a door, which he pushed open, standing back to allow her in.
    The room itself was empty but the entire width of one wall was panelled with glass and on the other side of it was Jamie Barham. Mariner immediately sensed Anna’s unease.
    Wearing only underpants and a single sock Jamie paced restlessly around the perimeter of the room, stopping now and then at some random spot to spread the fingers of both hands on the wall, laying his cheek in between, as if listening for something on the other side. The wild, agitated appearance his matted and spiky hair gave him was compounded by the deep graze on his forehead, which had streaked blood down one side of his face and on to his