Chapter 7
THURSDAY, 17:00
Marks shift was almost over, he couldn't wait to get home and talk to Steve. He couldn't remember what time he'd fallen asleep last night but he could still hear voices downstairs. Steve was up and out early in the morning and by now of course he'd have had another session with Dr Keller.
As Mark passed the admin desk Steve appeared from the elevator.
"Hey dad, Jesse and Amanda around?"
"Er, I think so, why, I mean is everything alright?"
"Fine dad, I've just got something to tell you, all of you"
THURSDAY, 17:26
Steve had eventually rounded the three doctors up in the lounge, he paced the floor waiting to start and they sat together like three wise monkeys on the couch looking apprehensive.
"I'm not crazy!" Steve beamed "and with or without your help, I'm going to prove it. Obviously with your help is going to be the easier of the two options but there you have it."
He then went on to explain the numerous holes he'd picked in 'Dougies' story, traps he's fallen into, inaccuracies which led Steve to believe that he'd never even served in the army. He added that in his opinion, Dougie and this guy must have met at some point and formed quite a close relationship. There were enough facts he had right to assure him of that. He added that he'd spent the whole day, including missing his session with Dr Keller, doing more research but wasn't progressing with much speed.
"So" he finished "the big question, show of hands people, who believes there is something in this?"
Jesse and Amanda shot uneasy looks at each other, Mark sat in the middle looking frustrated. Eventually Jesse nodded slowly, glanced at Amanda once more for guidance then tentatively waved his hand at Steve "I think if it's like you say then, there may be something to look at".
"Amanda?" Steve asked
She squirmed in her seat a little, then from embarrassment of friendship, he wasn't sure which replied "Yeah" in her best convincing voice "Yeah, I mean it sounds like there are some possibilities".
Ambiguous he thought, but never mind, two down, one to go.
"Dad?" he waited but there was no reply. Mark looked sternly at him "OK" Steve continued "Hands up if you think I am crazy, making this whole thing up". Eyebrows raised at Mark now, but there was still no reply.
"OK, I guess that's two for and one….what are you dad, undecided or just abstaining?".
Mark glared at his son now. "Are you sure?" he asked "I mean are you certain Steve? Because you aren't only jeopardising your own well being here, there is another man involved in this who didn't ask to be. I need to know that we'd be right to pursue this. I won't hound down an innocent man who is quite possibly already emotionally scarred enough to leave him in this state of confusion, delusion, what ever it may be."
"You said it dad, scarred, the first thing that put me onto him. It's the wrong leg dad, and that's because it's the wrong person. This person is living the life of JJ Douglas. But I swear dad, I promise you, he is not who he claims to be."
"In that case you have my full support" Mark answered trepidation still tingeing his voice.
Jesse grinned, he loved a mystery, playing detective with Mark and Steve. Amanda felt the knots in her stomach, she had no idea how Steve was going to deal with this. She was glad he was seeing Dr Keller now, it took so much strain from their friendship. Mark sat trying to convince himself that Steve was right about this. He had to be, the consequences otherwise were too terrible to contemplate.
TUESDAY, 17:45
The nightly round-kitchen-table meeting convened with Steve taking the floor. "Well, I pretty much exhausted the last speculative avenues today trying to work out if Dougie is still out there somewhere whilst this guy rips off his identity. No luck, not surprisingly. As with all the other channels I went through, the records show Dougie moving to California two years ago and have him living on the West Side of town."
Before anybody suggested the inevitable and obvious fact that maybe, given the evidence, the guy across town was Dougie, he continued, "But, as we know he isn't Dougie, it raises more than a few alarm bells. I mean he's not just using his name, he's using his life. Add to that his social security, military and disability benefits" he paused "It seems to me, that if Dougie were" he stopped again, didn't want to phrase it like that. "If you were missing out on all those cheques don't you think you'd notice? If you had a disability, needed medical attention maybe, don't you think there'd be a record of you?"
"It's a big jump Steve" his father interrupted "I mean I believed that it was possible that this man was an impostor, posing as Dougie, as you'd said, most probably an acquaintance given the accurate details he has about Dougies life. But what you are saying now? Fraud, and what else Steve?"
Mark knew fine well what Steve was thinking, but he hoped that in saying it out loud he'd realised how far fetched it was.
"I believe" he drew a sharp breath "I believe that in order to pull this off, to get away with it for so long, then this con-man must have met no resistance. There can't have been too many obstacles in his path, which leads me to believe that Dougie may be…" he couldn't finish.
"That's plausible" Amanda chipped in, to his obvious relief and shock. "It's not so uncommon, people assuming the identity of somebody who's, passed on" she said tactfully. "So it'd a damn hard thing to get going at first, but people get away with it for whole lifetimes. It wouldn't necessarily mean that our guy on the West Side had anything to do with Dougie passing away".
Mark didn't like the scolding look she'd shot him across the table. She was right, in theory, but reality was something different all together. "So where do we go now" he asked. The others looked a little shocked, Mark was so usually the leader of this group of merry men.
"Well", Steve began "we know they had to be in contact for a reasonable period of time, so what's the blinding fact which links them?" It was a rhetorical question, but Jesse didn't quite realise that.
"They're both from Texas!" he yelled, snapping his fingers.
Steve rolled his eyes "Is he really smart enough to be a doctor?" he asked Amanda, she grinned. "Well there is that Jesse" he mocked "though people have been know to fake accents. On the other hand amputating a limb to get into the role seems a little too enthusiastic".
Jesse looked embarrassed, "So our guy was injured, and was in hospital with Dougie right?"
"Wrong, well not totally right anyway" Steve replied, and Jesse slumped back in his chair. "Dougie was in a military facility when he came home. This joker seems so caught up in the idea of being a war hero, I can't see that he ever served in the armed forces. If he had done, then what would be his motive in taking over Dougies ID? My guess is that he a civilian. But Dougie was an out patient for about 8 months afterwards and would have mixed with civilians then".
"He could have been military" Mark said "but Dougie had no family, no past in a sense. He may have wanted a clean break."
"Possibly, but why not take the name and leave the personal details, wouldn't that be easier?"
"Maybe he did, only brought out the facts of Dougies life because that's who you thought he was. Covering his tracks, maybe he hadn't been quizzed on it in a long time, maybe ever, that's why he was rusty and you caught him out".
"Plausible" Steve nodded "I won't discount it but I have a strong feeling that he is a civilian, just some of the terms he uses, and the big hero thing, they don't sit right".
"OK, you'd know more about that than us" Mark conceded.
Steve looked confused. "What is it?" Amanda asked.
"Which do you think he is, stupid, arrogant or mentally ill?" Nobody answered. "You are living a lie, then a stranger turns up, starts quizzing you. What do you do?"
"Try and get rid of them" Jesse answered.
Steve nodded, "exactly, this guy had plenty of excuses, could have told me he didn't remember me"
"Would have aroused suspicions if you were truly an old dear friend" Amanda observed.
Steve agreed "OK, how about telling me he didn't want to talk? Who'd blame him, that would have worked right?" There was no reply. "Or even if he got cornered, why not let me do the talking? He could have just taken my lead"
"Like he did when he came here?" Mark added.
Steve nodded. "Yeah, but even then, he elaborated so much, left himself wide open to making a mistake. That's what makes me wonder about what's going on in his brain. I mean he came here looking for me second time, wanting to chat. He's either arrogant enough to think he can get away with it, or he's just not that bright."
"Or mentally ill?" Jesse asked
"You were his doctor, you tell us".
"Not mentally ill, drunk as hell when he came in, but nothing in his record, nothing that I spotted".
"OK, that narrows it down at least" Steve tried to sound optimistic. He caught Marks frown across the table "I know" he conceded "A lot of speculation, not much evidence. Why do you think I got you guys on board?"
THURSDAY, 15:00
"What is it dad?" Steve demanded breathlessly as he strode into Amanda's pathology lab, completely ignoring his friend as she sat at her desk. "You got something? Some news?"
"How was your meeting with Dr Keller?" Mark asked
"You called me over to ask me that?"
"No, not specifically but I figured I'd ask anyway".
Steve tutted. "It was fine, now what have you got?"
"Not me, Amanda", he nodded towards her, and Steve turned to give her his full attention.
"So?" his manner was rather abrupt but Amanda didn't comment.
"So" she began politely. "I had a bit of time this morning to go over the details Jesse dragged up yesterday. Took all the patients whose re-hab at the University Hospital could have coincided with Dougies 8 months as an out patient and basically started a mass cull".
"Using what criteria?" Steve asked
"I started with the most obvious"
"Not accent" he quipped
"No, amputees only, one right leg and two arms needed to make it past the first cut. No degenerative diseases as we know first hand that the condition is authentic and trauma related. Then I went on race, but most of the names related to Caucasian males so it didn't narrow it down much. So I tried age, I know it's a bit of a judgement call, but this guy is passing himself off as Dougie he has to be in the same approximate age range. I went with five years either way."
"Good" Steve nodded "what did you come up with".
She grimaced "how does 43 possibles sound?"
"43 amputees!" Steve sank down into the chair opposite the desk and Mark placed his hand on his shoulder.
"The University had a huge catchment area, were offering some excellent new forms of therapy at the time". There was a pause "Then" Amanda started again, almost mischievously "I got a bit more basic. I doubt this guy is using two identities at once, so he probably ditched the old one in favour of the new one".
"What did you do?"
"Made a general search, phone books of the Houston and Shepherd area".
"Lived in Shepherd, treated in Houston, makes sense".
"I managed to account for over half the names on the list. Got it down to 19 to be precise. So you figure a half a dozen may have moved out of the area, that's conservative enough, brings you down to 13, all of a sudden the list isn't looking so long".
"Yeah, except I have to find those half a dozen and eliminate them, then get rid of 12 others!" He tried not to sound ungrateful, he'd been rushed off his feet at work the last day and a half, if it wasn't for Jesse's ground work and Amandas analysis, he's be no further forward.
"I don't want to play devil's advocate" Mark began "but the first criteria, one leg and two arms, well maybe this guy had the amputation later on, after he met Dougie"
"Please dad, don't. This is already hard enough, it's too much of a coincidence. Let's take this as far as we can first, then I'll be ready to believe it's a huge quirk of fate". He thought for a while "19 you say, can I have a look". Steve glanced up and down the list of names Amanda had scrawled on a piece of paper. He didn't know what he was looking for, inspiration he supposed. "Hold on" he nodded his head knowingly "A certain criteria you overlooked". Amanda looked puzzled. "What put most of these guys in re-hab?" he asked
"The war" Mark answered solemnly from behind him.
"And if this guy was a veteran already, he had little to gain by assuming Doguies ID. Don't suppose any of these 19 were civilians? Maybe an Auto-wreck, medical reason like an infection or tumour. Anything basically that says they weren't injured in the line of duty".
"I don't have full medical histories Steve, just the basic reason for needing re-hab, but I do have occupation listed with the names, date of births and the such like." She quickly cross-matched the list, eyes darting between the sheet of names she'd shown Steve and the papers on her desk. He tried to count the amount of times her pen flicked across the page, eliminating the military personnel. "Well if you are right" she began "this just got very interesting".
Steve gazed intently as she turned the sheet to face him; only four names remained.