The sun rose to find Jane still in the same chair. He had spent all night in a frozen, numb stupor, his mind finally having quieted down in the small hours of the night. He had tried to remember every minute detail about Lisbon, how she smiled, how she smelled, how her hair felt... He tried to imprint it all into his memory as he needed all the comfort it would bring while he was clinging to life.
He heard the door opening and small steps coming hesitantly towards him. The same maid from before carrying a tray came to his side.
"Please, sir. Eat something", the maid asked quietly. Jane didn't know why she would care, but he didn't have the energy to be mean so he smiled at her sadly while shaking his head.
"It doesn't matter any more, but thank you for offering", Jane answered to the bafflement of the maid. She lowered her gaze to his hands resting in his lap and came closer to put down the tray on the window sill. Now she was close enough to keep what she said from the guard who had followed into the room.
"I heard what the Lady had done to your wife. I'm so sorry", she whispered and turned away.
A fresh pain shot through Jane's heart. The maid had meant well and had mistaken his wedding band to mean that his wife had been killed. He lowered his head closing his eyes to hide his distress while the maid got the fire going on again with the guard standing at the door. How could she have known that the woman killed had never worn a matching band? Jane kept twisting the band on his finger over and over and over..
When she was done, the maid took a last look at the man, who was clearly heartbroken. She felt her gut twisting in empathy. She had been able to turn a blind eye to what her employers were dealing with as they had never brought any of it home, but to see herself in what kind of world they lived in and what they were willing to do to other people, ever so easily destroying others, she felt ashamed. She couldn't leave the place as she was paying her parents debt, but she felt so sorry for this man, how his life had been destroyed just because another man had had a stroke.
She was swallowing her tears when leaving the room. The guard noticed and gruffly said, "Don't worry your pretty head, he won't be around for much longer to bother you". She looked at him in horror while he locked the room.
XXX
The guard came to fetch him some time later. He was taken along old corridors through high, wooden doors to a bedroom, where an old man was sleeping on a bed, almost hidden away by all the covers, propped up with pillows. The old lady was standing next to him, looking frustrated and annoyed.
"The old fool didn't trust records and had to keep everything hidden in his own head. Then he had to go and have a stroke, which left him unable to communicate", she huffed and turned to Jane. She pointed at the old man and told Jane, "You will stay here and wait until he wakes up. The guards will notify me immediately and I will come to question him. You will tell me his answers".
Jane didn't make any sign that he had understood or accepted the task to the displeasure of the old woman. He did take a seat next to the man though, which seemed to calm the woman down a bit and she left leaving one guard to stand next to the door. Apparently they didn't trust him not to harm the man.
Jane looked at the sleeping man. How he wished he could sleep like that to shut away the world, but the world had a different idea and made him insomniac to make him relive all the horrors over and over again, never getting a moments rest.
The man didn't stir all day and Jane was taken back to his room for meals, although he didn't touch them. The old lady came to see them few times during the day and seemed to get increasingly agitated that neither of the men was co-operating with her demands. Finally at the dusk, Jane was escorted back to his room, where the maid was waiting again with the food. Jane tiredly smiled at her and waved the food away, taking a seat at his customary position at the window.
During the night he was summoned and the guard seemed to be particularly annoyed that Jane wasn't deep asleep in his bed. The old man was awake, but barely so. He didn't seemed to be aware that there was anyone in the room with him, he didn't focus on any one person and despite all the demands and shouts from the old woman, Jane could easily say that the man was so confused and disorientated that he couldn't read his mind. This left the woman seething and ordering him out of her sight. He hadn't planned on lying and prolonging his captivity, but he needed to protect his team. Lisbon's team.
Over the next few days, Jane stayed the days at the man's bed side and was also occasionally summoned during the night, but the old man was never lucid enough for "mind reading". This didn't please the old woman, but her threats didn't touch Jane any more, even when she threatened to get him killed if he didn't fulfil his duty. He didn't care what happened to him, even less than before, although somewhere in the back of his mind there was still a quiet voice that urged him to escape.
XXX
The maid was getting increasingly agitated and conflicted. She wanted to help the captive, but didn't know how. All her efforts here in the house were for nothing as the man wanted nothing, asked for nothing. She could only keep his room warm and to observe how he neglected himself. He didn't eat, he didn't sleep and he was still wearing the same clothes he was wearing when brought to the house.
The time came for the weekly grocery shopping and one of the guards drove her to the town as usual and then left her to it, while he went to a bar. She went through the shop on autopilot, picking items when she saw a police officer in a uniform with a young boy running around in the shop. She had an idea and quickly scribbled on the other side of her shopping list and waited until the boy was running towards her. She smiled at the boy and he stopped and smiled back shyly.
"Could you do me a favour?", she asked him seriously. The boy nodded hesitantly.
"I need a postman to deliver this letter to that police man over there", she said pointing at the boy's dad. He became excited and proudly told the maid that it was his dad. He promised to deliver the letter right there and then, but when the maid pointed out that letters were delivered to peoples home and she asked if he could wait patiently and give it to his dad when they were at home, like a real postman would do, the boy seriously promised to wait.
The maid handed the folded shopping list to him and watch him run away to his dad. She hastily gathered her missing items and went to pay for them. The guard was already waiting for her at the checkouts.
"Who was the kid?", he asked her suspiciously.
"Just some kid who liked running around. I love kids, don't you?", the maid gushed and the guard dropped the matter, annoyed at her. When they were driving away she saw the father and son leave the store, the note peeking out of the boy's pocket.
TBC
