Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2015 06:31:28 +0100 From: Rick Masters Subject: Juvenile Detention 15 JUVENILE DETENTION Chapter 15 – The Investigation Steven and Gladys made their way to the infirmary and its sole occupant. Stopping off at the medic's station, Steven inquired how Josh was doing. "He is a strong willed guy and is doing well, considering, but I don't understand that boy. These guys have been brutal with him and just about took out his manhood as well, judging by the bruising that has come out, and he doesn't seem to be holding any malice towards them," the medic responded. "Maybe that is because he is not the run of the mill inmate we usually get in here. And maybe that is just why he got done like this. You will have seen my email about your personal position in this incident. I would like you to send me an initial report as you were the medic that first attended him. And then when he gets discharged from the infirmary send me another report on your opinions on his character. I am not going to tell you anything more because I don't want to sway your opinion in any way," Steven told the medic. "Now is it okay for us to go and see him?" "I have to administer his medication now, so let me come with you and give that to him and then I will leave you with him. At least you don't need any back up waiting in case he attacks you." The medic got Josh's medication ready and the three officers went together to Josh's bedside in the next room. Josh was swaying his plastered arm around trying to get a look through the gaps to see what his wound looked like but he was having difficulty getting it at an angle for him to see properly. "Afternoon, Mr. Tolmers. How are you feeling now?" Steven asked. Josh lowered his arm. "Hi, Officer Steven. I'm doing okay, thank you. It is still quite sore and it is a pain I can't see it properly, but I will live." "Time for your next lot of meds, Mr. Tolmers. Do you want help sitting up?" the medic asked. "I think it is easier to sit up than it is to get back down again." Josh pushed himself up using his uninjured arm and took the pills from the medic and put them in his mouth before using the same hand to take the cup of water the medic was now holding out to him to swallow the pills down with. Once he had taken the pills, the medic put the cup back on his bedside locker and helped him to lie back down against a bank of pillows that had clearly come from the other beds in the infirmary. "Right, I will leave you now, but any problems give me a shout and I will come through." The medic took his leave of the group. "Mr. Tolmers, this lovely lady here is Officer Gladys and she has been assigned to me to help with the investigation. Anything you say to me you can say to Officer Gladys too, as she will see it all when she types up the reports anyway." "Okay. Hi, Officer Gladys." "Hello, Mr. Tolmers. I hope you recover quickly and well," Gladys said. Already her heart was warming to this young man, who had a certain level of charm about him. "Right. Mr. Tolmers, we are here in our official capacity to investigate the incident that led to your injury and not just to enquire as to your health. I know we talked a bit in the hospital, but I would like you to run through the events, including what was said to you as far as you can remember, please," Steven told Josh. Josh started off explaining they had been sent out to the gardens to tend the vegetables and he had been assigned to work on a bed with a guy from the Charlie Cell Block. He went on to quote the words of the guy and said that he still did not know the guy's name. Josh described how he went over to the manure pile and was set upon before he got to it and being thrown to the ground with his overalls pulled down. At that point Gladys interrupted. "Overalls, but I thought this was only your second full day at the Academy?" "Mr. Tolmers broke all records and was awarded his overalls less than twenty four hours after admittance here," Steven explained. "Wow, impressive! Sorry to have interrupted, please go on." Josh continued his narrative, breaking into a sweat as he described the fork being driven through his arm and then having another guy tread on his package. "If it hadn't been for Andy I might be a eunuch now." Josh finished his story as he described the rescue by Chris and Andy and a few others from his cell block. "You have mentioned a Chris and an Andy but no others by name. Why is this?" Gladys asked. "Chris Jones and Andy Seymour are in the same cell as me. I don't know the names of any of the others. I have not been here long enough to get to know them yet." "Thank you, Mr. Tolmers. If you think of anything else, please just ask the medic to let us know and we will come back to see you," Steven told Josh. "Okay, and thank you for looking after me while I was at the hospital." Then a grin spread across Josh's face. "Officer Steven, you haven't answered that question I asked you at the hospital just before they took me for the surgery." "I know, and I will come back to see you later to answer that question as it has no bearing on this investigation and I don't want to waste Officer Gladys' time," Steven said, wagging a pointed finger at Josh. They left the ward and Steven suggested that they had time to get in a couple more interviews with the guys in solitary, saying they should first speak to the ones who helped, so that they could be released from solitary. As they were walking to the solitary confinement cell block, Gladys commented that she could see that there was something different about Josh and was beginning to understand why some of the officers that she had spoken with had been so complimentary about him. "I hope our investigation proves his innocence in all this." "I have no doubts to his innocence. What concerns me is that we might not find sufficient factual and provable evidence to show that beyond doubt," Steve said. "We will do our best and that is all we can do. What was that closing bit about a question at the hospital?" "Josh asked me a personal question but we did not have time for me to answer it before they took him off for his surgery and there has not been the opportunity since. I think he knows what my answer will be and he was teasing me by asking me in front of a third person." "I think I already know what the question is but I am not sure of the answer. When we get back to the office I will write down what I think the question is and seal it in an envelope. Then when I think I know what your answer is I will do the same with that. When the investigation is over you can open the two envelopes and tell me how good I am at working things out." Gladys laughed a little at the end. "Somehow, I think I might be the one to come out of this second best, but okay, you're on." They entered the solitary wing and approached the officer in charge, explaining their reason to be there and what they needed. The OIC took them to the interrogation room and asked who they wanted to see first. Steven said they wanted to see Andy first. The OIC left them and a few minutes later the sound of clinking chains heralded the arrival of Andy. Andy was led in and the chain between his ankle fetters was fixed to an eye in the floor so that while he could move a bit he could not get close to the officers to attack them. As is the norm for all inmates in solitary Andy was naked and he was also cuffed with his hands behind his back. Steven introduced Gladys, explaining they were running the investigation and asked Andy to tell them in his own words what had happened the day before. "How is Josh? They won't tell us anything here," Andy asked looking directly at Steven. "He is doing as well as can be expected but should make a full recovery. Now, please, your version of the incident," Steven told him. Andy started, "I think we need to go back a bit more than just the incident to understand some things. As you know Officer Steven, Josh was placed into the same cell as Chris and me." "Sorry," Gladys interrupted, "For the record we can't just use a single Christian name to identify others. I am going to take it by `Josh' you mean Mr. Tolmers and by `Chris' you mean Mr. Jones. Going forward could you please make it more definite which person you are referring to by giving both their first name and their surname? Thank you, please carry on." "Like I said, Josh Tolmers was placed in the same cell as Chris Jones and myself. Right from the start we knew he was different. The poor guy has no street savvy at all. How they ever thought he was guilty of anything I don't know. Anyway, that first night he had a long conversation with Mr. Succum when he did his night rounds because of course Josh er .. Tolmers was still awake. The next day he was ordered to report to the desk after lunch. We thought that Mr. Succum had decided to punish him for talking in a silence and sent him to the cooler so we were quite surprised when he walked in with his overalls on. I knew there would be some jealousy but did not expect it to happen the way it did. We were sent to work the vegetable garden with Charlie block and when Mr. Tolmers was placed with that Phelps bastard ..." "Language, Mr. Seymour. There is a lady present. And can you give us more of a name than just Phelps?" Steven interrupted. "Sorry, Officer Gladys. I don't know his first name. I only know him as Phelps. He is the king pin in Charlie block. I was suspicious then that something might happen but not did not expect it quite so quick. Chris Jones and I were assigned to work the carrot beds as they needed thinning, but I kept an eye on Mr. Tolmers, er ... that is Josh Tolmers also. I saw him heading towards the manure, clearly to get a bucket of the stuff, but then looked down to make sure I was thinning out the weaker plants. Chris Jones then said something about how they had got Josh Tolmers. I looked up to see him hitting the ground as they pulled him down and immediately set off at a run to help him, shouting to Chris and a couple of the other guys from our block to come and help. As I got there I saw that McDonald, I don't know his other names, had his foot on Josh's balls, so I tackled him and we both fell into the pile of horse shit. Then as I struggled with McDonald I saw officers running up and heard the call for a medic. I thought it was for his balls. Only afterwards did Chris Jones tell me about the injury with the fork. I was grabbed by some officers and marched off to be placed here in solitary and have not heard or seen anything more." "Do you have any idea why these others should do something like that to Mr. Tolmers? What had he done to provoke such an attack?" Steven asked. "Officer Steven, you know that Charlie block is always lagging behind the rest of us, including the girls in Alpha. I think that Josh Tolmers getting his overalls that quickly made them really jealous, because no one in Charlie has ever managed to get them in less than a full week. So they read into that that Josh Tolmers had bribed his way into overalls that quickly by giving favours to the staff." "Mr. Seymour, I know you have not had a lot of time with Mr. Tolmers, but can you give us your opinion of his character from your own view point for the record, please." "Sure. Josh Tolmers is a different sort of guy who has been sent to this place in error. If he is guilty of anything it is kindness and consideration. He is far more intelligent than any of the rest of us and is determined and disciplined. He has told us that he is going to get some justice when he gets out, but that he is not going to break any law to do it. Which other inmate would even think like that, let alone make a decision to get justice instead of revenge? Which other inmate would let himself get treated the way he has been since he got here if he thought he was innocent, just to make sure that no extra time could be added to his sentence? And even though he has been treated this way, he still has a sense of humour, and I know that when he leaves us I am going to miss having him around." "Thank you, Mr. Seymour. Officer Gladys, have you got anything you want to ask?" "Mr. Seymour why did you go to Mr. Tolmers' aid in that way when you knew it would most likely put you in the cooler for a spell? Why did you not just alert the guards to the trouble and keep your nose clean?" Officer Gladys asked. "There was no time to think through that sort of strategy. When we saw there was a group of guys picking on him we knew that there was no time to waste and what little I have learnt since proves that. Also, like I said before, Josh Tolmers has no street savvy and those guys already had the advantage on him. But mostly, it is because I believe that he would do the same thing for me without blinking an eye. And if I spend some time in here, for me it is still worth it to know that I went to his aid." "Thank you, Mr. Seymour. If you have anything more you want to add that you think will help us in our investigation, tell the guard and he will get word to me that you want to see us," Steven told Andy as he moved to the door and called for the officer who was in charge of the solitary block to come and take Andy back to his cell and to bring Chris to them next. Chris told almost the same story as Andy had and was able to give a few more names of guys from Charlie block who had been directly involved in the attack. He was also able to add some details of what happened once Andy and McDonald had ended up in the pile of manure. Officer Gladys put the same question to him as she had put Andy and got a very similar answer. "You can't have met him yet then. He is the kind of guy that is so naïve about the things all of us inmates are clued up on that without help he would drown in the world of gangs and criminals. But more than that, he is a friend. Yes, I have not known him long enough to know him, but I already can tell I want his friendship and want to give him mine."