Link to beginning of story:
@justephen/justin-time-chapter-1-an-original-novel
Link to Chapter 7: The Detective
/@justephen/justin-time-chapter-7-an-original-novel
Chapter 7 Review:
Blair has a dream that is identical to Justin's. Katherine and William feel overwhelmed and blessed that Justin has awoke from his coma. Katherine had another scientific break through by developing a serum that helps patients revive from a coma. Nurse Latresky helps clean up afterwards so that no one would suspect that Katherine illegally treated her own son. Kyle gets questioned from a detective.
Chapter 8: Madam Clearvision
Fortune teller Madam Clearvision turned over the Tarot Card and exclaimed, "Oh my! That is the fool."
“What does that mean Madam?", said sixty-four year old Elana who is a school teacher from Mansfield Elementary.
"Oh look at that. Our time is up. Time goes so fast. That will be $75.00 as usual. Shall we meet here again same time next week?”
"Here is your pay Madam.", said Elana as she handed over the check. “I can't wait to see you next week.", she said as she walked out the door.
"Oh welcome Mr. Hannity. I was expecting you.", said the Madam with enthusiasm.
"Hello Madam", said business man Mark Hannity walking inside her shop.
Mark Hannity was a get rich quick type of business man who had failed in one business venture after the other. Between the stock market and three risky business ventures he had blown all of his grandfather's inheritance. He was now hoping that Madam Clearvision would be his ticket.
"Please excuse me for one moment.", uttered Clearvision as she scrambled behind the curtain.
Madam Clearvision reached into her blouse and pulled out a slip of paper. She took a few minutes reading it and put it back into her blouse.
"Are you ready for our session Mr. Hannity? Please have a seat.", she said gesturing at the small table and chairs.
Sitting down, Mark Hannity said, "Last week you told me that you could help me become rich and I am paying you good money.
"I said I could help you see things clearly, but ultimately you are responsible for your own decisions. That being said, I had an incredible vision last night. These visions just come to me suddenly."
"What was it? What was it?", said the business man with optimism.
"Well it was...One second. Wait.", she shuttered as she started going into a trance. “I am seeing a liquid. Toxic. Flammable. I see letters. I see an F..No it is a P..wait..Does PPC mean anything to you?”
"No, but..."
"Pacific something", she interrupted. "Public offering...", she hesitated. "Now I see it...A growing company called Pacific Petroleum Consulting. It's a private business. This morning they made an agreement to hire billionaire Theodore Derringer as their new CEO. They will make a major announcement tomorrow morning of their new addition. Also, there will be a great stock purchasing opportunity as they will be having an Initial Public Offering IPO next Tuesday.", she whispered mysteriously.
"What else? Tell me more?", Mark said greedily.
"That is all I see.", she said as she regained her composure.
It had been a few weeks and Justin was finally home and laying on his bed. He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a piece of fabric. 'Where did this come from?', he thought.
At the same time downstairs, there was a knock on the front door.
"Oh hello Officer Quintez.", said Katherine.
"Hello Mrs. Time.", he said. I was wondering if this would be a good time for me to speak to Justin about the intruder from last year?"
"Oh sure, you can speak to Justin, but he has lost some of his short term memory from before the accident. He may not be able to help."
"Thank you."
"Let's go upstairs to his bedroom."
Katherine knocked on Justin's door and said, "Honey I have someone who wants to speak to you."
Justin said, "Okay."
As Katherine and Officer Quintez walked in, they saw Justin laying on the bed gazing at a piece of fabric in his hand.
"Hi Justin. Do you know who I am?"
"You are a policeman.", Justin said with excitement.
"That is right. Do you know why I am here?"
"No"
"Would you mind if I asked you some questions?"
"What kind of questions?"
"Do you remember the night that the intruder broke into your bedroom?" Justin looked towards his window that still had not been repaired.
"Um, my mommy was telling me a little about it, but I don't remember that much."
"Do you remember what he looked like?"
"No"
"Do you remember what he was wearing?"
"No"
"Do you remember how tall he was or what color his hair was?"
"No. No."
"What is that in your hand?"
"I am not sure. I found it in my pocket. I remember looking at it before, but I can't remember. Oh now I remember! I remember seeing it caught on my broken window."
"May I see it please.", said Quintez with renewed interest. "This looks like fabric from a sweater of some kind. Do you remember if the stranger said anything to you?"
"I don't remember."
"Justin, is it okay if I keep this fabric for a few days?"
"When will you give it back?"
"Hmm...to be safe let's say within a week. Also, when I visit, maybe you will remember more things."
"His memory is slowly coming back.", said Katherine, "The nearer the time was to his accident, the less he remembers."
"Understandable. Well thanks for speaking to me Justin. I will visit you in a few days or so."
After officer Quintez left, Katherine's cell phone rang. She looked down and noticed it was Kyle.
"Hi Kyle. Great to hear from you. How are doing?"
"Better than you.", he said.
"What Kyle?"
"I had a visitor recently. A Detective Armstrong I believe. He was asking very specific questions regarding the night it all happened." Kyle went over as much detail as he could remember and Katherine was obviously concerned.
"Oh boy. Well thanks for the heads up." She hung up and just stared into space.
As Mark Hannity turned on his TV the following morning, the morning news announced that Pacific Petroleum Consulting, a small private firm, had just hired as their new CEO, billionaire Theodore Derringer. Theodore Derringer proclaimed that he has big ideas for this new company and they will be going in a new direction. Mark Hannity noticed that there was no announcement however, of them going public. Mark went to his computer and wrote Pacific Petroleum Consulting in the search engine. As he browsed the website, he read that they were a company who specialized in advising Petroleum companies on anything from off shore platforms, petroleum product manufacturing to transportation and logistics.
Mark knew that just because of the name, Theodore Derringer, that petroleum companies will flock to them on their own accord. This company was going to double, triple or even grow ten fold in virtually no time. His problem was that he currently owned no stock in the company and when it goes to the public, everyone will want to buy it at the same time. The stock may rise 10 or so points before he actually gets in.
Then a thought occurred to him. He clicked the tab that read, 'About Us'. He browsed the different employees and their titles. Many of the employees have pictures by their names with a short description. He noticed one of the employees who looked like she was nearing retirement. She was with the company since its inception. Mable Lidcow was the name of the secretary of Phillip Harrington. Phillip Harrington was in charge of the Marketing Department. Mark Hannity had a thought so he picked up his phone and called.
"Thank you for calling PPC. Where may I direct your call?", said the receptionist.
"May I please have the marketing department?"
"Certainly. Please hold a moment."
"Marketing Department; Mable speaking."
"Good morning Mable. I was hoping you could help me. My name is Mark Hannity and I am writing an article. I understand that Billionaire Theodore Derringer has just joined your organization and..."
"Mr. Derringer is currently not excepting phone calls right now."
"Actually, he is not the person I wanted to speak to. My article is about people like yourself who are the backbone of a big company. It is people like yourself who make the Theodore Derringers of the world so successful. If you could spare a few moments either today or tomorrow, I would like to interview you."
"Interview me? I am flattered. Nobody ever wants to interview me.", she said with a southern drawl.
"Well its people like you, that make companies like Pacific Petroleum Consultants run.", he said knowing that she had taken the bate.
"Why thank you Mr...ah..What is your name again?"
"Hannity. Mark Hannity"
"Thank you Mr. Hannity. I should be available around noon time tomorrow as that is my lunch time."
They decided to meet at a local coffee shop. Mark was not exactly sure what he was going to say or do. He was in essence, 'winging it'. But, he certainly knew his objective and he had 'winged' things plenty of times in the past.
"Nurse Latresky, will you please see me in my office?", said Head Nurse Decantor.
When Connie Latresky entered Nurse Decantor's office, she also saw a man sitting there.
"Nurse Latresky?", he said.
"Yes"
"I am Detective Armstrong.", he said shaking her hand.
"Please to meet you detective."
"I was hoping you could answer some questions."
She first looked over to Nurse Decantor, who gave her an accusing look, and then she looked back at the detective.
"Certainly", she said.
"On Thursday July 30th around 11:00 pm, were you the nurse on duty?"
"Let's see." she thought.
"Let me help you.", he said. "It was the same night that a visitor, Kyle Lamberg, had a heart attack. It is also when your patient, Justin Time, had come out of a ten month coma."
"Yes.", she said. "That was my shift. What a crazy night that was."
"I am sure it was." he said disinterestedly. He continued, "Do you recall if Katherine Time, Justin's mother was there?"
"I was very busy that evening, but I do believe she was there. She visited him every day or evening."
"Did you notice her bringing anything different into her son's room?"
"No. I didn't. Like I said, I was very busy that evening."
"Do you remember what time she entered Justin's room?"
"I really don't."
"Okay. Thank you Nurse Latresky."
"You're welcome.", she said as she walked out the room.
"Nurse Decantor, you do have security cameras here, don't you?"
"Yes we do.", she said.
"Are there monitors that record patients daily?"
"What do you mean?", she asked.
"When your patients are hooked up to monitors such as heart rate, blood pressure etc.., are these machines recording them?", he inquired.
"Yes they do, however they automatically purge the history after 30 days.", she said.
"Damn it." he spluttered.
"Why?", she asked. It has been just over 30 days and I was hoping I would see something unusual on the record that may indicate an unusual reaction or something."
"Well", she said with a smile, "Our equipment is state of the art and it automatically saves to another file if the patients vitals are beyond the standard deviation. This is a much smaller file and if there are any red flags, we will see them quickly."
“Well that's convenient. May I please have those records for Justin?”
“Absolutely.”