Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 12:13:20 +0100
From: Rick Masters <succum@gmx.com>
Subject: Juvenile Detention 14

JUVENILE DETENTION

Chapter 14 – The Start of the Aftermath

True to his word, as Josh came round from his anaesthetic in the recovery
room he saw Officer Steven sitting in a chair next to his bed reading a
magazine. Josh was not yet able to say anything, but something attracted
Steven's attention and he looked up from the magazine to see Josh's eyes
open. He also saw the confusion coming round from an anaesthetic can cause.

"Hello, Josh. Glad to see you are awake, but I suspect not much is making
sense yet. I will leave you to rest for a bit longer. I'll be here if you
need me," Steven told Josh. He watched as Josh tried to speak but then his
eyes rolled back into his head and he fell asleep again. Steven returned to
reading the magazine.

Josh slept for another couple of hours before opening his eyes again. This
time he was able to ask for some water and Steven quickly got it for him
and helped him to drink. Once he had sipped some water he lay back and
smiled at Steven. "Thank you, Officer Steven. You are better than my father
and mother put together." Steven watched as a tear slipped from Josh's eye
and almost shed one himself. He knew what he would like to say and do to
Josh's parents and could not believe that one like Josh could come from
such uncaring parents.

The ward sister came in and seeing Josh awake came over to check how he was
doing. After checking his temperature and pulse rate she went away and a
few minutes later a doctor came in.

"You are a very lucky young man, Mr. Tolmers. The damage was nowhere near
as bad as it could have been and we believe that we have managed to clean
the wound thoroughly, so with the medication there is little risk of major
infection. We have sewn the muscle together and with some physio once it
has healed you should not suffer any long term problems with it. But while
the muscle knits together again we have to stop you stretching and pulling
or pushing it so we have immobilized your arm with a plaster cast. And
being the good doctors we are here we have left a window in the plaster to
let us see and check that the wound is healing properly." Turning to Steven
he said, "You can arrange to take him back, but keep him in the infirmary
under observation for forty eight hours. Anything untoward happening get
him back to us or at least phone us to check."

"Thank you, doctor. Do we need to get any medication for him?" Steven
inquired.

"Some antibiotics and more painkillers have already been ordered for him
and will be delivered here shortly. You can begin the discharge process,
and by the time you have finished the meds should be here. What's with this
one, though? He is not like the others you have brought in to see us. I
notice you haven't even cuffed him to the bed."

"You are right. He is not like any of the others, and we believe this most
probably is because he should not even be a guest with us. Even though he
knows he has been treated totally unjustly, he will not try to escape,
because that would make problems for us officers, and he is not holding us
to blame for his predicament. But he is a determined young man, and I
believe those who are responsible for his not getting a fair trial are in
for a rough time when he gets out and starts his own proceedings against
them. And now with this there is going to be some stiff compensation awards
given to him, and I will help him to get them as far as I am able. Oh, and
I would appreciate it if you kept the lack of cuffs to yourself,
please. That was my own decision."

It took another couple of hours before all the discharge paperwork had been
done and the medications had been brought up from the pharmacy. Officer
Steven helped Josh to get his overalls back on and tied the sleeves around
his waist like a belt. He eased Josh into a wheel chair and off they
went. They got out the door to the hospital and Steven got his mobile phone
out, but before he could make a call an academy car pulled up and
Mr. Succum got out. The officers carefully helped Josh to get into the back
seat of the car and then they got in the front and the three of them headed
back to the center.

"Craven has about blown his stack on this. He has put the whole of Charlie
into lock down with six chaps in solitary. You are heading up the
investigation and are to get all the support we can give you. Craven wants
a thorough investigation done quickly and wants to know every detail, so
make a lot of notes. Include in those notes your own thoughts on Tolmers
innocence. Also get the opinions of all officers who have come into contact
with him. I would suggest you ask for written statements from each one. I
feel partially responsible for this and you will have my report when you
get in to work tomorrow. We also have Tolmers cell mates and the other
Bravo boys who piled in to help him in solitary, just to make sure that
there is no conniving on stories from any side. That way we can keep things
fair and above board. When I heard the news I came in to work early so that
I could be sure to see all of my guys on the day shift before they went
off. I have also seen my guys on night shift and you will receive full
co-operation from them, and I am sure the inmates in Bravo block will
co-operate. I haven't threatened them but they will know what is good for
them.  I had to do one of these things several years ago and made a few
mistakes along the way because I did not get a plan together first. If you
want my help you have got it, but my suggestion is for you to go home
tonight and sleep on it. Spend tomorrow morning making your plan, and then
start executing that plan as soon as you have it ready. If you want me to
stay on an hour or two to help with the plan just say so. And it won't hurt
those guys in solitary to stew for a few more hours while you get your plan
sorted," Succum advised Steven.

"Thank you. I really appreciate that and will value any advice you want to
offer. Help with the plan would be great, because this is one thing I do
not want to mess up on. This poor kid has been dealt a bitter blow and yet
he still tries to be respectful and thoughtful towards the likes of us, who
he could see as perpetuating the injustice."

"Right, we will talk some more tomorrow."

Steven half turned in his seat to look into the back and began, "Josh, are
you alright ...," but then stopped his question as he noticed that Josh had
fallen asleep again.

Back at the center Succum and Steven helped Josh to walk from the prisoner
reception to the infirmary, where the medic on night shift took over and
got Josh out of his overalls and into a bed. Steven handed over the
antibiotics and pain killers and then had to leave straightaway, as he had
been buzzed to go and see the Director of the Academy, Chief Craven.

Craven was already late for another appointment, but he took the time to
apprise Steven fully on what he expected from the investigation. Steven in
turn gave his assurance that he would do his best to produce a fair and
just investigation with as much evidence as he could gather to identify the
offenders beyond question. Satisfied that Steven knew his responsibilities,
the director dismissed him and left himself to get to his next appointment.

Steven went back to the infirmary to check on Josh. Finding him asleep,
with the medic sitting at his station, he had a bit of a chat with the
medic and then left to go home and let his wife know why he was so late and
to explain that he was going to go in to work early the next day to begin
the work of the investigation. Steven knew his wife would be understanding
about it, as she had already expressed sympathy for the injustice Steven
believed Josh was suffering and had in her own way encouraged Steven to see
what he could do to help the boy.

So it was with his wife's blessing that the next day Steven reported to
work two hours before his shift was due to start. After logging his arrival
and a quick visit to check on Josh he headed straight to Mr. Succum and the
two of them sat down together over a few cups of coffee to work out the
basics of the plan Steven needed to follow to make a good
investigation. With the basic plan laid out and some extra bits of advice
from Succum, Steven returned to his own office and began to put the meat
onto the plan. Once the plan was ready to his satisfaction, Steven began by
sending an internal email to all the Academy officers, from Chief Craven
down to the last, asking each one to identify if they had witnessed
anything to do with the incident and to list all other officers and inmates
they knew who were present and might have witnessed something. And finally
he invited the officers to give their own opinions on the characters of any
of the individuals they believed were directly involved in the incident
with a final request that those who were not present or involved in any way
still respond to his mail, excusing themselves and giving the reasons why
they believed they could not be of any help in the investigation. He
followed this with a second email to Chief Craven presenting his plan for
the investigation. As he pinged this off, he received an email from Craven
in which he said he was glad to see that Steven was getting down to it
right away and also telling Steven that he had been relieved of all his
other duties so that he could concentrate on the investigation. This was
not news to Steven because his line manager had already told him that
bit. A new trainee officer had also been put at Steven's disposal to be a
witness and note taker. Steven made her his next port of call.

Knocking lightly on the door to her line manager's office, Steven got
invited in. "Morning, Sheila. I presume you are already aware of our
incident yesterday in the veggie patch and that Chief Craven has appointed
me to investigate it?"

"Oh yes. I have had Craven on the phone to me already this morning to
advise me that you are going to relieve me of one of my officers for the
duration of the investigation. She might be a trainee and she might be
young but she is a bright girl and a very good typist, so you will get your
notes done properly. From the way Craven spoke I am assuming your reason
for this visit is to meet Gladys and take her off my hands for a bit. Just
mind you keep your hands off her." Officer Sheila smiled as she said that
last part, because she knew that there were a number of officers in the
Academy who were interested in getting to know Officer Gladys much
better. "Have a coffee with me. She is just doing the inspection of the
cells while the girls are still in their classes, and then she knows to
report directly to me. She does not yet know that she is going to be your
secretary for a while, though, and I would like to be the one to tell her."

"Not a problem for me. It is better that the news of this sort of
secondment comes from her immediate manager anyway. Oh and mine is with
milk and two sugars." Officer Steven had a good rapport with most of the
other officers, for although he had been there longer than most of them, he
never used that as any form of leverage or intimidation. If anything he
tried to help those officers he could to better themselves, even at the
risk that they might rise above him in promotions.  Such was the case with
Mr. Succum, who came in under Steven in the admissions side of the Academy
before he got to move on to be a cell block officer-in-charge, which put
his ranking one level higher than Steven's.

When Gladys returned to the office, Steven stood and introduced
himself. The two had met before but only fleetingly. Since Steven was
mainly involved in the admissions and inductions of male inmates, their
paths had hardly crossed since Gladys had started some four months
previously. Sheila then told Gladys that Steven was heading up the
investigation into the incident the day before and because Gladys was not
involved in any way she had been chosen to be Steven's assistant and would
be expected to give her whole time at work to the investigation.

"When the investigation is completed will I be coming back to Alpha?"
Gladys asked.

"They will have a bloody great fight on their hands if they try to move you
elsewhere!" Sheila assured her which caused Gladys to blush slightly. "But
this experience will be good for you and your progression so go at with the
same enthusiasm I have seen you putting in here at Alpha."

"Well, Gladys, you come highly recommended. Now let's move back to my
office, which will be our working base, and I will fill you in on what is
already known and how we are going to proceed." Steven led Gladys back to
his office and showed her the plan he had fleshed out. He then discussed
with her the role he expected from her, including the importance of her
discretion on all matters that were spoken about in the investigation.

Gladys in turn said that she was honoured to have been chosen for the role
and hoped that she proved to be worthy of it. "By the way, how do you
prefer to be addressed and referred to?"

"When it is just the two of us, Steven will do fine but in front of inmates
I would like to be addressed and referred to as Officer Steven. How about
you?"

"The same. You have already started off with Gladys but in front of the
inmates Officer Gladys works well."

"Good. One other thing: when we are questioning others, if you don't agree
with something I do or say you are to keep quiet until we are apart from
those we are questioning and then you can raise your concerns, and I will
observe the same for you. We don't want those we are trying get information
out of thinking there is dissention in the ranks that they might be able to
exploit."

"I agree with that too. However that implies that I might be doing some of
the questioning. I thought I was just going to be recording what is said."

"For the most part that is correct, but you have a different background to
me and being of the opposite gender you think differently from me and might
think of something to ask or how to put it in a different way that will get
us more accurate answers, in which case I would be happy with your input.
Now unless you have some of that intuition to discuss shall we go and see
how our victim is doing and see what questions he can answer for us?"



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Thanks

Rick