Red Herring

RED HERRING

A Novel

Image courtesy of Victor Habbick at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of Gualberto107 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Copyright © 2013 Alasdair Gilchrist

RED HERRING

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 1

The car smashed through the flimsy fence and hit the water at sixty miles per hour the force of impact no less that if they had collided head on with a stonewall. Stunned, befuddled and separated from their senses the driver and passenger tried to take stock of their plight. Saved by their seatbelts from real permanent physical damage that a trip through the windscreen would have certainly entailed but not from the mental and physiological trauma of such sudden deceleration they were barely conscious. The inward rushing freezing water soon changed that though, and they now scrambled in panic as they felt the car fill with water and start to sink. The driver fumbled with his seatbelt but in his panic and alarm his wet hands and clumsy fingers betrayed him, and he tugged and pulled at the belt with frantic force, which only further tightened the belt around his waist. He struggled desperately against his restraint as the water rose up passed his knees and as the car tilted forward a huge rush of surge water filled the car and it plunged below the surface. The freezing water blinded him and in his panic, he tried to open the door, but the pressure had not yet equalized and he could not force the door open. His hands fumbled across the manual window winder and he somehow found the wit to lower the window. The car sunk deeper into the canal, deeper into the blackness as he wriggled like a fish on a hook to free himself from the belt that pinned him to his seat. He felt pressure against his bursting burning chest and his screaming mind recognised hands groping around his waist, searching and pulling at the buckles. Then he was free, just like that, he felt his body lift as he found release from the belts deathly grip and he pushed open the door and kicked wildly for the surface. He broke surface gasping and gulping in the cold night air as he kicked and whirled his arms in a desperate frenzy, as he made for the safety of the bank. He was lucky he did not have to go far, which was as well, but there was also no shallow, the canal had only steep sides but there were wire mesh restraints to prevent erosion, so he clung to them with a tenacious grip. Shocked and frightened he thought to scramble up the wire mesh but his fingers were reluctant to let go of their grip whilst he was still up to his neck in the water, so he abandoned the idea and instead shouted for help. He shouted and shouted in turn frantic, energetic and forceful but occasionally weakly and pitifully as it dawned on him the enormity of the situation. The car he had stolen and he was drunk they must not find him here, not the police, and they would surely come. With that new revelation and priority filling his mind, he found the strength and courage to scramble up the wire mesh up out of the water and onto the bank of the canal. He looked back, only once at the dark water, and shouted out the girls name, but he got no answer, but she must have got out as she had saved him. He scanned again over the dark water that had enveloped the car but it was too dark to see, too dark to think, she must have got out, she must have made it to the bank then ran, that was the smart thing to do, so he did too.

***

The phones irritating musical call tone cut through Investigator Deng’s sleep with a surgeon’s precision and rendered him conscious and wide eyed with one clear burst of the infernal melody. He fumbled under the pillow for the object of his irritation and pressed the answer button, whilst he slumped back again staring up at the early morning shadows that played about on the ceiling.

Deng, I’m glad you’re awake, Senior Investigator Bee chuckled, I have a job for you … something to keep you in touch and maybe earn you some much needed points with the Police Corruption Tribunal.

Oh thanks that is a cheery thought first thing in the morning. Anything else you would like to add to totally mess up my day?

Well that depends on what you think of my suggestion, or rather my request for your off duty assistance.

Okay well let’s hear it then.

I have a foreigner I would like you to make acquaintances with, he is an interesting case and one I think that you will find fascinating going by your recent interest in the workings of the criminal mind.

Hmm, Okay so what’s he done?

Well he has been sent down to us from Udon Thani, seems he is suffering from amnesia, can’t remember a thing, maybe a bump on the head or something, or more likely knowing these foreigners a bout of drug induced psychosis.

He can’t remember anything, what nothing at all … shouldn’t he be seeing a shrink.

No we want to keep this unofficial at the moment; it’s a personal request from a friend of mine at the British Consulate, as he is one of their nationals. You see his last memories are that he went out of his hotel in Bangkok, Silom actually; the Dusit Thani, for a walk or to buy a newspaper or something and that is it. He left his wife and daughter in the hotel and he never returned. The problem is that was over three months ago, but he thinks it was only hours ago, so he is naturally a bit disorientated. His family and off course the consulate have been searching for him for months. His family has since returned to England but they never gave up the search, they had PI’s looking for him, but they couldn’t trace him,

So sounds like a happy ending then, so what do you want me to do … mess it all up?

No, I want you to find out where he has been for three months … how he has lived and where … and why he was found bewildered and confused in a Thai style room in Udon Thani, what was he doing there.

What does it matter … he is safe now …

Eh, not quite … you see the Udon Thani police found him when they went to investigate a particularly noisy disturbance at that residence ….

Ah so he wasn’t living alone then, he has a girlfriend?

Eh no, well maybe … you see when the police arrived they found him in a state of shock and her … well she had fallen from the balcony.

Oh no … how high?

Sixth floor … no chance I’m afraid.

She jumped?

That’s what I want you to find out. Neither we, nor Udon can get a word of sense out of the man, but we have no reason to suspect that she didn’t jump … but it would be nice to get it in his words.

Where is he just now?

He is in the psychiatric ward at the Correctional Hospital in Bang Kwan, your old accommodation, you will get the chance to say hello to the staff, and it will be just like the old days.

You have a very wicked sense of humour Bee.

Oh yes … so I am told, and in so many ways. So will you come in and talk to him for me?

Sure why not, you’ve got me curious.

***

Deng strolled along the hospital corridor checking each of the labels on the office doors as he passed, until he found the office of Dr Luke Nantakarn. He double-checked the spelling of the doctor’s name before he knocked lightly on the frosted glass panel on the door. A voice beckoned him to enter, it was mild but carried authority, Deng recognised the voice.

Ah Deng glad to see you again … How are you doing, I trust you are well.

Yes I am doing fine … even working, but just not officially, just in a private capacity.

And no alcohol I trust.

No, none whatsoever I don’t know what you gave me but I feel queasy at the thought of drinking.

Good, long may that continue then … he scoffed but Deng wasn’t laughing or smiling, I take it this isn’t a social visit, so what can I do to help you?

Yeah well you have in your care a foreigner an Englishman by the name of, oh hang on Deng rustled about in his pocket and withdrew a slip of paper, James Cartwright.

Yes I have, an interesting character, we are very fortunate to have him you know I have waited a long time for such an opportunity to study his particular psychological phenomena.

Why what’s wrong with him I heard it was amnesia, what’s so special about that?

Ah well Deng I suspect in this case the amnesia is dissociative Fugue, a rarely occurring phenomena.

Sounds like some disease a tree would get.

No, this is something special, if it is indeed the case and he is not just some malingerer. You see he has all the classic symptoms, flight, a total loss of memory of the fugue episode, and I believe he successfully functioned and came up with an alternative identity during that time. I am quite excited by it.

I can see that … but what does it mean?

It means that he suddenly for reasons we have yet to establish took flight to another city hundreds of miles away and made a new identity and life for himself. A new existence of which now he has no memory, just as, when he was in Udon living under his new alias he would have had no memory of his previous or real identity.

And this is rare? I used to have something similar to that every weekend.

"It is considered very rare, but I am personally doubtful, you see it normally occurs briefly for several hours or more … unaccountable travel and lost time … those are the symptoms, or the indicators to the sufferer that something is amiss. It might cause mild anxiety, but not much more due to the short duration of the experience.