Page 2 of The Perfect Son

I watch her talk to the nurse with the cherry red–dyed hair at the end of the ward. They both turn to stare and then Shelley is gone. Don’t let her go, I want to scream. Jamie isn’t missing. Shelley has him. I’m not sure which is worse.

Where are you, Mark? Jamie needs us.

The nurse bustles toward me. A voice from another bed calls out and she tells them “Just a minute” before reaching me and unhooking my chart from the end of the bed. She makes a note. About what? What did Shelley tell her? What is she writing down? I want to ask, but the pain is crippling me and I can feel the scream building.

A machine is beeping somewhere. Each piercing screech of noise is a screwdriver jamming into my skull.

“That’s a good friend you’ve got there,” she says in a strong Dublin accent.

She isn’t my friend. She never was.

“My son—” I can’t speak the final words.

“I’ll get your next dose of pain medication,” the nurse says, slotting my chart back into place. I desperately want to snatch it up and read her comments, but I don’t. I can’t. Everything hurts.

Only after the next dose has been pumped into my body and I’m sliding down down down into the murky depths of unconsciousness do I hear Shelley’s voice.

“You’re safe here.”

Am I? Safe from whom? Where’s Jamie?

My thoughts, like the pain now, are fuzzy, and I cling to what I know.

ONE—I’m in the hospital.

I try to remember the rest, but it’s gone.

How did I get here?

How did it come to this?

CHAPTER 2

Transcript BETWEEN ELLIOT SADLER (ES) AND TERESA CLARKE (TC) (INPATIENT AT OAKLANDS HOSPITAL, HARTFIELD WARD), TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 4:45. SESSION 1

ES: Good afternoon, Tess. How are you feeling?

TC: Me? I’m fine, it’s Jamie you need to worry about. I keep telling you he’s missing and no one is listening to me. I told the other one—the policeman—the young one with the red hair who came to speak to me on the ward this morning. I think Shelley has him, or Ian. She knows something anyway. No one is taking this seriously. Please, Detective Sadler, tell me what exactly are you doing? I have to know what’s happened to Jamie.

ES: The police are doing everything they can, Tess.

TC: They just have to find Shelley. She was here at the hospital yesterday, for God’s sake. She knows where Jamie is. If I could just get out of here then I could find her.

ES: If you want to help, can you tell me what happened two nights ago? It was a Sunday. You were at home.

TC: Sunday was two days ago? Jamie has been missing for two days? Oh my God.

ES: What happened?

TC: It was Jamie’s birthday. He turned eight. We were celebrating.

ES: Who was there with you? Who stabbed you?

TC: I (pause) I don’t remember.

ES: What do you remember?

TC: I remember Shelley was there. I thought she was our friend. I thought she was trying to help us. She got on so well with Jamie. This is all my fault. Jamie is my whole world. If anything happens to him (cries).