NOONE
WHITE LIES AND BLACK HEARTS
“I don’t remember anything farther back than six years ago detective. Actually not even that far back in true memory, but I have been told of the occurrences back that far. “He told Detective Forbes and then continued even though Noone looked like a man embarrassed talking about himself “six years ago police responded to a call and found me on the Long Beach docks very close to dead. I was comatose, starved, and left for dead. I didn’t come to for over six months and when I did, I had no memory of anything before that day. I spent the next two years in UCLA Hospital, more surgeries and recuperations than I want to think about.”
“Okay, let’s say that’s the truth. At some time though your history would have come up, when they finally identified you” Forbes said a little credulously.
“They never did” Noone said as if it was an afterthought.
”That is not possible any more, Mr. Noone. With fingerprints, DNA, dental records something had to show up somewhere. What about your name at least?” Forbes asked seeming more than a little exasperated already.
“No one ever found any hits on fingerprints, nor was there any DNA on record anywhere. As for dental records, well you see all my teeth had been pulled out at some time before they found me. One of the things they did in the hospital was fit me with these implants, which is after they did quite a bit of reconstructive surgery. You see my entire face was so damaged that the reconstruction and following plastic surgery is only what the doctors and forensic labs technicians could presume was close to my original features. I had no tattoos, discernable birth marks or even old scars. I had so many broken bones that it was impossible to tell if any were considerably older in nature.” Noone tried express the extent of his injuries at the time. “If you find this hard to believe Detective, believe me I do understand completely. You should contact the hospital and let them explain it better than me. As for my name I picked it out myself when I was getting new identification during my release procedures. At first they logged me in as a John Doe, then one of my nurses used to call me Mr. Nobody when we were joking around about being another John Doe. So I made up the name I. M. Noone, it’s a way of saying I am no one, kind of.”
“You do understand if I find all this hard to believe and that I will be checking the hospital, Long Beach Police Department and anyone I find that had any part in this past investigation.” Forbes told him, “Especially now with this laptop and suspicions you say you have.”
“I understand completely Detective. But did I hear you right, when you first said you didn’t find much about Mr. Marchant either” Noone asked him?
“Well yes, but more than we found on you. Marchant has owned the building for a couple of decades now. It looks like he came into a sizable amount of money some years ago, from some process or invention dealing with computers. He appears to have used some of it to purchase the building, back then it was even in worse shape than it is now. Then he did considerable upgrades, but not a lot of rebuilding. Some needed repairs, and then paint, floorings and the like. Ever since then there has been no tenant complaints and I can’t even find where he’s had a parking ticket. I didn’t find where he was late or got audited on any state or federal taxes, no credit issues or suits, he seems to just be reclusive.” Forbes said and then went on. “Give me some time and I’ll get in touch with you. After I have our guys go over this laptop and check your information out, but don’t take any extended trips until then, agreed?”
“I agree Detective, I have nothing to hide from you and nowhere to go if I did” he answered Forbes. Then he got up and left the precinct headquarters. He walked slowly on his way back and as he passed the small market closest to his building he decided to go in, pick up a few items and bring them back with him. Something gnawed at him that this would be a good idea right now. His routine had become very predictable, too predictable.
*****
The red led light blinked on one of Marchant’s computer screens, it was the one for Noone’s apartment, he was back. As he watched the screen he noted that Noone did not have the laptop, but he did bring in a bag and was unloading several items into cabinets and drawers. He knew this man’s habits by now and shopping was not high on his list of things to do. Marchant wondered if his maintenance man had simply pawned or sold the laptop for extra cash. It would be better for them both if he had, and yes that was probably it. He felt he knew Noone by now, passable at his work with little ambition and like all the others no real imagination. Besides this was boring he needed something more entertaining to watch.
*****
Felicia Tanner had just finished her shower and was toweling her hair dry in the living room while she watched a news report on her television. As she vigorously shook her hair loose, the large towel wrapped around her body fell away and she bent to pull it back up quickly. There was no reason to do it as she lived alone, but habit made it an automatic reaction. Then she walked back into her bedroom and put on some dry comfortable clothes.
When she walked back into her kitchen to get a bottle of wine from the refrigerator and then pour it into a wine glass she took from an upper cabinet, she felt uneasy for some reason. Her back neck hairs prickled as if she felt she was being watched, stupid she thought and shook her head side to side in self-doubt. The door was locked, her curtains closed, who could possibly be watching her here.
Yet she still had that moment of tenseness, so she searched through the TV’s on screen guide until she found a comedy to watch.
*****
Mandy Johnson had just finished breast feeding little Danna and had put her down for sleep. Danna was a quiet and happy little girl after feeding and always slept well. Mandy however was the slightest bit lonely right now, like at other times occasionally she wished there was someone she could lean on for comfort every now and then. Between working two part-time jobs and caring for her daughter, there just wasn’t time to meet anyone and there was always the bigger issue that she might meet another loser like Danna’s father. In defeat she just curled up on the couch, pulled a throw over herself and closed her eyes.
*****
Noone settled into his easy chair and put his feet up on the hassock. He held a book in his hands and perused the pages slowly. He wasn’t really reading for pleasure right now, it was just a prop while he pondered the questions running rampantly through his mind. Images were crisscrossing and diverging then intersecting over and over, somewhere there had to be a pattern, and he just needed to figure it out. Finally he just faded off into sleep.
The next morning and for several more days after that he fell back into his usual routine. There were no calls for maintenance, so it was just routine cleaning and trash removal. There was his normal trip to the diner for a breakfast without uninvited company this time. After a few more blissful days he got a call from Marchant, the man in apartment 412 had given notice and would be moving out by the end of the week. He needed Noone to do a walk through with the tenant after he had cleaned his apartment to see if everything was acceptable for the tenant to get his cleaning deposit back, take possession of his keys, and handle all those tasks associated with an end of occupancy.
At noon on Saturday Noone knocked on the door to apartment 412 and Victor Stymes opened the door.
“Mr. Noone” he asked? “You’re right on time.”
“Are you ready Mr. Stymes?” Noone asked him.
“Yes sir, I think everything is cleaned up the right way.” Victor said as Noone walked through the door and began looking around the living room.
“I don’t remember you ever having even one maintenance call in the year you have lived here? I hope you are moving to a better place.” Noone told him as he walked through the living room and then into the bedroom. After that he looked around the bathroom and lastly the kitchen. “This is the best cleaning job I have ever walked through. Most people either do it just half way and then argue that it looks better than when they moved in, or just leave and don’t care.”
“Thank you. My girlfriend and I are going to start living together, that’s where I moved my stuff yesterday. Heck, I’ve been there more than here anyway. “Victor told him and then cocked his head to one side saying “the only thing I should ask you is, do you ever have any calls about mice or rats. The reason I ask is, although I never saw any, I heard sounds a few times in the walls late at night.”
“Yes, a few times, like any other building like this. But not so many as I would worry about it” he replied.
With that Victor turned over his keys, they signed all documents and Noone told him he would have Mr. Marchant send him his cleaning deposit to his new address. Victor thanked him and left. Noone locked the door and walked down to the first floor, having put everything in an envelope along with a note saying there was only minor touchup to be done and that he would have it all done by Monday morning.
Noone spent Sunday getting apartment 412 ready for prospective tenants to look at. While he worked in the rooms Noone remembered Victor Stymes last question about mice. He said he heard noises in the walls late at night sometimes. This sparked an idea in his mind, all he had to do was work out a solution.
*****
Over the last week and half Bill Forbes and his partner Sam Taylor had spent many hours on researching available data, making phone calls, sending faxes and emails to Long Beach California police officials and UCLA Hospital doctors, nurses and records departments. The resulting picture they now had, especially after a couple of lengthy calls with a nurse who was in many of the records from his time in the hospital and a retired police sergeant who had been there when they found him on the docks plus involved with the later investigations, gave them a new perspective into who Noone was or at least who the man was that called himself Noone.
“I am not so sure I could just go on with life if I had all this happen to me” Sam said looking at his partner and friend of several years. “I mean, I think I would be hell bent on finding out who I was and who did all this to me and why.”
“I don’t know, considering that you had come out of it without any memory of the pain he must have endured, you might not want to look for things that might put you right back into that situation” Forbes answered. “I do think I will call him and see if he is ready to talk again. At least everything says he told us the truth even if he left out some very gruesome details.”
“Okay, you call and meet him. I’ll catch up on some of our other cases. To me this lead is done.” Sam answered his partner.
*****
At midmorning on Monday Noone got a call from the detective and agreed to meet him at the diner for lunch that day. He had just walked in and sat down at his usual booth while he waited for Forbes to show up when Bill Forbes walked through the glass entrance of the diner and over to the booth Noone had just sat down at.
“Good morning detective you are right on time, I just got here myself “Noone greeted the detective.
“I know Mr. Noone, I saw you walk in as I was parking my car” The detective answered as he sat down in the booth across from him.“ Thank you for meeting me today.”
“No problem, I was due for a visit here anyway” Noone answered.
The waitress walked over and gave the two men menus and then poured them both coffees, saying she would come back in a few minutes to take their orders. Noone took his with cream and sugar, while Forbes drank his black.
“I wanted you to know that Sam and I have finished all our inquiries into the information you gave us about your past. I have been a cop for a long time and don’t remember ever reading of a case like yours before” Forbes started. “Some of the most compelling information though came from a nurse named Mrs. Williams and a Sergeant Fowler with the Long Beach Police Department. I think I can see why you moved away from Long Beach.”
“Cynthia Williams was the nurse who kidded with me about being a John Doe and Sergeant Fowler was there when they found me on the docks” Noone answered just as the waitress returned to take their order.
“Are you ready to order, or do you need a little more time” she asked them? Both men said they were ready. Forbes ordered a Reuben on toasted rye bread with a side salad, while Noone ordered a BLT with chips. “It will be out in a few minutes, thank you. Do you need anything else?” She asked and both said no they were fine, so she went back to the counter.
“That was what both of them told Sam and I. they both also said when they first saw you, neither of them thought you had a chance to live” Forbes answered. “From what I read in all the records I would probably have felt the same. Sam doesn’t understand why you didn’t stay in southern California and try to find out more about your past, I think I understand, however. I think you felt lucky to be alive and wanted to get away from anything like that happening again. Someone wanted you to suffer and then die.”
“You are right detective, I am not sure I even want to know who or why someone hated me that much. Did you find anything else out about the disappearance of the Varners” Noone asked?
“No, nothing has turned up, we still have it listed as a missing person’s report. But honestly with so little to go on it will probably just become another cold case, cases like this usually do” Forbes said in that matter-of-fact tone of one uses when he has run out of options. “Not much surfaced about Mr. Marchant either except we did find where he got his degree from about thirty years ago.”
“Oh, where was that, I didn’t know he had a degree” Noone said.
Before Forbes could answer the waitress brought their lunch orders and placed them on the table between them, just enough heated air wafting up to smell that they were freshly made.
“Can I get either of you anything else; fresh coffee, condiments, water” she asked?
“No we’re fine thank you” both men answered politely and she walked back to the counter to wait on her other guests.
“Marchant graduated from the University of Illinois with a BS Degree majoring in mathematics. I even found a couple of pictures of him in their year books, the years he was there” Forbes answered then started to eat his lunch.
Noone just nodded his assent as he started to eat his sandwich as well. The two men just chatted some about the city and sports while they ate, then shook hands after they stood up to pay the check at the counter. Detective Forbes said he wanted to pay the check for them both and Noone agreed as long as he could leave the tip. As they parted, going their separate ways, both expressed good luck to each other and said maybe they would meet again on better circumstances. Both men doubted that would happen though.
Noone headed for the local library rather than directly back to the apartment building, the detectives mentioning that Marchant had a degree from the University of Illinois intrigued him and with his curiosity piqued he decided to look Marchant up in those yearbooks.
An hour later Noone was leaving the Library and walking back to the apartment building with his curiosity much more than piqued now. He had found pictures of Marchant in three yearbooks, and especially in the one from the year he graduated, Noone was dead sure that the man he knew as Richard Marchant was not the same man who hired him to be a maintenance man and occupied the 5th floor of the apartment building. There was no way that the young adult in that photo could have aged into the man he knew.
What was also sure to Noone was that he needed to make a couple of appointments here in town and make a phone call back to California. Tomorrow he would take some time off, if no calls had come in for any repairs that needed to be done.
