Gem, Himself, Alone, page 6
“Yeah, that’d be good.”
They found a quiet corner to sit in.
“How did you know I was here?” He hadn’t told anyone where he was going.
“I’ve seen you here before. It’s where you come to be alone, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is.”
“Do you mind me coming?” Bethany asked tentatively.
“No.”
“You’re in your quiet mood again.”
He smiled. “Sorry, I don’t mean to shut you out.”
“It’s okay. I don’t mind doing the talking. I’m just observing.”
He nodded and gazed at her in silence.
“Gem…” There were suddenly tears brimming in Bethany’s eyes. “No one’s ever done anything like this for me before.”
“Sunny’s debt, you mean?”
“What else would I be talking about?” Bethany wiped the corners of her eyes. “And you didn’t even tell me what you were up to!”
He shrugged, looking away from her in embarrassment. “I didn’t know if it would work. Didn’t want to get your hopes up.”
“I can’t believe you did that! Thrasher wouldn’t even tell me how much it was.”
He considered for a moment, wondering if he should tell her the truth or keep it a secret. “Ten grand and change,” he said finally.
“Ten thousand dollars? Where did the Rippers get money like that to give Sunny?”
“Drugs, mostly. I gather it wasn’t all at once.”
“And where did you get that kind of dough?” Bethany demanded.
“I came into some money,” he said wryly. “I still have some left over. You want to help me spend it?”
“How much do you have?”
“Enough to have some fun.”
Bethany’s eyes sparkled. “Enough for new clothes?”
He looked her over. “Enough for new clothes. New car. New digs.”
Bethany raised her eyebrows. “Well, what are we waiting around here for?”
He swallowed the rest of his drink and stood up. Bethany stood up too. She didn’t head directly for the door, and he looked back at her.
“Gem…?” Her voice was soft. “What was the first thing you did when you got out of that place?”
He frowned, considering. “Had a shower,” he said finally, dredging up the answer.
Bethany nodded. “That’s what I just did. Funny.”
Riker put his photocopies in front of Gordon. “I got a bunch of stuff on multiple personalities,” he commented.
“Okay… why?”
“It’s one of the things the doctor implied that Gem Johnson was being treated for.”
“So, does it help us?”
“Maybe. Now, it says that people with MPD or DID—that’s what they call it—usually went through severe abuse as children, so I’ll keep looking at his background for any detail on that. It also says that they are often very intelligent and may go to great lengths to give the impression that their various personalities are actually separate people.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. So maybe he does have it, and these alibis are an elaborate attempt to prove he’s two—or more—people.”
“Maybe.”
“I’m getting closer, Gordon. All I have to do is figure this kid out, from the inside, and then I can nail him. Once I find out his secrets, he won’t be able to get away with anything.”
He was in good spirits. Bethany was having a blast spending his money. She had bought several new outfits, gadgets, and junk. They carried her bags back to her apartment. He looked around as he put the bags down.
“Do you want to keep your apartment? Or you want something new?”
Bethany looked around speculatively. “I don’t know. What are you going to spend your money on? You haven’t bought anything yet.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know yet. I can’t think of anything I want.”
“Nothing?”
“Maybe a car. Maybe a new place. I don’t know.”
“There must be something you really want.”
“I already got what I really wanted.” He gave her a shy smile and blushed.
Bethany flushed as well. They both laughed in nervous embarrassment.
“I don’t feel like I owe you,” Bethany mused. “I think I should, but you don’t make me feel that way.”
“You don’t owe me. You should never have been trapped here to begin with. I just made it right.”
“Why?”
“I couldn’t stand… seeing someone else go through that.”
Bethany rubbed her feet as she settled into the couch. “So what kind of a place would you get if you got a new apartment?”
He put his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes, envisioning. “Clean,” he said with a laugh.
“No rats,” Bethany agreed.
Before long, Bethany’s ‘I’ and ‘my apartment’ became ‘we’ and ‘our apartment.’
He didn’t correct her. It was comfortable.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
GEM DIDN’T SEE Bethany for a couple of days. He was kept too busy with gang business. He met up with Thrasher, who mentioned having seen her.
“I guess Bethany was properly grateful for your intercession,” Thrasher commented.
Gem frowned. “What do you mean?” he asked, hearing the heavy innuendo in Thrasher’s voice.
“You didn’t seem to have any trouble getting around Dietrich. Bethany’s going around saying you two are shacking up.”
Gem’s jaw dropped. “What?”
“She said you were buying a fancy new apartment and moving in together,” Thrasher said with a snicker. He took in Gem’s reaction. “I take it she was getting a little ahead of herself.”
Gem nodded. “I’d better find her.”
Gem tracked Bethany down at her apartment.
“Oh. Hi, Gem.” She smiled. “How are you?”
“Yeah, fine,” Gem said impatiently, “we gotta talk.”
Bethany motioned him in. “What’s up?”
“What’s this I hear you’re telling everyone about us moving in together?”
“Well, I thought when we got the new place…”
“I’m not moving in with you.”
Bethany looked surprised. “But when we were talking, I thought…”
“Sometimes I get carried away,” he growled. “I don’t want to move in together.”
“Why not? If we’re both getting new places… Oh.” Her face fell. “I get it. We’re not, are we? That was just talk too.”
“I’ll still get you a place if you want.”
“Oh, so I’ll be your on-call mistress? How’s that any different from what I just got out of?”
Gem was offended. “You think I would do that to you?” he demanded. “After what I went through? Someone told me you and Little D were sweet on each other. I figured he’d move in with you.”
“Is that what this is about? You think me and D should be together instead of you and me?”
Gem shook his head. “I don’t care. Stay with D if you like, or don’t. But I can’t move in with you.”
“Why not?”
Gem shook his head. “I can’t explain it. I just can’t.”
“You’re afraid of the commitment? It doesn’t have to be forever. Leave when you like, or tell me it’s time to leave. I won’t be hurt.”
“It’s not that. I can’t commit to you, but that isn’t it. There’s other things. Things I can’t talk about.” Gem was aware that his voice was getting higher and faster. He couldn’t control it.
“You’re a cop? Is that it? That’s how you get out of everything, and that’s why you can’t do it?”
“No. I’m not a narc.”
“Then what is it? Just tell me. I don’t care what the reason is. I won’t tell anyone else. It’ll still be your secret.”
Gem shook his head adamantly. “I can’t tell you, Bethany. I’m sorry to hurt your feelings. I never meant you to think I was going to live with you.”
“Is it another girl?”
“No.”
“Another guy?”
Gem stared at her.
“Just ’cause you like me, doesn’t mean you can’t like some guy better,” Bethany pointed out.
“It’s not another guy.”
“If you can share an apartment with Joey, why not with me? If you want a separate room of your own, that’s fine. I just don’t understand the problem.”
“Bethany, let it go.”
“Even if we get one with a fire escape?”
Gem froze. “What?”
“Joey couldn’t figure out why you wanted to switch rooms with him. The only difference I can see is that yours has a fire escape. So who’s coming and going on the sly? You or a visitor?”
Gem licked his lips. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” he said hoarsely.
Bethany didn’t say anything for a minute. She pushed it once more. “A separate room and a fire escape. You still wouldn’t room with me?”
“I—I don’t know.”
“Maybe?”
Gem bit his lip. He tried several times to answer, but he couldn’t.
He turned and walked out the door.
Gem paced anxiously, talking to himself.
“What am I going to do? She’s too close to finding out. I gotta split… But after getting in with the gang for protection? Waste all that effort and start all over again somewhere else? …What else am I going to do? She can’t find out. Nobody can find out… Who says she will? …She’s too observant. She figured out about the fire escape. You think if we lived together, she wouldn’t find out? …What if she did? …No one can find out! If people find out, I’m done for… She wouldn’t tell. We could move in together and still be safe. I like her… I know I like her, but that’s not really the point, is it? …The point is, can she be trusted?”
Gem was silent for a while.
“Can she be trusted?” he repeated softly.
“Gem Johnson,” the social worker repeated slowly. She was the first person from Gem’s past that Riker had talked to who didn’t remember Gem immediately. “The name is familiar.”
“I’m told that you picked him up from a rest home. A mental treatment facility.”
“This is a kid?”
“Yes.”
She thought about this for a few minutes. “I vaguely remember one kid. Must be your Johnson. He was medicated to the eyeballs. But he wasn’t one of my regulars. His worker was out of town at the time; I just subbed in.”
“I see. Could you give me the name of his regular social worker?”
“Let me look it up on the system and I’ll call you back.”
“I can hold,” Riker offered, suspecting he’d never get a callback.
She sighed loudly and put him on hold. Riker worked through some papers while he waited. Eventually, she picked up again.
“Mary Saunders,” she said, and gave Riker a phone number. “She was Gem Johnson’s last social worker before he disappeared. I take it you know his current whereabouts?”
“I do.”
“He should be under a social worker’s supervision, even if he’s not in care. Give Mary the details when you call her and she can transfer his case to your local social services.”
“Sure. Thanks for your help.”
He managed to get Mary Saunders on his first try, which was unusual when trying to reach a social worker.
“I’m looking for information on a boy you used to supervise. Gem Johnson.”
“Gem. Sure, I remember him. Where did you run into him?”
Riker briefly outlined the place and circumstances for her. He could almost hear her shake her head.
“Gem was always very difficult to keep tabs on. I take it you know he’s supposed to be on medication.”
“I gathered as much. What is he supposed to be taking?”
“I don’t remember the list. It was about half a page long, a cocktail of about every antipsychotic, tranquilizer, antidepressant and anti-anxiety prescription you can think of. He was practically catatonic.”
“Then how did he end up on the streets? Who stopped doping him?”
“He went to a reputable group home. They’ve not had a problem with medication schedules before or since. The head swears that he personally gave Gem everything on schedule. Gem must have been making himself throw the pills back up.”
“So he disappeared from the group home?”
“Pretty much.”
“Pretty much?” What did that mean?
“He actually disappeared from the hospital. There were allegations of abuse at the group home and he was at the hospital to be evaluated.”
“Abuse of Gem?”
“That’s what we were hoping to determine.”
“Who made the allegations?”
“One of the other kids in the home. Said he’d seen things.”
“Are you going to give me details or be cryptic about it?”
“If I say too much, I’m opening myself up for prosecution. Nothing was ever proven. We just have one unsubstantiated accusation.”
“Accusation of what? What did they say had been done?”
“An accusation of possible abuse,” Mary said evenly.
“Okay.” Riker shook his head in frustration. She obviously wasn’t going to budge an inch on the details. “I’ll move on. How long were you Gem’s social worker?”
“A couple of years.”
“And you know his history before that?”
“Yes, as much as is on the record.”
“What made him the way he was? The mental problems he had.”
“We don’t really know what causes anyone’s mental illness. With Gem, there is a family history of mental illness. His mother had major problems. In and out of facilities for as long as we could track her. The grandmother also apparently had problems, better hidden. Managed to stay out of the system. We don’t know anything about Gem’s father but, considering the mother’s circumstances around the time Gem would have been conceived, he probably had mental health issues as well.”
“What was Gem diagnosed with?”
“He had different diagnoses over the years. None of the doctors could ever agree. Schizophrenia was the most common. But that’s just a catch-all diagnosis.”
“You don’t think it was schizophrenia?”
“I don’t know. I always thought there was more to it than that. But I’m no psychiatrist.”
“So tell me about what Gem was like for the two years he was under your supervision.”
“Unpredictable. At times perfectly reasonable and under control. Then another day, overemotional, violent, totally out of control. You just never knew what to expect from him.”
“Could his unpredictable behavior be explained by abuse?”
“Most abused kids hold it together pretty well at school or under the eye of authority. There may be schoolyard fights, petty theft, but not full-blown meltdowns or psychotic episodes. They try not to do anything to set them apart from the other kids. Gem… the other kids knew he was unbalanced. There was no hiding it.”
“Was he in foster care the whole time?”
“Oh, no. Gem spent very little time in foster care. He was usually with his mama or gramma.”
“With their histories of mental illness?” Riker said with surprise.
“Once they’re back on their meds, you’re not allowed to discriminate. However much you might want the kid out of there. And we could never prove anything with the gramma.”
“So he just kept having these episodes, getting medicated, going through his caregivers’ episodes, being bounced into care for a week or two at a time…”
“Being picked up by police wandering the streets,” Mary added, “or disappearing for days at a time. Yeah, you got the picture. And nothing we could do about any of it.”
“Was he ever treated for multiple personalities?”
“Who told you that?” she demanded. “It was suspected at one time, but he doesn’t show all the symptoms. No, the only reason he was ever treated for that was because it was trendy. Interesting fact for you, though, when he was little, he used to refer to himself as ‘we’ or ‘Gem’ instead of I or me. But that was just a developmental thing.”
“Interesting. So how did you finally get him away from his family and into the rest home and group home?”
“His gramma relinquished. I don’t know what precipitated it. There were not a lot of details.”
Bethany had about decided that Gem was not coming back. She hadn’t seen him for a week, and Joey said he’d packed his bag and disappeared. So she was re-evaluating her options and was surprised to find Gem on her doorstep again.
“Uh—hi, Gem. What’s up?”
“You gotta come see.” His smile was wide. He bounced up and down on his heels, unable to contain himself.
“See what?”
“Come on.” He grabbed her hand.
Bethany hesitated, but was caught up in Gem’s excitement and went with him. Gem took her a few blocks to a building of middle-class apartments. An older building with fire escapes. Bethany looked at Gem questioningly, but he just took her up to a vacant apartment. He brandished a key and let himself in. He grabbed her hand again and hauled her in. They dashed through the front room to the first bedroom.
“This one’s yours,” Gem declared breathlessly, manic. “You like it? Mine’s next door. Want to see?”
Without waiting for an answer, he took her into his bedroom.
“Fire escape and all,” Bethany observed.
“Yeah.” He laughed. “Do you like it?”
“What changed your mind?”
Gem stopped and considered it for a moment. “I just talked myself into it,” he said finally with a shrug.
“Are you sure it’s what you want?”
“It’s already paid for. We just gotta move your stuff over. And get a mattress for me.”
“You could probably afford a whole bed.”
Gem laughed in delight. “Yeah, I guess I could.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
