Anne Fraser - Top-Notch Men!

‘That’s good. Even after all this training and time, I still can’t bear the thought of a young man of nineteen confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life,’ Allegra said.

‘I know,’ Bethany sighed. ‘He’s had some time off the ventilator and coped pretty well. There’s talk of moving him to the high-dependency unit in a couple of days.’

‘It’s nice to hear of something positive happening around here,’ she said, looking at Tommy again.

‘So you want me to let you know when Mr Lowe gets back?’ Bethany asked.

‘That would be great, thanks,’ Allegra said, turning around to face her again. ‘I’ll be in the ICTU office, catching up on paperwork.’

A short time later Allegra looked up to see Keith Lowe outside the glassed-in office in ICTU. She got to her feet and with a reassuring smile led him to a private corner so she could speak to him.

‘How are you doing, Mr Lowe?’

‘I’m fine, but I want to know what’s happening with my son,’ he said rather impatiently. ‘I’ve got a business to run and all this waiting about is not helping.’

Allegra had to fight down her instinctive reaction to his callous dismissal of his son’s condition in preference to his career. ‘Tommy is doing as well as can be expected at this stage,’ she said.

‘Look, Dr … er, Tallis,’ he said, peering at her name badge. ‘I want my son out of here, and fast. Don’t get me wrong. My business can wait, but I can’t juggle the two like this for too much longer. Is there anything I can do to help my son regain consciousness?’

‘Yes, there is, actually,’ she said, hope lifting like a suddenly inflated balloon in her chest. ‘I need you to tell me some of Tommy’s favourite things at present, such as music, stories he likes to hear or read, movies or DVDs he likes to watch, activities.’

‘That’s easy,’ Keith said. ‘Tommy has been totally obsessed with the Harry Potter stories. Whenever I get the chance, I read him his favourite passages. I bought him the first DVD and he’s watched it countless times. He can even recite the dialogue practically verbatim.’

‘Brilliant!’ Allegra said. ‘Would you have any objection to me setting up a portable DVD player near him to see if it triggers brain activity?’

He frowned at her. ‘You think playing a DVD will make him regain consciousness?’

‘I’m not making any promises but the human brain is complicated. Sometimes neural activity can stop for functional reasons when there is no physical damage. Tommy’s brain CT looks normal. CTs are not perfect—there could be widespread scattered damage that doesn’t show up on CT and could be enough to be severe brain damage. But the normal CT could alternatively give us hope. It is possible that there are functional blocks to Tommy’s brain activity. It might be feasible to kick-start his conscious processes. The five senses—touch, smell, taste, sight and hearing—if we could find some powerful stimuli through one or two of these that trigger potent memories—that could trigger consciousness. Perhaps listening to his favourite movie will trigger something in Tommy’s subconscious and he will start to wake up. There’s no guarantee, and not a lot of research in this area—but with someone like Tommy it’s worth trialling the technique.’

‘If you think there’s a chance …’ Keith didn’t sound particularly optimistic but Allegra refused to be daunted. She’d already passed the biggest hurdle: parental permission.

‘I’ll organise everything,’ she said. ‘I have a portable DVD player and I even have my own copy of the movie. Is there anything else you can think of that Tommy particularly likes? Songs he always listens to, favourite foods?’

Keith wrinkled his nose in scepticism. ‘What, are you going to wave chicken nuggets and chips under his nose to see if he responds?’

‘Is that his favourite food?’

The set of his shoulders seemed to go down a notch as he let out a deep sigh. ‘So often I’d come home and … Kate would have no dinner prepared.’ He looked at her and continued, ‘Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not really the where’s-my-dinner type, but Tommy’s a little kid—he needs regular meals. My wife wasn’t good at doing that stuff and because of the pressures of my job I’m away a lot. I can’t remember the last time she actually cooked a real meal—one that didn’t come out of a packet with instructions to heat and serve.’

‘It’s not easy, being a mother,’ Allegra felt compelled to put in, given her own shortcomings when it came to preparing gourmet meals. ‘There’s so much to do and so little time to do it, especially with a small child underfoot.’

‘I know …’ He gave her a vestige of a smile but there was no humour in it. ‘Have you got kids?’

‘Er … no …’

‘It all changes once you do, you know,’ he said. ‘You have such ideals, but when reality hits they come crashing down.’

‘This is a hard time for you, Mr Lowe. But I think we can work together to try to get Tommy to wake up, if it’s at all possible. You love him and even though you might not think he is aware of your presence here, it’s definitely possible that in some way he is conscious of it. He’s just not quite able to wake up.’

‘When will he be able to?’

She touched him gently on the arm. ‘I hope he will wake up when we touch on what’s most important to him. It could be the movie. Maybe it could be your voice or your touch. If we can just find the trigger that will get him to respond.’

‘Have you done this sort of thing before?’ he asked. ‘You know … woken someone from a deep coma?’

Allegra pushed Alice Greeson’s broken body from her mind and tried to concentrate on the rare successes she’d had so far. ‘I have had some success, yes.’

‘What about my wife?’ he asked, his tone becoming harsh. ‘Are you going to try and coax her awake as well?’

‘I would like Kate to regain consciousness so we could at the very least establish what actually happened and why,’ she said.

His eyes became like chips of cold blue ice. ‘What happened was she wanted to take Tommy away from me permanently.’

‘So there’s absolutely no doubt in your mind that Kate tried to take her own life and that of Tommy?’

‘Of course there’s no doubt. It’s what the police suspected from the start. She tried to commit suicide and kill Tommy to get back at me for asking for a divorce.’

‘When did you ask her for a divorce?’ Allegra asked, watching him closely.

He gave a shrug, his eyes falling away from hers. ‘I don’t know … a couple of days ago.’

‘What was her immediate reaction to your request?’

‘She wasn’t too happy about it, obviously.’

‘Did she say or do anything then to make you suspect she would take things this far?’

His eyes came back to hers, his expression growing impatient. ‘Look, Dr Tallis, I have no idea what was going on in my wife’s mind. Quite frankly, I haven’t for years. I just wanted to end the marriage as soon as possible. I gave it my best shot but I decided it was time to leave.’

‘Did you discuss custodial arrangements with Kate when you asked for a divorce?’

‘I might have. I don’t really remember. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to the office. I have a meeting and I’m already twenty minutes late as it is.’

Allegra watched him walk out briskly, as if he couldn’t wait to get out of the building. He didn’t even pause by his son’s bed on the way past.

‘What did I tell you?’ Bethany said, joining her once more. ‘Cold and clinical.’

‘He certainly is,’ Allegra agreed. ‘But at least he’s given me the go-ahead to work with Tommy. I was worried he might dismiss it right out of hand, but he was surprisingly agreeable.’