Sentence The Sevenhundredandfourteenth

But it wasn't Tom Learmonth the Paramedic who called on Pollyanna Perkins and Carmine Rose O'Rahilly next morning: it was Detective Inspector Isa Urquhart and Detective Sergeant Milly Millican from Police Scotland: "thankyou for speaking with us this morning," said the DI as she and her Sergeant sat together on the sofa in the flat above Lucky Luke's Lounge, which was incorporated into the refurbished Melrose Station which had re-opened after the continuation of the famous Waverley line from Tweedbank to Hawick, and then to Carlisle, re-opening the route which had been lost eighty years ago; now a regular High Speed service linked the Scottish Capital with the major hub in Cumbria, along with the shorter journeys between Edinburgh and Hawick, or Hawick to Carlisle, which stopped at every station in addition to the Galashiels and Hawick stations served by the Limited-Stop Express; " can you tell us what happened yesterday, from when you found Mr Brown, what you spoke about, what you observed and what he said, so far as you can recall?" and the two girls looked at each other, before Pollyanna spoke first: "we've been talking about it ever since," she explained, but I'll try to stick to what was said and leave out what we imagined," and the Inspector nodded, while her Sergeant took out a notebook and began to write as Pollyanna spoke: "he must have been there before I went in," she explained, "but I don't know how long," and Rose interjected: "nor how he got there? certainly no-one in the bar, staff or customers, saw him before Poll called me?" and Milly made a diacritic: Miss O'Rahilly: Australian? though that was only an observation and irrelevant to the case; and Poll continued: "he was soaked through, kind of lying on the floor, almost in a foetal position, so I helped him up and he sat on the toilet, well, I mean, on the seat, the lid was down, and I asked him who he was and how he'd got in, but he didn't know where he was, and I told him, like, at the Station, and he said he and Maisie – his wife? - had been at Monte Cassino, the Italian restaurant? but that closed a while back? and he said he'd been at a place in Italy with the same name, during the war, but that would surely make him over a hundred, so maybe he was thinking about a holiday in Italy or something, and then Rose came in and asked him if he knew the date, like to see if he was concussed or something maybe worse, I mean we still don't know how he got in!" and Rose said, "when I asked him the date, he was a couple of days out, which is fair enough if you're retired and not having a work routine, but he was twenty years out, he thought it was 2017? we were still at school then?" and Pollyanna said: "when Rose pointed that out he told us we were lying, he got quite angry, seemed to think we were trying to trick him; and then Tom, Mr Learmonth, the Paramedic came and had a look at Dod, God, I'm sorry, George, Mr Brown," and Milly noted: Miss Perkins: Pierian? "while his partner was getting the trolley ready, and they took him to A&E; how is he? if he's still in hospital I'd like to pop in and see him, maybe take him some
fruit," but the Inspector was frowning: "this is where it gets confusing, or interesting – you see, George Brown, or Dod Broon as he was known, a reasonably fit 92 year-old, disappeared on the 26th of April 2017, on his way from The Ship Inn to his home in Gattonside, where his wife, Maisie Brown, was expecting him; when he never showed up, she called us – well, not us, but we were both around at the time – and a search was carried out along the route; there was no sign of Mr Brown, who could, it is possible, have been disorientated after a few pints with his friends, and they stated that he was more exhilarated than depressed, having won a few quid on a Scratch-Card, but about the middle of the bridge, on the downriver side, there were some scuffs on the paintwork of the rail, and a button was found on the walkway, just below, and Mrs Brown swore that it wasn't from her husband's coat or any of his other clothes, so it indicated that someone else was there, possibly at the same time; now, we don't know if that person was connected with Mr Brown's disappearance, or maybe a witness, and there is always the possibility that the button was lost before or afterwards; you'll know that there can be pretty heavy traffic on the Bridge, and the button could have been there for days, or even weeks, but the possibility remained that someone had been involved in Mr Brown's disappearance; and now, out of the blue, after twenty years, almost to the day, Mr Brown turns up here; and certainly there are no buttons missing from the clothes he is wearing now!" she looked from one to the other of the two pretty girls sitting opposite: "and it may well be that Mr Brown is wearing the same clothes and that he appeared downstairs just after he was pushed or thrown over the barrier and into the river – twenty years ago!"