Echo (17 page)

Mary drew in a deep, shuddery breath and stepped back. "They said something about room 502, but you should check with the nurse's station."

"I'm going to do that. Will you be okay here?" he asked. He felt bad at the idea of leaving her, but every particle of his being was telling him to find Cole.

Her smile was a fragile thing. "Yeah, I'll be all right. Besides, I'm supposed to stay here and wait for the police to come and question me. They told me not to go anywhere."

"Well, if anyone tries to put you in jail, make sure you call me first, okay?" he said.

She snorted. "It was completely a case of self-defense and defense of another."

"Always a good reason to brain someone," he nodded.

"Exactly." She was trying to be tough, but he could tell that she was really shaken up. "I felt like a superhero or something."

"You totally are a superhero." He leaned down and pressed a kiss against her cheek, trying to ignore the taste of tears on her skin. "Thank you for saving him."

He jerked a quick nod and walked over to the nurse's station. "Excuse me, can you tell me what room Cole Heath is in?" he asked.

The rather heavy-set dark haired nurse gave him a look. "What is your relationship with the patient?"

"He's my boyfriend," Anderson said.

She clicked away at her keyboard, her eyebrows going up at what she saw. Her eyes were sympathetic when she looked at him again. "Unfortunately only family is allowed in to see him right now, but his mother's already on her way. She should be here shortly."

"Thank you," Anderson fought to keep the "Fuck you" out of his voice, but it was a battle.

He walked over to the bank of plastic chairs where Mary had sat down in one of them. He sat next to her. "They wouldn't let me in because I'm not a member of his family. His mother's on the way."

"Ooh, have you ever met her?" Mary asked.

"Just a couple of times," Anderson said. "She's kind of hard to get to know, but you can tell that she really loves him."

He sat next to her, twisting his fingers together nervously as he waited for Anne Heath to show up. Mary huddled next to him, every line of her body screaming exhaustion.

He didn't know what all had happened and he didn't know if he really wanted to hear the whole story. Not until he could see Cole and know for sure that he was all right.

"Ms. Paterson?" a voice asked.

Anderson glanced up and was surprised to find two police officers standing there. The one in the lead had thinning red hair and full cheeks, though he wasn't overweight. His partner was a Latina woman with a no-nonsense expression and an uptight posture.

Mary raised her head. "I'm Mary Paterson."

"I'm Officer Mann and this is Officer Guervo. We need to talk to you for a moment about the incident earlier tonight." He looked around the otherwise empty waiting room, then slanted a glance in Anderson's direction. "We can talk here, or we can find someplace else if you'd rather have privacy."

Mary grabbed Anderson's hand, squeezing it tight. "No, I want him with me."

"And you are, sir?" Officer Mann asked.

"Anderson Bester. Mary's my friend and Cole's my boyfriend." There was no way they were getting him to leave the room.

Mann looked around, then walked over to grab a loose chair and dragged it over. He sat down facing Mary and pulled a small notepad out of his pocket. "Why don't you tell me in your own words what happened tonight?" he said.

Mary licked her lips. "I had just come home from work and was making a grilled cheese sandwich before going to the gym. I was just melting the butter in the frying pan when I heard what sounded like a fight from Cole's apartment." She shook her head. "I don't know why I did it, but I grabbed the frying pan and took it with me when I went over there.

"I don't know what I thought I was going to see, but when I walked in there I saw the man's back first. Then I saw that Cole's legs were sticking out from under him and I realized the man was choking him and Cole wasn't moving at all. I just... it was like I blacked out or something. I don't remember hitting him with the fry pan, but he was knocked out on the ground and I realized I had to call the police and an ambulance. So I did."

"You didn't recognize the man choking Cole?" Mann asked.

Mary shook her head. "No, should I have?"

"He was employed at the same company as both you and Cole Heath," Mann said, his eyes sharp on her face.

"Wait a minute, he was one of our employees?" Anderson demanded.

"Until about three months ago. Are you sure you don't recognize him now?" Mann asked.

Mary shook her head. "No, I only saw him from behind, then he was laid out on the floor. I wasn't really paying much attention to him at that point. I just wanted to get Cole some help."

"I see," Mann said, standing up. "Well, you've already given us your contact information, so we'll call you if we have any more questions."

"Wait!" Anderson stood up. "Who was the man that attacked Cole?"

Mann paused to look at him, then seemed to shrug. "His name is Mark Etty. He's currently being treated for a cracked skull and burns." He glanced at Mary, his lips quirking a little. "You really did a number on him. Have you thought about going out for professional baseball? Thank you for your time."

The officer didn't even wait for her to respond, just gathered up his partner and left.

Anderson stared after them. "That was kind of weird."

"Mark Etty? Wasn't he the guy you replaced?" Mary asked.

"Yeah."Anderson shook his head. "I can't believe he's the guy." He could picture Mark Etty in his mind, and he couldn't help the way his fists clenched. Etty was twice the size of Cole, so to imagine him beating the crap out of Cole... it made him want to hunt the guy down and crack open the other side of his head.

"Thank you for braining that idiot," he said.

Mary nodded.

They sat down and waited. His leg jiggled nervously and he was filled with desperation to see Cole.

It seemed like they'd been waiting forever when there was a flurry of activity at the door and Anne came rushing in. She was wearing a flowered dress with a long jacket thrown over the top to flop loose.

She went right to the nurse's station. "Where is my son? Cole Heath?" she demanded.

Anderson patted Mary on the shoulder, then hurried to stand next to her. "They wouldn't let me in," he said.

She glared at the nurse. "Take me to see my son immediately. And his boyfriend too; he's family." She wasn't asking a question, she was
demanding
, and anyone that went against her would be a fool.

The nurse didn't seem to be a fool. "He's in room 502. I'll buzz you back and you can go right in."

"That's fine." Anne grabbed Anderson's sleeve and tugged him toward the double doors. There was a loud buzzing sound and she pushed one of the doors open, pulling him after her.

Looking at the side of her face, Anderson could see that she was on the raggedy edge of control. Her body was all tense lines and she was clenching and unclenching her teeth. He didn't want to say anything and set her off, so he just followed her down the hallway.

The door to room 502 seemed to loom over them and he caught his breath when she reached out a shaky hand and pushed it open.

He didn't know what he thought they were going to find, but he couldn't help the low, moaning sound he made when he saw Cole for the first time.

The white sheets seemed to make Cole's injuries look worse. He looked so pale and small lying there, his face looking like one big bruise at first, his lower lip swollen and split. Both eyes were blackened so it took Anderson a moment to realize that he was awake and looking at them.

"
Mama
."

"Oh, my baby doll!" Anne ran across the room to hover at his side. She carefully took his hand in both of hers, tears splashing against his wrist.

Anderson wanted to run too, but it was like his legs were made out of rubber. He just kind of wobbled his way to the other side of the bed, his hands shaking so bad he was scared he might hurt Cole more when he took his hand.

His lips trembled and he couldn't even speak. He just stared down at Cole's face.

"Hey," Cole said, looking at him.

"Hey," Anderson said. It took him a minute to realize that he was crying. Just this silent stream of tears as he realized that Cole could have died. Especially when he took in the mark of wringing hands around Cole's neck.

He fell to his knees and buried his face against the blankets at Cole's side. He never let go of Cole's hands as he cried.

Distantly he heard Cole telling him that it was all right, everything was all right. But all he knew was that Cole could have died and there wouldn't have been anything he could do about it.

If Mary hadn't been there...

* * *

Answering questions for the police was a painful process, though it was more a formality than anything else. Mark had been cold-caught trying to kill him and he was facing some serious prison time, at least, that was what the DA was pushing for.

From what Cole understood, Mark hadn't been able to get another job after his firing, so he'd taken to following Anderson around, which is how he'd found out that he and Cole were dating. So he'd decided to take Cole out to show Anderson just how easy it was to lose everything.

He'd also been the one to egg Cole's door.

So from a juvenile act of annoyance to an all-out murder attempt... it was some kind of fast progress.

Cole spent two days in the hospital, then he was allowed to go home. With his two cracked ribs taped up and warnings not to mess around with his fractured cheekbone.

He was just glad to be alive.

Anderson came to pick him up from the hospital and drove him home to his apartment. The man still seemed shaken up, but the devastation had faded somewhat from his eyes and he was at least able to function.

"Your place was a real mess," Anderson said, parking in front of Cole's building, "but I had it cleaned up."

"
But I had it cleaned up
," Cole echoed in his rasping voice. The doctor said it would be weeks or maybe months before he would be able to speak normally. "My place was trashed. He wrecked practically everything I own."

Anderson reached out to pat his hand. "Don't worry about it. I had all the ruined stuff taken out and replaced and Anne had a great time buying you all new clothes." He chuckled softly, though his eyes were tragic. "She went a little crazy when she saw your socks and underwear and realized just how much damage he
didn't
do to them. She said she was going to talk to you about it later."

Cole flushed in embarrassment, but couldn't help laughing. That would be his mother's response to the idea that he'd been needing new underclothes for a while. She had a thing about clean underwear.

Anderson jumped out of the car and hurried around to open Cole's door and help him out. Cole wanted to tell him that he wasn't an invalid, but he knew that Anderson just needed to do
something
.

The guy had been totally wrecked, even more than Cole's apartment had been.

Anderson was solicitous as they went through the lobby and took the elevator up to Cole's floor. There were new cameras everywhere, shiny and expensive. No one was going to be sneaking into the building again.

When they got to his apartment, Cole was pleasantly surprised to find just how good a clean up job had taken place. Everything smelled fresh and all the furniture was new. And the TV was larger than the original had been and there was even a new Xbox set up and waiting.

He winced a little when his mother seemed to pop up out of nowhere and wrap him in her tight embrace, but he just laid his head on her shoulder. "I'm all right," he said. "You did a good cleanup job."