Blayne hung up the phone. “There’s an emergency. I’ve got to go.”
“Give me a minute to throw on something more appropriate,” Ethan said.
“You don’t need to—”
“Shut it,” Ethan said with a remarkable amount of compassion as he reached across the table, grabbed Blayne’s hand and stared into his eyes. “I’m coming.”
* * * *
Blayne
Blayne and Ethan walked through the sliding doors into the Pennington University Hospital Emergency Department—ED. The institutional white walls and fluorescent lighting gave it a dreary look in the best of times. There were some random paintings of West Texas landscapes on the walls. Someone must have felt the extra pop of color made it look homier, but the artworks added to the desolate look of the ED.
Blayne had been in the ED twice—once after he had tried to slice off his thumb when cutting red peppers and another time when a friend had broken a leg during a pickup game of soccer during the summer. Blayne steered Ethan toward the waiting area, which he knew was right off the main entrance and down a short hallway.
Blayne walked into the waiting area. Dr. Reich stood and immediately threw her arms around Blayne. He could tell she’d been crying. Her face was puffy. Her mascara had been washed away, leaving black streaks running down her cheeks.
When they finally separated, he turned to Ethan and introduced her to Dr. Reich. “Ethan Bond, this is Dr. Madeline Reich. Dr. Reich, Ethan Bond.”
Ethan extended his hand and shook the woman’s hand, grasping it on both sides. “It’s nice to meet you, Ethan.” She gave him a once-over. “Have we met?”
“I doubt it,” Blayne jumped in. “He’s visiting from New Orleans. He flew in yesterday to hang out in Houston for a few days.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Ethan,” she started, before choking back a sob, “even if it is under these circumstances.”
Blayne helped her back over to a chair. Thankfully, the waiting room was quiet, so Blayne sat down next to her and held her hand while Ethan took a seat across them.
“How is he? What happened?”
Blayne gestured with his head to Ethan toward a box of tissues on a table toward the front of the room. Without saying a word, Ethan stood and got the box before handing it to Blayne. Blayne mouthed, ‘Thank you’.
Blayne watched as Dr. Reich took a deep breath while staring at the ground. She slowly exhaled before she told Ethan what she’d learned from the police. “Jamie was coming home from school. Someone jumped him, and he was beaten badly. The police think it was just with their hands, but they couldn’t rule out that he’d been attacked with something else. They found his phone on him, which is how they called me. Thank God I made him put me in his phone as ICE.”
“ICE?” Blayne asked.
“In case of emergency,” Dr. Reich said. “I don’t know where I read to do that, but thank God I did.”
“What have the doctors told you?”
“Dr. Giest-Mueler was on call tonight. I met with him right before they wheeled Jamie into surgery.”
“Dear God,” Blayne said, his eyes wide in shock. “What did they do to him?”
“He has at least one broken bone and some nasty lacerations across his face and upper torso. There’s also fear he might have been—” She choked back another sob, then took a deep breath before continuing. “He might have been sexually violated.”
Ethan gasped. His eyes widened as the color drained from his face.
Without going into too much detail, Dr. Reich told them the police were afraid whoever attacked Jamie had used some kind of object to victimize the young man. The surgery they were performing right now was threefold. A plastic surgeon was working on Jamie’s face. An orthopedic surgeon was waiting to fix his arm. And Dr. Giest-Mueler was making sure there was not any permanent damage to Jamie’s rectum or colon.
Blayne pulled Dr. Reich into a hug. “I am so sorry.” He felt the hot tears streaming down the side of his face. Ethan leaned over, grabbed a tissue and handed it to him.
“Madeline,” a voice came from the doorway. Blayne looked up to see the fluorescent light above Kira’s head like a strange oblong-shaped halo, “what happened?” Kira asked as she walked into the waiting room and came and sat next to Ethan. Kira grasped one of Madeline’s hands as Blayne caught her up so Dr. Reich wouldn’t have to go through it all again.
When she finished, a couple of detectives entered the room. “Dr. Reich?” one of them asked.
“Yes?” she said, pulling back from Blayne and Kira.
“I’m Detective Wilson, and this is Detective Spector. We’re with the Pennington Police Department. Can we talk to you for a few minutes?”
