Page 50 of The Cruelty of Thorns

Did she think I had something to do with it? When Ron left me last night, he said he was going straight to his room. He wanted to get to bed early so he’d be rested for our trip today. Had something happened to him on the way there?

The nurse taped everything down, then bundled up her supplies. “I’ll be back soon to do the EKG,” she said as she hustled off.

I looked at the man on the bed. Tubes ran from IVs in both arms, with a blood pressure cuff on his upper arm and wires attached to his chest. Above him, twin monitors showed his blood pressure and a sine wave of his heartbeat. The sheet was pulled up to his chest, but from what I could see his usually olive skin appeared pale and drawn.

I stepped closer and peered down at his neck. They must have cleaned off the blood, but I could see evidence of a wound there. “What happened to you?” I murmured.

“How is he?” Toby asked as he and Lisa appeared around the curtain.

“They’re giving him fluids and blood and are going to do an EKG. Was he all right when he got back to the room last night?”

“Yeah, sure. He was a little tired; he’d been up late the last few nights studying. But he was excited about going to the lake today. Why?”

I hesitated, unsure if I should repeat what was told to me. “The nurse said there were signs of assault.”

Toby and Lisa exchanged glances. “Because of the neck wound?” he asked.

“Yeah. And there’s something else.” They both waited while I summoned the courage to continue. “She said there’s evidence of recent sexual activity.”

“Sexual activity? I don’t get it. Did you guys–?”

“No!” I was quick to deny.

“Then how?”

Lisa emitted a small gasp and lowered herself to the chair in the corner. I didn’t have time to ask her what was wrong because the nurse reappeared with a medical cart and a bundle of electronic leads. She pushed past us and went about peeling back Ron’s gown and placing plastic stickers on his chest and arms. We all watched as she hooked up the leads and switched on the machine on the cart. It beeped, then after a minute started spitting out paper covered with line graphs. The nurse waited for several minutes, then tore the paper off and shut off the machine. As she was removing the leads, she said to us, “He’s probably going to be out of it for a while, if you want to go grab something to eat. We’ll be moving him to a room as soon as one becomes available.”

“What about the assault?” Toby asked.

The nurse glanced between us. “Did you see it?”

“No. I just found him afterwards.”

She nodded. “If you want to press charges, I can get a police officer in here.”

Toby looked at me and I shrugged. We didn’t even know if he actually was assaulted and who did it.

“Is there any way to know about the…sexual part?” I asked.

The nurse glanced between us. “I only brought it up with you because you’re his girlfriend and might be able to shed some light on it, but I really can’t discuss the specifics of his condition with all of you due to HIPAA laws.”

“Okay, but is there any way you can tell for sure if he was assaulted, you know, that way?” I pressed.

“We can do a rape kit.”

“What does that entail?” Toby asked.

“A thorough examination and collection of any DNA evidence.” She studied us for a moment. “My advice right now? If you don’t know what happened for sure, maybe you should wait for him to regain consciousness. We don’t want to initiate an investigation of something that might have been consensual.”

“Consensual?” Toby snapped.

Lisa reached out and grabbed his arm. “Toby, let’s just wait for him to wake up.”

“Yeah, but…there’s no way it was consensual.”

I was sure Lisa was hiding something, but I didn’t want to press just now. The nurse looked around at us. “You talk among yourselves and let me know what you decide. Just keep in mind, he may be your friend, but he has a right to his privacy.”

Did she really think Ron had a male lover, especially one we didn’t know about? And when would he have had time? Toby said he’d gone to bed early last night. Unless he snuck out after Toby was asleep, there was no way he could have had sex with someone. Even if someone broke into his room, Toby would’ve known. Right?

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