“Lucy, please,” Nathan said softly.
Lucy flushed, realizing that her voice had grown loud.
Then she looked wide-eyed at Ashley again, shaking her head. She lowered her voice to little more than a whisper. “They’re saying he was into drugs. He had heroin in his bloodstream. Now he’s lying there…practically dead. And he could be charged with that accident if…if he ever comes to. Ashley, we were never stupid parents. We were never blind to the drug scene. My Lord! We grew up when drugs were more prevalent than soda pop. And Stuart wasn’t an angel or a perfect child, but he was our child, and we did know him. But no matter what I say to the cops, or even to the hospital personnel, they just stare at me. Their eyes get so sad, and they stutter, and I can tell they’re thinking, ‘That poor woman. She thinks she knew her child, but she didn’t really.’ Ashley, of course I didn’t know everything about Stuart, and he wouldn’t talk about his latest project, but he still kept in touch with me, and he was not on drugs.”
“I believe you,” Ashley said.
Lucy caught both her hands, squeezing them so hard Ashley almost winced.
“You do?”
“Of course I do. Stuart was one of my best friends for years.”
“Ashley,” Nathan said suddenly, “I’d heard you’d joined the police force.”
“I’m in the academy,” Ashley said. “I haven’t been sworn in yet.”
“But still…”
They were both staring at her hopefully.
“Please…don’t expect too much,” she said. “I asked my sergeant today if he’d ask the officer in charge if I could talk to him. I mean, I’m not sure what I can do, if I can find out anything, but I can assure people that I knew Stuart really well, too, and that I know he would never have voluntarily done drugs.”
A nurse appeared in the doorway. “Mrs. Fresia, you’re welcome to sit with your son again, if you wish.”
“Thank you.” Lucy looked at Ashley, smiling ruefully. “Excuse me, dear. I think it’s so important that one of us is with him at all times. Please come back. I can’t tell you what your coming here has meant to us.”
“Of course I’ll be back.”
“We’ll introduce you as a cousin, Ashley,” Nathan said to her. “Perhaps your voice will mean something to him. His mother and I…we don’t intend to give up.”
“And,” Lucy added, “the police do come here to talk to us…to check on Stuart, and see how he’s doing. It’s not that any of the officers has been cruel or mean…. They just can’t seem to believe that we know Stuart wasn’t on drugs. Forgive me, dear, I’m getting back to my son.”
“Of course.” Ashley kissed her cheek and gave her a big hug. Lucy left with the nurse. Ashley hesitated, then sat down next to Nathan. “Nathan, what has Stuart been up to? I’m sorry to say that I haven’t talked to him in a long while.”
He stared down at his folded hands for several seconds, then looked around the waiting room.
“Have you eaten?” he asked her.
“Yes, thanks, I ate at the restaurant before coming.”
“Let’s get coffee anyway.”
Realizing that he didn’t want to talk in the waiting room, Ashley agreed. They went down to the hospital cafeteria.
“I’m glad you’re not hungry,” he told her dolefully.
“The food isn’t very good here, is it?”
“Well, the care is great, definitely some of the finest in the nation.” He offered her a weak grimace. “Maybe it’s not a bad thing to lose a few pounds.”
“When I come tomorrow, I’ll bring you dinner from Nick’s,” Ashley offered.
“You don’t have to come tomorrow, Ashley. Lucy and I are holding up as well as can be expected.”
“I’d like to come.”
“How do you like your coffee?”
“Black, usually. Unless it’s from what we call the ‘roach coach’—the food wagon where we get lunch during the day. Then I put some of the powdered stuff in it—makes it bearable.”
He smiled, and Ashley allowed him to buy them both cups of coffee. He had tossed his old one. He had stared at it until it had grown cold, he told her.
When they were seated, he ran his fingers through his hair, then looked at her. “I haven’t the least idea what Stuart was up to lately,” he said.