Just a Sketch (22 page)

Leo studied his best friend for a moment. “Go? As in go home?”

Felix nodded. “Yeah. I tried this morning. I was able to make it to my apartment and not freak out. I went over with Detective Benet to get some samples for the case against Randal. It’s actually a good thing we hadn’t gotten around to cleaning yet.”

“No.” Leo shook his head. “You’re not going there tonight. I wanted to get in there and clean up the bedroom for you. I can’t let you go over there and sleep in that bed. We might even need to get you a new mattress.”

Aud caressed Leo’s arm, then squeezed his hand. “If Felix wants to stay here, I can go home.”

Leo’s face fell. “But I was thinking it would be awesome to fall asleep with you next to me.”

“I know.” A sad look crossed Aud’s face too. “But I don’t think you’re up for anything strenuous. Not that I would mind just cuddling you.”

“I could just sleep on the couch and give you two the bed,” Felix offered. “To be honest, I would like some time to clean up at my place before going back there for very long.”

“Are you sure?” Leo asked, although he didn’t really feel like sleeping on his couch, even if he was by himself. Between his wound and Aud, it would be especially difficult, but he’d been raised to always give the guests his bed.

“I’m sure.” Felix shrugged. “It’s not like I’m going to have to listen to you and Aud having sex.”

“Not tonight, anyway,” Leo looked at Aud and wanted more than anything to be able to enjoy all Aud had to offer, but knew he shouldn’t until he was fully healed.

“Then it’s settled.” Felix walked toward the closet in the small hall, where Leo kept spare sheets and blankets. “You two go on and get tucked in for the night. I’m going to watch a bit of TV, but I’ll keep it low.”

Leo grabbed Aud’s hand. “Come on. I’m about ready to fall over.”

“You’ve been through a lot lately.” Aud didn’t resist as Leo led him from the living room into the bedroom.

Once the door was closed, Leo turned and hugged Aud as tight as he could. Aud felt so good in his arms. They kissed, and it lingered until Leo felt light-headed.

“I think I need to lie down.” He sank back on the bed, which was just a couple of feet from the door. “Man, I forgot to go get my prescriptions. I wasn’t planning on a welcome-home party.”

“They sent a dose home with you.” Aud looked down at him with concern written on his handsome face. “Will that be enough for tonight?”

Leo shrugged. He hadn’t read all the directions. “I don’t know. Hopefully.”

“I think they’re here in the plastic bag.” He picked it up and put it on the bed. “You dig through, and I’ll go get you a glass of water.”

“Okay.” Leo sat up and pulled out the things he’d been sent home from the hospital with. He found a couple of small bottles of pills. One of them was to be taken with food. When Aud returned with the water, Leo sent him back for a piece of cake.

Once he had all the pills in him and his glasses and clothes off, Leo stretched out on the bed. Aud lay carefully next to him.

“Right now this mars the sexiness of you,” Aud spread his big fingers out so they landed lightly on either side of the wound. “But once it scars, it might end up being kinda hot. Not many guys have scars from where they were knifed by a psycho.”

Leo looked into Aud’s eyes. “Just what I need, a sad memento of the whole incident.”

“If you don’t want a scar, I’m sure we can find a plastic surgeon to make it go away.”

“I’m not sure my insurance will cover that. We don’t have a great plan at work.” Leo slid a little closer to Aud and laid his head on Aud’s strong shoulder. The soft blond hairs on Aud’s chest tickled Leo’s chin.

Aud combed his fingers through Leo’s hair. “If they won’t pay for it, we’ll come up with something. Maybe I can scare another insurance agent into doing what we need done.”

“You scared an insurance agent? When did this happen?”

“The other day. Right before or about the same time as you got stabbed. He didn’t want to authorize a weekend repair of my window. I threatened to pull my home and business policy from them and he gave in.”

“My Aud.” As Leo said the words, it sounded right. He and Aud were now part of each other. “You got pushy to get your way. That’s kinda sweet. I think some of these insurance companies need to have a bit of fear put into them once in a while.”

“I do too.” Aud kissed the top of Leo’s head. “With everything I’d been through before that, I wasn’t in the mood to put up with any crap that would delay things getting fixed. Little did I know that other stuff was getting worse.” His voice broke.

Leo turned and caught the shimmer of tears rolling down Aud’s rugged face. He hugged Aud. “Hey, it’s all working out. We’re still around. Isn’t that what we’ve been saying all day?

Aud nodded and sniffled. “But I almost lost you. I think seeing you in the hospital helped me realize how much you really mean to me. I don’t ever want to lose you.” Aud hugged him lightly.

“I don’t ever want to lose you either, and we’re not going to. We’ll do what we can to make sure Randal is put away for a good long time.” Leo kissed the hollow of Aud’s neck. “I love you, and that love is strong enough to keep me going.”

“I love you too,” Aud murmured around the tears.

Leo held Aud. He’d never had a man cry in his arms before. He wanted to give Aud all the love and comfort he could, just as Aud had been trying to take care of him since he’d been injured. It intensified the feelings that swirled around him.
I wish we could just disappear together and never let the world impede us ever again.

AUD KEPT
glancing across the Jeep to make sure Leo appeared comfortable. After Leo woke up several times in the night with pains in his side, Aud was trying to insure he didn’t inadvertently cause any additional pain by hitting potholes or doing anything else that might be jarring as they drove from the pharmacy to the police department.

“I wish Benet could’ve waited another day or so to do this,” Aud muttered. “It’s already been three days since the attack.”

Leo looked out the window. “I’d like to just get this over with. I would’ve been fine with Benet coming up to the hospital to get my statement. Wasn’t that what they did with you, Julie, and Felix?”

“Yeah.” Aud angled the Jeep into a parking place in the half-full lot. “But you were still in surgery when they came in. Who knows? Maybe Benet got busy and didn’t have a chance to make it back up to the hospital.”

Gently undoing the seat belt, Leo sighed. “Maybe.”

Aud touched his arm. “Are you feeling okay?”

“There’s a bit of pain, but I want to wait until we’re done here before I take one of the pain pills. Those things kick my butt.” Leo opened the door and stepped out.

“Will leaning on me help?” Aud got out as quick as he could and hurried to Leo’s side.

“I don’t know.” Leo sounded tired. “Let’s see if I can make it without you right now.” He smiled weakly at Aud. “I know you want to help, and that’s great. Remember, we’re in Colorado Springs. They aren’t used to two guys holding hands and leaning on each other, even for medical reasons.”

Aud sighed. “And you’ve already been attacked once. Gotcha.” He moved ahead of Leo and held the door to the police station open.

Together they walked up to the counter where a bored-looking woman sat talking into a headset. She held up a finger to them, indicating they should wait a moment.

“Do you need to sit down while we wait?” Aud leaned against the counter and looked at Leo, trying to determine how tired he really was.

“No.” Leo patted his arm. “I’ll be okay. When we get done here, I’ll swallow a pain pill and take a nap when we get back home.”

The receptionist got off her call, and then, after they explained why they were there, contacted Benet to come talk to them.

Benet appeared almost immediately. “Mr. Caldwell. Nice to see you out of the hospital and back on your feet.”

“It might be a while before I’m totally back on my feet,” replied Leo.

“Let’s go into the conference room over here. I can get your statement there.” He glanced at Aud. “Do you mind if Mr. Sorenson is present? If you do, he’ll need to wait outside.”

A warm smile eased the sides of Leo’s mouth. “He can be with me. He’s my strength right now.”

Benet just nodded and started walking down the hall to the first room they came to. There wasn’t much in the room, just a simple wooden table and five chairs. Benet sat in a chair across the table from them and set a yellow legal pad down in front of him and placed a tablet computer on top of it.

“I want to start by saying that your friend’s quick thinking has provided us the best evidence we could ask for in the case against Randal Hudspeth. If she hadn’t gotten so much video, it might’ve ended up being your word against his. Most of the other witnesses who’ve come forward didn’t get the start of the altercation.”

Leo blinked at the detective. “I’m sorry. I don’t know anything about a video.”

“I’m not sure anyone told you about it,” Aud said when Benet looked confused. “Julie set her smartphone on the roof of your car, leaned it against a bag of something, and videoed most of your altercation with Randal.”

“You’ve seen it?” Leo turned his gaze from Benet to Aud.

“Not all of it.” Aud admitted. It had been too hard for him to watch Randal attacking Leo, and he’d had to ask Julie to stop the playback. He’d also asked her not to show Leo until they all thought he was up to it.

“There’s enough footage to make a solid conviction on criminal charges,” Benet said. “I wish everyone was as calm under pressure as she was. We don’t actually see the stabbing, but it’s fairly obvious from the sound what happens.” He tapped on the tablet. “I can show you if you like.”

A horrified look crossed Leo’s handsome face. He shook his head. “I don’t think so. Maybe in a few weeks, a month or two, I’ll get Julie to show me.”

“We’ve asked her to keep it from the media. It’s our main evidence in the case.” Benet made a couple of notes on his page. “There were other witnesses who got video, and at least two of those went to news stations with them. But they only show parts of the fight.”

“I think I saw a bit of one of those on the news Sunday,” Leo said.

“Well, what we need now is to get your official statement.” Benet tapped his pen on the pad. “If you could elaborate on your relationship with Mr. Hudspeth and what led to the incident in the Walmart parking lot.”

Leo leaned back and the wooden chair creaked. For the next thirty minutes, he explained his side of things to Detective Benet. His version matched what Aud had heard from Julie and Felix. At times Benet asked more questions, and others he just nodded and made confirmatory sounds in his throat. He also gave Benet the paper he’d found at Felix’s apartment. It seemed like a good time to hand that over.

“Your side of things matches up with the other witnesses.” Benet put his pen down on top of the pad. “With all the witnesses of the attack, we’ve got a strong case there. With the video evidence, we can expand things to his stalking of Mr. Sorenson. Right now we’re still waiting for DNA evidence back from Mr. Sanders’s residence to be able to file assault charges from that incident. It would be an easier case in terms of Mr. Sanders if he’d come forward earlier.”

“You know he was afraid of how he’d be received coming in here and saying he’d been raped by another man,” Leo said, sounding like he was trying to justify Felix’s slowness in reporting the rape.

“We’re a military town, Mr. Caldwell.” Benet leaned back in his chair. “It wouldn’t have been the first case of man-on-man rape we’d have seen, and it won’t be the last. We take them just as seriously as man-on-woman rape and woman-on-man rape. To us, it doesn’t matter. Rape is rape and it needs to be reported as soon as it happens. We don’t care who the people involved are. It’s a violent attack on another person, often more damaging than being shot or hit by a car.”

“That’s good to hear,” Leo said. “Let’s hope none of us ever need that information again.”

“Is there anything else you require from us?” Aud asked. He wanted to get Leo out of there and back home so he could rest and continue his recovery. Aud also wanted to get to the gallery so Heather could have the days off he’d promised her.

“I think that will be everything for now.” Benet picked up his pen and bounced it against the paper. The clicking of it rang out in the small room. “You should both be prepared for a trial on this, unless Mr. Hudspeth decides to plead guilty and go for a plea deal. Since he hasn’t even attempted to post bail, that’s what the prosecutor’s hoping for right now. It would help save the citizens of El Paso County the expense of multiple trials.”

Aud nodded. “My lawyer said that if the criminal angle of this doesn’t turn out the way we like, there’s the possibility of civil lawsuits from all of us. Is that correct?”

“It is. You can all three sue Mr. Hudspeth for mental damages and stress.”

Leo glanced at Aud. “Let’s wait and see how the criminal case works out. I’d rather just wrap everything up and be done with it so we can all get on with our lives and hope that we never hear from Randal ever again.”

“Okay. We’ll wait it out and see what happens.” Aud stood and held his hand across the table to Benet. “Detective Benet, I thank you for helping us get this cleared up.”

Benet’s hand in his was firm and strong. “Just doing my job.” When Benet turned loose Aud’s hand, he offered his to Leo. “Mr. Caldwell, I hope you feel better soon. Also, remind Mr. Sanders that if he needs it, we have a list of rape counselors who will be willing to help him work through everything.”

“I’ll remind him.” Leo returned the handshake. “Just make sure Randal gets locked up for a good long time. That’s what we all want now. We want to feel safe again.”

“With your statement and the video, I don’t think he’s going to get off with just a slap on the wrist.” Benet came around the table to open the door for them. “If I need anything else, I’ll be in touch.”

“We’ll be around,” Aud replied as they left the room and headed for the doors.