A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter Page B

not said one word to Sara about it, had been too much. Even Devon had avoided talking to Sara, skulking in the corner, his eyes wide with shock over what had happened to his lover and his child. Sara felt very near her breaking point, but there was no one around who could help her put the pieces together again.
    She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, trying to remember the last thing her sister had said to her.
    In the helicopter Tessa had been postictal from the seizure and beyond communication. The last coherent thing she had said was in the car, when she told Sara that she loved her.
    Sara bit into the KitKat even though she was not hungry.
    'Evenin', ma'am,' an older man said, tipping his hat to Sara as he walked by.
    She made herself smile, watching him go up the stairs. The man was around Eddie's age, but what she could see of his hair was completely white. His skin was almost translucent in the artificial light of the hospital, and though his dark blue pants and light blue shirt were clean-looking, she could smell something like grease or machine oil in his wake. He could have been a mechanic or a maintenance man at the hospital, or maybe he had someone upstairs holding on to life, just like Tessa.
    A group of doctors stopped in front of the cafeteria doors, their scrubs wrinkled, their white jackets stained with various substances. They were young, probably students or interns. Their eyes were bloodshot, and there was something world-weary about them that Sara recognized from her own time here at Grady.
    They were obviously waiting for someone as they talked among themselves, their voices a low hum. Sara looked down at the chocolate in her hand, her eyes not really focusing on the label, as she heard them passing around hospital gossip, tossing out procedures they would like to get in on.
    A man's voice said, 'Sara?'
    Sara kept her eyes on the label, assuming that the man was talking to another Sara.
    'Sara Linton?' the voice repeated, and she glanced up at the group of interns, wondering if one of her patients from the Heartsdale Children's Clinic was working at Emory now. She felt ancient looking at their young faces until she caught sight of a tall, older man standing behind them.
    'Mason?' she asked, recognition finally dawning.
    'Mason James?'
    'That's me,' he said, pushing through the group of interns. He put his hand on her shoulder. 'I ran into your folks upstairs.'
    'Oh,' Sara said, not knowing what else to say.
    'I work here now. Pediatric trauma.'
    'Right.' Sara nodded as if she remembered. She had dated Mason when she worked at Grady, but they'd lost touch after she moved back to Grant.
    'Cathy told me you were down here getting something to eat.'
    She held up the KitKat.
    He laughed. 'I see your culinary tastes haven't changed.'
    'They were out of filet mignon,' she told him, and Mason laughed again.
    'You look great,' he said, an obvious lie that good breeding and manners helped him pull off smoothly.
    Mason's father had been a cardiologist, just like his grandfather. Sara had always thought that part of Mason's attraction to her lay in the fact that Eddie was a plumber. Growing up in a world of boarding schools and country clubs, Mason had not had much contact with the working class, beyond writing checks for their services.
    'How… uh…" Sara struggled for something to say. 'How have you been?'
    'Great,' he said. 'I heard about Tessa downstairs. It's all over the ER.'
    Sara knew that even in a hospital as large as Grady, a case like Tessa's stuck out. Any violence involving a child was considered that much more horrific.
    'I checked in on her. Hope you don't mind.'
    'No,' Sara told him. 'Not at all.'
    'Beth Tindall's her doc,' he said. 'She's a good surgeon.'
    'Yes,' Sara agreed.
    He gave her a warm smile. 'Your mother is still as pretty as ever.'
    Sara tried to smile back. 'I'm sure she was glad to see you.'
    'Well, under the circumstances…' he allowed. 'Do they know who did it?'
    She shook