Breaking Point (Drew Ashley 1) (37 page)

By the time Kale finished on the other line I was back at square one—unable to breathe. A fresh wind blew in from the window, choking me. It was too much. It was like my nostrils were just completely blocked, unable to take in air.

"Help is on the way, Drew. Try to focus on breathing. I think you're in shock."

My vision blurred and I let out a stifled moan. A vision was the last thing I needed right now. I realised there was no headache and calmed down a little. I wasn't going to have a vision.

I got more and more light-headed and disoriented as Kale talked to me.

It seemed like the ambulance took forever to come. I heard the sound of sirens in what seemed like an age later. Still I didn't move.

Kale was still talking to me, telling me something about God's love and protection when the room door was broken down and the ambulance crew piled in.

***

I was discharged from hospital on Tuesday evening and Kale took me to his house. I was
not
going back to my house, to my room.

"You can stay here as long as you want," Kale told me as we walked up six flights of stairs. The lifts in his block of flats were out of order. All three of them.

We went to the kitchen when we got in and I leaned against the wall, watching Kale as he moved around his kitchen, looking for something for me to eat. I felt like a liability. "Sorry, Kale."

"Don't be sorry, Drew. I'm glad you're here. You can't go home, you need to stay safe." Kale removed a packet of instant noodles from a cupboard.

I shook my head. "I'm not really that hungry."

"I didn't ask if you were hungry. You're eating anyhow." He tore the packet and broke the dried noodles into a small pot. He added the packet of seasoning and started boiling the noodles. It smelled pretty good.

"I can't believe Travis is dead," I muttered, twisting my engagement ring around my finger."I can't believe the whole situation. It's crazy."

"I know," Kale said grimly.

"Have there been any arrests yet?" I asked. I'd asked Kale to follow the news and relay anything of significance to me, because I found the case too upsetting to follow myself.

"Not yet. Your mum said the police want to speak to you as soon as possible."

"Why would I kill someone, put them in my own bed, then report it to the police?"

"They just want to cover all bases. I'll go with you if you want."

"Thanks."

Kale's buzzer rang. "That'll be your mum and dad," he said, striding out to the hallway to buzz them in. "I asked them to bring you some clothes. I'll just go help them with your stuff."

I watched Kale disappear out of the front door. I felt a little uneasy being in his flat on my own. I didn't want to be left alone.

I didn't relax until he reappeared with my mum and dad, hauling a suitcase.

"I think we need to move house," I told my mum and dad.

My dad nodded. "We've already discussed it. Your mum told me about your room being broken into last month. It's not safe for us to live there anymore."

"How soon can you find a new house?" I asked. We needed to move as soon as possible.

"I've taken the rest of the week off work," my mum told me. "So we can do some house hunting."

"It can take months to find a house and get a mortgage, can't it?" I asked.

"Yes," my dad acknowledged. "But we'll see what we can do. We might just find a rental property for the time being."

Kale reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze. "You can stay here as long as you need to."

"Thanks, Kale."

"We're staying at a hotel for the next few days," my mum told me. "Our house has been taped off by the police and it's full of CSI people."

"Forensic scientists," I corrected her.

She shot me a glare. "You must be feeling better now, if you're back to your old disrespectful ways."

"I was just saying."

My mum took my dad's hand. "Let's go, honey. It looks like we've outstayed our welcome."

"Not at all," Kale said.

"No, it's fine. We'll leave." My mum looked at me. "You know Dillan, my boss' son that you refused to go on a date with? He's in charge of the forensic investigation. He's a forensic detective. He said he thinks you need a bodyguard until they get to the bottom of this case."

"I think Drew definitely needs a bodyguard," Kale agreed.

"Harvey said that if we were in America you'd be able to carry a gun on you," my mum said. "Maybe you can just carry a knife. Just in case of anything."

Carry a knife? My mind rejected the thought but it was probably a good idea, just in case the killer came after me. Travis' murder was evidence that this was not a joke. Someone was lurking out there, someone who was ready to kill.

My dad looked grim as he steered my mum towards the door. "Lock your doors and windows."

"Will do," Kale replied. "Shall we call the police to arrange your interview?" he asked, after we shut the door behind my mum and dad.

I walked to the living room and flopped onto Kale's worn couch. "What if they find me guilty?"

"They won't."

"I could be charged falsely and get jailed for life."

Kale sat down beside me. "That won't happen Drew. The longer you put off the interview, the more suspicious it'll seem."

I exhaled. How had my life become this mess? "You think so?"

"Yeah. Do you want me to call them for you?"

"Okay, go on."

Kale called the police and then passed the phone to me. We arranged my interview for tomorrow morning, ten o clock.

I wiped away tears after the call. It seemed like my life had been unravelling since I became a Christian. Weren't things supposed to get easier?

"What are you thinking about?" Kale asked me, taking his landline handset from me and placing it on the holder.

I told him, and he smiled. "I think that all the time. I've been saved three years and sometimes I wonder what on earth God is doing up there, anyway."

"Really?" It was great that he understood, but his statement wasn't very encouraging. So things weren't going to get any better?

"Let's pray," Kale said.

Good idea. "You pray, and I'll listen."

Kale's heartfelt prayer brought tears to my eyes. I listened as he went on for a good few minutes, pouring his heart out about my safety, the killer that was on the loose, and Travis' family.

"Thank you," I whispered when he finished. I lifted my eyes to meet his and saw that they were shiny with unshed tears.

He brushed a kiss across my head. "Everything is going to be okay."

"I hope so."

I wondered how Travis' family was coping. They must know by now about Travis turning up in my bed. The whole country knew. I wondered if they suspected me of killing him.

"I love you," Kale whispered, tracing my jawline with a finger.

I smiled through my tears. "I love you, too."

"If anything happens to you…" Kale's voice trailed off. He shook his head and looked away.

I reached for his hand. "Nothing is going to happen to me. We just prayed for protection, didn't we?"

Kale exhaled slowly. "I'll go get your noodles."

***

I started feeling tired around eight o clock, so Kale said he'd go and get his room ready for me. He dragged my suitcase with him.

I waited in the living room and started mentally preparing for my interview with the police tomorrow. No doubt they'd ask me to recount what had happened on Friday—where I'd been at what time, and all that. Hopefully, they'd see that I had no part in Travis' death.

"The room's ready."

I jumped. "Oh! Kale!"

"Sorry, did I scare you?" Kale asked apologetically.

"I didn't hear you coming," I said, rising from the sofa.

Kale caught me as I made to pass him. "Feel free to wake me up anytime during the night if you need anything."

"I will. Sorry you have to sleep on the sofa."

"It's no bother at all. Sleep tight."

I walked down the short corridor to Kale's room. I hesitated at the door. It was slightly open. I peeped through the crack to see if I could see the bed. I couldn't.

"What's up?" Kale asked from the living room.

"Nothing." I pushed the door wide open and took a deep breath. I glanced at the bed and went cold. There was something bulging from under the duvet. I stifled a moan.

Kale was at my side in an instant. "What's wrong?"

I couldn't speak.

"Drew?"

I turned and went back to the living room. I sat down shaking. I felt choked.

Kale rounded the sofa and dropped to his knees before me. "Talk to me."

"There's something in the bed." I closed my eyes. I sounded so paranoid.

Kale went to check the room. When he returned he offered a hand. "Come on, I'll go to the room with you."

I took his hand and he pulled me to my feet. We went to the room together and Kale turned his back while I changed into my pyjamas. I kept my eyes away from the bed. I couldn't look at it. When I finished, he rolled the duvet back for me to get in.

I got into the bed and he covered me.
Okay, that wasn't so bad.

"Do you want me to stay until you sleep?" Kale asked.

"That'd be nice." I felt ridiculous.

Kale picked up the Bible on his table and sat on the edge of the bed. He started to read from the book of Esther. My mind wandered and his voice became a soft rumble in the background before it was filtered out completely as I drifted to sleep.

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

The next morning, Kale and I went for my police interview and then we went to town to have a key to Kale's flat cut for me. Afterwards, we met my mum and dad for an early lunch. I was pretty far away during the meal.

"Have you spoken to Carol?" my mum asked me.

"No. I haven't spoken to any of Travis' family."

"Don't you think you should?"

I reached for a bread roll and buttered it thickly. "Yeah, I'll call Carol."

"You sound reluctant."

"I am reluctant." Travis' family probably hated me for the mere fact that I found him the way I did, even if I had nothing to do with it. I bit into my succulent roll of warm, soft bread. The butter had melted slightly. "I'll call Carol this evening."

"Ask her if we can pay them a visit," my mum said.

"The three of us?" my dad asked.

"Yes. Drew was with Travis for six years. We should go and let them know that we're grieving along with them."

My mum was annoying, but she was very tender-hearted, too. I wished I had some of her compassion. It wasn't that I didn't want to see Travis' family. I just knew that it was going to be really difficult.

As it happened, when I called Travis' mum she was crying and said that we were welcome to come over any time. I told her we'd come at six.

***

There were lots of flowers outside Travis' parents' house. We pulled up a few minutes before six to find journalists reporting to live TV news stations, and members of the public laying yet more flowers on the floor outside the gate.

My dad opened the gate and we walked to the house. I rang the bell once and dug my hands into my pockets. This was such a horrible situation. I still couldn't believe it had happened.

Carol, who was always so well presented, looked so grief-stricken when she opened the door that just the sight of her tugged tears from my eyes. My mum gave me a slight nudge from behind, so I stepped forward and hugged her.

Carol clutched my arms, sobbing into my shoulder. "Thank you for coming. My husband is out making the funeral arrangements, so I'm alone. I couldn't bear to go with him."

I pulled away after a while and my mum passed me the flowers we'd bought on our way. I handed them to Carol. "We're so sorry about what's happened."

"Come in," she said, taking the flowers and stepping aside.

I led the way to the living room. The room was practically full of flowers. I sat down, thinking about all the times that I'd sat in this living room with Travis, watching TV, talking, making out, even. I blinked back fresh tears. Travis couldn't be gone. He couldn't be dead.

My mum sat down next to Carol and gave her a hug. Carol's grip on my mum's arms looked painful. "It's so hard," she choked. "I don't think I'll ever get over it."

My mum just nodded. My dad came to sit beside me. I was crying now, I couldn't help it. He put an arm around my shoulders and I buried my face into his chest. My mind was replaying that vision I'd had where Travis' name had been written in blood on a computer screen and I'd heard his mum crying. It also replayed the vision where he'd lain lifeless on the floor.

"I've been a complete mess since he was found on Monday," Travis' mum said through her tears.