“I don’t know if I’m helping you Travis, but I do know I can’t let anyone else hurt you. So, I will do what I have to and make sure you’re safe.”
I kiss the top of her head and release her. “Thank you.”
I head up the stairs with E close behind me. She looks over to my bedroom door and the hole in it. “There’s blood there.” She states.
“Yeah,” I nod, “I think the bitch tried to put her fist through it.”
“No,” Ember shakes her head, “the indent is too big, it looks like the top of a head.”
I stand staring at the door, transfixed by the indent that indeed looks like the top of a head. Like maybe someone was rammed into that door. I need to find Sonja because I have a feeling it's her head that hit my door and I know it was my mother that did it.
“Everything is still dead in here.” Ember calls out from my parents bedroom and I finally peel my eyes off the door.
I pull out my cell phone and call 911 as I meet E in the bedroom. I quickly relay to the operator in a shaky, terrified voice that I found my mother dead. She tells me not to touch the body and that she’s sending over police and an ambulance. Wasn’t going to touch the bitch anyways.
When the cops and ambulance do arrive a few minutes later, I watch as they pull her down from the door and lay her stiff, cold body onto a gurney.
“She took a nice cut to the face.” One of the cops says and my heartbeat picks up. I look over to E but she’s as cool as a cucumber.
“Look,” another says, “she has blood under her nails. She probably did it to herself.”
“Travis Greene?” The first cop looks at me. I nod and he continues, “the chief is on his way here to ask you a few questions.”
“Okay.” I shrug.
“Sorry about your mom.” The other cop says.
“Thanks, man.” I nod.
I watch as they cover her with a sheet and wheel her out of the room. I sit on the bed and take in a deep breath. The chief is going to try and squeeze the most information out of me. He’s going to be very suspicious since both of my parents offed themselves within a year. Two people who were the most unlikely to do so. He would know since they knew each other well.
“You okay?” Ember asks.
“Yeah, just stay in the room when he gets here.”
“You betcha.” She grins like this is the most fun she’s had all day. Fuck, maybe it is… it’s E after all.
"Ah, Travis," I hear him as he enters my parents bedroom, "we keep meeting under these horrible circumstances."
"Hello, Sir." I nod at him.
"And Miss Craven as well."
"Maybe we should speak downstairs in the family room." I say as I stand.
"Sure." He smiles and waves his arm out. "Lead the way."
I lead them to the family room and Ember sits to my left while Chief Moore sits across from us. He crosses his left foot and rests it on top of his right knee, then leans back with a weird smirk on his face.
"Tell me what happened." He says.
"I came home to check in on Mother. Her grief over Father was really bad and I knew she had upped her drinking and prescription intake because of it. I tried to stay and help her, I tried to contact many different facilities to come get her but at the end of the day she made me feel bad for getting rid of her, that's how she put it. Then a few weeks ago, she threw all my clothes off the second floor balcony and told me to move out. She destroyed my room and threatened to kill me in my sleep if I stayed." I bow my head in my hands and pretend to hold back on the tears, "I left, I did what she asked me to do but look how it turned out."
"I spoke to the neighbours while the paramedics removed your mother and they corroborated with your story about the clothing and that you seemed to be away while your mother was roaming the streets the past few weeks. Did you know she did that?"
"Yes," I nod.
"You already spoke to neighbours?" E cuts in.
"Of course," he smiles at her, "this is not just an open and shut case. I now have two people in the same household that have killed themselves in less than a year."
"Such horrible circumstances." She says mockingly while nodding.
"Listen, Travis." He starts, "there's a lot of suspicion here because your father and mother were two of the richest people in Whitsborough, and now as their sole heir, you inherit that money. It goes without saying, while you became emancipated this past summer..." He pulls out a pocket book and opens to a page, "here it is... based on your mother's inability to properly parent you, this makes it look even worse."
I can feel Ember's eyes boring into the side of my head, I didn't tell anyone about my emancipation, especially because she was going through a hard time and Vin was consumed with her recovery. I just knew it had to be done and I needed to control my own life.
"So, let me get this straight," Ember sits forward with her arms on her legs, "because Travis' father decided in a moment of weakness to kill himself, that in which drives his wife insane, then to protect himself Travis gets emancipated but still looks after his mother until she threatens his life, then because she's weak and decides she would rather be with her husband than to raise her only son, Travis is at fault?"
"No, no" his hands come up in the air, "I'm not stating fault, I am investigating." He
