Chapter 12 - There's no light at the end of the tunnel tonight
The whole room was silent. The doctor's last words were echoing in both Keely and Phil's ears, seeming to sound slower each time they heard it in their heads.
The cause of death was suffocation…
The cause of death was suffocation…
The cause of death was suffocation…
The cause of death was suffocation…
Keely shook her head. "Come again?"
She wanted the doctor to say something different. That her father had fought as hard as he could. That he had lost, but unwillingly. She didn't want to believe the words that came out of his mouth.
"Your father. He wasn't killed by the cancer. He passed away due to suffocation," the doctor said, more slowly, as if he thought Keely were stupid.
"Don't speak to me slowly, I'm not brain dead," Keely snapped, still trying to process the information.
Mandy gasped. "I'm sorry. She -"
"I understand. It's normal for someone to be like this after they lose a close relation," Dr. Smith smiled at Keely sympathetically.
Keely rolled her eyes. "You can shut up. You don't know me. You didn't know my father. Don't you give me all that rubbish about me being distressed. You've just told me that my dad died in suspicious circumstances. This has nothing to do with the fact that he's dead - it's more to do with the fact that you're trying to make me believe that he was killed!"
Phil grabbed her arm to silence her, and she stopped, breathing heavily, the words just soaking in. "Does that mean that he was killed? I mean, couldn't he have just…died?"
"It's more unlikely that he just died. Chances are, someone tried to kill him, and they succeeded. We don't know the murder weapon yet. Could have been a pillow, could have been something that the murderer brought," Dr. Smith said, sounding almost relieved that someone had calmed Keely down.
Keely took a deep breath. "It was definitely murder then?"
"Well, we can't rule the 'he just died' theory out, but it's more likely he was killed. Deliberately," Dr. Smith turned back to Keely, now that she was calm.
Mandy began to sob again.
"The police should be here any minute. Before they get here, do you have any questions you need to ask me?" the doctor said, half-hoping there were none. There was never none in cases like this though.
Keely sniffed. "Would he have suffered?"
"It's hard to say…"
"Would he have suffered?" Keely yelled, slamming her fist on the coffee table in front of her.
Dr. Smith frowned. "Depending on what the murder weapon was, the amount of suffering would vary…"
"Just tell me if he would have suffered," Keely whispered, but if anything, the whisper seemed to be more menacing than the yell.
"It's likely that he would have suffered, yes," the doctor resigned trying to comfort them. Keely obviously didn't want the easy way, she wanted the truth.
Keely sighed, and tears began to well in her eyes. "Phil…"
She didn't need to say anything. Phil held out his arms, and let her fall into them, sobbing. Not some counsellor type. He was there for her, as himself. The person she really needed.
---
The police were there for the best part of the night.
Phil had called his mom and dad to fill them in, and to request permission to stay with Keely. They had no choice really. If there was some psycho murderer out there, Phil walking home alone was out of the question.
Keely and Mandy were the first suspects, and the questioning took longer than they had expected.
"Keely, how well did you know your father?" The woman, apparently called D.I Raleigh, asked Keely.
Keely shook her head. "Not real well. Not as well as some kids know their fathers. It wasn't like Phil and his dad. I saw my dad about once every year. Maybe even less. Talked to him on the phone a bit. But we never really talked about him. It was more about how I was doing, and what I wanted. If you want details about my father's life I can't give them to you. He was almost a complete stranger."
"Apparently you were upset about your father's death. So why would you be upset about a complete stranger?" The policeman said.
Keely looked over at Phil. "It's like something Phil said to me today. You can miss someone you don't know all that well. It's whether or not you choose to spend your whole life missing them, or just think about them, everyday. I was upset. Just like I'd be upset if someone on TV died. I get upset all the time when I hear of these bodies being found. But I didn't know them, did I? At the end of the day, he was my dad. And complete stranger, or best friend, I'm entitled to cry about him dying, aren't I?"
Mandy had begun to cry, listening to what her daughter had to say. It was so deep, so meaningful.
"Okay. Do you know anyone who would want to kill David?" The policewoman asked.
Keely shook her head. "I mean, I hardly knew him, but I couldn't think of why anyone would kill him. He seemed normal on the phone."
"Normal?" the policeman questioned.
Keely sighed. "Normal as in, he talked to me, about me. He sympathised with me when I told him my deepest secrets, and laughed with me with stupid things that I'd done at school. Normal. Like that."
"What secrets did you share?" the policewoman asked.
Keely flushed bright red. Usually she would have been glad to just say anything that could help. But…
"Honey, don't worry if you don't want to say anything," Mandy said, sympathetically.
Keely shrugged. "I would. I'd tell you any day, but I'm not sure I want to with all these people around." She avoided eye contact with Phil as she said this.
The policewoman seemed to understand this, and so she began to talk to Mandy. "Do you know of anyone who would have wanted to kill your ex-husband?"
Mandy shook her head, but a bit too quickly, and a bit too vigorously.
"Are you sure?" the policeman asked. "If you know anything, we'll have to be told. Otherwise you and your daughter could be in immense danger."
Mandy whimpered, and Keely turned to look at her. "Mom, if you know anything, please tell them."
"I can't."
The room fell deathly silent.
"Why can't you Mrs. Teslow?"
Mandy looked up at the ceiling, her eyes filling with tears. "I promised David I wouldn't tell Keely about it. It was one of the last things I told him. I'll tell you. In private. Please…"
The officers looked at each other, but nodded, and motioned for Keely and Phil to leave the room. Just before she left, she flashed her mother a hurt look.
"I thought we could tell each other anything, mom. I guess not."
Could have been a moment of my insanity (and I have a lot of those), but I've reconsidered. I promise to, tell you exactly what happened to Keely's dad, revert back to how Via and Owen are getting along, and bring Phil and Keely together. I'm not making any promises about how long that will take, but I will try (and as my mum always says - you can only try your best) to update frequently.
But anyway, review! Or else I'll take back my promises!
