‘Of course you didn’t. But I hope you don’t mind,’ Andie said as Travis walked into the room with two glasses of water and a bag of Andie’s favorite chips. ‘I asked Travis if he would stay with us for a while. He sleeps over a lot anyway and I would feel so much safer if he were here with everything going on.’

Travis gave me a small smile as he rested on the arm of the couch near Andie.

‘Oh, yeah absolutely. Honestly, I think that’s a great idea, especially now that one of the prime suspects has our address,’ I said, feeling guilty.

Andie looked relieved that I’d accepted her proposal so quickly but it was the least I could do and it did make me feel safer. ‘Trav,’ she said looking up at him. ‘Would you mind starting out by making sure the front door is locked and checking all the windows? Especially that back one that never latches. Maybe we can put something up against it to hold it in place. That seems like prime real estate for TSK.’

‘On it,’ he said, jumping up and rushing around to check all our entry points.

Andie got up to go change out of her bar clothes and I looked down at my phone to see what time it was. My heart sank when I saw I still had no call notifications from Adam. After the call with Beccah, I was more determined than ever to get ahold of him. I wasn’t sure I could cope with the guilt if I’d unwittingly invited TSK to our doorstep. It was too late to call Adam. Reaching out again would have to wait till tomorrow. I took a deep breath, getting up to search for something to wedge into the top of the window frame and make it more secure. I tried desperately to push away the images fighting for attention in my mind: a man with my eyebrows, prying open our back window while we slept.

VICTIMS 16 & 17

Rosa Ramirez & Rowan Morrison

2006

CHAPTER 20