Halfway Gone

It was only in the early hours of the afternoon on a Sunday, when Nick came over to Kim’s house. They were out in the front room on the luxurious white coloured couch – the very same couch when Kim was sat down by her mother and the police to tell her the news about her best friend.

“You’re right about that phone call,” Nick commented.

Kim raised her eyebrow. “What?” she asked confused.

“Last night I managed to figure out where the call was made from – the one that threatened you,” he explained. “You were right. The call was made from some pay phone in the streets of LA.”

Kim frowned. So now, she was stuck with nothing but a piece of paper she’d found in Rosie’s room – a death threat. To Kim, the investigation seemed much harder that she’d anticipated. It seemed like no matter how much evidence she would find, she could never be able to figure out who murdered Rosie.

“I’ve got nothing,” Kim said. Ivy didn’t have anything about Rosie’s case since her file hadn’t been updated, and Nick just canceled out her hope about the phone call leading to a cell. “The piece of paper is useless since it’s not handwritten, and nor do we have access some DNA scanner so we can’t check for fingerprints.”

“How does that caller even know your number?” Nick asked.

Suddenly, Kim’s eyes lit up. “That’s it, Nick,” she said excitedly. “The caller must have known my number, right? So, this person must be someone we know.”

“Are you trying to say one of your contacts in your phone book killed R... R-Rosie?” Finally, he’d managed to say his girlfriend’s name.

“It makes sense, doesn’t it?” she said. “How would they know my number if they’d call me? They had to know the number before hand in that case.”

“Let’s say the death threat to Rosie and the phone call to you were linked,” Nick said. “Would that mean this person also has to know where Rosie lives?”

Kim nodded. Suddenly, it was slowly falling in place, and it’d seemed stupid that only a moment ago she thought she had nothing to work with, but it was all in front of her. She just needed to open her eyes a little wider.

Silence fell between the pair for a short moment before Nick cleared his throat and spoke again.

“About yesterday at the Fowlers…” he began.

Kim looked away and flushed as she felt her stomach lurched. All day, she was hoping he wouldn’t bring up yesterday’s account. All she wanted to do was to forget the pair had almost kissed in her best friend’s room, but now, she couldn't escape from talking about it, and it didn’t help that he didn’t forget what almost happened either.

“Could we just forget it like it never happened?” Kim asked.

Nick let out a sigh of relief. “I was hoping you’d say something like that,” he admitted. “It wouldn’t be right if we didn’t forget about it.”

Kim nodded in agreement. She could understand why he didn’t want to remember it. He too, also found it as a betrayal and an insult to Rosie. He still wasn’t over Rosie yet.

Suddenly, Kim stood up and stretched her arms out. “I’m starving,” she yawned. She hadn’t eaten lunch yet. “And tired. Would you like something to eat?”

“No, I’m fine,” he answered. “I’ll eat when I get back home.”

She began making her way towards the kitchen but before she could take another step she heard glass shatter into a million pieces behind her, then something hard and rough knocked her on the back of her head, hard. Immediately, her sight began to get dizzy as her head began to thump painfully. She knew she was going to end up on the floor any second.

Nick watched the blonde before him as she slowly crashed down onto the hard floorboards of the house as shock came over him. He quickly jumped off his seat and kneeled down next to her.

“Kim!” he said as he shook her, shaking her from her shoulders. “Kim! Wake up!”

But there was no response.

She was unconscious.

Nick looked around and noticed a large, pale pink brick on the floor. Someone must have passed by and thrown the brick through the window. He noticed the white sheet of paper on it, and saw writings sprawled across it. However, he didn’t read it and pocketed the note, taking a mental note to show it to Kim later if she’d wake up.

Nick moved closer towards the limp body and checked for a pulse. It was faint, but too faint, as if in any second the pulse would suddenly disappear. He tried his best to calm himself as he looked around, but then something caught his eye that didn’t help one bit.

Kim was lying on the floor – lying in her own pool of blood.