Secrets

Chapter Twenty Nine

Taylor squeezed Karlie's hand as they were sitting down on the couch in the Kloss family's living room. The room had well exceeded its capacity, and chairs had been brought into the room, causing everyone to sit closely together. Next to Karlie on the couch to her right were the twins, their dog Joe sitting on Kimby's lap. Other than that, her parents, Kristine, Mrs Yanez and two police officers were present.

It had all happened so fast suddenly. They had gotten Kariann's message and the police's phone call the day before about a hint they had received. A little over an hour later, they had gotten another phone call that Kimby was safe. The connection had been bad, but they had been relieved to hear Kimby's voice at the other end of the line.

Now it was the next morning, and the police was there for interrogation. After Kimby had been checked for any physical injuries at the hospital in the small Georgian town, she had been immediately brought to St Louis to her parents' house. The girl had been exhausted and was too tired to answer questions, so she had only eaten and gone to sleep. Karlie and her parents had been shocked to see Kimby in the state she was in, but were beyond relieved to have her back. Kristine and Kariann had arrived later that night from North Carolina.

"Before I begin, I see that there are people present who do not belong to the family. I am afraid I must ask you to leave" the officer who had informed them about the discovery of Kimby's phone two days earlier spoke up.

"They are allowed to be here. It's fine" Tracy said determinedly.

All she wanted was for this nightmare to be over.

"I actually am Kimberly's therapist" Mrs Yanez chimed in and pulled out her ID.

Karlie was surprised. She hadn't known of the woman's occupation. She wasn't actually Kimby's therapist, but she had already announced she would talk to her in detail about what had happened.

"And you ...?" the officer said towards Taylor.

He looked confused as to how Taylor Swift of all people was involved in this case and was clearly uncomfortable in the singer's presence.

"She can stay too. Please let us begin" Tracy said with annoyance in her voice.

Taylor smiled at her thankfully, not having expected the woman to stand up for her.

"Very well" the officer said defeated.

"I will start by saying that we have taken the four men into custody. The main suspect is the house-owner, who seems to be the boss of their group. So far he has refused to answer questions, but two of the other men have been more talkative. We are under the impression that the man who secretly sent the text to alert us is related to your friend?" he directed the question to Kimby.

She fiddled with the hem of her shirt and didn't look up.

"Yeah" she said quietly.

"I started figuring it out when I heard his name for the first time. His face had looked familiar" she added.

"But I don't know how or why there is a connection."

"Your friend has told us that she is willing to make a statement about her suspicions of her uncle, and he himself will too" the officer stated.

Kimby still didn't look up. Kariann had talked to Kelley about the subject, but she hadn't clearly understood what her friend meant, the girl having merely rambled and cried.

"Please tell us what kind of information the men wanted to get out of you" the policewoman said softly. It was the same one who had led Kimby out of the house the day before.