Kenhardt - Secrets 15

Anya’s rooms - both of them - came up clean. Nothing suspicious or out of the ordinary. Well, as far as Joe could tell, at least. He wasn’t a teenage girl. How was he supposed to determine what was normal and what wasn’t? By the looks of things, the room at her mother’s house was her safe - haven, the place she favoured most. It was more personal, more inhabited somehow. Her bedroom at her father’s place was crisp and clean. The bed made neatly, nothing lying around out of place. Too clean, almost. Some of Anya’s school books sat on her desk beside her laptop. A notebook was opened to a page on math equations. Her phone charger extended from the socket on the wall to behind her pillow. Shopping bags were piled in the corner. It was eerie, looking at the bedrooms of the dead girls. Everything seemed so normal. All of their belongings left untouched and unfinished, as though at any moment, they could walk back in and resume their lives like nothing had changed. As far as Joe could tell, Anya’s room was average. Nothing here suggested that she was depressed or suicidal. Especially given the fact that Joe had searched all three - four - rooms with that specific notion in mind and came up empty handed. But were suicidal thoughts really all that tangible? If they did jump, why not leave a note? Why not leave one last bit of communication with your family and loved ones? It was true that not everyone left suicide notes, but still, for three young girls to kill themselves and not even leave an explanation behind …It just seemed odd. Joe was conflicted. More and more things were pointing him in one direction: That the girls were pushed. So why was he having such a difficult time separating himself from the suicide theory? They reconvened at 18:30pm, Joe, Frank, Kennedy and Jesse. They met at the restaurant, yet again. To go over the day’s findings and leave room for discussion regarding the case. Joe liked the restaurant. It was quaint and reminded him of something that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He felt nostalgic for a town in which he never lived. The four of them ordered their meals and dropped their menus in Unison, handing them to the waitress. ‘So, tell me what we got so far,’ Frank said, lifting his beer to take a sip. ‘Forensics doesn’t have anything new,’ Kennedy began. ‘There’s tons of DNA on that rooftop. I guess people went up there for all sorts of reasons. But near the edge is where we found stuff from the girls. A hair, shoe prints, saliva.’ ‘Saliva?’ Jesse said. Kennedy shrugged. ‘Girls spit too?’ ‘What about anything else up there?’ Joe asked, remembering Sadie West and her tobacco addiction. ‘Cigarette butts, maybe?’ ‘Alcohol bottles,’ Jesse added. ‘Or drugs.’ Kennedy shook her head. ‘No drugs. No alcohol. I think there were a few Cig butts up there, but there were lots of things on that roof. I could ask them to run tests on the stubs, see if we get a match to one of the girls. But what does that prove - that they smoked? So what?’ ‘Okay,’ Frank said. ‘O’Reily, what do you have?’ ‘I’ve spoken with the families, friends, teachers, neighbours. They all said similar things. The girls were great. Nice, studious, friendly. Although,’ Joe paused again. ‘Perhaps everything wasn’t as simple as people are making it out to be.’ ‘How so?’ ‘I’m getting mixed signals from the friends and the boyfriend of Haddie Taylor. The parents and teachers have only positive things to say about her and the girls. And then there’s this other group of girls who say Haddie was pretentious and controlling. They seem to think that Haddie was this superior being to them all. Even the boyfriend said that she could be a bit dramatic and attention seeking at times. Oh, and I just discovered that he was cheating on her with the best friend, Kiera Barnes.’ ‘Oh my God,’ said Kennedy. ‘Because he suspected that Haddie had been cheating on him,’ Joe finished . ‘What is with kids these days?’ Kennedy laughed. ‘It’s a complicated mess,’ Joe said. ‘Not much I could gather about Anya or Kiera. People had lots to say about Haddie.’ ‘But do you have anything solid, O’Reily?’ Frank asked. ‘Any evidence to suggest suicide or Foul play? We’re really stuck in the middle right now.’ ‘I don’t think it was suicide, no,’ Joe said. ‘And why is that?’ ‘They lived good lives. They had friends, boyfriends, family who loved them. They had money. They were popular. And there was no suicide note. That’s the biggest thing, really. Most teens who commit suicide leave a note. An explanation, an apology - something. These girls didn’t leave anything. In fact, all of their bedrooms suggest that they were planning on returning home that day,’ ‘So you think we’re dealing with homicide, then?’ Frank asked. ‘Yes. I do.’ ‘May I butt in?’ Jesse asked, looking from Frank to Joe. Just then, the waitress appeared, carrying four plates. She unloaded them from her arm, placing the meals in front of them. Kennedy dug into her burger immediately. Joe and Frank smiled at the waitress as she left, then waited for Jesse to continue. ‘Hal Davis and I have been talking to locals, looking through Kenhardt’s history, We’re thinking that this could possibly be the result of an initiation gone wrong. More specifically, a cult of sorts.’ ‘Please tell me you’re kidding,’ Joe said as he reached for his drink. ‘Why?’ Jesse said. ‘In all honesty, it’s a probability.’ ‘Please,’ Frank said. ‘Elaborate.’ ‘Well, these girls, they could have been into satanic rituals, Devil worship, human sacrifice ---.’ ‘There is no indication of that whatsoever,’ Joe interjected. ‘Just because they didn’t have it written all over their walls, doesn’t mean they didn’t do it,’ Jesse said. ‘Kids hide many things from their parents.’ ‘They weren’t like that,’ Joe said. ‘You didn’t even know them,’ Jesse said. ‘Quit acting like you know everything just because you’re the only detective here.’ ‘You’re right,’ Joe said. ‘I am the detective. And while you guys look at evidence and logistics, I talk to the people. I immerse myself into their lives and find out everything I can. In all likelihood - and no offence, Tanner - I think I would know if these girls were into Devil worship.’ Jesse stared at him. ‘I’m just giving you an update on what Hal and I believe.’ ‘Great, you do that ….’ ‘Thank you, Tanner,’ Frank silenced them both, then picked up his burger. ‘Hey,’ Kennedy said in between mouthfuls. ‘You guys ever see that movie where everyone gets some disease that makes them kill themselves?’ ‘What?’ ‘Yeah,’ she swallowed her food. ‘With uh, what’s her name …..Zooey Deschanel. And Mark Wahlberg.’ The three men stared at her, not a clue as to what she was talking about. ‘There’s this virus or something,’ Kennedy continued. ‘That made everyone commit suicide. Terrible movie,’ she laughed. ‘But, imagine.’ ‘Imagine what?’ Joe asked. ‘A virus like that,’ she said. ‘That makes people kill themselves.’ ‘No,’ Joe said. ‘I can’t imagine. Because it doesn’t exist.’ Going from Kenhardt to Riverton made it easier to divide work from home. During those forty - five minutes. Joe spent driving home each night, he had time to think and recollect himself. He allowed himself those forty - five minutes to think about the case, slowly unwind, and eventually, stop thinking about it completely. But who was he fooling if he said he didn’t still think about the case at home? It was all he could think about. He needed to know what happened to those girls. And it was even more pressing now that the possibility of homicide was growing. Not only was the current case on his mind, but Joe couldn’t help but let his thoughts wander to The Sad Killer. After he finished eating dinner with Jordan that night, he opened up his laptop and began Googling. He read the basics - what the locals had already told him. During the summer of 1965, seven young to middle - aged men were found murdered in their homes. Cause of death ranged from stabbing to strangulation to suffocation. This Unsub clearly didn’t have a method of preference, which was unusual since serial killers normally tend to stick to just one. There was no correlation between the men, other than the fact that they all lived in Kenhardt, a small town just off the grid from modern Society. It was rare beyond belief. Kenhardt didn’t have murders. The crime rate was so low that they barely had a police department. They had a few deaths per year from people falling through the frozen lake in the winter time. But Kenhardt didn’t see murders, let alone serial murders. The strangest part was that after August 1965, the murders ceased completely. No more men were found dead. No more sad’s anywhere to be seen. It was as thought the killer simply packed up and vanished. Or perhaps something else happened to him… Regardless of why he stopped killing, Joe became invested in the case from the moment Jesse Tanner first mentioned it to him. It suddenly became apparent to him that it would become his responsibility to solve those murders from fifty years ago and put a name to The Sad Killer once and for all…