Kenhardt -Secrets 22

Gemma nodded her head. ‘Are you close with the girls?’ Joe asked her. ‘Not particularly. I mean, we’re friendly. I see them around the regular crowd at school, at parties and stuff. But we don’t hang out much.’ ‘So you all agree that this is odd?’ Joe said. ‘Haddie wanting to switch lab partners?’ ‘Um, duh,’ Gabriella said. ‘Haddie and Kiera are always lab partners.’ ‘Something must have happened,’ Rachel looked concerned. Joe didn’t need to be a teenage girl to figure out what had happened. He already knew. Haddie must have found out about Kiera and Oliver. It was the only plausible explanation. Or so he thought. He had just left the group of girls and was about to move on elsewhere when he heard voices being raised. He recognized the male voice as George Taylor. Joe followed the voices, heading towards the commotion until he was standing directly in front of them. George and Rosie Taylor, talking - or rather, yelling - at Oliver Harris. ‘What’s going on?’ Joe said as he approached them.; George noticed Joe, then shook his head and walked away. Oliver looked stunned. He took this opportunity to escape, leaving Rosie as the only person remaining to speak with Joe. ‘What’s going on?’ he said to her. She shook her head, tears forming in her eyes. ‘It’s nothing.’ ‘Mrs Taylor,’ he said. ‘Did something happen? Can we go somewhere to speak?’ he noted how busy the main floor of the Barnes’ home was. She looked up at him, hesitated, then said, ‘Come with me.’ She led him down the hallway to the office on the main floor. Rosie walked inside and closed the door behind them. Joe watched as she walked towards the desk, paced around, then turned to face him. ‘What is it?’ he asked. ‘Did you know?’ she said to him. ‘Know what?’ She hesitated again. ‘About Haddie. About …’ she broke off, began crying again. THE BABY. Joe approached her. ‘The Dr told me the other day. What do you know?’ She wiped her eyes and looked at him again. ‘That she was four weeks along.’ Joe nodded. ‘That’s why you were speaking with Oliver.’ ‘He says the baby wasn’t his.’ ‘I know. He told me that too.’ ‘You talked to him?’ ‘I did.’ She was quiet for a moment. ‘I don’t believe him. He says Haddie was cheating on him. That isn’t true and he knows it.’ ‘I’m not so sure,’ Joe said, then bit his tongue. He needed to speak with caution. This was Haddie’s mother he was speaking with. She was on the defence regardless of what he said. ‘How would you know?’ she snapped. ‘Apologies, Ma’am,’ he said. ‘Listen, I’m trying to figure out what happened to your daughter, and that involves talking to a lot of people. I don’t believe that this was a suicide. I am looking into anyone who might have had a problem with Haddie and may have wanted to hurt her,’ Joe paused. ‘You said she didn’t have any enemies, correct?’ Rosie shook her head. ‘Everyone loved Haddie.’ ‘This is very crucial, Mrs Taylor,’ he said. ‘Did anything happened within these past few months? Something monumental and traumatizing that would have affected the girls negatively?’ ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘They were good girls, Detectives. They didn’t get into trouble. They didn’t have any problems or issues with people. I don’t know what sort of thing you believe might have happened.’ Joe took in another breath. He already knew that speaking with Rosie would prove useless. She was holding onto this perfect image of her daughter, the idea that Haddie could do no wrong. Haddie would never cheat on Ollie. Haddie would never cause trouble or get into fights. ‘I’ll let you be, for now,’ Joe said. ‘But please, if you think of anything else - anything at all - that may prove useful, don’t hesitate to call me. I need to know everything if I’m going to find out what happened to your daughter.’ Joe was roaming around the main floor of the house, manoeuvring between the crowds of people. He was looking for Oliver Harris. The house, as he noted before, was spectacular. It was so busy, crowds of people congregated in almost every square inch of the house. Where could Oliver have disappeared to so quickly? Just then, he felt someone tug on his arm. He turned around to see Kelsey Barnes standing behind him. She was wearing a long sleeve black dress that sat just below her knees. Her dark hair was pulled back in a headband and her crystal blue eyes were glassy with tears. She was a spitting image of Kiera. ‘Detective O’Reily?’ she said faintly. “Kelsey,’ he said, turning to face her. ‘What’s the matter?’ ‘I heard you talking to Mrs Taylor in the office,’ she hesitated. ‘You want to know about Haddie and Ollie?’ Joe stared at her. ‘Can we go somewhere to talk?’ Kelsey led him upstairs to Kiera’s bedroom. She closed the door, instantly blocking out the sound that echoed from the rest of the house, and sat on her sister’s bed. Joe stood there, uncomfortable at the fact that he was alone in a dead girl’s bedroom with her fourteen year old sister. ‘What do you know, Kelsey?’ She looked at him and hesitated. ‘I knew about my sister and Ollie,’ she said, which surprised Joe. “Kiera tried to hide it at first, but I knew something was up. She was so happy and giddy all of the time. She told me she was talking to a guy, but wouldn’t tell me who. Eventually I figured it out.’ ‘How?’ ‘I made her tell me.’ Joe nodded. ‘You said you two were close.’ ‘Best friends. So I was hurt that she didn’t trust me enough to tell me sooner,’ Kelsey was quiet for a moment.’ She made me swear not to tell anyone. Said Haddie would kill her if she found out,’ she quickly stopped, wide - eyed at the realization of what she’d just said, ‘Anyway, I told her that it was wrong. She was seeing her best friend’s boyfriend and That’s when she told me that Haddie was doing it too.’ ‘Doing what?’ ‘Seeing someone else.’ ‘Kiera knew who Haddie was seeing?’ Joe asked. ‘No, she didn’t know. Ollie didn’t even know. It was just a suspicion he had. But he was so certain, Kiera told me. Otherwise he would never have started things with my sister. If Haddie had just stayed faithful to him…’ ‘But you know something,’ Joe said. ‘That’s why you wanted to talk to me.’ Kelsey looked up and met his eyes again. She nodded. “What do you know?’ he asked. Kelsey sighed. ‘I don’t know anything for certain,’ she said. ‘But if you want more information about Haddie Taylor, then you should probably talk to Bentley Carter.’

This new information left Joe with a Bitter taste in his mouth…