Kenhardt - Secrets 34

Haddie hated Kenhardt and wanted to Leave it behind. She wanted to move to Jhburg and become famous. She saw the fortune teller who crushed those dreams, and Joe’s opinion, made her stray from her normal life of comfort and began experimenting with new things. She started up a relationship with Bentley. But then ended things on the third of May. Bentley admitted this, and it was confirmed to Joe when he went through her phone records. What happened around that time? What changed Haddie’s mind about Bentley all of a sudden? And why did she stay with Oliver during all of that? Could Haddie have found out about her pregnancy? But if so, why end things with Bentley? He thought about what he had gathered on Kiera. Funny, energetic, and loud was how everyone described her. A shadow of Haddie, Chloe Had said. If those two were as close as everyone said, why would Kiera date Haddie’s boyfriend behind her back? Was she jealous of Haddie? Wanted everything that she had? Did she feel the constant competition, just as Beth Porter once did? It was difficult being friends with Haddie Taylor, Rachel had said. Could Kiera have felt the difficulties? The constant sense of rivalry? The need to prove herself? When speaking to her parent’s that first day, Vivian and Patrick were stumped with the question of whether Kiera had other friends or not. ODD, was it not? The girls clearly had other friends. Why did Kiera’s parents not know this? Why did Kiera never talk about them? They were also very quick to dismiss any mental illness. Could Kiera have been suffering from her own demons? Kelsey and her sister were close. Surely Kiera would have confided in her sister and told her if anything was wrong. But then again, she didn’t even tell her about Oliver. Kelsey figured that one out on her own. Then there was Anya, The quiet one. The introvert. The sweet, pleasant one. The girl no one could understand yet somehow remained friends with girls like Haddie and Kiera. Her sister revealed to Joe that she had been acting strange the last few months. Zopiclone and Zoloft were found in her system at the time of her death, which meant that she was depressed and suffering from Insomnia. Chloe found the bag of Dagga in her Art room, Rachel admitted to seeing Anya smoking pot but was sworn not to tell anyone. The guidance counsellor at school said that Anya had come in two or three times over the last year, but nothing too serious. Just to talk about family problems, her parent’s divorce. Could there have been more to the story? An underlying problem that no one suspected? Anya was depressed ----but was she also suicidal? And how would the other two have reacted to that? There was the Beth theory ---- rivals, enemies, competitors - but that never panned out. Beth couldn’t have pushed Haddie or the other girls. And while Bentley could have been a good suspect with a more - than - probable motive, he, too, had an alibi. There was the information he gathered after the funeral at the reception at the Barnes’ residence. Gabriella remembered Haddie’s behaviour from the day before the deaths. Said that she was in a bit of a mood, cancelled their lunch plans. And then there was that bit of information that Gemma had shared with Joe. First period Biology, Haddie asking to switch partners from Kiera. There must have been internal problems occurring in their tight - knit group of three. Seemingly perfect to the world, but trouble in paradise deep down. Joe was convinced that Haddie would only put Kiera on the outs for one reason. She must have found out about her and Oliver. Joe played it out in his mind, trying to get a better understanding of it all. Haddie breaks things off with Bentley. She wants to try and fix things with Oliver, work everything out and continue on with their pleasant, mundane relationships. Graduate High school, get married, just as everyone said they would. But something happens. Haddie finds out about Oliver and Kiera somehow. Did one of them tell her? Did Oliver break up with Haddie for Kiera? Or did Kiera admit her guilt in a fit of desperation? Haddie must have found out about them somehow; the method of how she found out was irrelevant. Or perhaps Joe was wrong. Because when Haddie asked to meet on the roof that day, she needed Anya to be there as well. Perhaps there was something he was missing. They were girls, after all. Haddie and Kiera could have been on the outs for a number of reasons. Joe wasn’t there that day. He Didn’t know what was happening in the girl’s lives. And no matter how hard he tried - no matter how many people he interviewed, no matter how many diary and phone records he read - he might never truly know what happened up on that rooftop. Perhaps no one would. Joe arrived at the Kenhardt police station later that day, only to find Kennedy standing there, awaiting his arrival. ‘SK,’ I mean ’KC’ he said once he saw her. ’Where is everyone?’ ‘Frank and Tanner got called back to Riverton,’ she said, ’More pressing matters to attend to.’ ‘Crime doesn’t stop for us,’ Joe remarked. They walked into the vacant office they’d been using as a meeting place for the case. ’You know,’ Kennedy said. ’You can end this thing whenever, Joe, Call it a suicide and close the case.’ Joe looked at her. ’Why would I do that?’ ’It’s been ten days,’ she said. ’And we have zero leads. Nada. Fokall. And well, the little bit that we do have all points to one thing, suicide.’ Joe pictured them on the roof, Anya, taking Zoloft, isolating herself from the world, smoking pot in seclusion, feeling as though jumping is her only way out. Haddie, willing and daring, reckless and determined, Pregnant with an unwanted baby, Unsure of what to do next. Feeling the pressure. Scared, as though her life is over. Would jumping solve that? And that left Kiera. Would Kiera have jumped? Live together, die together. It would be so simple, closing the case, determining the deaths a triple suicide. Everyone would believe it. Everyone already did believe it. Frank, the Principal. And John Richard would all feel relieved. They were in luck - there wasn’t a potential murderer looming the streets of Kenhardt. The girls were simply suicidal. Problem solved. Case solved. Over and done with. But Joe knew he couldn’t do that. Not only did he owe it to those girls, but he owed it to their families. He needed to find out what really happened to them. Because knowing that there was even the slightest possibility that it wasn’t suicide was enough to make him keep trying. ‘I can’t do that, Ken,’ he said to her. ’It’s not that simple.’ ‘What do you mean?’ she seemed surprised by his answer. ’I’m telling you, there isn’t much more we’re going to find. But, oh, apologies - you’re the detective here, not me.’ ‘There’s more that we don’t know,’ he said. ‘Yeah, you’re right. It could be suicide. But what if it’s not? We don’t know.’ ‘Think about that killer you’re onto now.’ Kennedy said. ’It’s been fifty - one years and still, no one has solved it. People had to stop looking for him eventually and just give up. And that’s fine. Cases get like that sometimes. We can’t solve then all, Joe.’ ‘I don’t know if they ever did.’ he said. ‘Did what?\ ‘Give up, it may have been fifty - one years, but people are still looking for him. I’m not going to give up on those girls.’ Joe knew he was doing the right thing, even if Kennedy didn’t agree. Resources were wearing Thin. Frank and Jesse would have to return to their regular duties back in Riverton. How much longer could he keep doing this? How many more days he will drive into Kenhardt and wander around the town aimlessly, trying to determine what happened? There were only so many people he could talk to, so many scenarios he could think of. But when it came down to it, he had no idea why those girls were on the roof that Tuesday. And he had no idea if they were pushed, or if they truly did jump. He was between a rock and a hard place. Give up, go back to Riverton, and continue on with his life. It would be so easy. But how could he live with himself knowing that he let those girls down? That he was potentially leaving a killer in Kenhardt? The other option was to stay. To return to Kenhardt each day until he figured this thing out and closed the case for good. But how long would that take? Would he ever truly know what happened? Or would fifty - one years go by until some young detective from out of town stumbled upon the case and took it upon himself to solve it…..?