KENHARDT - Secrets 37

Frank stared at him.

‘Yes, there is evidence pointing to suicide…’

‘Then why are we not following where the evidence points us?’

‘Because it’s not that simple. There are other factors to be considered. For one, the family members expressed no concerns of suicidal thoughts or depression in the girls. The friends that I interviewed said that the girls would never kill themselves. With the exception of few testimonies that stated Haddie was reckless and crazy,’ Joe said the word with air quotations. ‘No one else seemed to concur with this notion.’

‘The pregnant one?’ Frank asked.

‘Yes.’

‘Who said she would jump?’

‘Two girls at the school made a comment. One saw her getting into a car with a drunk driver about a month ago. Said she thought she had a death wish.’

‘And the other one?’

‘Just said that she was unpredictable,’ Joe said. Oliver’s words echoed through his mind. She wouldn’t have jumped to prove a point. Or would she?

How far would Haddie go to get the attention that she so desperately required?

‘Did she know about the pregnancy?’ Frank asked.

‘That is unknown.’

‘And the boyfriend didn’t know?’

‘Said it wasn’t his.’

‘Right,’ Frank said. ‘There was the Carter kid you interrogated. He Didn’t know either?’

‘No, Sir.’

Frank thought for a moment. ‘Then perhaps she really did jump.’

Joe was dumbfounded. Here was his senior, standing in front of him, agreeing with everyone else. Like sheep being sent to slaughter, Lamb chops on the fire…

‘Sir…’

‘Unless you can find solid evidence that those girls didn’t jump, then we’re going to have to call it,’ Frank said. ‘Understood?’ Joe nodded.

‘So get back out there and determine whether or not those girls jumped or not.’

There was only one missing piece to this equation, Joe knew, and that was Kiera Barnes. He had probable cause to believe that both Haddie and Anya could have jumped off that building, but not Kiera. He needed more information. And the only place he could go was back to the parents.

Patrick was at work, of course, but Vivian was there. She let Joe back into their home, leading him into the living room to sit and talk where they had all those times before.

‘I’m sorry to return with nothing new,’ Joe said. ‘Truly, Mrs Barnes, I wish I had more.’

‘You don’t have to apologize,’ Vivian said. ‘I understand how difficult it is.’

Joe was quiet. ‘How is your family doing? How’s Kelsey holding up?’

‘Kelsey’s alright,’ Vivian said. ‘The last eleven days have been a misery. Everyone’s been very quiet and out of it, as though we can’t believe she’s really gone. I keep thinking that she’s really gone. I keep thinking that she’s going to walk through those doors and everything will go back to normal. As though this was one big nightmare.’ she paused, looking at her hands in her lap. ‘But that’s not going to happen. And I need to stop thinking that way.’

Joe nodded sympathetically. ‘I need more information about your daughter. There has to be something I’m missing here.’

Vivian looked taken back. ‘About Kiera? I’ve already told you everything.’

‘Yes, I know,’ Joe said, crafting his next words carefully as not to offend her. ‘But there still remains the possibility that your daughter jumped, Mrs Barnes.’

She opened her mouth to interject but Joe held up his hand.

‘I know it’s something no parent wants to hear - that their child committed suicide. But I’ve explored many avenues. I’ve talked to everyone involved. And there is evidence to suggest that Anya was depressed. Haddie had some personal issues that we believe might have caused her to jump. And that leaves Keira.’

Vivian stared at him, eyes wide.

‘You’re asking me if my daughter jumped off that roof? If she killed herself along with her two best friends?’

Joe was silent.

‘That would be an easy and convenient answer, wouldn’t it, Detective?’ she said.

‘Because that would mean you could stop looking, stop investigating this possible murder that this Fucking town has such a problem admitting exists. Why is it so difficult for everyone to realize this? Kiera didn’t jump. Those girls didn’t jump. Somebody did this to them.’

‘With all due respect, Ma’am, you don’t know that. I don’t know that. Nobody knows what happened on the roof that day. I know you want to protect Kiera. You want to protect her name and her Legacy, what she left behind. But if there is even the slightest possibility that Kiera would have jumped - if she had any mental illnesses, if she was going through personal struggles in her life - then it is imperative that I know.’

Vivian continued to stare at him, not saying a word. Finally, she spoke. ‘I will tell you this once more, and my husband will tell you the same thing, Kiera was not suicidal. She would not kill herself. There’s more to this story that you’re clearly not seeing.’

Joe didn’t know where else to turn, so he ended up at Gus’s house, Right now, he didn’t care what Frank wanted. He was getting nowhere with the triple deaths, the families refusing to even entertain the notion of suicide, and to be quite frank, his mind was preoccupied with The SAD Killer. He was onto something here.

Figuring out the motive had opened multiple doors for Joe. Previously, they were looking at the situation all wrong. This changed things drastically. This wasn’t a demonic sociopath who felt the need to kill his victims. This was someone killing with a purpose.

Vigilantes feel as though they are helping society, doing what no one else can. The unsub was careful and meticulous. They did their research, handpicked their victims individually based on their own personal histories and deviances. The unsub believed that each of these men deserved what was going to happen to them, and that it was his job to bring Justice.

If Joe was going to find this guy, he needed to know how the unsub got started. And in order to do that, he needed to know everything he could about the first victim, Mark Irving. Why was Irving First? How did the unsub find him? Did the unsub know him personally? Or did he witness whatever wrongdoings Irving was committing and realized he needed to put an end to it?

As far as Joe could tell, Mark Irving was a good guy. Everyone had only positive things to say about him. Even Gus could vouch for Irving. So what were they missing? What was Irving doing behind closed doors that no one knew about? That’s what Joe needed to find out. Because the key to the killer’s identity lied there.

‘We need to look at everyone who knew Mark Irving.’ Joe said to Gus. ‘Friends, co-workers, neighbours.’

‘You think the unsub knew him personally?’

‘It’s hard to tell,’ Joe said, ‘But if we can start there and get a better idea of what he wss like, we may be able to build from there. I wouldn’t say family members. I think our killer might have either know Irving, or known of him. But not anyone too close to him, because he went on and killed six others afterwards. If it was someone too close to Irving, perhaps they would have solely killed him and been done with it.’

‘Unless Irving was a realization for them,’ Gus said. ‘Killing him led to something bigger. The unsub realized that he enjoyed the act of killing, as well as taking down the so - called bad men. Irving was the catalyst.’

‘Okay,’ Joe said. ‘So what makes the unsub start killing? A trigger, something in his early life? We see injustice happening every day, but our unsub must have seen injustice on another scale. Perhaps they were a victim themselves. A child of divorced parents, a victim of abuse. We know that both Patrick Brooks and Robert Baldwin were abusers. We could start there?’

‘Yes,’ Gus said. ‘Sons, brothers, father’s. These are all possible individuals who could have been victim to an unjust situation - such as abuse - and they wanted to right the wrongs. They discovered whatever it was that Irving was doing and they needed to make things right again, bring justice to the people.’

‘Exactly,’ Joe said. ‘Our unsub might not have known Irving personally, but he recognized the aberrant behaviour. So we go back, We look at all of the people in Irving’s life. Where he went to school, what car he drove, which girls he dated. I want to know everything there is to know about this guy, because he was hiding something. And it’s our job to find out what.’

So that is exactly what they did, Joe pulled the files on Irving and got to work reading through everything. Gus could recall witness testimonies and statements from 1965, but if they were going to get anything concrete, they would need to speak with these people in person. The only problem was, how many of them would still be in Kenhardt?

Mark Irving was notorious for being the town bachelor. He had plenty of girlfriends, and Joe believed that if he could speak with one of them, perhaps they would reveal something significant, such as abuse or violent tendencies, similar to Flora Willard.

He began with Kristen Botha, (née: Frost) She was one of the only few women that he could track down that were A) still living, and B) still in Kenhardt. Joe had read her statement from 1965. She had dated Irving the year before and they maintained an on - and - off again relationship. Joe drove to her place, hoping this visit would prove beneficial.

He knocked on the door and waited. An elderly woman answered moments later. She would have to be in her late seventies by now.

‘Kristen Botha?’ Joe asked.

‘Yes?’

‘My name’s Joe O’Reily. I’m a detective with the Riverton Police Dept and I’m looking into an old case, one that you might be familiar with.’

She stared at him, her eyes focused on his.

‘You’re here about The SAD Killer, aren’t you?’

He nodded. The poor woman had probably been harassed about this case for years, all because she simply dated victim number one.

‘Well, come on in then,’ she opened the door and he stepped inside. Her place was quaint and small, the aroma of baked - goodies filling the air. He Didn’t know if she was still married or whether she lived alone.

‘Would you like to sit in here?’ Kristen asked, motioning to the living room. She was tiny and frail and moved at a steady pace.

‘Sure, that would be great.’

They walked into the room and Kristen motioned for him to sit on the couch. She sat on the chair adjacent from him.

‘So what made you start looking for him again?’ She asked.

‘The SAD Killer?’

She nodded.

‘I’m here working another case, actually,’ Joe admitted. ‘I heard about The SAD Killer and have been hooked ever since. I’m kind of determined to solve this thing, figure out who he is.’

‘And I’m assuming you’re here because of Mark.’

‘Yes,’ Joe said. ‘What can you tell me about him?’

‘It was a long time ago,’ she said. ‘Mark and I were never serious. We dated for a few months. He wasn’t one for commitment. Then he turned up murdered. Nobody knew what happened to him. I believe it wasn’t until the second or third man turned up dead that we began to understand there was a pattern here.’

‘That must have been scary.’

‘Oh, it was, especially knowing the men personally. I knew David as well. David Hill. He was friends with my older brothers.’ Joe recalled what Gil Vanhorn had said about David Hill. He had known his as well. Said he had a wife and a young daughter. What did you do, David? Joe thought. All of these men were hiding something.

‘What can you tell me about Mark as a person?’ Joe asked. ‘Anything about his personality, how he treated people, how he treated you?’

‘He was a good man,’ Kristen said. ‘Mark was very kind, outgoing. He’d do anything, really. A Jack of all trades. He was charming and endearing, had a way with words. - knew how to make the girls swoon.’ she laughed. ‘That’s why no one could understand why he was murdered. It was a shock to us all. Even if Mark and I weren’t together anymore. I still cared for him. It was devastating.’

‘Did Mark have any secrets? Anything you know that he hid from the world? Maybe he was a smoker and didn’t tell anyone. Perhaps he like to get away and have weekends to himself somewhere.’

She thought for a moment. ‘I don’t recall anything of the sorts. He wasn’t a secretive person. There was nothing inherently bad about him. He was honest and kind. That’s all.’

‘Mrs Botha,’ Joe said. ‘I’m going to be honest with you. I’ve noticed a pattern in a few of the victims. Each of them were harbouring a well - hidden Secret to some degree, something from their past. Another woman I spoke to recently revealed that her husband, one of the victims, was abusive to her. She had never told anyone for fifty - one years. What I’m looking for,’ Joe said. ‘Is anything like that. Was Mark ever abusive to you?’ Was he ever violent or had a temper?’ She shook her head feverishly. ‘No, not at all! Mark was a very gentle, caring man. He never laid a finger on me. And I never witnessed anger or aggression of the sorts. I mean.’ she paused. ‘As I told you, we only dated for a short period of time before his death. But from what I could tell, he was a good man. However,’ she said. ‘If you want details such as the ones you’re evidently looking for, I’d advise speaking to any friends of his from that time. They’d know more than I would…’

‘We all eat, and it would be a SAD waste of opportunity to eat badly….”