Kenhardt - Secrets 7

It was just after 17:00pm when Joe arrived at the local restaurant to meet with Kennedy and Jesse. They were having an end - of - day meeting to go over the information that each of them had gathered thus far - evidence, interviews, plausible explanations. Joe felt that Cross and Tanner had it easy. They were officers, after all, and he was the detective. While they obtained preliminary information and gathered things like evidence and witness testimony’s, Joe had to talk to everyone, go through the case step-by-step, rack his brain for hours on end about culprits and suspects and logic. Who did it and why. That was the tough part - analyzing it all and trying to put a finger on the right thing with one hundred percent certainty. The restaurant was one of the only ones in town. It was a quaint place, only two waitresses working. The place wasn’t busy. Joe found them at a booth near the back and slid in across from them. Kennedy and Jesse already had food and drinks in front of them. A coffee sat there waiting for Joe. They made brief small talk then got right down to business. Each of them went over everything they had gathered. Joe filled them in on each of the families, the boyfriend, the Facebook pages. He listened intently as Kennedy spoke, then Jesse. Once they had all finished speaking, It was quiet, a gap in the conversation. ‘So, your final thoughts of today are…?’ Joe said to both officers. Kennedy sipped her coffee, eyeing Joe through slit lids. ‘Right now, I’m going with suicide.’ ‘Even after everything I just told you?’ Joe was taken back. She nodded. ‘This town is too small to have a murderer lurking around.’ Tanner snorted. ‘That’s ignorant of you.’ he said. ‘As a cop, I mean. No town is too small to have murderers.’ ‘Now you’re just starting to sound like the rest of the town,’ Joe said. ‘You’re giving up that easily, eh?’ ‘I’m not giving up,’ Kennedy said, placing her coffee cup on the table. ‘I’m thinking logically. And what makes logical sense is that those three girls had some crazed suicide pact and killed themselves together.’ Joe rolled his eyes. ‘There’s no such thing as murder here,’ Kennedy said. ‘Everyone I talked to is lovely and decent and had only nice things to say about the girls. Everyone is like family here. I can’t imagine anyone who would want to hurt them.’ ‘Then clearly you haven’t heard about THE SAD KILLER,’ Tanner remarked. Both Joe and Kennedy looked at him. ‘The What?’ ‘The Sad Killer,’ he repeated, taking a bite from his sandwich then licking his fingers, which were doused in mustard. He reached for his water and took a gulp. They waited patiently. ‘Don’t worry,’ Tanner said. ‘Before today, I hadn’t heard of him either.’ ‘What the hell is a Sad Killer?’ Kennedy asked, reaching for a chip off of Joe’s plate. Tanner cleared his throat then wiped his mouth with a serviette. ‘I was talking to some locals today. One of them was saying how they hadn’t seen this many deaths since the Sad Summer, I said, what’s The Sad Summer? Well, turns out, during the summer of 1965, there was a serial killer here, Seven Men murdered between April to August.’ ‘Here? In Kenhardt?’ Joe asked, even though, yes, Tanner had clearly just said that. But he needed clarification. Tanner nodded. ‘So what ever happened to him?’ Kennedy asked. ‘The Killer, I mean.’ ‘That’s the good part,’ Tanner smiled as he leaned forward. ‘They never found him.’ ‘Get out,’ Kennedy pushed back into her seat and laughed. ‘That’s unnerving!’ ‘Gotta love a good serial killer story,’ Tanner said. ‘Especially when they go unsolved. Like the Zodiac. Man, those cases just get to me.’ ‘So this guy,’ Joe said. ‘Kills seven people in 1965. And gets away with it. Scott Free. No one knows who he is?’ ‘Or was.’ Tanner said, ‘Probably dead by now. It was a long time ago.’ ‘Fifty -one years isn’t that long ago.’ Kennedy said. ‘He could still be alive.’ ‘Depends how old he was during the murders,’ Tanner said. ‘Why do they call him the Sad Killer?’ Joe asked. ‘Oh, right.’ Tanner leaned in again. ‘So get this. At each of the murders, the guy writes sad. Just like that. S.A.D. Sad.’ ‘What, you mean like written in blood or something?’ ‘No, in marker. On the ground. Or the wall. I don’t know. I only just heard about it.’ ‘So they called him the Sad Killer. Because he was sad?’ Joe asked. ‘Yeah. Listen, I don’t know, O’Reily. I’m no expert on this shit. Go ask the Kenhardt Lieutenant or something.’ ‘Maybe I will,’ Joe said, ‘Sounds interesting.’ ‘Oh, here we go,’ Kennedy rolled her eyes. ‘O’Reily’s going to go digging up old case files, trying to hunt down the Sad Killer.’ Joe shook his head and laughed. ‘I’m just curious, that’s all.’ ‘Why do you have a thing for serial killers, anyway?’ Kennedy asked him. “They intrigue me.’ ‘Should we be concerned?’ Tanner joked. ‘Yeah, of course. Next thing you know. I’ll become a serial killer. As long as I get the notoriety, of course.’ Joe joked back. ‘That’s the thing I don’t get,’ Tanner said. ‘What?’ ‘The serial killers who don’t get caught. I mean, most serial killers are psychopaths, right?’ ‘Yeah,’ Kennedy said. ‘And one of the main characteristics of psychopath disorder is narcissism,’ Tanner explained. ‘So most serial killers either end up outing themselves, or agreeing to turn themselves in simple for the notoriety of it all. It’s like they can’t help it. They want to be caught, because they want to be known. It’s all a part of their illness. So the serial killers who are never caught, like Zodiac, for example…How do they live with themselves? Knowing that no one will ever truly know who they are. That they will never get the full recognition that they deserve.’ ‘Very true,’ Kennedy said, ‘It must drive them insane. Well, lucky for us, O’Reilly is the opposite of a narcissist, aren’t ya, Joe?’ she punched his shoulder. ‘We won’t ever have to worry about you becoming a serial killer.’ They finished up at the restaurant, paid their bill, said their good-byes, and headed to their cars. They’d be back again the next day, repeating the same routine. Joe checked his watch, it was almost 18:30pm. His mind was still swirling from the conversations. He was appalled at how quick Kennedy had been to dismiss the homicide option, so easily persuaded into believing whatever the town said. She was a good police officer, but he couldn’t quite figure out why she was giving up and rolling over so easily. The three of them had been working for Riverton PD together for the last few years. It had been Jesse Tanner who had joined the taskforce first, two years before Joe. Then it was only a year after Joe joined that Kennedy came along. They worked the odd case together here and there, but generally, he didn’t see them too often. Joe had developed quite the rapport with Kennedy Cross - KC, as he called her - going over cased together, getting her opinion on things. She was smart and diligent, and Joe respected that. Tanner was good in his own ways. He had a knack for finding out truths that no one else could. And he never left a task unfinished. Together, Joe was sure that they could solve this thing - although, most of that weight laid heavily on Joe’s shoulders, not theirs. Just as he got in the car and started the engine, his cell phone rang. He dug into his pocket and put it to his ear. ‘O’Reily,’ he said. ‘Detective,’ said a familiar male voice. ‘It’s Dr Kelvin. The medical examiner.’ ‘Oh, hi. How are you?’ ‘I’m fine, thanks. Do you think you’d be able to come down to the coroner’s office?’ ‘Right now?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘I was about to head back to Riverton. Is it urgent?’ ‘Yes,’ Joe paused. ‘Alright. I’ll be there in five.’ He was there in six minutes. The parking lot to the small building was empty except for the sole Mazda parked at the back. Joe entered the building and headed down the stairs towards the morgue. Dr Kelvin stood in his white lab coat, facing him as he walked in. Joe could see one body lying on the table, the white sheet covering everything but the face. It Didn’t take him long to determine which girl it was - the bashed - in skull gave it away. ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked once he got close. Dr Kelvin unhooked his hands, which he held in front of him. He walked closer to the examining table as he spoke. ‘I was doing the autopsy on all three of the girls this afternoon when I noticed something quite alarming. I thought you should be the first one I notify, given the circumstances.’ ‘What is it?’ Joe asked, his heart - rate accelerating with anticipation. ‘It’s Haddie Taylor,’ Dr Kelvin said, peeling his eyes away from the body on the table and meeting Joe’s gaze. He pursed his lips together, unsure of how to proceed. ‘She was four weeks pregnant when she died….’