A few minutes later, Jenna’s phone vibrated.
Keeley: Hey, decided not to run. Going to a movie at 7 with Delaney instead. Wanna go?
Leighton eyed Jenna for a moment as she read Keeley’s text.
“My friends are going to a movie at 7. Do you want to go with?” Jenna asked Leighton.
Leighton laughed. “I’ve seen your friends. No thanks.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jenna asked, genuinely curious.
“So, the blonde with the perfect hair who always dresses all matchy-matchy?”
“Yeah?” Jenna said with a shrug. She knew Leighton was talking about Delaney.
“Well, don’t turn your back on that one because she’ll stab you in it. And the other one, the tall mixed one with the thick curly hair?”
Jenna nodded. She meant Keeley.
“That one’s all right, but make sure you don’t do anything she wouldn’t do because she’ll judge you for it.”
Jenna wanted to tell Leighton she didn’t know what she was talking about, but she couldn’t because she wasn’t sure Leighton’s assessments were that far off. Instead, she said, “So you’re sure you don’t want to go then?”
Leighton rolled her eyes and went back to her Chromebook.
Jenna: Sure, I’ll go.
Keeley: We’ll pick you up. What’s the address?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Keeley
Sunday, October 29, 2017
Two Days After Jenna’s Disappearance
My dad’s voice and static from a police radio drift from the living room as I descend the stairs. All eyes turn to me when my mom and I enter the room. My dad and the two officers—a woman in a standard police uniform and a man in plain clothes—break away from a tight circle in the middle of the room. I know they’re here to help, but the sight of them makes me want to throw up. My mom moves behind me and leads me to one of the paisley wingback chairs.
“Detective Collins, Officer Lang, this is our daughter, Keeley. She’d be more than happy to answer any questions you have. Anything to help locate Jenna,” my dad says.
“Thank you, Dr. Simon,” Detective Collins says, taking a seat on the matching chair next to mine. Lang remains standing and my parents sit on the sofa.
“Please, call me Jack . . . and this is Leslie,” my dad says, motioning toward my mom.
Collins nods and directs his attention to me. “Nice to meet you, Keeley.”
“Nice to meet you too,” I say.
“Keeley, Mrs. Kemp tells us you’ve been best friends with Jenna since Kindergarten.”
I nod.
“When was the last time you saw her?”
“Do you mean the last time we hung out or the last time I actually saw her? Because we’ve hardly spent any time together since late September.”
“The last time you physically saw her.”
I prop my elbows on my knees and cup my chin in my hands. I focus on the rug in the center of the room for several seconds, then I sit upright again and say, “I usually see her during lunch, but I don’t remember seeing her Friday. I guess I’ve gotten so used to not sitting with her that I just haven’t been making a conscious effort to look for her anymore.”
And now she’s nowhere to be found. Some friend I am.
“So, you can’t remember the last time you saw her?”
“Well, I’m sure she was at school on Friday. Otherwise, Mrs. Kemp would have gotten a phone call, right?”
“Yes, we’ve confirmed that she was at school.”
“Oh . . . then what difference does it make whether I saw her or not?” I even shock myself with this comment, but for some reason, I feel guilty for not seeing Jenna on Friday and angry because someone must know where she is. “We stopped talking regularly about a month ago. So why are you here questioning me? Why aren’t you talking to the people she’s been hanging out with? Like Leighton Pierce? And have you gone through her phone or her computer yet?”
My mom takes a seat beside me on the arm of my chair, probably because of the tears that have welled up in my eyes.
Detective Collins doesn’t show the slightest reaction to my emotional outburst. He seems indifferent like he’s talking to me just so they can say they investigated the call about Jenna. I wonder if they think Jenna’s just some dumb teenager who’s off having fun for the weekend. But then I look at Officer Lange and see that her forehead has become severely creased. “Keeley, we need to gather as much information as possible. We weren’t aware that you hadn’t done anything with Jenna since September. Mrs. Kemp didn’t mention that. Did the two of you . . .” She flips back a few pages in her little notebook. “Or should I say the three of you? Delaney Burns, we understand she’s close to Jenna too?”
I nod.
“Did the three of you get into an argument?”
“No, not an argument exactly. It was more like Jenna just . . . changed and stopped wanting to do things with us.
“How has she changed?”
I look at my mom. I’m not sure if I should tell them what I told her earlier because I don’t want Jenna to get in trouble for the drinking and the drugs.
“Keeley, Jenna hasn’t been in contact with anyone for almost forty-eight hours. You have to tell them everything you know.” My mom gives me a reassuring nod.
“Okay . . . um . . . around the beginning of September, she started wanting to do things she’d never done before like drinking and smoking pot. I’ve also heard through the rumors that she’s been at parties where there’s other stuff too.”
“Other stuff?” Detective Collins asks.
“Yeah. You know, like cocaine, oxy, ecstasy, and something called Molly.” I glance at my mom and dad when I say this. My dad remains stone-faced, but my mom’s jaw drops, so I quickly add, “But no one ever said they saw her do any of that stuff. People just assume.”
Both Detective Collins and Officer Lange nod, but only Collins jots things down.
“Anyway, she also started staying home a lot and not answering our calls and texts. It was like she was trying to ditch us or something.” I sigh. “Oh, and she stopped running with me.”
“Running?” Collins asks.
“Yeah, we were both on the cross country team this year, have been every year. In fact, Jenna was the one who got me into running back when we were in sixth grade. This is actually the longest we’ve gone without running together and the first year she’s ever missed more than one practice. So, there has to be something wrong.”
“Did you ask her what was going on with her? Or did you discuss why she was neglecting things that are normally important to her?”
“No,” I say, closing my eyes and thinking about the argument Delaney, Dustin, and I had after homecoming. We weren’t sure whether to say something about the things Jenna was doing. Delaney thought we should, but Dustin and I were on the fence. In the end, we decided not to because we weren’t sure who to tell, and none of us wanted to get her in trouble. And then we all just stopped talking to her, judged her, and ditched her. I can’t tell the police all of that, though, not with my parents listening. They’d be so disappointed in me, especially my mom. I’m disappointed in myself. “I should have. But we figured she was just going through a rebellious phase, and it would end soon.”
Collins looks up from his leather notebook but keeps his pen perched above it. “Thank you for sharing all of this with us, Keeley. Is there anything else you think that might be useful to us? Names of new friends she’s been spending time with perhaps?”
I refuse to repeat anything I’ve heard about Jenna that has to do with sex. I’m sure she’d die of embarrassment if anyone else found out about what Tyson Harvey told me. In fact, I don’t even think I should mention the Harvey brothers. “No,” I say, glancing at my mom who narrows her eyes at me, “not that I can think of. But you do plan to talk to Leighton Pierce, right? Jenna has been hanging out with her a lot lately. She might know something.”
“We’ve a
lready spoken to her, Keeley,” Detective Collins says, standing.
“Oh,” I say, wondering if Leighton told them things she didn’t tell Delaney and me. “You know what? I actually—”
The sound of the doorbell causes all of us to look toward the hallway.
“That must be Trish,” my mom says scurrying left into the hallway.
Lange flips her notebook closed and pockets it along with her pen.
“Wait that’s it?” I ask.
“No, we still need to speak with Delaney,” Detective Collins answers. “Dr. Simon, would you mind stepping out of the room with your wife and your daughter?” He approaches Delaney’s mom. “Mrs. Burns,” Collins shakes her hand. “It’s nice to meet you. Thank you for coming here on such short notice.”
“Well, under the circumstances, I didn’t see any other option. You need to find Jenna, and I certainly don’t want you talking to Delaney without me,” she sighs. “Can we please make it as quick as possible, though? I’m sorry, but I really need to get back to work.”
“We’ll do our best,” Collins says, peeking over his shoulder. “Lange, can you please let Delaney know we’re ready for her?” Then he moves toward me with his arm outstretched. I’m unsure if we’re going to shake or if he means to help me out of my chair. Instead, when I take hold of his hand, he gives me something. “Here’s my card in case you think of anything else or if you talk to anyone who might have seen Jenna after school on Friday.”
“Actually, there is one more thing, and I’m sure Delaney will mention it too.”
“Oh?” He gestures toward the chair I was sitting in, and we both sit back down. “Go ahead.”
“Well, on Friday night when I was at the movie theater, Jenna texted me for the first time in weeks.”
He nods as if he’s heard this before, and he reopens his leather notebook. “What time was it?”
“It was before our movie started, so it must have been just before nine. I can get my phone if you want.”
“No, that won’t be necessary right now. We have access to Jenna’s call log, and we should be able to identify the outgoing text to your number. What is it?”
I tell him, and he writes it down.
“Now, something we don’t have access to is the content of Jenna’s text messages, not without her phone anyway. So, can you please tell me what her message said?”
I nod. “She just said hey and asked if maybe we could get together this weekend.”
“And what was your response?”
I swallow the guilt that’s creeping up my throat, ready to choke me. “I didn’t respond.”
“Come on, Keeley. Let’s give the officers some privacy with Delaney and her mom,” my dad says, already walking hand in hand with my mom out of the room toward the kitchen.
Delaney and I brush shoulders as I make my way out of the living room and she heads in to take my spot in the chair. We make eye contact for a second, and again, I try to convey to her the remorse I feel over abandoning Jenna when she probably needed us most. Delaney shoots back a timid grin that could mean anything, making me miss Jenna even more. She always seems to know what I’m thinking. Wherever she is right now, I wonder if she can sense how sorry I am, and that I wish she would just come home.
Delaney and her mom only stayed for a few more minutes after the officers left because Mrs. Burns had to get back to work. She took Delaney with because she said she could use her help with stocking and reorganizing product shelves. From what we could tell, they pretty much asked us the same questions, but Delaney and I will compare notes more thoroughly later on.
I’m about to head up to my room to do some homework when my mom stops me.
“Hey, sweetie, I need to ask you something.”
“Okay? What is it?”
“Near the end of your interview, I noticed you hesitated when Detective Collins asked if there was anything else you could think of. Can you tell me why?”
I nod, close my eyes, and take a deep breath. “People have been saying that Jenna has done things with a few guys.” I open my eyes just in time to catch the tail end of a mortified expression on my mom’s face. Luckily, she’s smart enough to know what I mean, so I don’t have to spell anything out for her.
Her eyes narrow at me. “What about you? Have you . . . done anything yet?”
“No.”
She’s visibly relieved. “Okay, good. Now, I’m not even going to pretend to not know you’ve tried alcohol, but have you tried pot or any other drugs?”
“Mom,” I balk, “no. I mean, I didn’t even like vaping.”
“So, you’ve vaped?”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “Well . . . yes, but it was only once, and I didn’t like it. But this isn’t supposed to be about me. Remember?”
Taking a deep breath, she composes herself. “Right. So, Jenna has been smoking pot?”
“And drinking way too much at parties. Like to the point that she slurs her words.”
“Why in the world didn’t you and Delaney try to talk some sense into her? The three of you have been like three peas in a pod since grade school. Why would she all of a sudden start doing these things? And why would she alienate herself?”
“Mom, it wasn’t all of a sudden. You know she started ignoring my calls and texts like two months ago. And we’ve tried to stop her from doing stupid stuff a bunch of times, but she just ignored us.”
“So, what about this Leighton girl? How does she factor into all of this? Do you think she’s the reason Jenna started experimenting with drugs?”
“No, I told you. She started hanging out with Leighton after she started acting weird.”
“Keeley, why didn’t you say something? I’ve asked you so many times what’s going on with you girls. Why didn’t you tell me Jenna was having problems?”
“Because . . . we were upset with her for saying some mean things to us and for ditching out on us and being weird and . . . I don’t know. She was being a crappy friend, but she was still our friend, and we didn’t want to get her in trouble.”
“Well, there has to be some explanation for the way she’s been acting. And if this is all true, there’s no way Bonnie and Joseph wouldn’t have noticed. Why wouldn’t they have done something about it? They could at least have had Pastor Steele or Pastor Thomas talk to her.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Friday, September 15, 2017
Six Weeks Before Jenna’s Disappearance
Leighton opened the door a crack at first and then a little wider when she saw it was Jenna. “Hey,” she said, turning to leave. Jenna let herself in and closed the door behind her.
“What are you doing?” Jenna said as she approached Leighton at the dining room table.
“Just messing around.”
Jenna leaned over Leighton’s shoulder to see what was on her laptop screen. It wasn’t the school’s Chromebook, so Jenna knew whatever Leighton was looking at had nothing to do with their project, which was due on Monday.
Leighton glanced over at Jenna, their faces only inches apart. “Do you mind?”
Jenna shrugged as she pulled out the chair next to Leighton and started removing things from her backpack. “What’s ChillChat?”
“It’s a chat room site.”
“Who do you chat with? And why can’t you just text them?”
Leighton laughed. “Because I don’t know these people, and a lot of times I hang out in group chats. You’ve never been in a chat room before?”
“No,” Jenna replied, drawing out the “o” as if she didn’t understand why it was so hard for Leighton to believe. “What’s the point of talking to people you don’t know?”
“Oh my God, Jenna, what’s with all the questions? I don’t always chat with people. A lot of times I just observe conversations. Like this one.” Leighton pointed to the screen, and Jenna scooted her chair over to have another look. “This group chat is called Devil Child because it’s for families who are trying to figure out if their
kids are possessed or have mental disorders.”
“What? Is it a joke?”
“Nope. Some of the shit people talk about in there is super creepy. This one’s pretty entertaining too,” Leighton said clicking on a different group.”
“Kissin’ Cousins? Does that mean what I think it means?”
Leighton smiled and shrugged.
Jenna looked down at the table for a moment to compose herself. “So, do you ever just talk to one person?”
“Yeah, you can start personal chats if you want to. Like this guy,” Leighton said, clicking on a conversation. “Hangman thinks I’m an aspiring actress living in L.A.”
“Oh my God, Leighton, he said he wants to meet you.”
“Yeah, it’s time to end this thread.” Leighton clicked to delete the chat and blocked Hangman, but Jenna noticed she had several other active conversations on her screen.
“Have you ever met anyone from this site in person before?”
“Yeah, a few times. And once I went to a huge group meetup at a concert. I couldn’t even keep anyone’s real name straight with their chat nicknames. Other than that, I just pop on here for fun sometimes. But I bet this is the only form of human interaction some of these people get. There’s a group chat for everything.”
“Weren’t you worried that the people you met weren’t who they said they were?”
“Is anyone really who they say they are?” Leighton asked in response.
Jenna shrugged and felt self-conscious that the comment was aimed at her even though she knew it wasn’t.
“Seriously, though, I just don’t tell anyone anything personal, and the times I’ve met up with people have been in public places. You can ask them to send a screenshot of a selfie with the date and time displayed too.”
“Huh,” Jenna said with a nod. She wondered if there were any chat rooms for people like her who’d been abused by a family member, and she made a mental note to check out the site sometime. “All right, we better get to work.” Jenna moved her chair back to where it belonged.
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