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Mackenzie Trenton was a ball of nerves.
Except for the bed and the desk chair, there was no other place to sit in the small room, so Kay decided to stand. “Were you and Jenna close?”
“Uh-huh, yes, we were,” she replied quickly. “The two of us and Alana. Did you speak with Alana yet?”
“Not yet, no,” Kay replied, wondering why Mackenzie wanted to know. Had the two girls rehearsed their stories? “How often did you guys hang out?”
“At least a few times a week,” Mackenzie replied, her eyes darting all over the room. “But since spring, she didn’t want to go out with us anymore. Not that often.” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, staring briefly at the ceiling. “Not recently.”
“Were you on the day trip Jenna took on April seventeenth?”
She shook her head. “Mom wouldn’t let me go. I woke up with a cough that day.”
Elliot leaned against the bedroom door. “What was different about Jenna? What had changed?” With a quick head gesture, he drew Kay’s attention to a collage of small photos on the wall. It was Mackenzie with Alana and Jenna in various locations. At the mall, at Katse Coffee Shop having bagels, on Mount Chester, hiking. Always smiling, happy, carefree.
Mackenzie chewed briefly on the tip of her finger, a gesture familiar to Kay. She did the same when feeling unsure of herself, thinking hard about what to say or do.
“I don’t want to say anything, um—she’s dead now, and only good things…” Her voice faltered, while her eyes looked at Kay, pleading for understanding.
“It’s all right,” Kay said. “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind, as long as it’s the truth. We’re trying to catch the man who killed her.”
“I heard she was raped too,” Mackenzie whispered. “I can’t think of anyone who, um—you know, would’ve done this.”
“Tell us about Jenna, and what changed in April,” Kay insisted.
Mackenzie looked at the door, as if seeing if anyone could come and save her from the answers she had to give. “Um, she turned into a different person. She was becoming cold, paranoid, and moody.” Another bite on her finger. “A bit trashy.” The word was whispered, while her eyes darted all over the room as if afraid she’d be overheard. “Way too eager to get out there and live her life.” The statement seemed to pain her, make her uncomfortable.
But what was she talking about? Jenna’s parents had said that she’d stopped leaving the house in April, while Mackenzie was saying the opposite.
“Tell me more,” Kay encouraged her. “It will help us catch her killer. You’re doing your friend a favor.”
Mackenzie’s eyes brimmed with tears. “I miss her, I do.” She sniffled and cleared her throat, staring at the floor the entire time as if embarrassed by her moment of weakness. “She stopped being honest with me. With both of us, Alana and me.”
“How? What do you mean?”
Her chest heaved as she sighed, her eyes now searching for answers in the pattern of the rug beneath her feet. “She was telling me she’s at home, studying, and didn’t want to hang out with us, but the following day there were always stories. Who she went out with. What she did.”
“You mean, she was sleeping around?” Kay asked.
“Yes,” Mackenzie replied, sounding relieved she didn’t have to say it first. “But I don’t know for sure. It’s just what I kept hearing, you know, kids talking, texting, that kind of stuff.” She paused for a moment, looking at Kay, hoping what she’d said was enough.
It wasn’t. Kay held her gaze, encouraging her to say more.
She bit her finger again and stepped in place, repeatedly glancing at the door. “Um, like when everyone was saying she’d slept with Renaldo. I asked her if that was true, and she just stared at me. She didn’t say a word. I tried to talk with her, but she was insulted I’d even asked her.”
Kay exchanged a quick look with Elliot. Even if the girl had been sleeping around, that wouldn’t’ve been the first time it had happened. They were teenagers; reckless, impulsive, driven by raging hormones and not a lot of common sense. There had to be something else that had got her assaulted and killed.
“Then what happened?” Kay asked patiently, taking a seat on the desk chair, in an unspoken message to Mackenzie that she wasn’t leaving until she got to the bottom of whatever had been going on.
Mackenzie’s shoulders dropped but her eyes darted once more toward the door before she spoke again. “Then the website happened,” she whispered, “that came out in May, I believe, right before summer break. That’s what drove Tim away.”
“Who’s Tim?” Elliot asked.
“Tim Carter, he was Jenna’s boyfriend. He’s a nice guy, a bit shy, loyal like a dog.” Her smile widened for a split second, then waned. “All the gossip, he didn’t believe it. He didn’t want to. But when he saw the website, he dumped her. I was there, with her, when they broke up. He showed her the website, and she didn’t say anything… she just stared at the screen. I didn’t know what he was talking about when he showed her… I found out later, and, oh my gosh.” She covered her mouth with her hand. “It was horrible.”
“What website?” Kay asked, wondering why the more she heard, the less she understood. Those kids seemed to coexist in a parallel universe.
Mackenzie’s cheeks caught fire. She bit her lip nervously, then the tip of her finger. “I don’t remember exactly.” Seeing Kay’s expression, she added quickly, “But I can bring it up on my phone. It was something like, I-put-out-dot-whatever, this part I don’t remember.” She extracted her phone from her pocket and typed incredibly fast. Then, not daring more than a quick glance at Kay, she showed her the phone screen.
