Just Keep Breathing, GS Rhodes [best book club books for discussion TXT] 📗

her pocket and clicked them, her favoured blue Focus in the corner lighting up as they approached. “Campbell could do this questioning if you want.”

“I don’t know if notes about one of Sarah’s teachers being attractive is going to help us here,” Kidd parried.

“He’s not that bad,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “You just don’t seem keen.”

“No, no,” Kidd said. “You know me, Zoe, scene of the crime and all that. I just want to get started.”

He didn’t want to go but he knew that he had to, that he needed to start where Sarah was last seen. He needed to get on top of this and he needed to get on top of it fast, if DCI Weaver’s attitude was anything to go by.

“I wonder if any of the same teachers are there,” he said as he climbed into the passenger seat. “Last time I went back was…I don’t know, ten, fifteen years ago? And it still looked exactly the same as it had done before.”

“Schools have a habit of doing that,” Zoe said. “I remember going back to get a reference for this job at my old secondary school and it still smelled the same. It was grim, brought back way too many memories.”

“You’re not exactly encouraging me here, Zoe.”

She shrugged, starting the engine. “You started it!”

The drive didn’t take all that long, following the one-way system out towards Richmond, pulling into a set of very familiar gates (though with a seemingly fresh lick of paint) and an all too familiar car park. Kidd looked up at the school. It still managed to look imposing, even after all these years. Across the front of the main school building were a lot of windows and you could see students milling about inside, but every pair of windows was like a pair of eyes, staring at you, taking you in. You never quite knew who was watching. To say it was unnerving would be an understatement.

“Shake it off, Kidd,” Zoe said as she shut off the engine, leaning back in her seat. “What’s the game plan here?”

Kidd took a moment, getting his thoughts in order. “Game plan is to go in there and get as much information as we can about Sarah. Everything on her social media channels is showing nothing but a perfect life, nothing at all going on that seems in any way out of the ordinary.”

“That’s social media though,” Zoe said with a shrug. “It’s a highlight reel, no one is ever really telling the truth, are they?”

Kidd considered this. “I suppose not,” he said. “But we need to try and establish what was really going on, figure out some kind of timeline so we know what she was doing, really get inside her head.”

“You think this is the place to do it?”

“Well, she spends more time here than she does anywhere else,” Kidd said. “Even more time here than at home really. Nine until three, Monday to Friday, that’s a whole lot of life. There will be people here that know things. Her friends will know things, they have to.”

He wasn’t certain of a lot of things in this case, but he was certain that there would be at least one friend that knew what was going on with her.

Zoe nodded. “Let’s get going then.”

They got out of the car and started towards the front doors and the reception area. It was a path that Kidd had walked many times before, throwing him right back to when he was in his youth and showing up late after oversleeping or an argument with his parents, having to sign in at the front office instead of going to his form class, being threatened with detentions and demerits every other day.

The hardest part was that Liz hadn’t gone to the same school. It might have been easier, or maybe he would have had happier memories if he’d been able to share the experience with a sibling. But Liz had been way too clever for this school. She’d ended up at a grammar school in Richmond. It took her an age to get there and back, but she excelled, their parents were obsessed with her for it.

Kidd opened the reception doors and was hit with a blast of warm air as he stepped inside, and then that same smell that would probably stay with him for the rest of his life. It was a combination of carpet cleaner, furniture polish, and some kind of air freshener that was probably the cheapest that could be found in bulk. There was also the lingering smell of sweat, something that most schools probably struggled to hide most of the time.

He walked to the glass window, a portal to some of the teacher’s offices within. There were people in there tapping away at computers, drinking coffee, chatting to one another. No one noticed his presence until he cleared his throat.

“Sorry about that!” A woman cooed as she tottered over. She was wearing a name badge that marked her out as Ms Lu, her black and white streaked hair pulled back into a tight ponytail, her glasses on a chain around her neck. Kidd couldn’t age her. She was simultaneously a child and a grandmother. “What can I do for you? Are you signing in?”

“No,” Kidd replied. “We’re—”

“Is this a visit?” Ms Lu chirped excitedly. “Are you looking at this school for your child?”

DS Sanchez choked on the air while Kidd struggled to keep a straight face.

“No, not at all,” Kidd replied. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his warrant card, pressing it against the window so that Ms Lu could see it was definitely him. “I’m DI Benjamin Kidd, this is DS Zoe Sanchez.” She’d managed to get her breath back and waved at Ms Lu. “We’re here to talk to the headteacher, and then some students if possible. It’s about the disappearance of Sarah Harper.”

All the excitement she had greeted them with fell from her face. She looked suddenly unspeakably sad.