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

about finding my daughter you’d be talking to him, not coming here and upsetting me, her mother, a woman who fucking misses her daughter, alright?” And that was the last thing she said before she broke down in tears, putting her head on the breakfast bar and sobbing.

DS Sanchez turned to DI Kidd, moving her eyes towards the door. She was right. They’d probably gotten all they could out of Mrs Harper at this stage, and besides that, Kidd had a website in his pocket that he was desperate to look at, desperate to share with Zoe.

He took his phone out of his pocket and found a string of angry messages peppered with a lot of colourful language from DCI Weaver asking him where he was. They would have to visit Dexter Black later. It looked like it was time for the press conference, where Kidd would say what? They were looking into it? He hated this part. Feeding the vultures.

“Mrs Harper, we’d best be going,” Kidd said, quickly downing his cup of tea before getting to his feet. “You’ve been very helpful and we will keep you updated as this develops.”

“Just bring her back to me,” Laura said, looking up at Kidd, tears running down her face, pulling her mascara with it so that black rivers ran to her jawline. “Please. I know I shouldn’t beg, I know, but I am begging you, please bring her back to me.”

“We’re doing our best, Mrs Harper,” DS Sanchez said, joining Kidd in standing. “We’ll see ourselves out.”

“Thank you, Laura. PC McCulloch.” DI Kidd nodded to the PC before he started towards the front door, DS Sanchez on his tail. He opened the door and stepped out onto the driveway, practically marching away from the situation. DS Sanchez jogged a little to catch up.

“Someone’s in a hurry,” Zoe said. “What’s happening?”

“Just hoping that PC McCulloch isn’t following us, that’s all,” he said.

DS Sanchez took a heavy breath. “Why? What have you done?”

As they turned the corner, DI Kidd reached into his pocket and pulled out the phone. DS Sanchez jaw hit the floor.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“You must be out of your mind,” DS Sanchez growled as they got back into the car. Kidd had explained going into Sarah’s room, looking through her things, finding the phone, and then the website. And PC McCulloch catching him. “Do you know how much trouble you could get in for doing that?”

“Yes,” he said. “But the door was open and I couldn’t help myself.”

“You absolutely could have helped yourself, Ben.” Sanchez groaned. “You could have helped yourself from going in there and contaminating evidence.”

“I didn’t contaminate a damn thing,” he said, pulling on his seatbelt. “They ransacked the room last night looking for something and found fuck all. I went in there and found something and if this ends up helping our investigation—”

“Then you acquired it illegally and you’ve completely fucked it,” she barked.

“It looked like a whole private blog, Zoe. I only read a little bit of it but it’s in code. Enough code that a google search isn’t going to make it pop up in the results. This could give us information on how she was feeling, what she was thinking, maybe even details on where she could be hiding. It could be the key to everything.”

“Or it could get you fired.”

Kidd sighed and leaned back in his seat. “Always going straight to the negative.”

Zoe turned on the engine. “I’m trying to keep you grounded,” she said. “You can’t just go around doing whatever you like and thinking you’re going to get away with it. You’re not untouchable.”

Kidd let the silence hang between them. He knew that he shouldn’t have done it, even as he’d plucked the phone from the drawer and tried to switch it on he’d known it was a mistake. The fact it hadn’t been found in the first place wasn’t entirely surprising. They would have been looking for a suicide note or something of that ilk. And why would they look for a phone when the parents said she had it with her.

He took his phone out of his pocket, another message from DCI Weaver asking where he was.

“We need to go back to the station,” Kidd said.

DS Sanchez turned to him. “Why? What about Dexter?”

“He’s going to have to wait.” Kidd sighed. “The vultures have arrived.”

“Feeding time on the Serengeti, how wonderful,” she said, pulling out of her parking space. “What’s on the menu for today?”

“Me,” he replied. “Christ.” He looked out the window before he eventually said, “I do not think I’m untouchable.”

“Don’t you?” Zoe asked. “Because I certainly wonder sometimes.”

◆◆◆

They didn’t say much else on their way back to the station, and Kidd didn’t dare get the phone out in case it caused Zoe to go off at him again, but he was itching to see what Sarah had written. If her parents didn’t know about it, it could be anything and maybe, just maybe, it would lead them to find her all the quicker. Even if Zoe wasn’t impressed with the means, if it got them an outcome then she could hardly complain.

They made it back to the station, the car park a little fuller than it had been when they’d left, and made their way inside.

The Incident Room was humming with activity. The evidence board was full of social media pictures, names connected to faces of Sarah’s friends and acquaintances. It looked busy, and busy meant that they might be getting somewhere.

“DC Ravel,” Kidd said as he crossed the room to her desk. “I need you to do a search for a Nicholas…” he trailed off, turning to DS Sanchez. “Nicholas?”

“Nicholas Ayre,” Zoe shouted.

“Thank you, DS Sanchez,” he replied. “Nicholas Ayre. Also, anything you can get me on Dexter Black and Jonno Edwards, they also seem like they’re going to be pretty important in all of this.” He turned to see DC Powell over by the evidence board. “DC Powell, those are two