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

looked across the crowd, his eyes passing over Joe Warrington hovering near the back, apparently done with Uni for the day, before catching sight of a middle-aged white man in an ill-fitting grey suit, his tie a little askew, his hair even more so with his hand in the air. Kidd pointed at him.

“Do you think we’re looking at a teen runaway or a kidnapping?” he asked.

“We’re keeping an open mind at this stage,” Kidd said. “As I said, we are tracking her movements leading up to her disappearance.” He looked out at the crowd once again, catching sight of an Asian woman in a polka dot blouse. He couldn’t really miss her. Maybe that was her tactic.

“Is this being pushed as a high priority because of Laura Harper’s online following?” she asked. “If so, what about all the other missing people who haven’t been given the same treatment?”

Kidd took a breath, not wanting to lose his rag with the reporter, but it was quite a question. “We treat all of our missing persons cases with the same level of urgency,” Kidd said. “In the early part of any investigation, we try to get a jump on things as quickly as possible. However, Sarah is high risk because of her mother’s status. That’s not something to be ignored. It’s all part of the investigation process.”

He turned away from the woman and saw another woman wearing a blue blazer, her station printed on the microphone in front of her. She pointed it to herself as she spoke.

“What leads do you have? From what we’ve seen online not much progress has been made.”

“What you’ve seen online?” Kidd asked.

“Mrs Harper has been posting regular updates and she doesn’t seem happy with the way you’ve been handling the investigation, how do you respond to that?” she asked. It was a totally different question but spoken with the same malice, the same disdain.

“I would say that we are doing all we can,” Kidd said, trying not to let the frustration show on his face. When Weaver had told him this investigation would be a doozy, he wasn’t joking. If she kept on posting like this, she could end up jeopardising their search. “As I said, we started investigating last night and we are doing our best to keep Mr and Mrs Harper updated as best we can.”

There were a few questions thrown out in response to that.

“Do you think you’ll find her?”

“Do you have any suspects?”

“Do you think Sarah Harper will ever come home?”

“I think that’s enough for now,” DI Kidd said, looking out across the reporters and having to shout over their questions. “We will give you more when we have it. Thank you for coming down.”

He turned with the intention of walking back into the station, but instead saw a familiar face over by the outside wall of the station. He was smiling, and even from where Kidd was, he could see how bright and white and perfect it was. John McAdams tucked his hands under his armpits as he drew his jacket around himself. He lifted his arm up to wave.

Kidd waved back and mouthed, “Five minutes.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

DI Kidd headed back into the station, DCI Weaver waiting for him on the other side of the door.

“Expertly handled,” he said.

“Thank you, sir,” Kidd replied. “That last question was…interesting.”

“She’s not wrong though,” Weaver replied, taking his phone out of his pocket and showing it to Kidd. “Look at all this?”

Kidd took the phone and scrolled through it as they walked back towards the Incident Room. Laura Harper had posted all about their meeting, pretty much giving everyone on Twitter a blow by blow of everything that they’d talked about. And how it wasn’t good enough. #JustKeepBreathing #BringSarahHome Both of them already trending.

“This is a lot,” Kidd replied. “Can we stop her?”

Weaver shook his head. “I spoke to PC McCulloch, she’s the Missing Persons Officer, I think you know one another.”

Kidd tried to keep his face neutral. “She was at the house today,” Kidd said. “And we’ve worked together before.”

“Of course you have, of course you have,” Weaver said. “Anyway we asked her to talk to Mrs Harper about not posting all the time but she went off  about how it’s her career. So what can we do?”

“Can she call off her followers? Whoever’s running the Twitter for this place must be losing their minds.”

“She won’t do that either,” Weaver replied. “Believe me when I say we’ve bloody tried.” He sighed and leaned on the wall outside the Incident Room. “I’m not trying to put undue pressure on you here, Kidd, but the quicker we can get this wrapped up the better.”

“I agree, sir,” Kidd replied. “We’re doing our best.”

DI Kidd headed back into the Incident Room for the briefest moment to grab his wallet, but stopped as he felt in his jacket for the phone. He rummaged in his desk drawer for a charger and plugged it into the back of Sarah’s old phone, hiding it beneath some papers before heading back outside to meet John. When he got back he would look at what was on there, look at the site properly and see what it could tell them, if anything.

John was still waiting by the wall but now there weren’t a horde of cockroaches hounding him with questions.

He crossed the car park to John McAdams who immediately wrapped him in a hug, tucking his hands behind Kidd’s back and planting a kiss firmly on his lips. Kidd was a little shocked at the contact. He hadn’t been expecting it. They hadn’t been going out for that long and even though Kidd allowed himself to melt into it and breathe for what had to have been the first time that day, it certainly felt like a weird thing to be doing outside the station.

“What did I do to deserve that?” he asked.

John shrugged. “You met me for lunch,” he replied. “I know how busy you are, I hate to