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

gotten a truthful statement out of Mr and Mrs Black, DI Kidd and DS Sanchez made their way back to Kingston Police Station. Things were getting more and more confusing. Dexter Black was missing, yet hadn’t been reported as such. Sarah Harper was missing, and her mother was going spare while the father continued to work all hours of the day, and according to the Blacks at least, was playing away. They needed to get a handle on this and they needed to get a handle on it fast.

DS Sanchez pulled into the police station car park. She shut off the engine and turned to him. “None of this looks good if you ask me.”

“I’m worried,” he said. “I’m worried that they’re both missing, especially since the last time they were seen together he was yelling at her.”

“You think he did it?”

“Did what?”

“Kidnapped her.”

“I don’t know,” Kidd said quietly. “You said it yourself, it seems a little too obvious doesn’t it?”

“It would explain why he’s nowhere to be found.” DS Sanchez sat back in her chair and looked over at Kidd. “They could have run away together.”

“What, like love’s young dream?” Kidd asked.

“It’s a possibility, however remote,” DS Sanchez replied. “There is always the possibility that no matter how hard we look, maybe Sarah Harper doesn’t want to be found.”

It wasn’t a thought that had occurred to Kidd just yet. Sarah Harper seemed to have a lot more troubles in her life than anyone really knew. From the overbearing parents to the semi-abusive boyfriend, Kidd definitely wouldn’t have blamed her if she’d wanted to run away from it all and strike up somewhere new. Who could?

“It’s worth considering,” DI Kidd said. “I’m wondering if that website of hers can tell us anymore. I may have to look at it a little more closely. Either way, DCI Weaver isn’t going to like that idea. He wants this case closed.”

“You know more about missing people than most, Ben,” DS Sanchez said. “If they don’t want to be found, maybe they never will be.”

It was a very unsubtle way of talking about Craig. Two years missing and he hadn’t heard a word…apart from what Andrea had sent him last night. With everything that had happened since then, he was surprised to find that it had almost vanished from his mind entirely.

“What?” Zoe said. “You’ve gone quiet on me. Is this a detective thing or have I made you sad?”

“A little of both,” Kidd said, turning to her. “I need to tell you something.”

“Oh my god, what’s happened?” DS Sanchez said. “Is it about this morning? I knew there was more going on than you said.”

She really was good at her job, so it was no wonder DS Sanchez had picked up on that. DI Kidd took a breath and pulled out his phone, bringing up the picture to show her.

“What am I looking at?” she asked, squinting at the picture. “It’s a train station, there’s a blonde guy on the platform…” She trailed off, her mouth falling open a little. Her eyes widened and she looked up at Kidd. She shook her head slowly. “You don’t think—”

“I don’t know,” Kidd interrupted. “If I’m completely honest, I have no idea, but there it is. There it might be, I don’t know.”

DS Sanchez pulled the phone closer to her face, looking at the picture. She pinched and zoomed. It wasn’t going to help her. It hadn’t helped him.

“So this was taken nearly a year ago?” she asked. Kidd nodded. “Which would mean—”

“Despite everyone’s best efforts to convince me to move on and tell me that he’s dead, he might actually be alive.”

“Wow.” DS Sanchez passed the phone back to him. “Didn’t the family have a funeral?”

“Yep.”

“Do they know?”

Kidd shrugged. “I don’t think so. Andrea, his sister, she was the one who sent it to me. So she knows, obviously. She’s never given up.”

“Just like you.”

“Just like me.” Kidd sighed. “I don’t know what to do with it.”

“What can you do?” she asked. “You were looking for him and you couldn’t find him. Now a picture has shown up saying that he might be alive, what are you supposed to do?”

“I’m not sure what you’re getting at here.”

“What I’m getting at,” DS Sanchez continued, “is that you do nothing. It’s what I’ve already said, Ben. Maybe he doesn’t want to be found.”

“You really think that?”

“Whatever it was that made him skip town in the first place has obviously kept him away,” she said.

“But if he’s in danger shouldn’t I try and find him so I can help?”

“Absolutely not,” DS Sanchez said. “If he wanted your help, he would come looking for you, don’t you think? If he’s in trouble with somebody, and he thought you, his former detective boyfriend could help, I think he would have made the effort to track you down at some point over the past two years.”

It was a truth that Kidd hadn’t really wanted to consider. He had kept looking, of course, he had. He’d sent that message to Andrea, hadn’t he? But if Craig had wanted Kidd’s help, he would have asked for it. Or at least, Kidd hoped he would have. No one should have to go through bad times alone.

“What are you thinking?” Zoe asked.

“That I don’t know what to do with this picture,” he said. “It might not even be him.”

“I think it is,” Zoe said quietly. “And I think you know it is.”

“Then what do I do?”

Zoe sighed and looked over at Kidd, her eyes were big and expressive, trying to be there for him even though he could literally feel himself putting a wall up as they spoke.

“You find Sarah Harper,” she said. “We have a job to do, so we should do it.”

“What about John?”

“What about him?”

Kidd sighed. “Do I tell him?”

Zoe considered it for a moment, looking out of the window and then back at Kidd. “No,” she said. “Craig hasn’t come to find you. Maybe it’s over after all. Maybe this is