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

Chris shrugged again.

“Allow me,” DS Sanchez said. “For the benefit of the tape, Mr Harper shrugged for a second time.”

Chris fixed Zoe with a death stare. She was unmoved. She just smiled at him.

“Why did he tell you to get away from his ex-wife?” DI Kidd asked.

Chris turned his gaze to DI Kidd. “I think you know why,” he said quietly. “But it’s not what you think.”

“Enlighten us,” Kidd said.

Chris took a deep breath before he started talking. “It happened a little while back, not too long after I’d had to let Norman go,” he said. “Alexandra and I had always been close. She’s an old family friend, both her and Norman were really. The business stuff really drove a wedge between us.”

“I can’t imagine you sleeping with his wife would have exactly helped matters,” Kidd said.

“It was a one-time thing,” Chris said quickly. “She came over because she was upset about how things were going for her and Norman. She was planning to leave him. I’d been having trouble with Laura, we were on the rocks a little bit. We drank. One thing led to another…” He trailed off. “You don’t need the details,” he said. “But I thought we were all past that now. Like I said, Alexandra is a family friend.”

“And does Laura know?”

“What my wife does and doesn’t know isn’t any of your business.”

“The same way she doesn’t know about Ms Chowdhury?” DI Kidd snapped.

“That’s my private life, that has nothing to do with what’s happening here.”

Kidd only wished that were true. When it came to an investigation like this, everything was important. Even the details like that, which seemed like they could be nothing, were something. He didn’t want to say it out loud, he didn’t want to give anything away, but not only was Ms Chowdhury under suspicion but so was Norman Kaye. How far would one man go to get back at the man who slept with his wife? The man who he believed had caused their divorce?

“I don’t think I have anything else to ask,” Kidd said. “I’ll get an officer to escort you out of the building, if you’re definitely sure you don’t want to press charges.”

“No, I don’t,” he said. “I just want all of this to go away. Things haven’t been the same between me and Norman since everything happened—”

“Sleeping with someone’s wife will do that to a relationship,” DS Sanchez said.

“But I just want it to go back to normal,” he said. “I want my daughter back, I want my friend back, I just want it all to go back to how it was.”

DI Kidd stopped the recording and escorted Chris from the room. He wasn’t surprised he wanted it all to go away. Like never before, Chris’ life was under a microscope. With what was happening tonight with Ms Chowdhury and what happened in the past with Alexandra Kaye, he seemed to be able to get away with absolutely anything he wanted to. Now that he was being watched, he didn’t like it so much.

◆◆◆

Norman Kaye was a little bit more forthcoming once they got him into interview. He seemed rattled when they got him out of the cell, a shadow of the man who had gone at Chris Harper full pelt, who had looked like he wanted to rip the guy’s head off. Maybe it was because he’d been taken to the police station, maybe being in a cell had sobered him up, but he’d calmed down considerably.

Kidd once again turned on the tape recorder and sat opposite Mr Kaye. He could really get a good look at him now in the light of the interview room. His buzzed hair was ginger, a light fuzz across all of his head. He was smartly dressed, or at least he had been for the party, they’d taken his tie at the front desk just in case he tried something stupid. His features were harsh, jagged, angular. But his eyes were kind, and looked like they were on the verge of tears the second DI Kidd pressed that record button.

“I’d like to get this done as soon as possible, Mr Kaye,” DI Kidd said.

“Of course,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

Kidd blinked. “What’s that?”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t know what came over me. Maybe it was the drink. I don’t know, but I just saw them together and I saw red.” He took a breath. His gaze turning to his feet. “I’ve got a lot on my plate right now. It’s not an excuse, I know, but I just lost it a bit.”

“We saw,” Zoe said. “Tell us what’s going on, Mr Kaye.”

“I’ve been having troubles with my wife, ex-wife,” he quickly corrected. “Sorry, I keep doing that. The divorce only finished going through a little before Christmas and I’m just not used to it.”

“But you were separated?”

“We were, but I always hoped that she would change her mind,” Mr Kaye said, turning his gaze back to his hands on the table. “It’s stupid. Because she obviously hasn’t and she seemed really happy, didn’t she?”

“I can’t say I was paying a lot of attention, Mr Kaye,” Kidd said. “Carry on.”

“Yes, right, sorry,” he said. “Well, she keeps talking about Caleb.”

DI Kidd had forgotten for a moment about Caleb, the son that she’d mentioned who was particularly distressed about Sarah, at least according to Ms Kaye. He scribbled the name down, something to force him to remember it later. They’d need to talk to him if they could.

“She keeps telling me how awful I am as a father because I work all the time, because I’m still struggling to make ends meet after what happened with Chris’ business,” he said. “And she’s threatening to take Caleb away from me.”

“Do you have custody?” DS Sanchez asked.

“No. I see him most weekends, sometimes when Alexandra is working late, but I barely see him as it is,” he said. “Since I moved out, we’ve drifted further and further apart and