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

probably be fine with it, but if he came out to his parents and I met them, then maybe my parents would have found out too and I didn’t want that.” He lowered his voice. “But they found out anyway.”

“So since Friday, you’ve been locked up in your house?” DS Sanchez asked. “Your parents could confirm that?”

Dexter nodded. “They wouldn’t want to, but they could, yes.”

“Alright,” Zoe said, turning to DI Kidd. “Any further questions?”

“Yes, just one,” he said. “Who is Nick? We may need to speak with him, just to corroborate your story, you understand?”

Dexter nodded. “He goes to my school. I can give you his phone number if you like?” Dexter said. “His name is Nicholas Ayre.”

Kidd sat up a little straighter. The name triggered something in the back of his brain, it was a name he had heard before. He closed his eyes and thought back before he turned to DS Sanchez whose eyes were wide, staring over at Kidd.

“He’s been a little bit off-grid for the past couple of days, but he’s still been going to school like normal. He said he was going in today, and I said I’d see him there because I thought maybe my parents were going to let me go. I mean, I was going to go anyway, when I got back from my run but… “ He trailed off. He didn’t need to finish that thought. “I thought he might have been mad or something, or worried because of what happened to me with my parents, but if I told him it was urgent I’m sure he would reply. I’m sure he’d come and meet me,” Dexter said. “They’ve got my phone so I can’t do it right now.”

Kidd sighed and looked back at Dexter. “We’ve heard of Nicholas Ayre,” Kidd said. “Was he aware of your arrangement with Sarah?”

“Of course he was,” Dexter said, confusion flickering across his face. “He didn’t like the arrangement, I don’t think he did anyway, but he went along with it. He thought Sarah was taking advantage of me.”

“Did you think that?”

“No,” Dexter replied quickly. “She was trying to help me. She’s known my parents long enough to know that they take their religion very very seriously and they didn’t agree with…” He trailed off, silencing himself, something Kidd imagined he had to do on a daily basis. Again, there he was, feeling sorry for the lad. “Why?”

“Nicholas Ayre is someone who has come up in our investigation, someone we’ve not actually had a chance to speak to yet,” DS Sanchez said. “We understand the website that posted the pictures of Sarah and Jonno was set up and run by him.”

Dexter stared at the two of them, his face blank. He looked down to his hands, back up to them, his eyes getting that faraway look in them again as he tried to figure out just what the heck was going on.

“That can’t be right,” Dexter said. “He didn’t do anything to Sarah either, I know he didn’t.”

“We can’t be sure of that.”

“He was with me,” Dexter said quickly. “On Friday night, Nicholas was with me. After school, after everything that went down outside the school with Sarah, we spent the rest of that afternoon together at his house. It was when I got home late from his that my parents confronted me about the…about…the websites.”

“Okay,” DS Sanchez said. “Nicholas can confirm that?”

“Yes.”

“Well, we need to speak with him then,” DI Kidd cut in. “You said he’s been off-grid for the past couple of days?”

“Yeah,” Dexter said quietly. “I guess I know why now. He was laying low.”

“I imagine he was,” Kidd replied. “You said he’s at school today? You’re sure about that?”

“He messaged me this morning,” Dexter said.

“Okay,” Kidd said. “We may need to ask you some more questions later, is that okay?”

Dexter nodded. “I’ll do whatever I can to help her,” he said. “She’s…she was my best friend.” And the tears started rolling again. Kidd took the opportunity to finish the interview, a high-pitched beep ringing through the room from the recorder as silence fell upon them all.

DCI Weaver wouldn’t be happy about this, not one bit.

CHAPTER THIRTY

DI Kidd had figured out his next move by the time they were finished with Dexter Black. They’d given the lad some time to calm down before taking him back to his cell. He hadn’t wanted to go and Kidd could hardly blame him, but they needed to keep him there until they could be one hundred percent sure. He understood that.

“I want to talk to Caleb,” Kidd said as they walked into the Incident Room. The other members of the team had returned from their door-knocking. DC Powell was just taking his coat off from being out with the FLO and the Harpers. Everyone seemed eager to hurry over to Kidd and report back. He kept talking regardless. “And we definitely need to talk to Nicholas Ayre. If he’s not at school, Dexter can help us track him down.”

“You think he’s innocent then?” DS Sanchez asked.

“Absolutely.”

“DCI Weaver is going to be pressing you to get that arrest,” Zoe said. “You heard him down by the river. He thinks it’s him.”

“Yeah, but I’m not about to convict Dexter for the sake of it. We know different.”

“The evidence is there,” Zoe said. “For the record, I think he’s innocent too, but there are a lot of things that point to it being him.”

“The thing pointing me away from it being him is that he wasn’t even with Sarah in the first place,” Kidd said. This case kept twisting around in all different directions, it was hard to get a handle on it. Or to have any idea where it was going to take them next. “There’s no way to prove it, of course, but who the hell is Sarah talking about on her website?”

DI Kidd was about to move over to the computer to check the entries again when the door burst