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

of students. He could see Jonno Edwards in the thick of it, his blazer off, his white shirt like a beacon in the grey. Across from him was another boy, soft-looking, a little bit chubbier than Jonno. He was backing away, but there were people on the edge of the circle not letting him get free, the people chanting “Fight!” pushing him back into the circle.

Kidd kept up his pace despite the slipperiness of the grass. The rain from the night before had made the whole thing a squelchy death trap, but he needed to get there and he needed to get there now.

He heard someone take a tumble behind him, a small part of him hoping that it was Owen, just because the thought of it made him laugh.

He reached the circle of students and broke through them, the security guard not too far behind. In shock, some of the students immediately starburst off in various directions, screaming, adding to the cacophony of noise that was already assaulting his ears. But some stayed, some stayed because they wanted to see Nicholas get punished for this.

“Knock him out, Jonno!” a voice that Kidd recognised shouted. He turned to see that Taylor was stood there, egging Jonno on, not running away like the rest of them. She was as committed to this as Jonno was. She watched on as Jonno pulled his fist back and threw a punch that connected with Nicholas’s face.

He fell into the mud, the dirt splattering all over his uniform.

“Get up and fight me, you coward!” Jonno shouted, spitting at Nicholas. “Just a pathetic little keyboard warrior, aren’t you? You’re disgusting.” He went in to kick Nicholas in the stomach, but DI Kidd got there first, pulling Jonno out of the way.

It surprised him, Kidd could see that in the way he stumbled, nearly losing his footing on the mud. Jonno glared at DI Kidd for a moment, only straightening up when he realised who he was staring at.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

Kidd was out of breath, panting, his shirt stuck to his back, splatters of mud all up his front. “I…phew…I wanted to talk to Nicholas,” Kidd said. “You know, before you hospitalised him.”

“You know what he did!” Jonno barked, his voice cracking as he shouted. “He posted all that shit, he might as well have killed her, he’s the one who caused all this. Oi, prick, Dexter’s gonna fucking murder you when he finds out you did it.”

“I highly doubt that!” Nicholas parried, smug despite the fact he was covered in mud and would probably be unconscious had Kidd not shown up.

Jonno looked like he was going to go for him again but Kidd put his hand up to stop him. He turned to Nicholas.

“You want to shut your fucking mouth for a second before he breaks it?” Kidd snapped. He turned back to Jonno. “We’ll take it from here,” he said. “You guys go back to your break.”

“He might as well have been the one that killed her,” Taylor said. Her rage had subsided and she was looking past Kidd, right at Nicholas, her face scrunched up in disgust. “If it hadn’t been for him, she’d still be alive. I hope you can fucking live with yourself.”

Kidd didn’t argue with them. They were hurting, and it was possible that what they were saying wasn’t entirely untrue. He didn’t know the root cause of Sarah’s disappearance yet. It could have been anything. He still needed to find that out, which meant he needed to talk to Nicholas Ayre.

The security guard appeared, out of breath, his high-vis jacket undone. He bent over and put his hands on his knees, willing the air to get back into his lungs.

“You want me…you want…me to take ‘em in?” he asked Kidd, gesturing towards Jonno and Taylor. Jonno had his arm around her now and she was crying. He didn’t want to cause them any more pain.

“Leave them,” he said. “I’ve sorted it.”

“Sorted it? The second you leave they’re going to attack me again—”

“I’d stop talking if I were you,” Kidd interrupted. “I’ve got some questions for you, alright? And I’m going to need you to answer them pretty quickly.”

“What’s happening, boss?” Owen’s voice pulled Kidd’s attention away from Nicholas. “Did we save him?”

Owen was covered head to toe in mud all across one side. Somehow, he’d even managed to get it in his hair. Kidd couldn’t keep the grin off his face. He looked utterly ridiculous, and even if it was just for a moment, it did feel good to laugh.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

They all headed back into the school, Ms Lu getting one of the PE Teachers to open the changing rooms so Nicholas could clean himself up. DC Campbell didn’t get such a luxury, though he did spend a solid forty minutes in the toilets trying to scrape the mud off of his face and out of his hair. Kidd found himself wishing that he’d taken a picture to send over to Zoe, she would have lost her mind.

They waited for Nicholas to get changed into his PE Kit—a pair of black jogging bottoms and a light blue polo shirt—and be escorted to see them in the same office that Kidd had conducted interviews with Sarah’s friends in the previous day. It seemed smaller in there somehow, like the walls were pressing in a little bit closer. Though maybe that was just Owen talking at a million miles a minute the whole time they were in there.

“I just can’t imagine you being here, sir. Can’t really imagine you as a student, to be honest,” he said. “In my head you’re like Mrs Trunchbull.”

“Who?”

“From Matilda, sir,” he said. “There’s a line where she says she hates children, glad she never was one.”

“You don’t think I was ever a child, Owen?”

“Erm, I don’t know, sir. I’ve never really thought about it.”

Kidd sighed. “Have you thought about not voicing every thought you have?”

When Nicholas arrived, Owen