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

“There’s not a lot of anything here, sir,” he replied. “There’s a little bit of furniture, a bed in the bedroom, another in the spare, which I guess must be Caleb’s when he comes here, but there’s nothing of note.”

“You’ve searched the whole place?”

“Forensics have just shown up, sir, they’re looking for anything that might point to Sarah Harper having been here,” DC Campbell said.

DI Kidd nodded. There was no point looking for Caleb’s DNA, it would be all over it. But if they could find any trace of Sarah, that would be enough to convict, that would be enough to get this finished.

“Right, thank you, Campbell, good work. Get back here as soon as you can,” he said before hanging up the phone.

DI Kidd turned back to the paperwork he’d been looking at, the interviews he’d already conducted, trying to figure out what it was he had missed. There had to be something. If there was nothing in Norman Kaye’s apartment, where on earth could Caleb be? Where could Sarah have been kept the night before she ran off?

It was all coming from that same direction, the direction of Norman’s flat. There was something obvious staring him in the face and he just couldn’t get a handle on it. It was maddening. He opened Sarah’s website and started looking again, scrolling through the posts, through the abbreviations. It was staring him in the face. He knew it. It was here somewhere. It had to be.

D is on my last nerve.

What if…?

There are too many lies, too many fights, and I don’t think I can take it anymore.

Could it be that…?

D needs to change and he needs to change now.

Kidd could feel it coming to him when his phone started ringing.

◆◆◆

DS Sanchez bolted out of the ASDA and down London Road as fast as her feet would carry her. There was no way on this planet she was going to let him get away. She could see him up ahead, his high-vis jacket he’d been wearing in the store giving him away from a good distance.

He was quick, really bloody quick, which definitely matched up with the guy that they’d seen running in the CCTV chasing Sarah.

“Norman!” she shouted as she ran. “Stop. Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be!”

He wasn’t listening, or he couldn’t hear her, because he kept running.

There was a set of footsteps coming up behind her. She turned in time to see that it was PC Eve joining her in her chase. She imagined that PC Grant would be staying in the car, or attempting to follow them in that.

She was catching up to him, and he could see that. He was pumping his arms as hard as he could, but the closer he got to town, he was running out of steam. She took her opportunity, putting on a turn of speed so she could catch up to him.

She jumped at him, tackling him to the ground which they both met with a thud. He grunted, he cried out, apparently she was hurting him, but she didn’t have time for his bellyaching.

She grabbed his arms and pulled them out from underneath him, PC Eve showing up beside her and putting a hand on his back to keep him down. She put the cuffs over his wrists.

“Norman Kaye, I am arresting you on suspicion of the abduction and murder of Sarah Harper,” she said. “You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.”

He grunted and struggled beneath her, trying to get away, but she was having none of it.

“Thanks for the assist,” she said to PC Eve, who blushed a little as she locked eyes with him. She shook her head. These young boys.

PC Grant pulled up in the squad car, the blue lights on, ready to take them back to the station. DS Sanchez let out a breath because they finally had their man.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

DI Kidd demanded the most uncomfortable interview room possible when DS Sanchez returned with Norman Kaye in tow. While he was being booked in with the PCs, they got together their game plan. What they needed from him was a confession, and DI Kidd was pissed off enough that he was going to push him hard to get it. They’d been wrong-footed by him once before, Kidd would be damned if they were going to be wrong-footed by him again.

They had him deposited in the room where they left him to sweat for a little longer with his legal representation.

“Who have we got?” DI Kidd asked.

“Mr Ward from Shire & Ward,” she said. “You heard of them?”

“No, you?”

“No,” she replied. “But if they’re representing him, I’d put my money on them being a bastard.”

DI Kidd laughed. “A fairly safe bet given the job title,” he replied. “Let’s get in there then.”

They stepped into the interview room and DI Kidd was presented with a Norman Kaye who looked a heck of a lot worse for wear than he had done the last time they’d interviewed him. This was a man who was at the end of his rope, and DI Kidd was determined to get him to tell all. He wanted this done as much as the gaffer did. He wondered how long it would take for him to break.

He got the pleasantries with the legal representative out of the way. He was a slimy-looking man with a green tone to his skin, though that could have been the lights, and way too little hair trying to cover up way too big of a bald patch. He smiled at Kidd as they shook hands, his lips thin, his eyes dark and snake-like. Kidd didn’t like him. Though to find a solicitor that he did like would be pretty rare indeed.

He pressed record on