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

heavily sedated, unable to move or really do anything for himself. They would get answers from his mother as to why, once they got her to calm down, once they got her in interview. But Kidd could take a wild guess.

“Well done, Kidd.” DCI Weaver had arrived on the scene with the response team. He hadn’t expected him to show up, but given how high profile it was, he could hardly blame the old fella for wanting to be involved. He wanted to be able to report back to the Super as fast as possible, to give him the lowdown on what had happened, to finally tell him that it was over.

DI Kidd knew better.

“Never would have suspected her,” Weaver said in his Scottish growl. “If I’d had my way—”

“The young lad would have been in the docks by now,” Kidd interrupted.

“Yes,” he said. “Thank you for finding the right man. Woman. Person.”

Kidd shrugged. “It’s the job, isn’t it?” he said. “But this isn’t over,” he added.

DCI Weaver looked at him and blinked. “How so?”

“There’s still one part that isn’t closed,” he said. “If you’ll excuse me.” DI Kidd pulled his coat tightly around himself and walked away.

“Detective Inspector,” DCI Weaver barked. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”

“To close the case, sir,” he barked back. “Don’t you worry, I won’t be long.”

DI Kidd stopped by one of the PCs and borrowed their handcuffs before he carried on walking. He rounded the corner, away from the secret house, away from Alexandra Kaye’s residence, and walked up the imposing driveway to the Harper residence.

There were lights on inside, one upstairs in the bedroom, one down the hall in what he assumed would be the kitchen. His phone buzzed in his pocket. A text from DS Sanchez.

ZOE: Where the bloody hell have you got to? I thought you’d want to question her, wrap all this up?

He pocketed the phone. She could handle that. Now was the time for him to finish this off.

He knocked on the door, unphased when Laura answered fully made up.

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

“So that’s what it was?” Laura Harper sat her breakfast bar, tears brimming in her eyes. She looked like she was about to breakdown, but she was holding herself together. This wasn’t an act, wasn’t a performance like the ones she’d conducted on her Instagram and Facebook posts. This was the most real he’d seen her and it was heartbreaking. “They were sleeping together the entire time? And she…she did this?”

DI Kidd nodded. “It wasn’t a one-time thing, no,” Kidd said. “And as or what happened to Sarah, that’s not quite closed yet.”

“I’m not surprised,” she said, walking over to the fridge and pulling out a half-drunk bottle of wine. She offered some to Kidd but he raised his hand to decline. She poured it into a mug. She was coming undone right in front of his eyes. “He was never able to keep it in his pants.” She took a heavy gulp. “You sure you don’t want any?”

“No,” Kidd said. “I’m fine, thank you.”

“As for Alexandra, she can go fuck herself, we were supposed to be friends,” she said. “And it turns out she was the one who…the one who…” She couldn’t finish her sentence, replacing it with a heavy gulp of wine. “She’s been arrested?”

“Yes.”

“Charged?”

“Not yet,” Kidd said. “But she’s been arrested for,” he checked his watch, “about fifteen minutes, so give it time. But I wanted to come round here straight away and tell you. Didn’t want to leave you without all the information you needed and wanted.”

“And deserved,” she added. “You’ve been terrible, the lot of you. Can’t get any updates. Can’t get you to arrest the right person. Useless.”

Kidd knew she was grieving but her comments stung a little bit. He hadn’t worked quickly enough, she was right. If he’d been focused, maybe they would have caught Alexandra faster, maybe Sarah would still be alive, but to dwell on things like that would drive him insane. There were a lot of mistakes Kidd had made over the years, decisions that he regretted. This was no different. It was another in a long list. He didn’t know how many more of them he could take.

She took another swig from her wine. “Is that what you came here for? To tell me that?”

DI Kidd shrugged. “I thought you’d want to know sooner rather than later,” he replied. “Is Mr Harper here? I’d love to be able to tell him too.”

“No,” she replied. “He said something about working—”

There was a noise upstairs.

“Is there someone else here, Mrs Harper?”

“No,” she replied, looking to the ceiling. “Something must have fallen off the—”

“Kidd!”

Caitlyn!

There was a clatter down the stairs, the sound of someone running. DI Kidd moved as quickly as he could, watching Chris Harper bolt out the front door.

Jesus fucking Christ! he thought, turning his back on Mrs Harper and heading for the door. He didn’t want to leave Caitlyn here, not if she was in some kind of trouble but he couldn’t let Chris Harper get away. Not again.

He hurried up the stairs where he saw Caitlyn on the floor. Her face was bleeding, he’d hit her before he ran. There were marks around her neck.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“Fine,” she breathed, her pale face looking all the paler. “What are you still doing here? Go and get him.”

“Caitlyn—”

“I’ll call somebody, you need to go.”

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and called DS Sanchez.

“Kidd? Where are you?”

“Have you left the house yet?” He hurried down the stairs and practically leapt through the open door and out onto the street. He could see Chris Harper off in the distance, running towards town.

“What are you talking about?”

“You need to come to the Harper residence now,” he snapped. “Caitlyn, the FLO, she’s been hurt. And bring some cuffs, we’re bringing in Laura Harper.”

He hung up and started running after Chris Harper. He was pretty far ahead now, but Kidd could still see him