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

Kidd echoed. “That’s not enough time. What will we have to say? They’ll gut us.”

“We’ll tell them we’re looking into it, hope it calms down the crazies gunning for us online.” Weaver sighed, running a hand over his face. “You on this, Kidd?”

“Yes, boss,” Kidd replied, turning to his team. “We need to set up a timeline. Find out who last saw her and when, try and figure out where she could have gone. I assume we’ve got a trace on the phone? If it gets switched on, I want to know about it. We’ll check CCTV around the school, check social media profiles, all that.” He turned to DC Powell, handing him the folder. “Pop these on the board, would you DC Powell?”

“Sure thing, sir,” he said, getting up from his seat and immediately tripping over his own feet. The folder spilled out across the floor, photographs, documents, the small amount of evidence that had been handed to DCI Weaver late last night.

DI Kidd looked at his boss, who was currently in the process of rolling his eyes at DC Powell for his clumsiness. He looked tired. He probably hadn’t slept. DI Kidd could relate.

He got down and started picking up the wayward photographs with DC Powell, whose face was burning red, muttering to himself about being stupid. DI Kidd cursed himself for thinking it.

“You’re alright, Simon,” he said quietly. “Easy now.”

DC Powell looked over at him and smiled. “Thank you, sir. Sorry, sir.”

“It’s fine, it—”

But something caught Kidd’s eye, something that made him stop dead in his tracks. He picked up a photograph of the family together, one he hadn’t come to himself while he was inspecting the folder.

“This the parents, sir?” he asked, holding up the photo to show DCI Weaver.

DCI Weaver squinted at the photo before nodding. “Yes, apparently they came in to report it themselves, then went live on Instagram to talk about it, asking anybody with information to come forward if they knew anything. This is going to be a doozy, Kidd, the mother is a total nightmare. Why do you ask?”

He looked down at the picture one more time. There was a woman who looked very similar to Sarah, now that he thought about it. She was slender, peroxide blonde, striking a similar pose to the one that her daughter struck. She looked deliriously happy, one of those photographs where either the photographer had told a joke beforehand or they’d just decided to make it look as natural as possible by laughing through it. As he looked closer at her, really took in her face, it dawned on him.

“This is Laura Martins,” he said.

“Laura Harper,” DCI Weaver corrected.

“Right, right, but that’s not what I knew her as,” DI Kidd said, staring down at the photo in disbelief. He shook his head. “I went to school with her.”

CHAPTER SIX

He remembered her so well now. She’d always been one of the popular girls at school, surrounded by friends, going out on Friday nights and always having stories running around the school about her that she vehemently denied. She was a star. It was hardly surprising that she’d managed to transform that real-world stardom into some kind of internet fame.

He recognised the husband as well, though less so. Christopher Harper had been a student at his school too, and they were in the same year, but he was one of the sports guys, someone who Kidd had tried to avoid if he could manage it. It was exactly the kind of person he would have expected Laura Martins to end up with.

DC Powell got to work setting up an Evidence Board. He put the photos of Sarah on one side and the photos of the parents on the other, under the heading of suspects. You could never be too careful with things like this, and as with most missing persons cases, you would have to rule out the parents first. Most people would be surprised to know how many times it had turned out to be the parents all along. He hoped that wasn’t the case this time.

DC Ravel got to work looking at Sarah’s social media, tracking down the names of the people she was photographed with most often. They’d be the people they would need to speak with first at the school, they would be the ones who would help them figure out a timeline.

DC Campbell appeared shortly after DCI Weaver had vanished. Bloody convenient timing, DI Kidd had thought. Kidd had filled him in and then sent him straight back out to gather coffee and pastries for the team.

Ben returned to his desk, flicking through the evidence they had so far—which wasn’t a lot—and scrolling through Laura’s Instagram. The fact they had gone to school together still floored him. He hadn’t thought about her for the past twenty-five years or so and here she was, cleaning on the internet for hundreds of thousands of people.

DS Sanchez appeared at his side.

“So, that certainly puts the whole school reunion thing in perspective, huh?” she said, pulling up a chair to sit beside his desk. “I take it you’re definitely going now.”

“For sure,” DI Kidd said, not looking away from the screen. She seemed to still hang around with people they’d gone to school with. There were people whose faces he recognised in a vague sort of way, but couldn’t for the life of him remember what their names were. It was like she hadn’t moved on from those days, hanging out with the same people, probably talking about the same things they had always talked about, reminiscing about old stories.

The comments section on the post where she announced that Sarah was missing—with a photograph of the two of them standing next to one another, looking gorgeous in the same outfit, same poses, the lot—was flooded with people wishing them the best, wishing for her safety, saying they were sending up hopes and prayers. Kidd’s mind boggled at these strangers being so