Just Keep Breathing

by GS Rhodes

  “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 seemed to put his more professional hat on, which meant he was going to let Kidd do the talking, which certainly appealed to him. It was getting on for two o’clock, lunch was long since over and Nicholas would likely be hoping he could get out of school and away before the rest of his classmates finished. At least this way, he might not get into more trouble.

  “I heard about Sarah this morning,” he said quietly before Kidd could even get a word in. “I…I felt terrible. The news said you’d arrested someone but wouldn’t say who. But I just felt awful for what I posted. I didn’t…this isn’t my fault, is it?”

  Kidd hesitated. He didn’t know whose fault it was at this stage, that’s what he was trying to figure out. All he knew was that it was possible this had sparked off the chain of events that had caused her death. But he didn’t want to lay that on someone who was barely sixteen years old.

  “We’re trying to figure that out,” Kidd said. “I just had a few questions to ask you. I need to know what your movements were from Friday to today, if possible.”

  “What? You don’t think I killed her, do you?”

  “We need you to answer the questions so we can figure that out,” Kidd said firmly. “It’s not about tricking you into a confession or anything CSI: Stupid like that, it’s about getting to the truth.” Kidd didn’t want to bring the next part up, but maybe tugging on his heartstrings would be the right way around this. “We’ve arrested Dexter on suspicion,” Kidd continued. “And I have enough evidence to charge him with it, so I’m looking to find out what really went on.”

  “So you’re trying to prove him guilty?”

  “I’m trying to get the bloody truth,” Kidd said, raising his voice a little. “So, Mr Ayre, tell me what the bloody truth is, alright?”

  Nicholas sighed and sat back in his chair. Kidd could see the goose pimples on his arms. Either he was cold, or he was nervous. Kidd would put money on both.

  “We were together on Friday night,” Nicholas said quietly. “My parents were out, and they’re never out, and we never get any alone time so…he came over to mine, it got really late, and then he went home. There’s no way he could have done anything to Sarah.”

  “And did you see him over the weekend?”

  Nicholas shook his head.

  “Or this week?”

  “He wasn’t coming into school,” Nicholas said. “Something happened with his parents when he got back on Friday, they took his phone away but he managed to message me on an old computer. I…I didn’t really know what to say to him.”

  “Why’s that?” Kidd asked.

  “He and Sarah were really close and the fact that she had gone missing right after I’d posted that thing…it felt like it was my fault,” he said. “So I didn’t know how to be with him. He probably thought it was because I was trying not to get him in trouble. He’s sweet like that, always thinking the best of me, but actually, it was because I was just being an asshole and distancing myself because I felt bad.”

  And now came the million-dollar question.

  “So why did you do it?” Kidd asked. “You say that you regret it and that you feel terrible about what you’ve done, about what you posted. But why did you do it in the first place?”

  Nicholas shrugged. “I’d heard what was going on and investigated it. I took the pictures and…I don’t know. I didn’t like the way she was treating him. Sure, they were best friends and she was keeping his secret for him, but he had to be available to her whenever she wanted him and it…it just…”

  “It pissed you off?”

  “Yeah,” he said.

  “Were you maybe a little jealous?” Owen chimed in. Kidd didn’t shoot him a death stare because he actually had a good point for once.

  Nicholas shrugged again. “Maybe a little,” he said. “We couldn’t hang out because she wanted to hang out with him, or they were doing something as a group and he had to be there to play the perfect boyfriend.”

  “And he played it a little too well for your liking,” DC Campbell said. “I take it you also had to see them in school as well, canoodling on the playground and such.”

  “Yeah,” Nicholas replied, his cheeks going a little pink, his eyes seeming to fill with tears. “And it didn’t seem fair. It was like our relationship was part-time, a second thought.”

  “It wasn’t a second thought to Dexter, I don’t think,” Kidd said. “I think we’ll need to take you down to the station, get you to write a proper statement for us, and then we can wrap this up. Is that okay?”

  He nodded and started to gather his things. DC Campbell went and told Ms Lu that they were taking Nicholas with them to the station and that they would make sure he got home safely, something DI Kidd wanted to make sure happened to Dexter too. He felt a weight lift from his chest knowing that he had likely just saved Dexter from being charged, and managed to cross two names off of his suspect list. But he knew that this was far from over. If it wasn’t Dexter or Nicholas, who did that leave?

  ◆◆◆

  It took a good few hours to get Nicholas’ statement down and to convince DCI Weaver to let Dexter go once he’d seen it all. CPS wouldn’t be able to charge him with Nicholas’ statement on file, and if his parents confirmed that he was in the house with them all weekend, they would be more than fine to let him go.

  He took it upon himself to drive Dexter and Nicholas home, dropping Nicholas off first so he could accompany Dexter to his front door and have a word with his parents. When they pulled up outside Dexter’s house, he seemed nervous. Incredibly so. He was practically shaking the screws of the passenger seat loose.

  “They’ll be happy you’re okay,” Kidd said. “They’ll have been worried sick about you all day.”

  “They won’t,” he mumbled. “They’ll yell at me.”

  “No reason to yell at you, lad, you didn’t do it,” he said. “And you did a good thing by reporting it.”

  “But I broke out of the house—”

  “That they shouldn’t have been keeping you locked up in, in the first place,” he interrupted.

  Dexter opened his mouth to speak but thought better of it. He reached for the door handle but DI Kidd stopped him.

  “Hang on, lad,” he said, taking a card out of his jacket pocket. “I know it’s not much, and maybe keep it from your parents, I have a feeling that they’re not going to like me much after tonight, but if you need anything from me, at any point. Just give me a text.”

  Dexter took the card and looked at it carefully before putting it in his pocket. “Thanks.” And without another word, he got out of the car and started towards the house. Kidd followed suit.

  Right, he thought. Time to piss off some parents.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Kidd hated that he’d had to leave Dexter in that house with those people. They hadn’t been too impressed with him coming home so late, nor about the fact that he’d been arrested in the first place. Paying out for Andrew Grace’s time was a huge inconvenience to them apparently, which was enough to make Kidd hate them even more than he already did.

  He told them how helpful he’d been, and also got statements off them regarding Dexter’s whereabouts over the weekend. He wanted to let them know that their darling son wouldn’t be able to pray the gay away no matter how hard he tried, but he imagined that it would fall on deaf ears and would only get Dexter in more trouble. The lad had it hard enough without Kidd adding to it.
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br />   He made sure to let them know that he wasn’t charging them with perverting the course of justice, tempting as it may have been, and made sure to get statements as to their whereabouts for the whole weekend. He didn’t believe they had anything to do with it, but he wanted to scare the shit out of them if he could.

  The station had quietened down as the afternoon had turned into evening. Owen had been sent home to clean himself up, though his appearance had caused Zoe to laugh so much that she had fallen out of her chair. DC Ravel had to hide behind her computer screen because the tears were streaming down her face when she saw him.

  That had made it worth taking Campbell with him. And the fact he had actually asked a few good questions. He might have been a little unbearable some of the time, but Campbell was a pretty decent DC. Not that Kidd would ever tell him that.

  DCI Weaver joined them in the Incident Room as Kidd updated them on everything that had happened and then he sat back while Zoe did the same.

  “He was in the house, but he wasn’t coming down,” she said. “Well, there was no way that Alexandra Kaye was going to let him come down, she told us how sick he was, so I don’t really know what to do with that.”

  “Did she seem upset at all?” DCI Weaver growled.

  “Yes,” Zoe replied. “She looked like she’d been crying. She commented on it regarding Caleb too. I think she’s worried about him.”

  “We need to talk to him,” Weaver said.

  “I know,” Zoe said. “We’ll get there. She seemed concerned about his health, and her own safety too.”

  DCI Weaver didn’t seem convinced. DI Kidd wasn’t feeling it either. There was something about Ms Kaye that he couldn’t quite put his finger on, something that told him they should be watching her a little closer than they were. But she’d given them no reason to doubt her yet, had she?

  “Is she not close with the Harpers?” DCI Weaver said. “I’m sure I read in someone’s notes that they were close friends.”

  “Given everything they’ve been through, I do wonder if it’s a little bit for show,” DI Kidd said. “They were friendly with one another at the school reunion, but looking back, I wonder if it wasn’t more like keeping up appearances.”

  “She was a little secretive when it came to the affair with Mr Harper,” Zoe said. “Didn’t bring it up until I mentioned it.”

  “So she was trying to hide it then?” DC Ravel chimed in. “She definitely wouldn’t have brought it up if you hadn’t said it?”

  “I’d say not.”

  “Definitely not,” DC Powell added. “She seemed flustered when you brought it up.”

  “So it’s a touchy subject,” DCI Weaver said. “Hardly surprising. I don’t think anyone is about to go around flaunting their infidelity.”

  DI Kidd kept his mouth shut. Given what he’d seen with Greg the previous day, it wouldn’t be surprising if he was.

  “One last thing,” DS Sanchez said, heading to the opposite side of the Evidence Board and tapping on the picture of Norman Kaye. “Norman came up a little in conversation.”

  “Norman Kaye?” DCI Weaver asked. “Guy you brought in last night.”

  “Yeah, he got into a fight with Chris Harper at the reunion,” Kidd said. “It’s all in the paperwork.”

  “Well, she brought him up because she’s apparently frightened of him,” Zoe said. “Given what we saw, I’d be frightened of him too, but it makes me wonder if he might have more to do with this than we thought.”

  DCI Weaver stood up, clapping his hands together. “Then it looks like we have a new prime suspect on our hands,” he said, turning to DI Kidd. “Good work on getting the Dexter lad cleared. Now work on getting me the real bastard who killed that poor girl. Is that everything?”

  “Just about,” DS Sanchez said, offering him a smile as he walked towards the door.

  “Back at it again tomorrow then,” Weaver said, looking at his watch. “Onwards!”

  He left the room and everyone seemed to take it as their cue to let out a breath. Given how he’d been earlier that day, it was a wonder that he’d taken the news that they’d let Dexter go so well. It was a minor miracle.

  “You heard the man,” Kidd said. “That’s us done for the day. Tomorrow we need an interview with Ms Chowdhury if we can, I’ll go and see the Harpers on the way home, and we’ll bring in Norman for more questioning.” He turned to DS Sanchez. “You might have been right about that one, maybe we shouldn’t have let him go so soon.”

  “If it’s him, you owe me a pint.”

  “If it’s him, you’re getting all the credit for it,” he said. “I’ll see you all in the morning, bright and early.”

  They started to gather their things to leave, DC Ravel still clicking away on her keyboard while she put her things back in her handbag. DS Sanchez stopped by her desk.

  “Janya, you’ll work yourself into the ground,” she said. “Clock off, the emails will still be here tomorrow.”

  “Not emails,” she said, her face looking panicked as she clicked through screens faster and faster, a sheen of sweat across her brow. “Shit, shit, shit.”

  DI Kidd’s ears pricked up. “What’s happening?”

  “It’s Sarah’s phone,” she said. “I’ve been tracking it since this all started, it’s been off this whole time.”

  “Yes, and?” Kidd breathed, his heart pounding hard in his chest.

  Janya Ravel looked over her computer monitor like she’d seen a ghost. “It’s just been switched on.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  After much “what the fuck-ing” and trying to make sure the signal was real, DI Kidd was back out once again, DS Sanchez driving him to the last place they thought they would be going to track down Sarah’s phone.

  “Didn’t think I’d be back here so soon,” DS Sanchez said as she parked the car. “So…you think it’s her?”

  “Sarah?! Zoe, we’re not ghost hunters.”

  “I mean—”

  “I know who you mean,” DI Kidd said, taking off his seatbelt. “Best find out, eh?”

  They got out of the car and marched towards the house. It was dark, all the windows facing the road had their lights switched off, even from the hallway there wasn’t any light pouring out onto the street through the glass.

  “You sure it was here?” DI Kidd asked.

  “Positive,” she said. “I was here earlier on, the address is Alexandra Kaye’s house.”

  DI Kidd nodded. “Alright then.”

  He marched up to the front door and rapped his knuckles three times. The gold knocker jumped and immediately there was movement behind the door. Kidd braced himself for some kind of fight, for Alexandra Kaye to try and do a runner.

  “Keep an eye on the side gate, Zoe,” he said. “If she’s—”

  The door opened and Kidd was ready to read Alexandra Kaye her rights but it wasn’t her that greeted him. In her place stood a boy that he’d only seen in pictures. His eyes puffy and red from crying, his nose streaming.

  Caleb Kaye.

  And Kidd was just about to ask him where his mum was when he saw the phone in his hand, lighting up his face.

  They’d got him.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  “Where did you get that phone?”

  “None of your bloody business, who the hell are you?” Caleb snapped, backing away.

  “I’m Detective Inspector Benjamin Kidd, this is DS Zoe Sanchez, we’re investigating the disappearance and death of Sarah Harper,” he said, advancing on the boy. “Your turn. Where the bloody hell did you get that phone?”

  “This phone is mine.”

  “Strike two, that phone is Sarah’s,” Kidd said. He’d seen it in pictures enough, the sparkly case, the pop socket on the back, her and Dexter as her wallpaper. “You’ve got one last chance to tell us the truth or we’re taking you down to the station.”

  “I—it’s—I—” he stammered and started walking backwards down the hallway. Kidd could practically hear the co
gs turning in his head as he tried to figure out just how he was going to get out of this one. They had him backed into a corner and Kidd had that feeling that he was getting closer to solving this particular puzzle, at least. “She was here.”

  Kidd eyed him carefully. The lad looked terrified, and Kidd honestly couldn’t blame him. He was about to be arrested.

  “Explain yourself,” Kidd barked.

  “She was here when she first went missing,” Caleb said. “When everything went down at school, I saw her in town just…just wandering around looking sad and I asked if she wanted to come back to mine and talk. We were…we were sort of friends I guess. And then she just…she stayed.”

  “Why the bloody hell didn’t you tell anyone?” Kidd barked.

  “Because she asked me not to,” Caleb replied. He was terrified, literally shaking, the phone about to fall out of his hand. “When the police got involved, I told her. Then when I was at my grandma's, I came back and she’d gone. I assumed she’d gone home. Then…then I saw the stuff on the news.”

  “Why did you switch on her phone?”

  “I was looking for a clue, a note or something, and I found the phone,” he said. “When I saw on the news that she’d…that she’d…” He couldn’t bring himself to say it. He was stood in front of Kidd and Zoe looking like he was about to burst into tears, and Kidd couldn’t blame him. It was definitely a lot to deal with. “I turned it on. Because it didn’t seem right. I thought she might have been messaged by someone.”

  “And has she?”

  Caleb shrugged. “The phone is locked,” he said. “I was going to try and unlock it but I got scared and didn’t, and then you arrived.”

  DI Benjamin Kidd looked over at DS Sanchez, giving her a tight-lipped, half-smile. She shrugged at him, a silent conversation passing between them. Neither one was sure what to make of this news, of his story. He could, of course, be telling the truth, but there was so much room for error, so much of Sarah’s final days that had gone unaccounted for. Maybe he would be able to help fill them in.