Just Keep Breathing

by GS Rhodes

  “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 in the distance and he was determined not to lose him. He pumped his arms as hard as he could, his boots feeling like the wrong choice for a foot chase.

  Chris sprinted across the road, cars skidding to a stop just long enough that Kidd could follow, waving an arm in apology as he went. The ground was still slippery from where it had been raining, but he wasn’t about to let it slow him down.

  There were people out, Chris having to dodge them as he ran, Kidd having to follow suit, yelling at people to move out of the way as he barrelling through the centre of town.

  “Get out of the fucking way!” Kidd shouted at a group of school children who cackled at him as he ran past.

  He hurried past the Bentall Centre, watching Chris make his way towards Kingston Bridge. And Kidd knew where he was heading. He was going to try and hide and Kidd wasn’t going to let that stand. No chance.

  He sprinted after him, out of breath for sure, all the running that he’d been doing over the past six or seven months feeling like it had prepared him for absolutely nothing. He’d be able to pass the fitness test but it hadn’t prepared him for sprinting after this fucker, that much was for sure.

  He stopped in the middle of the bridge, watched as Chris Harper made his way down to the riverside. The same place that his daughter had been found. The same place he’d chased her to just a couple of days ago.

  If he thinks he can hide from me, he’s got another thing coming, Kidd thought as he jogged down towards the riverside. He picked up his phone and sent a quick text to Zoe so she knew where he was, so she could send some backup. He couldn’t imagine this ending with Chris coming quietly. Given the fact that he’d done a runner, he pictured this ending with a bang rather than a whimper.

  Taking a deep breath, DI Kidd turned down the road towards the riverside. The trees were encroaching from either side of the pathway, leaving space for the lights of the streetlamps to creep through. Even though they were right near town, just across the river, everything here was bathed in darkness, like someone had switched off the light in Kingston. It was enough to have DI Kidd on his toes, waiting for Chris to jump out at him.

  He decided to get on the front foot.

  “I know you’re down here, Chris,” DI Kidd yelled, making sure his voice was loud enough to carry through the trees, into the darkened corners where Chris could have been hiding. “I saw you come down here. There are police on the way. You can’t keep running from this one.”

  There was no response. A breeze blew by, sending leaves and litter flying into the air, obstructing any sounds of movement. He looked around. He could be behind a tree, he could be down by the water, he could be anywhere.

  “Don’t make this any worse for yourself!” he shouted.

  There was the sound of a horn honking on the bridge, enough to pull DI Kidd’s focus away from the riverside. And that was all the opportunity that Chris Harper needed.

  He bolted from behind a nearby tree, knocking into Ben and sending him sprawling across the ground, skidding into the mud. Without hesitation, Chris rushed him again, but Kidd could see him now, see where he was coming from, and countered. He rugby tackled the man, grabbing him around the waist so he hit the ground on his back, the wind knocked out of him.

  He swung for Kidd, connecting with his jaw, knocking him sideways. He hit him again, in the stomach this time and it was enough to get Kidd off of him. He rolled back, rolled away, putting some distance between them. Getting to his feet, his hand immediately found its way to his jaw. Fuck that had hurt.

  Chris was panting, out of breath, his black jacket covered in mud, his face glistening with sweat. His eyebrows were knitted together in fury, in anger. At this point, he’d given up any hope of being innocent, of getting away with what had happened. At this point, he was willing to take DI Kidd down for finding him out. A last punishment.

  “Why’d you do it?” Kidd asked across the space between them as Chris sat up. “What did you do it all for?”

  “Fuck off!”

  “I’m serious!” Kidd panted. “I didn’t think it was you. You got me. You got me good. Why? That’s all I want to know.”

  “It was Alexandra,” he replied, climbing to his feet. “Sarah had been hiding at her house. She panicked, when she said she would tell everyone, thought the best thing to do would be to keep her there.”

  “Why?”

  Chris shrugged. “Because Sarah knew about us. She’d seen pictures on my phone, she knew that we were seeing one ano
ther, she just didn’t know who’d kidnapped her.”

  “So you drugged her?”

  “Alex drugged her,” he said, determined to not be blamed for everything. To show that getting rid of Sarah was a team effort. “She showed me after the school reunion, showed me that she had Sarah. Sarah woke up, got loose, and came downstairs. She saw us together and ran. When she fell I—”

  “You could have called an ambulance,” Kidd said.

  “She was already—”

  “She bled out, Chris,” Kidd shouted. “But that wasn’t enough for you. You needed to make sure the job was done right.”

  “Shut up!”

  “You needed to cover your tracks, so you strangled her,” he said. “You wrapped your hands around your own daughter’s neck and you forced the life out of her. You didn’t just let her die. You killed her.”

  “I didn’t know what to do!” he yelled. “I panicked. I wanted to talk to her, to reason with her. But she ran away. If she’d have gotten away, then I would have gone down for her kidnapping.”

  “Instead, you’re going to go down for her murder,” Kidd said. “Well done. It’s a much longer sentence. Will really give you some time to think about what you’ve done.”

  Chris didn’t hesitate a second longer, launching himself at Kidd. Ben dodged the first swing, managing to punch Chris square on the nose, but it wasn’t enough to deter him. Chris countered, punching Kidd hard across the face, hard enough that Ben stumbled over his own feet and onto the ground by the water.

  Chris kicked Kidd’s stomach, once, twice, a third time.

  Kidd coughed, blood splattering the rocks.

  Chris straddled Kidd, punching him in the face over and over and over until the world started to swim in front of Kidd’s eyes. He could see blue lights flashing in his periphery. He just needed to hold on long enough for them to get here, for them to realise where he was.

  The punching was relentless, Kidd unable to block every single one, unable to stop his face from being battered. And then there was a hand around his neck. Squeezing.

  The world was already fading away, and Kidd knew he wouldn’t have long to do something. He swung an arm wildly, hitting Chris in the side of the head, once, twice, a third time. Refusing to let go of him, but Chris’ grip was loosening. Enough that Kidd could get a breath full of air into his lungs.

  With what strength he had left, DI Kidd ripped Chris’ hands from his throat and smacked him hard across the face. It was enough. Kidd knew it would be his only opportunity.

  With great effort, he pushed Chris Harper off of him and punched him once more, sending him tumbling onto the mud. A police car on blues drove down the road towards the riverside, headlights blazing, lighting up the area. In its light, Kidd could see that Chris Harper was in no fit state to get up.

  A couple of uniformed officers got out of the car, quickly followed by DS Sanchez, concern painting her face when she caught sight of Kidd. The uniformed officers cuffed Chris Harper, dragging him over to the car as DI Kidd fell to his knees and the world faded to black.

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  There was a nearby beeping sound as Benjamin Kidd awoke, the sound of air being pumped, of light footsteps click-clacking across the floor, of voices that he didn’t recognise breaking through the quiet. He came around slowly, the brightness of the lights on the ward assaulting his eyes as he opened them.

  The smell of the place was all too familiar. He’d spent one too many nights in hospital wards, whether that had been with a colleague, a victim, or even a suspect. But today it was his turn to be checked out, to be fixed up, and he felt like a wreck.

  “Well, well, well.” Zoe’s voice was a welcome one. She appeared by his bedside as if by magic with a steaming Styrofoam cup, tea so weak it wouldn’t be able to defend itself, nearly overflowing the rim. “Sleeping Beauty has finally awoken from her slumber.” She took a quick sip of the drink and winced. “Want one?”

  “Fuck no,” Kidd said, though his throat hurt. He needed something. He was about to reach for the water on the bedside table when Zoe made a noise that stopped him. “What?”

  “You probably shouldn’t be moving about like that,” she said, putting her tea down and marching around to the other side of the bed to pour him a glass. “You’ve almost had your fucking head caved in, reaching for a glass of water is probably enough to send you unconscious again.”

  “How long was I out?” Kidd asked, aware of how much of a cliché it was.

  She rolled her eyes. “Drama queen, it is literally the next day,” she replied. “You collapsed at the side of the river, I panicked, so did the PCs who picked up Harper, we called an ambulance and got you here. They said you were concussed. It’s a fucking miracle you’ve even woken up.” She handed him the glass of water.

  “Did we—?”

  “Get him?” she interrupted. “Yes, could you stop working for a second?”

  “No,” he snapped. “Tell me what happened. I need to know.”

  “You’re going to kill yourself working all the time, you know?”

  He was very much aware. But it was not working all the time that had cost him Sarah Harper’s life, stopped him from managing to figure it all out a little bit quicker. It wasn’t a thought he wanted to dwell on, but it was one he was having.

  Zoe sighed and returned to the other side of the bed, sitting in the chair where Kidd assumed she’d spent her time waiting for him to wake up. She was his friend, he had expected her to be here when he woke up, but he hoped she wasn’t keeping vigil at his bedside.

  “We got Alexandra Kaye, got a full confession out of her actually,” Zoe said. “The guilt got the better of her I think. And the sudden realisation that she was about to kill her own son, or at least have Chris kill him. The details of that are still a little fuzzy.”

  “Are they blaming each other?”

  “Absolutely,” she said. “One says the other was going to do it, trying to get away with a shorter sentence probably.”

  “Sounds about right.”

  “They were trying to frame Norman, it turns out,” Zoe said. “The death of Sarah Harper, while tragic, was an accident. He chased her through town and she fell.”

  “He strangled her.”

  “She might have already been dead.”

  “But we’ll never know,” Kidd said, taking another sip of water. He moved to sit up in bed and Zoe made another noise. “Stop it, Sanchez, I’ve got to sit up or I’ll spill my water.”

  “Be careful.”

  “If he hadn’t have strangled her and called an ambulance maybe she'd be okay,” he said. “He killed her for the sake of his secret. To keep everything quiet about his relationship. He chose Alexandra Kaye over his daughter and I want him to rot for it.”

  DS Sanchez shrugged. “Fair enough.”

  “Carry on,” he said, already sick of the mollycoddling. It really wasn’t Zoe’s usual style. Maybe the state of him at the riverside had scared her, it was hard to say.

  “They tried to frame him because they thought it was the only way they could get out of it,” Zoe said eventually. “But Caleb figured it out. He didn’t go to his grandparents’ house after he left us, he came here. And when he got here he realised his mum wasn’t working. When he got home, there she was with Chris and he put two and two together I think. Or they thought he did. It gets a little fuzzy around that point.”

  “So they locked him up in that house?”

  Zoe nodded. “That’s where they’d kept Sarah. She’d been there the whole time and we had no idea. They sedated her, tied her up, just like they’d done with Caleb.” She shook her head. “When we search Alex’s house we’ll probably find receipts for some kind of heavy sedative.”

  “Or evidence she stole it from here.”

  “Possibly,” Zoe said. “What got you there?”

  “Huh?”

  “We were in the interview with Norman and suddenly it clicked in your head,” she said. “What happened?”


  “I finally put it together,” Kidd said. “The ‘D’ that Sarah had been talking about on her website was her dad. It was his secrets she was sick of keeping, not Dexter’s, his yelling that was frustrating her. And it was the mention of the houses. Suddenly, it all fell into place. I just wish I’d gotten there sooner.”

  Zoe nodded. “It makes it hard to have faith in humanity when you do this job, doesn’t it?”

  “How so?”

  “You constantly see the worst of people,” she said, taking a sip of her tea, wincing again, and putting it down. It really must have been as awful as it looked. “And even when you think you’ve seen people being utterly despicable, someone else comes along and is like, ‘I can do worse than that, watch me lock up my own daughter and then strangle her at a riverside.’” She took another sip. “Fucking hell, this is dire.”

  “The tea or the world?”

  “Horrible combination,” she said with a wink. “I don’t know if I want to live in a world this bad, with tea this bad.”

  “There will always be bad tea, Zoe,” Kidd said. “We just have to find the better cups.”

  “You really did get your head hit quite hard, didn’t you?” she said with a smile, which made Kidd laugh. He winced a little at the pain as he did but it was worth it.

  “What about Laura?” he asked.

  “That’s a little more complicated,” Zoe said.

  “How so?”

  Zoe looked down at her cup of tea and shook her head. “She got off.”

  “What?”

  Zoe shrugged. “She claimed not to know anything about it,” Zoe said. “Didn’t know that he was in the house, or that he had Caitlyn upstairs, didn’t know that he had anything to do with what happened with Sarah, didn’t know a damn thing.”

  “And they bought it?”

  Zoe shook her head. “Weaver didn’t. I didn’t. Caitlyn definitely fucking didn’t. The team didn’t, based on what you told them. DC Powell was livid. Never seen him show any emotion apart from panic so to have him actually react to something was exciting.”

  “How is Caitlyn?”

  “Shaken, but okay,” Zoe replied. “But she thinks that Laura was in on it too. We’ve got all the phones for evidence, going to download the messages and see what we can come up with but—”