by GS Rhodes
His phone started to ring again.
Liz again. He denied the call and was about to put it back in his pocket when he saw a message pop up on the screen.
LIZ: ANSWER YOUR PHONE.
“One minute, Campbell, please don’t let her leave,” Kidd said, moving a little way down the street and dialling his sister’s number. She picked up on the first ring. Whatever it was, she was waiting by her phone to talk to him about it. “Liz, I’m at work. We’re still on for later, don’t worry, just text me the details and—”
“Shut up, Ben,” she barked down the phone. Her voice was heavy, thick with tears. Kidd’s heart immediately leapt into his mouth. He’d never heard his sister sound like that, never had her yell at him like that. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
“Liz, what’s happened?”
She sniffed. “She’s gone. Tilly is gone.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Kidd started to walk away from Campbell immediately as Liz spoke. His entire world felt like it was falling apart. Darkness closed in. His mind was already running faster than he ever thought possible, Liz’s every word washing over him, burying itself in him. He wouldn’t forget this feeling for a long time.
“She was right at my side,” she said. “She was at my side while I was in town and I stopped because, you know, Tim, he’s a little attention seeker.” It was a light joke, so light that she laughed a little bit but it sounded more like a strangled cry.
“Where are you?” Kidd asked.
“I’m in town,” she said. “Kingston. The churchyard.”
“Stay where you are,” Kidd said, his voice firm, level. While his little sister was falling apart, he needed to be the one that stayed strong, even though right now he felt like he would shatter if someone so much as touched him. How could this be happening? This couldn’t be happening.
“Boss, what’s going on?” Campbell asked.
“Take the car back,” he said. “I need to meet my sister in town.”
“But Tally, sir, the case—”
“I said what I said, Campbell, you can come with me if you want, but you need to bloody keep up.”
And without another word, Kidd broke into a run. His shoes weren’t made for running, the soles were slippery and every now and then Kidd felt like the ground was doing its best to claw at his ankles and pull him to the ground. It would do anything to stop him from getting to Liz. He needed to be with her, now more than he ever had in his entire adult life, he needed to be by her side.
He ran in the direction of town, hurrying across the road with nothing more than a glance to make sure nothing was coming, darting down Eden Street, then Eden Walk, past all the people rushing in and out of the shops, all the people that now seemed like they were deliberately trying to get in his way.
No matter how quickly he pumped his arms, no matter how fast he ran, it wasn’t fast enough. Even if he could teleport and appear at her side, it wouldn’t be fast enough. He needed to be with her ten minutes ago, he needed to be there to make sure that this didn’t happen in the first place. It couldn’t be happening.
He hoped and prayed it wouldn’t be true when he arrived, that Tilly will have shown up, that she wandered into a shop or was just out of sight for a minute and that Liz had immediately jumped to the worst conclusion. He ran down the alleyway, the view of the churchyard through some bars along the wall.
He could see her sitting there, the pushchair next to her, a couple of people nearby, comforting her, wondering why this woman is out there in the mid-morning with tears in her eyes.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, he thought as he pushed himself a little harder, a sprinter coming to the finish line. He skidded around the corner, practically falling over the leaves and debris that had been left by the trees, and came face to face with his sister.
The churchyard was a place where people in town would often gather, whether that be on a break from work or to have lunch. Considering it was right in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of town, it was often surprisingly quiet, almost serene. Even with all the pigeons that hung around for scraps of food or squawked from the War Memorial, it still managed to be a decent spot.
But not today. Today, everything seemed to be covered in a layer of grime. Everything seemed tainted because of what had happened here and it made Kidd feel sick.
He pushed his way through the crowd of people until he could see his sister, until he could take in her face, see the tears running down it that just wouldn’t stop. Timmy stirred in the pram next to her, Kidd prayed he wouldn’t wake up just now, prayed that he would never have to remember this moment.
Liz threw her arms around Kidd and held him tight, saying his name over and over again while she fell apart. “Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben,” on and on like a metronome.
“Tell me what happened,” he said, his voice a little muffled against her shoulder. ‘Tell me what happened and I’ll fix it. I promise you I will fix it.”
Liz sniffed and pulled herself away. “I’m a terrible mother, Ben, I’m just terrible.”
“Stop it,” Kidd said firmly, holding onto her shoulders, trying to ground her, trying to bring her back to Earth so she could tell him exactly what had happened. He needed to fix this.
He heard John’s words echo back to him from last night, words that told him this was what he loved to do, he loved to fix things. Kidd didn’t care in that moment, didn’t care if everybody in the universe thought he had a hero complex or some such bullshit. Right now, his sister needed him and he was going to be there for her no matter what.
“Tell me what happened,” he said again.
She took a deep shuddering breath. It shook her whole body. Kidd heard Campbell appear behind him, out of breath, panting, wheezing, leaning against a nearby tree as he willed himself not to throw up. That was a man who was going to fail his next fitness test.
“I was out in town with the kids,” Liz said. “It’s a Saturday, it’s a beautiful day, I thought, why not? I got my things together and came out. We hadn’t really made it that far when Timmy started getting a little bit restless. I tried to convince him not to, cooing at the pram, you know, those really irritating mother things that I always said I wouldn’t do, but here I am looking like a crazy person in public.”
The people who had gathered started to steadily walk away. Perhaps they felt like they were intruding, or that they had seen enough. There were a few that hovered nearby. The ones that were in this for the story they could tell to their friends later. Though they’d been there for his sister when he couldn’t be, Kidd now instantly disliked them.
“He wasn’t settling so I brought him here and Tilly was right behind me, I was sure she was,” Liz said, the words catching in her throat again. “I was talking to her as much as I was talking to Tim, chattering away, thinking she was listening to me. But Timmy was right there pulling my focus and…” Tim made a small little cry, like he was about to explode. “See? He knows we’re talking about him, you know what he’s like.”
“He’ll be alright, Liz, keep going, what happened to Tilly?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “One minute she was there, the next minute she was gone. I swear, I only turned my back for a minute and when I looked up from Tim to see where she was, she just wasn’t there.” Her eyes suddenly went all glassy, like she was reliving it even though it had only happened to her a few moments ago. “I ran out of here, Tim in the pushchair, probably nearly throwing him out of it with how aggressive I was being. I called her name, expecting her to come running. She always does. I expected her to scream my name and come running back and she just didn’t.”
“She can’t have gotten far, have you looked anywhere?”
“I looked all around the square, I called her name like crazy,” she insisted. “I was yelling, I was screaming, people must have thought I was out of my mind, but she just didn’t come back so I…”
“What, Lizzy, what?”
“I came back here,” she said flatly. “I ca
me back here because I thought she would have seen me coming in here and this would be the first place she would come if she thought we’d been separated. I sat down and when she wasn’t here, I called you.”
“Where’s Greg?” Kidd asked. “Is Greg looking for her now? I can send Campbell to help.”
He looked over to where Campbell was standing. He was doubled over, leaning against the tree, still looking more than a little bit green. He didn’t want to send him off running after Greg if he was just going to throw up or pass out on him. Maybe he’d have to go himself.
“No, Greg has work today.” She sniffed.
Kidd froze. This couldn’t be happening.
“What?”
“He told me he needed to go into work today, so I decided to take the kids out,” Liz said. “He was going to meet us for lunch or something, and now I’m going to have to tell him that I’ve lost one of the kids and—” She cut herself off as a cry grabbed hold of her throat and forced all of the air out of her.
“Did you call him? Have you tried calling him?”
“So many times,” she said. “I called him first, of course I did, but when he didn’t pick up after I tried a few times I thought who better than my big brother to swoop in and save the day?” She managed a few shallow breaths before the tears came on again, so strong her entire body seemed to collapse as she held onto her stomach and rocked back and forth.
Kidd wanted to comfort her, he wanted to sit with her on that bench and tell her that everything was going to be okay. But a red mist had descended over his vision and he knew he had somewhere that he needed to be.
“Campbell,” he barked. Owen stood up straight, still holding onto the tree to stay upright. “Look after my sister, take her to the station, get her comfortable.”
“Boss, I don’t think—”
“I’ll meet you back there.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
His Mum would probably kill him for leaving his sister at a time like this. His Dad almost certainly would. But Kidd knew that there was something else he needed to do, somewhere else he needed to be. He needed to check on something.
He didn’t want to be right about it, but something was eating at his insides, something telling him that his instinct on this one was correct, and he cursed himself for it. If he’d have stepped in when he felt like he should have, if he had checked up on him, maybe this never would have happened.
It descended on Kidd like a dark cloud. This was his fault. He knew it was his fault. And if anything happened to his niece, he would never forgive himself. Never.
He marched away from the churchyard and away from Kingston Town Centre. He walked past the Bentall Centre, past John Lewis, and to the office building on the corner where he knew he would find Greg Spencer. He was sure of it.
He ignored the receptionist at the front door, showing his warrant card to her as he walked inside. She protested, she called after him, trying to scurry around the desk as he made his way towards the lifts. They didn’t come when he called them, and still she was at his side, yapping at his heels like a tiny dog that just wouldn’t leave him alone.
He showed the warrant card again, practically thrusting it in her face. “My name is DI Benjamin Kidd, I need to speak with one of your employees, are you going to stop me?” he shouted.
She opened her mouth to respond but quickly backed down. He would regret that, he knew he would regret that, but the fire was running through his veins with such a force that he didn’t have time to think about it. Not in that moment.
“What floor does Greg Spencer work on?” he barked.
She hesitated, her mouth opening and closing like she was mechanical.
“Quickly!”
“F-f-f-fourth floor,” she sputtered. “He’s on the fourth floor. Does he know you’re coming?”
“Not a bloody clue,” Kidd muttered.
The lift wouldn’t come, so he moved through the doors to his left and started up the stairs.
Of course, he’s on the bloody fourth floor, he thought as he trudged up the stairs. No bloody way he could be on the first, that would be way too easy.
His phone buzzed in his pocket as he took the stairs two at a time. He was out of breath. Maybe he shouldn’t have been judging Campbell’s lack of fitness so harshly. He didn’t look to see who it was, answering it with a barked “What?!”
“Charming. Remind me to take you off my Christmas card list.” Zoe’s voice singsonged down the phone. “Where are you?”
“Busy,” he said. “Just checking something out. Won’t be long.”
“Kidd, Campbell is already back at the station, Liz is in a state, you should be here with her.”
There were a lot of people who should be with Liz right now. One of them was up in this office, Kidd was sure of it. If he was, he was going to make hellfire rain down on him like never before.
“I just have some unfinished business.”
“Kidd, I am begging you, don’t do anything stupid. Don’t do something that’s going to end up getting you fired,” she said. “We need you on this case, we need to finish—”
“I’m going to finish it,” Kidd said. “I’m going to finish it and whoever the fuck it is who has taken my niece is going to rue the day they ever set foot anywhere near my family.”
“Kidd, come back to the station.”
“I won’t be long,” he said. “Grab me a cup of tea, will you? I’m parched.”
He hung up the phone and returned it to its place in his pocket, continuing up the stairs until he reached the fourth floor. It was empty. Of course, it was empty, it was a weekend. Weekends were the times when you were meant to be with your family, meant to be making memories with your wife, not off making love to someone else.
He could see a light on in an office at the far end of the open-plan space. One thing that had been made clear to Kidd when he’d caught Greg with his mistress the first time was that he was shit at hiding it. He’d taken her to a restaurant in broad daylight right near where Kidd worked. How could he have been so bloody stupid?
At least now, he had the decency to do it away from prying eyes. He must have thought he was so smart when Kidd had been in his house just the other night. He must have thought he had managed to get away with it, that he had managed to pull the wool over his eyes.
He had, of course, and that wasn’t lost on Kidd. He had planned to talk to him about it, but his own secrets had managed to get in the way. But now it had rolled back around and it wasn’t just hurting Liz, it was hurting Tilly and it was hurting Kidd. It was hurting Kidd so much he could feel it burning in his chest. Now, he planned to make Greg hurt. Or at least he would try to.
He marched towards the office, his smart shoes like thunderclaps against the floor. He wondered if Greg would hear, if Greg would try to make a run for it, but there was nowhere to run, certainly nowhere to hide.
As he reached the door, there was a part of him that wondered if he had gotten it all wrong, if he would open this door and it wouldn’t be Greg inside, but someone else. Or maybe no one at all. Simply a light that had been left on for the weekend, running up the company’s electricity bill. Or maybe he would be working away, wondering why Kidd had arrived in such a state.
But as Benjamin Kidd opened the door, he saw Greg leant back in his desk chair, a woman across his lap. It was the same blonde Kidd had met a few short months ago, the one he had told Greg to break it off with, and he hadn’t. The bastard hadn’t.
She leapt off him, screaming as she ran halfway across the room, covering herself up as she went. Greg remained in his chair, his shirt undone to reveal a pale chest, his trousers unbuckled.
“What are you doing? Get out of here!” she screamed.
Greg looked ashen. Everything about him looked defeated, caught out. He looked like his world had fallen apart, and in a way, it had. He just didn’t know it yet.
“Ben, I can explain.”
“Fuck your explanation,” Kidd barked from the
door as he stormed inside. Without missing a beat, he swung for Greg, his fist connecting hard with the man’s nose. Blood started to pour from it as Greg held his face. It stained his shirt, it marked his chest, within a few seconds it looked like there had been a massacre. And Kidd’s hand was throbbing.
“Ben, please, I—”
“Shut the fuck up!” Kidd shouted, his voice cracking. “Tilly is missing,” he said bluntly. “Tilly is missing, Liz is at the police station, and listen to me while I say this to you, you absolute fucking prick, this is your fucking fault.”
Kidd slammed the door and left.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
It certainly was a rich way to leave things with Greg, when all Kidd could think was how much of it was his own fault. He played out every scenario in his head as he made his way back to the station like some form of torture.
If he’d told Liz about Greg’s affair when he’d found out, this wouldn’t have happened. Kidd’s fault.
If he’d confronted Greg about it again more recently to make sure it was really over, this wouldn’t have happened. Kidd’s fault.
If he’d gotten to the bottom of this case sooner, this wouldn’t have happened. Kidd’s fault. Kidd’s fault. Kidd’s fault.
He was the punching bag and the puncher, determined to knock the living daylights out of himself. At least he would try, if his fist stopped throbbing. Greg had a hard nose, much harder than Kidd’s fist. If he learned nothing else today, that would be something to remember should he ever need to hit the man again.
He walked through the station reception without a word, buzzing himself through the door, and going straight to the Incident Room.
“Where is she?” Kidd asked as he walked inside, he didn’t care who was there, he didn’t care who was listening, someone needed to answer him. He was cradling his hand. It already looked like it was bruising, hues of purple and blue blooming across it. It really stung.
