Just Keep Breathing by GS Rhodes (any book recommendations txt) 📗

Kidd shrugged. “Maybe they don’t.” It certainly looked like the kind of house that you could spend an entire day in without bumping into another single soul. There were probably more bathrooms than Kidd had rooms in his house.

He walked up to the front door and knocked, stepping back from the huge, black double doors with DS Sanchez, neither one of them knowing which one was going to open.

It creaked open, just the tiniest crack. A small woman that DI Kidd instantly recognised as Sarah’s mother appearing in the gap.

“Can I help you?” she asked. This was not the woman that DI Kidd had seen online. Laura’s online presence had her fully glam at all times, always done up, always with a smile on her face, and a filter to go with it. The only exception to that was the video where she told her fans that Sarah was missing, but even in that video, everything seemed perfectly placed. Seeing her now, a little bit off guard, she seemed smaller.

“My name is DI Kidd, this is DS Sanchez,” Kidd said. “We’re investigating Sarah’s disappearance, someone should have called ahead from the station. Is this a bad time?”

Laura opened the door a little further, drawing up to her full height and painting a smile onto her face. And now Kidd saw something more of the woman he had seen on Instagram, the smile, the high cheekbones, the perfect blonde hair. How had she managed to do that in just a few shifts of her body?

“Lovely to meet you both,” she said, her voice steady, her eyes glistening a little. Had she been crying recently? Kidd couldn’t tell. “Do come in, you must be freezing.”

She opened the door a little wider, the two of them stepping inside and taking in the gigantic hallway. This place had definitely been gutted and put back together again, there was no way a house on this street could look this modern without that. The high ceilings meant that every movement they made was echoing around them, the windows above the door letting in so much natural light there wasn’t really any need for anything artificial.

“Come through to the kitchen, I’m sure we’ll all be more comfortable there,” she said with a smile.

“I’m sorry, do you mind if I use your bathroom?” DI Kidd asked. “I wouldn’t normally ask but we’ve been out of the station all morning.”

Laura smiled at him. “Of course not, it’s just up the stairs, second door on your left,” she said, but then she stopped suddenly and took a step back from him. She narrowed her eyes, like she was seeing him much clearer in the light of the hallway than she had done when he was outside in the bright winter sun. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

Kidd laughed a little nervously. He hadn’t really anticipated saying anything so soon but perhaps he hadn’t changed as much as he thought over the past twenty or so years. He was older, a little more wrinkled and grey, but no less himself. “Yes, actually, we were at school together,” he said. “Secondary school. I didn’t know whether or not you—”

“Little Benji Kidd,” she said, her face lighting up. “I can’t believe it’s you, you look so different.”

Kidd shrugged. “Well, it’s been twenty years.”

“And you’re a detective inspector now, that’s very impressive! How long have you been a policeman?”

“For about twenty years or so,” he said. “But we’ll have more time to catch up in a second,” he added, gesturing towards the stairs. “Or at the reunion, you’re coming to the reunion, aren’t you?”

Laura opened her mouth to respond but faltered. “We weren’t sure whether or not we were going to go,” she said. “With everything happening with Sarah, I didn’t want anybody looking at us and thinking we were off having a good time while our daughter is missing. We may show our faces, for old time’s sake, because in a way it would be weirder to not go, we’d be expected to go. But it’s so good to see you. We really do have some catching up to do.”

She turned on her heel and marched off down the hallway. Zoe looked up at Kidd, her face screwed up in confusion. Kidd gestured for her to follow Laura, which she did.

Kidd started up the stairs, suddenly very aware of his quite unclean boots on her very clean hardwood floors. Then again, it would probably give her something to make a video about. He looked back to make sure he wasn’t traipsing mud through her house, relieved when he couldn’t see footprints behind him.

There were photos hung on the wall by the stairs, photographs of Sarah at various ages in school uniforms, seeming to get older as he ascended. All the photos were posed, perfect, professional photographs, or at least made to look like that. There were some photos from what Kidd assumed was Laura and Michael’s wedding. Though it looked new, so maybe it was a vow renewal. Or just a party where Laura decided to wear a big, white dress. She looked beautiful. Sarah was made in her image.

He made it to the top of the stairs and turned left as he’d been instructed, immediately heading towards the open door to what would likely be the most opulent bathroom he’d ever been in. But he stopped at another open door on the way.

Had it not already been open, practically begging him to come inside, he wouldn’t have looked. At least, that’s what he told himself. He looked left and right, making sure there was no one hiding behind any corners, watching him in case it was some kind of trap, before he pushed the door open a little further and stepped inside.

He was almost certain that the room belonged to Sarah, the only clues that really gave that away being a few photographs attached haphazardly to a cork board and the fact that it didn’t look like the