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

“What was Sarah’s mental state like last week. It might give us some clue as to what might have happened.”

“You think she might have run away rather than been kidnapped?” Laura asked, perking up suddenly. “Why would she do something like that?”

“We’re keeping our options open,” Kidd said.

“Well you just asked me about enemies, I thought that—”

“Her headteacher mentioned that Sarah would often do little disappearing acts from school,” Kidd interrupted. “Wouldn’t show up for a day or two at a time, usually when something happened in her personal life or at school.”

“She got sick sometimes,” Laura said, sitting up a little taller, affronted at the suggestion that Sarah was faking it. “The school worried about her attendance but if my daughter says that she’s sick, then I’m not about to send her to school to infect other people or so that she’s there feeling terrible for the whole day. What kind of parent would that make me?”

Laura returned to her cup, her hands shaking a little.

“We’re not judging you, Mrs Harper,” DS Sanchez said. “We’re just trying to get an idea as to what Sarah might have been going through up to her disappearance.”

“She seemed perfectly normal,” Laura said. “No more upset than she normally was. We saw her on Friday morning, just like we usually do, and then we just…we didn’t see her again. I thought she would be with a friend, she did that sometimes, but even checking her social media she hadn’t been anywhere that we could see. Nothing had been updated.”

“You check her social media?”

Laura nodded. “Of course,” she said. “We know all of her accounts just so we can check up on her if we need to. And sometimes her messages.” She looked at DI Kidd and DS Sanchez, doubling down as she caught whatever look was on their faces. “It’s not spying,” she insisted. Kidd got the impression she’d had this conversation before. “It’s just parenting. With all these new social media outlets, we have to be more aware of what our children are up to than ever before. That’s why.”

DI Kidd wondered if it was also because Laura herself had a brand that she needed to uphold. If people were following both of them, surely anything Sarah did or said would reflect on her mother. Which might explain the website on the phone, giving her a place where she could express things she couldn’t express publicly.

“So, Mrs Harper,” DS Sanchez started. “It would appear that Sarah was having a bit of a tough week at school. Some secrets that she had were plastered all over the internet and shared around.”

“What are you talking about?”

“From what we can gather, Sarah was cheating on her boyfriend Dexter with a different boy, Jonno,” she continued, though DI Kidd noticed the face that Laura made when Zoe mentioned Dexter. A flash of disgust. “And someone took photos and posted them online.”

“Why would someone do something like that?”

“That, we don’t know yet,” Zoe replied. “But with everything that was happening at school for Sarah last week, did she show any indication that she was upset?”

Laura shook her head, tears filling her eyes. It barely took a moment before they were furiously cascading down her face. But she wasn’t sobbing, she was just letting them fall, like she had simply turned on a tap.

“So you think it’s more likely she’s run away?” Laura replied. “Or could it be worse than that?” She choked on the last few words, her hand flying to her mouth as she tried to hold back the flood of emotions roiling just under the surface. “Could she have...? You don’t think she’s…?” She took a breath, composing herself, locking eyes with Kidd as she asked. “Do you think she might have taken her own life?”

“There’s no indication of that,” DI Kidd said flatly. “Sarah might have been in a fragile state of mind, but at the moment there’s nothing to suggest that’s what happened. We just want to find her. And we’re doing our best, Laura, it just might take some time.”

“She has to be okay, Ben,” Laura said, her voice catching on practically every word. “She just has to be, I don’t know what I’d do without her.” And that was what it took for her to break down, sobs coming in heaving waves.

PC McCulloch, who’d been watching from the door, approached and started speaking softly to Laura, reassuring her that things were going to be alright, calming her down. Kidd wondered just how many times she’d had to do this since she got here.

“One last question, and then we’ll be on our way,” Kidd said. PC McCulloch looked up at him sharply. She didn’t want him to ask any more questions, but he needed to know. “What were your feelings about Dexter Black?”

The sniffing stopped almost immediately, the crying quickly giving way to a stern expression that caught Kidd a little bit off guard.

“I didn’t like him,” she said bluntly.

“Why?”

“Why?” she repeated. “You’re the investigating officer, DI Kidd, you don’t need me to tell you what a terrible influence that boy is.”

“I think I do,” DI Kidd replied. “If nothing else, I’d like to hear your opinion.”

Laura Harper took a few steadying breaths, brushing PC McCulloch away. She was staring daggers at Kidd again. Maybe this was a topic they’d already covered.

“I think he is a bad influence,” she said flatly. “I think if anyone is responsible for her running away or for leading her astray, it’s that boy. She drops everything for him, always with him if she can be,” she said. “Though, maybe she was with that other boy, I don’t know. Have you interviewed Dexter? Have you? Have you arrested him yet?”

“Mrs Harper, please calm down,” PC McCulloch said. “There’s no use getting yourself all upset.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down,” Laura barked. “That boy is a menace. And if you really gave a shit