Just Keep Breathing

by GS Rhodes

  He was quick, really bloody quick, which definitely matched up with the guy that they’d seen running in the CCTV chasing Sarah.

  “Norman!” she shouted as she ran. “Stop. Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be!”

  He wasn’t listening, or he couldn’t hear her, because he kept running.

  There was a set of footsteps coming up behind her. She turned in time to see that it was PC Eve joining her in her chase. She imagined that PC Grant would be staying in the car, or attempting to follow them in that.

  She was catching up to him, and he could see that. He was pumping his arms as hard as he could, but the closer he got to town, he was running out of steam. She took her opportunity, putting on a turn of speed so she could catch up to him.

  She jumped at him, tackling him to the ground which they both met with a thud. He grunted, he cried out, apparently she was hurting him, but she didn’t have time for his bellyaching.

  She grabbed his arms and pulled them out from underneath him, PC Eve showing up beside her and putting a hand on his back to keep him down. She put the cuffs over his wrists.

  “Norman Kaye, I am arresting you on suspicion of the abduction and murder of Sarah Harper,” she said. “You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.”

  He grunted and struggled beneath her, trying to get away, but she was having none of it.

  “Thanks for the assist,” she said to PC Eve, who blushed a little as she locked eyes with him. She shook her head. These young boys.

  PC Grant pulled up in the squad car, the blue lights on, ready to take them back to the station. DS Sanchez let out a breath because they finally had their man.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  DI Kidd demanded the most uncomfortable interview room possible when DS Sanchez returned with Norman Kaye in tow. While he was being booked in with the PCs, they got together their game plan. What they needed from him was a confession, and DI Kidd was pissed off enough that he was going to push him hard to get it. They’d been wrong-footed by him once before, Kidd would be damned if they were going to be wrong-footed by him again.

  They had him deposited in the room where they left him to sweat for a little longer with his legal representation.

  “Who have we got?” DI Kidd asked.

  “Mr Ward from Shire & Ward,” she said. “You heard of them?”

  “No, you?”

  “No,” she replied. “But if they’re representing him, I’d put my money on them being a bastard.”

  DI Kidd laughed. “A fairly safe bet given the job title,” he replied. “Let’s get in there then.”

  They stepped into the interview room and DI Kidd was presented with a Norman Kaye who looked a heck of a lot worse for wear than he had done the last time they’d interviewed him. This was a man who was at the end of his rope, and DI Kidd was determined to get him to tell all. He wanted this done as much as the gaffer did. He wondered how long it would take for him to break.

  He got the pleasantries with the legal representative out of the way. He was a slimy-looking man with a green tone to his skin, though that could have been the lights, and way too little hair trying to cover up way too big of a bald patch. He smiled at Kidd as they shook hands, his lips thin, his eyes dark and snake-like. Kidd didn’t like him. Though to find a solicitor that he did like would be pretty rare indeed.

  He pressed record on the tape and started talking.

  “So, Mr Kaye, it’s lovely to have you back here,” he said. “Bet you were clicking your heels all the way home when we let you go on Tuesday.”

  “No comment,” Norman Kaye grumbled. DI Kidd rolled his eyes.

  “How wonderful, your fine legal counsel has briefed you on all the evidence we have and told you the best course of action is to say fuck all.”

  “No comment.”

  “Fucks sake, Norman, I thought this was going to be fun,” Kidd said, leaning back in his chair. “The least you could bloody do is defend yourself.” He turned to the legal representative who was staring at Kidd with a downturned mouth. “You really think this is the right thing for him to be doing? You are joking, aren’t you?”

  “I don’t think you should be pressing my client quite so heavily, Detective Inspector,” Mr Ward mumbled. “He has every right to stay quiet if he wants to. If you really think you have the evidence to charge him, charge him.”

  “Oh, Mr Ward, you’d best believe that I intend to,” Kidd said. “But perhaps a few questions first. Let’s see if we can jog Mr Kaye’s memory.” He turned his attention back to Norman. He looked shaken, his eyes trained on his hands that were handcuffed. He looked like he was about to throw up. He certainly didn’t look like someone keen on giving a no comment interview, but maybe Mr Ward thought that was his best chance at getting off with it. He would bet money on Mr Ward of Shire & Ward having a long history of defending scumbags.

  But still, something didn’t sit right with Kidd. He wanted Norman to talk to him.

  “Mr Kaye, we brought you in on suspicion of the murder of Sarah Harper.” Norman flinched at that, Kidd narrowed his eyes. “But while we have you, we also wanted to discuss the recent disappearance of your son.”

  Norman Kaye looked up sharply.

  “Got your attention, have I, Mr Kaye?”

  “What about Caleb?” he mumbled. “What’s happened to him?”

  “We’ll come to that,” Kidd said. Norman seemed genuinely shocked to hear it. How good of an actor was he? “First I want you to answer a few questions for me, would that be alright?”

  Norman Kaye turned to Mr Ward who shook his head ever so slightly. Mr Kaye seemed torn, torn between doing what he wanted to do and what he was told would save his skin. DI Kidd decided to wade in.

  “Ignore that fucker,” Kidd said. “This is about you, this is about your life. He’s going to get paid either way, you need to think about you right now.”

  Norman still didn’t look sure. Kidd proceeded anyway.

  “I want to know more about your relationship with the Harpers,” Kidd said. “It must have pissed you off something rotten when you found out about Alexandra and Chris.”

  Norman Kaye shrugged. “They can do what they want, they’re adults.”

  “Now, you say that, Mr Kaye, but the way you reacted at the school reunion just a few nights ago suggests otherwise,” Kidd said. “The anger that you showed when you saw the two of them talking to one another might be enough to, I don’t know, take drastic action against the person you held captive.”

  “That’s bullshit.”

  “Norman,” Mr Wade reprimanded, but his client ignored him.

  “Is it, Mr Kaye?” Kidd replied, happy to have gotten a rise out of him. Now maybe they could get him to talk. “Tell me more about their one-night stand, tell me how it made you feel.”

  Norman Kaye scoffed. “One-night stand.”

  “Something to say about it, Mr Kaye?” Kidd asked, leaning back in his chair and gesturing to the tape recorder between them. “The floor is all yours.”

  “You called it a one-night stand,” Norman said. “That’s what they said to me too. I imagine it’s what Chris said to Laura as well.” Norman shook his head. “They’re not just lying to themselves, they’re lying to me, they’re lying to Laura, it’s disgusting.”

  “How do you mean?” Kidd asked.

  “Their story is that it was a one-night stand,” Norman said. “But they never stopped. Once they got going, it just kept on happening. I don’t know how the fuck he managed to get away with it, to be honest.” He added. “After everything that happened the first time they got found out, you’d think the smart thing to do would be to shut it down. But neither one of them wanted that. If Laura asked, you can bet your life that Chris would claim Alex dug her claws in, but they both wanted it, even if they couldn’t admit it.”

  “So they’ve
been sleeping together since…?” DS Sanchez asked.

  “Since we split up,” Norman spat. “And it never stopped, they just kept going, sneaking around like they had this big old secret, but it doesn’t take an idiot to figure it out. I knew that Alex didn’t work that much, all it took was a phone call to the hospital one night when Caleb was with me to find out that she wasn’t there.”

  “Where was she?”

  Norman shook his head. “Right under everyone’s noses,” he whispered. “That’s the thing about Chris and his career. He started to build all of these houses and then suddenly ran out of money, suddenly couldn’t pay me, couldn’t pay anybody so let us all go. He’s still got access to all these half-finished properties.”

  Kidd stared at Norman, the pieces falling into place in his head. Right under their noses the entire time. The houses.

  “They sneak off to these secret houses, have their fun, no one is any the wiser. He’s the only one who has access to them.”

  But that wasn’t correct either. Sarah Harper had access to them too, she’d let Dexter use one to meet up with Nicholas. The one that was right next to Alexandra Kaye’s house.

  “I swear he has one for every woman that he’s slept with. You’d be naive to think it was just Alexandra.” Norman tutted. “He’s a disgrace.”

  Kidd shook his head. How had he missed it when it had been staring him right in the face?

  He stood up abruptly, his chair falling onto the floor behind him. DS Sanchez jumped, so did Norman Kaye.

  “Interview terminated,” DI Kidd barked, punching the stop button on the tape recorder. He turned to DS Sanchez. “We need to go and we need to go now.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  They didn’t waste any time, leaving the on-duty PCs to deal with Norman Kaye. They would keep him, in case they were wrong, but DI Kidd was pretty certain at this point that he wasn’t wrong.

  He explained his theory to Zoe as she floored it to get them over to the property quicker. They’d been played. He could see it now. And he wanted answers.

  They got out of the car, DS Sanchez immediately heading towards the Kayes’ house but Kidd shook his head.

  “What?”

  He pointed to the house next door, the one that had been in plain sight the entire time, the seemingly empty house that had probably had Sarah in it the whole time they were searching for her. He looked down the street, seeing a clear route past Fairfield Park, towards the centre of town. He’d been stupid, so blind.

  They started towards the house, Kidd trying to keep his cool when he felt like he was about to explode. He sort of knew what to expect, he just hoped against hope that he wasn’t too late to save Caleb. He didn’t want to have another dead teenager on his hands just because he hadn’t been looking in the right places.

  It had been right in front of him, but he hadn’t looked past the evidence they’d collected, hadn’t looked into what people had been telling him, the things he’d seen. Stupid.

  “Stop it,” Zoe said as they stepped up to the front door.

  “What?”

  “You’re beating yourself up,” she said. “We’re here, don’t freak out on me now.”

  Zoe was right. Kidd pushed it out of his head, trying to focus on what was happening in the moment, needing to be present right now so nothing went wrong. He knew the cavalry was incoming, that they would follow them here, but he was determined to get Caleb out of there before the blue lights arrived. Their perp was cunning enough to do this in the first place. If they saw something wasn’t going their way there was no telling what they’d would do.

  Kidd pushed down on the door handle, hearing the locks turn inside, as they slid out of place and the door opened.

  The house was deadly silent.

  If they were here, they’d know about it, there was no way to hide it.

  Night had fallen, there were no lights on, just the moonlight shining in on a clear night. If they were hiding in the dark, they’d be able to catch them out. The chance of a surprise attack was enough to keep Kidd on edge.

  “Watch your back,” he whispered to Sanchez, who nodded in return. He could just about make out her silhouette as his eyes adjusted.

  They walked through the hallway and towards the stairs. The second Kidd put his boot on it, the floorboard underneath creaked.

  Jesus Christ, he thought. He wasn’t built for this kind of sneaking around.

  Carefully, he made his way up the stairs, trying his hardest not to draw attention, but it was a heavy footfall on bare wood. Anyone upstairs would hear him.

  And they did.

  There was a whimper. It started quietly at first but only proceeded to get louder. Without thinking, Kidd took the last couple of steps two at a time, dashing across the landing to a door that was closed, locked. He jiggled the handle but it wouldn’t budge, not even a little bit. DS Sanchez appeared behind him.

  “What are you—?”

  She didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence. DI Kidd had already taken a step back and kicked the door off its hinges, the wood cracking around the lock as it swung in.

  It was the stench that hit him first. Piss. Shit. Sweat. The three mixing in the air to create such a noxious gas it about knocked him off his feet. But he stepped inside.

  Across the room, huddled in the dark, was Caleb. His hands and feet were tied, a gag placed across his mouth, and he was sluggish in his movements. The whimpering seemed like it might have been involuntary. Maybe he’d heard them coming and started making noise, somewhere in his subconscious he was fighting for survival.

  “He’s been drugged,” Kidd growled. “He’s barely conscious.”

  He ripped the restraints from his wrists and ankles, a little more careful with the one that was around his face. Caleb took a deep, heaving breath as the one around his mouth came off. It was soaking wet with his saliva, his face was damp, his eyes flickering like he was about to fall asleep.

  Kidd cradled him and slapped at his face. “Caleb, Caleb, you’ve got to wake up, okay?” he said. “Stay awake for me. Where is she? Where’s your mum?”

  “She’s…she’s here,” he managed to slur through dry lips

  “Kidd!” DS Sanchez shouted as a scream came from the door. Alexandra Kaye barrelled towards him with a plank of wood in her hands. She swung it hard, cracking it across Kidd’s upper arm and almost knocking him sideways. He stumbled, leaning on the wall for support. He saw that she was heading for Caleb, but DS Sanchez reacted quicker than he did.

  As Alexandra swung the piece of wood back, Zoe grabbed it and yanked it from her hands, pulling her off balance as she stumbled towards her. Zoe brought an elbow to her face, knocking her to the floor. Without a second’s hesitation, she cuffed her, just as the blue lights appeared outside.

  ◆◆◆

  The response team was pretty swift once they got inside the house. They grabbed Alexandra Kaye and dragged her outside, kicking and screaming, protesting her innocence, but it was all stacked against her. Anyone could see that.

  An ambulance came to collect Caleb. He was in a pretty bad way. He’d been heavily sedated, unable to move or really do anything for himself. They would get answers from his mother as to why, once they got her to calm down, once they got her in interview. But Kidd could take a wild guess.

  “Well done, Kidd.” DCI Weaver had arrived on the scene with the response team. He hadn’t expected him to show up, but given how high profile it was, he could hardly blame the old fella for wanting to be involved. He wanted to be able to report back to the Super as fast as possible, to give him the lowdown on what had happened, to finally tell him that it was over.

  DI Kidd knew better.

  “Never would have suspected her,” Weaver said in his Scottish growl. “If I’d had my way—”

  “The young lad would have been in the docks by now,” Kidd interrupted.

  “Yes,” he said. “Thank you for finding the right man. Woman. Person.”

  Kidd shrugged
. “It’s the job, isn’t it?” he said. “But this isn’t over,” he added.

  DCI Weaver looked at him and blinked. “How so?”

  “There’s still one part that isn’t closed,” he said. “If you’ll excuse me.” DI Kidd pulled his coat tightly around himself and walked away.

  “Detective Inspector,” DCI Weaver barked. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”

  “To close the case, sir,” he barked back. “Don’t you worry, I won’t be long.”

  DI Kidd stopped by one of the PCs and borrowed their handcuffs before he carried on walking. He rounded the corner, away from the secret house, away from Alexandra Kaye’s residence, and walked up the imposing driveway to the Harper residence.

  There were lights on inside, one upstairs in the bedroom, one down the hall in what he assumed would be the kitchen. His phone buzzed in his pocket. A text from DS Sanchez.

  ZOE: Where the bloody hell have you got to? I thought you’d want to question her, wrap all this up?

  He pocketed the phone. She could handle that. Now was the time for him to finish this off.

  He knocked on the door, unphased when Laura answered fully made up.

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

  “So that’s what it was?” Laura Harper sat her breakfast bar, tears brimming in her eyes. She looked like she was about to breakdown, but she was holding herself together. This wasn’t an act, wasn’t a performance like the ones she’d conducted on her Instagram and Facebook posts. This was the most real he’d seen her and it was heartbreaking. “They were sleeping together the entire time? And she…she did this?”

  DI Kidd nodded. “It wasn’t a one-time thing, no,” Kidd said. “And as or what happened to Sarah, that’s not quite closed yet.”