by GS Rhodes
“Is that all?” Weaver asked.
“Not quite,” Kidd said. “I told you that I want to bring Daniel Walters in for questioning, but I don’t know the best way to go about it.” He waited a beat. “To be perfectly honest, sir, my every instinct was to go down to that Holiday Inn, barge into that room, and drag him down here kicking and screaming.”
“Well thank goodness you didn’t listen to those instincts, otherwise your team would be two men down rather than one,” Weaver said. He looked up at the clock on the wall that read six o’clock. “Invite him in tomorrow morning,” he said eventually. “Don’t go around there all guns blazing, dragging him out and making a scene. This is way more sensitive than all that. Given how Rachel looked today, I’m not sure her heart could take it.”
“We need to tread carefully, then,” Kidd said.
Weaver nodded. “And what about Peter West?”
“I’m going to talk to him tomorrow,” Kidd said. “Just like with Daniel, I’m not going to go in there all guns blazing and making a scene about it. We need to be tactful.”
“Not usually your style, is it Kidd?” Weaver said with a wink. “It sounds like the best way forward to me. Tomorrow then?”
Kidd looked at the clock. He was about to protest Weaver calling it a day, wanting to carry on, wanting to get this solved, but time had marched on significantly. The evening was upon them and his team had been there all day. He was feeling exhausted. And if he was exhausted, then the chances were the rest of the team was too. Campbell especially.
“Tomorrow, sir,” Kidd said. “And…sorry about everything with DCI Reid. If there’s anything I can do—”
“The best thing you can do with that one is let it go,” Weaver said. “It’s a different case. If it ends up being connected with West or with Walters, then good. But otherwise, let it lie.”
Kidd wanted to protest again but given the bollocking he’d just received, he thought better of it. Apparently, an old dog could learn new tricks.
“Goodnight, boss.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Kidd was distracted to say the least. His brain was full as he and his team made their way out of the station. They headed over to West Middlesex Hospital. It was a little bit of a trek and definitely out of Kidd’s way if he was going to be seeing Liz tonight, but everyone else was going to see Simon and he felt like joining them was the right thing to do.
Simon was looking a heck of a lot better than he had last night. They’d kept him in overnight to make sure everything was okay, running a few more tests on him today just to double, triple check that being smacked over the head hadn’t caused any lasting damage.
The gash on his arm where he had been sliced had been stitched up, and was now wrapped in a bandage. He was going to be fine, and seeing him sitting up in bed was a small comfort to Kidd. He beamed as the team walked through the door, surprised to see them but happy all the same.
“They’re going to let me out tonight,” he told them, giddy with the excitement of it all. “They ran some tests and I’m going to be fine, need to spend a little bit more time off because…well…” he lifted his bandaged arm, like he needed to show them. “But I’ll be back to work in no time. It will be like I was never even gone.”
“Take your time,” Kidd told him. “Just because you think you’re feeling better, don’t feel like you need to rush back into the fold.”
Simon looked perplexed. “You’ve not replaced me have you?”
“We’re coping,” Kidd said.
“You should see it,” Campbell said, a big smile stretching across his face. “Weaver was at your desk earlier. Could barely fit behind it. Looked like something out of a bloody comedy sketch.”
They stayed a little while longer, catching Simon up on the case, happily spending a little bit of time together before Kidd saw the time and realised he needed to go. He wished Simon the best and headed out of the hospital ward, DS Sanchez in tow.
“You didn’t have to leave too,” Kidd said. “I’m going to Liz’s tonight, no chance of a drink I’m afraid.”
“Please,” Zoe said. “You’re either really brave or really stupid to be entering a house with two kids who will be excited to see you. Don’t be too jealous of me while I’m falling asleep in front of the TV tonight.”
“Wow, you really know how to party.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you want a lift or not?”
◆◆◆
When he knocked on the door of Liz’s house, he could hear the screams of delight that came from his niece and nephew. Well, he could hear screams of delight from Tilly, Tim might have just been screaming because he was a baby and that’s just what they did. At least, in Kidd’s experience.
Liz answered the door, a huge smile bursting across her face. The two of them were practically each other’s double. It had been said to them on more than one occasion that they looked more like twins, which thrilled Liz considering that Kidd was a couple of years older than her.
Her brown hair was hanging loosely around her shoulders and her eyes looked like they were glistening with tears as she laid eyes on Kidd, though, he might have been imagining it.
“Ben!” She practically threw herself out the door and wrapped her arms around him. Since their parents moved away from the area five or so years ago, Liz and Ben had been all each other had as far as family went. Well, Liz now had Greg, her husband, and her two kids, but for Ben, she was it. “Please excuse the excitement, I just know that once you get in there the kids aren’t going to leave you alone.” She let go of him. “How are you?”
“Exhausted,” he said.
“Work getting to you?”
He shrugged. “Isn’t it always?”
“Do you need me to tell you that you’re working too hard again, or is that old horse dead?”
“I think so long as I’m working there, you’ll be beating it,” Kidd replied. “I know I’m working too hard, everybody is, but crimes don’t solve themselves.”
“A lucky thing, or you’d be out of a job!” Greg had appeared in the hallway, a smile on his face. He had a tea towel slung over his shoulder and his hair was a little messier than usual. Stranger still, he was wearing a t-shirt and a pair of jeans. Kidd couldn’t remember the last time he saw Greg in anything other than a suit. He worked as a lawyer and was constantly suited and booted. It went with the territory. He was also normally at work, so even seeing him in the flesh felt like something of a novelty.
“How are you?” Kidd asked. “It’s been a while.”
“That it has,” Greg said. “I’ve lost track of the amount of times Liz has said she’s been meaning to call you.”
Kidd looked at her. “And why didn’t she?”
Greg shrugged. “Playing hard to get I think.” He laughed. “Anyway, better get back to the kitchen. I’m cooking up a storm.” He vanished back down the hallway.
Kidd gave Liz a look. “He’s cooking up a storm?”
Liz shook her head and shrugged. She seemed as much in disbelief as Kidd was. “I don’t know what to tell you, Ben, he’s…changed.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I don’t know what it was that did it,” she said, ushering him inside. “But when you were last here, everything felt like it was a little bit on the rocks, you know? Then suddenly, quick as a flash, it just turned around. He’s been home more, taking less overtime…” She let out a heavy breath. “It’s been so great. Honestly. I don’t know what’s gotten into him but I hope it’s not going to disappear any time soon.”
Kidd kicked off his shoes and shrugged off his jacket, hanging it on a hook by the door. The last time he’d seen Greg, at least to Liz’s knowledge, was when he had come over for dinner. But the truth was, Kidd had seen him in town a day or so after that with another woman.
To say he had given Greg a verbal kicking at the time—much as he wanted to give him a physical one—was an understatement. He hadn’t known if he’d managed to get through to him b
ecause things in Kidd’s life had gotten a little bit out of control. But here he was, and apparently he had changed. It was refreshing.
Suddenly, Kidd found his mind turning to the case he was working on. Two men who were cheating on their wives, one that still was, both suffering because their children had gone missing while they were off doing the deed. It was a connection that Kidd hadn’t thought of up until that point. It felt tenuous, even as he thought it. Someone would have to be incredibly calculating to plan it like that, to wait until the men were out of the way, off with someone who wasn’t their wife, before kidnapping their child. Could someone be that cunning?
Kidd wasn’t so sure. He still had Peter West in the picture, after all, and he never needed such a reason to snatch a child off the street. But it was certainly an interesting thought. Revenge was a powerful motivator. Kidd had seen it used many times to justify someone’s actions. Maybe there was someone out there cold and calculating enough to plan that, with a false sense of justice.
It was possible.
“Uncle Ben!” The scream was unmistakably Tilly, and Kidd knew that he was going to have to shake all thoughts of work from his head for the next couple of hours. There was no way he would get away with that, not while Tilly was demanding his attention.
“Well, I guess I’ll talk to you when they’ve gone to bed,” Liz said quietly to Kidd. “You’ll have to catch me up on everything that’s been going on with you. It’s been forever.”
“It has, and that’s my fault.”
“You’re more than forgiven,” she said as Tilly came tearing out of the living room and clattered into Kidd’s legs with such force that it almost knocked him over. “I’ll call you when dinner’s ready. Have fun!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Kidd was more than happy to shrug off his detective inspector hat and become Uncle Ben for the rest of the evening. He may have been exhausted, but he was more than willing to push that to one side in favour of entertaining his niece and nephew.
Timmy was only just over eight months old, so he was crawling around like a wild thing, determined to look at and touch absolutely everything in sight. Tilly was three—turning four really really soon, as she kept telling Ben—and was in her element when he was around.
After an hour or so of playing whatever game it was that Tilly could come up with where Kidd had been hero, villain, fairy, and monster, with a whole lot of other mythical creatures in between, it was time for the to be put to bed and for the adults to settle down for dinner.
Liz and Kidd tag-teamed the storytelling, ignoring Tilly’s protests of five more minutes or one more story, because the food was practically ready and they needed to get back downstairs.
“She’s not going to sleep,” Liz said. “She’ll be downstairs in half an hour claiming that she couldn’t get to sleep just so she can see you again.”
“She’s a sweet kid,” Ben replied. “I’m flattered.”
“She thinks you’re the best thing ever,” she said. “You should try and come over more often. She misses you.”
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” Kidd said. “If I’m here too often she’ll get bored of me.”
Liz rolled her eyes at him.
“If you’re begging me to give you a compliment, please know that it will not be forthcoming,” she said. “You get enough of an ego boost from those kids being obsessed with you, I’m not adding to it. Your head is already so big you might not get it out the door.”
Kidd laughed as he walked down the rest of the stairs and into the dining room. Everything looked and smelled great. Greg had really outdone himself, and almost certainly overdone it with the amount of food they had. Maybe he should have invited Zoe after all, or John.
They sat down to eat, the three of them catching up on everything that they’d missed over the past couple of months. Kidd found himself managing to relax. The tension he had been holding onto all day while he’d been at work, travelling from location to location, the interviews, the appeal, all of it, managed to fade away at least temporarily. He knew it would come back to him again tomorrow but, at least for now, he could sit back and enjoy his sister and brother-in-law’s company.
“We’re thinking we might try and get away towards the end of the summer,” Liz said. “We’ve got a couple of places in mind. We might go and see Mum and Dad on the coast, or maybe go to one of those family holiday places where there’s activities for the kids and stuff. You should come with us.”
“I don’t know if I’d be able to get the time off,” he said. “There’s always something coming up and—”
“Well, yes, there’s always something coming up, but if you book the time off, what are they going to do? If you’re not there, someone will fight crime in your place, won’t they?”
Kidd opened his mouth to argue but she wasn’t wrong. And he never really took any time off. He’d had days off here and there, but he couldn’t remember the last time he took a holiday. Sure he was signed off for six months with stress, but he’d hardly call that a holiday. That was like a forced bit of leave to stop him from losing his mind. And though he had gone away, he would hardly call everything that went down in Germany a holiday, either.
“Maybe I will,” Kidd said. “Let me know when you’re thinking of going, I’ll see if I can get the time off.”
“You know the kids would love it,” Greg said. “Tilly has been asking what time you were getting here since she got back from nursery.”
Kidd laughed. “You’re joking.”
“No, she’s obsessed with you,” Greg said. “It’s enough to make a guy feel insecure.”
“You could always bring John too, if you want,” Liz said in a singsong voice. “I mean, I’m dying to meet him and you’re doing such a fantastic job of making sure that doesn’t happen, I’m starting to think he’s imaginary.”
“Not imaginary,” Kidd said. “He’s just new.”
“Oh really?” Liz replied. “I’d hardly say he’s new, it’s been a few months now. I’m not saying you’re about to tie the knot or anything, but I’d hardly call it a fling.”
“You seemed pretty cosy when I saw you together,” Greg said, taking a sip of his wine.
Liz turned to look at Greg sharply. Kidd froze.
“When did you see them together?” Liz asked.
“Um,” Greg floundered. He’d seen them together when he’d been out for lunch with his mistress. “Well, I—”
“He saw John and I when we were out for lunch ages ago,” Kidd said, jumping in to rescue him. A decision he really hoped he wouldn’t regret. “We were at Browns, I think?”
“Oh I LOVE it there,” Liz said.
“Yeah, and Greg walked past on his way back from his lunch break I think,” Kidd said, looking to Greg for confirmation.
“Yes, that’s it.” There was a definite pink tinge to Greg’s cheeks now. He’d dodged a bullet for sure. “And they just looked very cosy next to one another, that’s all. You should see them together, Liz, they look pretty perfect to me.”
“Perfect, huh?” Liz said, waggling her eyebrows at Kidd. “Well, it just won’t do, Ben, Greg has seen him and I haven’t.”
“You have seen him,” Kidd said. “When I first met him you were right there.”
“You were at the bar,” Liz groaned. “It was from a distance. I’ve not even said hello to him before. And besides, you’ve changed since you’ve been seeing him.”
Kidd sat up a little straighter. “I have?”
“Yes,” she said. “You’re less sullen. I mean you’re still yourself, a little bit grumpy every now and again, but you just seem a lot happier.” She shrugged, taking a sip of her wine. “So I want to meet the man who is making my brother so happy. Is that such a problem?”
“No, not at all,” Kidd said, turning his attention to his wine. Liz was right that John made him incredibly happy. They’d not been together for all that long, but he’d had a profound effect on Kidd. He had slotted so easi
ly into his life, like he was always supposed to be there. It wasn’t something he’d experienced for a long time. Not since he’d first gotten together with Craig. And he knew that he was messing it up.
“Have I said something wrong?” Liz said. “You’ve gone all sad looking.”
“No, no, no, it’s nothing like that,” Kidd said. “I’ve not seen him for a few days, that’s all. We were meant to be together last night but work got in the way and we rescheduled for tonight but you called and—”
“You should have brought him along!” Liz sputtered. “Hello, this was the perfect opportunity for us to meet him.”
Kidd laughed. “Fine, fine, fine. Next time the opportunity arises, I will make sure to invite him along. You just need to promise that you won’t tell him any embarrassing stories or get out any baby pictures or whatever. That would just be properly grim.”
Kidd’s phone started ringing in his pocket.
“I will do no such thing,” Liz said. “It’s my job as a member of your family to embarrass you and make sure that he knows exactly the type of chaos he’s letting himself in for.”
“Do you need to get that?” Greg asked as Kidd pulled out his phone.
He didn’t know who he was expecting it to be, but there, emblazoned across the front of his screen was the name CRAIG.
Liz looked at him sharply. “Holy shit.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Kidd answered the phone and headed out into the hallway to talk. Fantastic, he thought. Another person who knows about Craig before John.
He’d been thinking he was going to talk to Liz about it tonight but given how well the evening had been going, he hadn’t been keen on bringing down the mood. Maybe he was just avoiding it. Not a new state for Kidd to be in.