Just Keep Breathing by GS Rhodes (good books to read for 12 year olds .txt) 📕

“Right.”

“And then she’d vanish for a couple of days and…” Taylor trailed off and shook her head.

“What?” Kidd said, leaning forward in his chair. “Finish that thought, Taylor, what were you going to say?”

“No, because if I finish that thought, you’re going to arrest me like I’ve done it or something.”

“Done what?”

“I don’t know, kidnapped her, killed her, how should I know?”

The room fell silent and Taylor slumped back in her chair. That nervous look settled across her face again like she’d just realised she was talking to two detectives, not two people on the playground.

“I didn’t do anything,” she said quietly, her voice shaking a little. “Sarah and I were friends for the most part. But whenever things were getting dramatic, I always took a step back. And the times when she would vanish, were the times when I would get a chance to figure out my own shit, you know? I’d get to…be myself. And not worry about what Sarah was doing. I needed that.”

DI Kidd looked at Taylor, a scared young girl who was just telling them how she felt. Even from just her online presence, it was pretty clear that Sarah was a big personality. If she was anything like her mum, she could fill a whole room with just her presence. If you’re trying to be her friend, that had to be suffocating at times. Taylor was just looking for a chance to breathe. She hadn’t wanted it to be like this.

“Thanks for everything, Taylor,” DI Kidd said. “Is there anything else you want to add? Anything you think can help us find Sarah?”

Taylor took a breath. “There was a fight on Friday,” she said. “Everybody was there. I mean, it wouldn’t be surprising if you couldn’t hear it all the way from town. Basically, the whole school saw it.”

“What happened?” DS Sanchez asked.

“No one got beaten up or anything like that,” Taylor said. “It was just a lot of yelling.”

“Who was yelling?”

“Dexter,” Taylor said. “Dexter was yelling at Sarah.”

CHAPTER NINE

“Their relationship was weird,” Taylor said.

“Weird how?”

“Well, he did that a lot.”

“Did what?”

“Yelled,” Taylor said. “He and Sarah would get into fights quite often. They were supposed to be this golden couple and if you only saw them in the halls or saw them on Instagram, you would definitely think that, but Dex is darker than that. He has problems.”

“What kind of problems?” DI Kidd asked. DS Sanchez was furiously scribbling notes next to him.

“Anger,” Taylor said flatly. “He would flip out at the weirdest things and go off on her about them. And she’d yell back, because she’s Sarah and she never goes down without a fight, but that didn’t make it right. Their relationship was weird, like I said.”

DI Kidd looked over at DS Sanchez. She was still writing when he looked, and he saw her write DEXTER BLACK in block letters, underlining it a few times. If there was one person they needed to speak to in all this, it was Dexter.

“You keep saying that,” DS Sanchez said. “What do you mean?”

“They try to seem like they’re this perfect couple,” she said. “But if you know them, it doesn’t really fit. They’re like, best friends, but they wouldn’t hang out all the time. Or there were times when I’d think they were together because I couldn’t get hold of her and then I’d see Dex on his own. Or the other way around.”

There seemed to be a lot more going on than even Taylor could say. She had a front-row seat to the inner workings of their relationship but she still had questions that had gone unanswered.

“Can I go?” Taylor asked suddenly. “I’m still not in trouble, am I?”

“No,” Zoe said with a smile. “This has been great. If you think of anything else come see us at the station, or just phone.”

“What, 999?”

“Erm, no,” Kidd said, reaching into his jacket pocket he pulled out a crumpled card. “This number, here. You can text or leave a message if you think of anything else.”

“Thanks,” Taylor said, putting the card in her pocket. “I…uh…I know I made it seem like I don’t like her all that much,” she added. “But she’s still my friend, you know? I hope she’s alright.”

She walked to the door without another word and headed back to her classes. Ben got to his feet and went to the door after her, looking for Ms Lu.

“Ms Lu,” he called when he caught sight of her. She had been hovering by the photocopier, probably listening to report back to Ms Chowdhury. He wouldn’t put it past her. “I don’t suppose we could talk to Dexter Black next.”

Ms Lu walked over to him, her head bowed a little low, the people at the other desks in the office watching her closely. Kidd didn’t like being part of a media circus and this was quickly becoming that with all the people listening in. He shouldn’t have raised his voice.

“Dexter hasn’t actually been in school since last week,” she said.

“What’s that now?”

“He was last in on Friday,” she said. “Didn’t show up for school yesterday or today. His parents called in sick for him.”

Kidd looked at her closely. She shrugged apologetically and left the office, probably off to get them the next one of Sarah’s friends to talk to. Kidd returned to the office, closing the door behind him.

“He’s not here,” Kidd said, walking back over to the desk and taking a seat on the edge of it.

“Dexter?”

Kidd nodded. “Also hasn’t been here since Friday, so since Sarah was last seen.”

DS Sanchez narrowed her eyes at him. “That seems a little too easy,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re suggesting that the fucked up, anger problems boyfriend who has a weird relationship with Sarah is the one who has her,” she said. “It seems a little bit too simple to me.”

Kidd shrugged. “What else do we have right now? We at least need to talk