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

“Maybe a house call after we see Sarah’s parents?”

“Might be a good idea,” Kidd said as the door opened once again, Ms Lu ushering in a boy. Kidd recognised him immediately from the photo that Ms Chowdhury had shown them on her computer. This had to be Jonno.

He was about as tall as DI Kidd, but he was slouching which made him look a little shorter than he was. His light brown hair was buzzed close to his head, and when he looked up, Kidd saw the most piercing green eyes he’d ever seen. They were really quite something.

“Jonno, is it?” Kidd said.

Jonno looked confused. “Yeah,” he said. “How did you know that?”

Kidd smiled. “Lucky guess. Have a seat.”

Jonno did as he was told, slumping down in the seat opposite them as Taylor had done a few moments ago. They found out his name was Jonathan Edwards but everyone, even the teachers, called him Jonno. He recited pretty much the same story that Taylor had, but with a little more detail. He and Sarah had been sneaking around with one another for the past three months because apparently, Dexter had been doing the same and Sarah was out for some kind of revenge.

Kidd’s mind boggled at the lives of these teenagers. When he was sixteen, he would sneak out and drink with his buddies in the park, but he hadn’t had nearly as much drama as all this. Maybe it was amplified because it all came out on social media. Maybe all of his friends had things like this happen to them and he just hadn’t been a part of it because he’d known he was gay from such a young age.

“What about the fight on Friday?” Kidd asked.

“What about it?” Jonno replied, locking eyes with Kidd and staring him down.

“In your own words, can you describe what happened?”

Jonno watched Kidd carefully and straightened up in his chair.

“Everything about me and Sarah came out on Thursday so there was a lot of tension around,” he started. “Dexter got into it with me, we got into a scuffle, punches were thrown, words were too, it wasn’t pretty, but it didn’t feel…I don’t know, it didn’t feel serious. Dex is my bro.” He coughed and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “Then on Friday, Dex finally grew a pair of balls and decided to talk to Sarah about it. And by talk, I mean chase her through the school shouting abuse at her when she decided she didn’t want to listen to him anymore.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, it started out as a little chat by their lockers. Sarah calmly explaining what was going on—”

“And where were you when this happened?”

“I was watching,” Jonno said. “We all were. The whole group was there just watching them talk.”

“Why?” DS Sanchez asked.

“Because we’d taken bets on how long it would take for Dexter to blow up at her.”

Kidd managed to hide the grimace, DS Sanchez did not.

“What? We did it all the time!” Jonno said, actually grinning. DS Sanchez went back to taking notes, but she was gripping the pen with increased ferocity.

“What happened after that?”

“Well, she wasn’t having any of his shit,” Jonno said. “She’s Sarah, she doesn’t really do apologies, and she refused to feel bad about it so off she went. And he followed her and he just wouldn’t stop shouting.” Jonno’s attitude changed. “It was scary really. Like, I didn’t know what he was going to do. And I’ve known Dex for years. I’ve never seen him get like that.”

DI Kidd nodded as Jonno trailed off, looking at the ground, probably reliving it all in his head. They’d had enough out of him, enough that they knew that the person they needed to speak to was Dexter Black. And Kidd had a sneaking suspicion he was going to be hard to track down.

“Thank you, Jonno,” Kidd said. “Ms Lu will take you back to your class.”

Jonno left the room without another word, looking a little deflated. He stopped when he reached the door and turned back to them.

“What’s going to happen to Sarah?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” Zoe asked.

“Well, you don’t know where she is right now,” he said. “Do you know…?” He hesitated. “I don’t mean this in a bad way. Do you know anything?”

Kidd nearly had to stop himself from laughing because, at this stage, they really didn’t know anything. They were right at the beginning of an investigation. Who knew where it would lead them.

“At this stage, we’re just trying to figure out her movements on Friday,” Kidd said. “Everything that you’ve said has been really helpful.”

Jonno nodded. “I’d just like it if you brought her back,” Jonno said. “I know she could be difficult or a bit of a bitch to some people but…” He shrugged. “I like her. I don’t want her to be in trouble.”

DS Sanchez met his eyes and offered him a soothing smile. “I get that,” she said. “We’re going to do our best. If you think of anything else, don’t hesitate to get in touch.”

DI Kidd managed to scrounge up another crumpled card and hand it to Jonno before he left. It wasn’t long before Ms Lu was back at the door, awaiting instructions.

“Do you know who you want to talk to next?” she said. “Or should I just bring another of Sarah’s friends down?”

“If you could, that would be useful,” Kidd said.

And their morning ticked by like that. Interview after interview, teenager after teenager, all of them reciting the same story, often with their own spin, their own flair. They all confirmed that Dexter blew up at her. A couple even mentioned the weirdness of Sarah and Dexter’s relationship, how there was something off about it. And maybe that was his anger. Or something else. Kidd couldn’t place it.

By the time they were finished, they had a pretty good idea of Sarah’s last moments at the school. It was something to