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

in the distance and he was determined not to lose him. He pumped his arms as hard as he could, his boots feeling like the wrong choice for a foot chase.

Chris sprinted across the road, cars skidding to a stop just long enough that Kidd could follow, waving an arm in apology as he went. The ground was still slippery from where it had been raining, but he wasn’t about to let it slow him down.

There were people out, Chris having to dodge them as he ran, Kidd having to follow suit, yelling at people to move out of the way as he barrelling through the centre of town.

“Get out of the fucking way!” Kidd shouted at a group of school children who cackled at him as he ran past.

He hurried past the Bentall Centre, watching Chris make his way towards Kingston Bridge. And Kidd knew where he was heading. He was going to try and hide and Kidd wasn’t going to let that stand. No chance.

He sprinted after him, out of breath for sure, all the running that he’d been doing over the past six or seven months feeling like it had prepared him for absolutely nothing. He’d be able to pass the fitness test but it hadn’t prepared him for sprinting after this fucker, that much was for sure.

He stopped in the middle of the bridge, watched as Chris Harper made his way down to the riverside. The same place that his daughter had been found. The same place he’d chased her to just a couple of days ago.

If he thinks he can hide from me, he’s got another thing coming, Kidd thought as he jogged down towards the riverside. He picked up his phone and sent a quick text to Zoe so she knew where he was, so she could send some backup. He couldn’t imagine this ending with Chris coming quietly. Given the fact that he’d done a runner, he pictured this ending with a bang rather than a whimper.

Taking a deep breath, DI Kidd turned down the road towards the riverside. The trees were encroaching from either side of the pathway, leaving space for the lights of the streetlamps to creep through. Even though they were right near town, just across the river, everything here was bathed in darkness, like someone had switched off the light in Kingston. It was enough to have DI Kidd on his toes, waiting for Chris to jump out at him.

He decided to get on the front foot.

“I know you’re down here, Chris,” DI Kidd yelled, making sure his voice was loud enough to carry through the trees, into the darkened corners where Chris could have been hiding. “I saw you come down here. There are police on the way. You can’t keep running from this one.”

There was no response. A breeze blew by, sending leaves and litter flying into the air, obstructing any sounds of movement. He looked around. He could be behind a tree, he could be down by the water, he could be anywhere.

“Don’t make this any worse for yourself!” he shouted.

There was the sound of a horn honking on the bridge, enough to pull DI Kidd’s focus away from the riverside. And that was all the opportunity that Chris Harper needed.

He bolted from behind a nearby tree, knocking into Ben and sending him sprawling across the ground, skidding into the mud. Without hesitation, Chris rushed him again, but Kidd could see him now, see where he was coming from, and countered. He rugby tackled the man, grabbing him around the waist so he hit the ground on his back, the wind knocked out of him.

He swung for Kidd, connecting with his jaw, knocking him sideways. He hit him again, in the stomach this time and it was enough to get Kidd off of him. He rolled back, rolled away, putting some distance between them. Getting to his feet, his hand immediately found its way to his jaw. Fuck that had hurt.

Chris was panting, out of breath, his black jacket covered in mud, his face glistening with sweat. His eyebrows were knitted together in fury, in anger. At this point, he’d given up any hope of being innocent, of getting away with what had happened. At this point, he was willing to take DI Kidd down for finding him out. A last punishment.

“Why’d you do it?” Kidd asked across the space between them as Chris sat up. “What did you do it all for?”

“Fuck off!”

“I’m serious!” Kidd panted. “I didn’t think it was you. You got me. You got me good. Why? That’s all I want to know.”

“It was Alexandra,” he replied, climbing to his feet. “Sarah had been hiding at her house. She panicked, when she said she would tell everyone, thought the best thing to do would be to keep her there.”

“Why?”

Chris shrugged. “Because Sarah knew about us. She’d seen pictures on my phone, she knew that we were seeing one another, she just didn’t know who’d kidnapped her.”

“So you drugged her?”

“Alex drugged her,” he said, determined to not be blamed for everything. To show that getting rid of Sarah was a team effort. “She showed me after the school reunion, showed me that she had Sarah. Sarah woke up, got loose, and came downstairs. She saw us together and ran. When she fell I—”

“You could have called an ambulance,” Kidd said.

“She was already—”

“She bled out, Chris,” Kidd shouted. “But that wasn’t enough for you. You needed to make sure the job was done right.”

“Shut up!”

“You needed to cover your tracks, so you strangled her,” he said. “You wrapped your hands around your own daughter’s neck and you forced the life out of her. You didn’t just let her die. You killed her.”

“I didn’t know what to do!” he yelled. “I panicked. I wanted to talk to her, to reason with her. But she ran away. If she’d have gotten away, then I would have gone down for her kidnapping.”

“Instead, you’re going to go down