Hide and Seek by P.S. Brown Read Free Book Online

and no money for a taxi. Celo presumably had his wallet, which removed a lot of his options. It was all part of his sick game not to make it too easy for him to get around. He reckoned it was at least a twenty-five minute walk. He could probably make it in fifteen minutes if he ran, although he knew that he wasn’t in the best of shape and even though Colin’s life depended on him, he knew he probably couldn’t run for fifteen minutes flat. Peter remembered that Colin and Michelle’s cars were parked on the driveway. There had to be spare keys somewhere, perhaps even some money.
    His eyes darted around the living room and spotted a chest of drawers. He rifled through each drawer looking for anything that could be useful but they were full of letters, bills, pictures and old telephone directories. He ran upstairs and began a frenzied search through the wardrobes and cupboards in each of the bedrooms. He could find nothing of use and so he made his way back downstairs and went into the study. Peter continued his search through the drawers of the computer table but was already beginning to feel panicked; worried that this was a futile exercise that was wasting precious time. His last attempt was the kitchen. He ran in, completely forgetting about the severed arm in the middle of the floor, and stopped dead in his tracks. He decided to abandon searching the kitchen and walked back into the living room. He had just wasted at least ten minutes searching through the house and he was no further forward. He had to leave now and get to the flats - time was running out.
    He made his way towards the door and then suddenly recalled what Celo had said on the phone. There was something in Colin’s clenched hand, something which would help him with the game. He crossed back into the kitchen and knelt down by the arm. The stench of the already decomposing flesh stung his nostrils. He held his nose with one hand as he prodded the clenched fist with a finger cautiously, as if it might scurry away like Thing from The Addams Family. But the hand was cold to the touch and stiff. What was it concealing? As he moved his head closer to inspect, he saw a glint of metal through a small gap between the fingers. He decided to approach the task like the principle behind taking off a plaster. He would do it as quickly as possible. He took a deep breath and held it. He gripped the upper wrist steady with one hand and used his other to prise the stiff fingers away from the palm. The fingers came away one by one. He baulked every time he heard the sickening snap of bone at the knuckle and finger joints. After he had prised the third finger away he could see a key ring holding three keys nestled in the palm of Colin’s hand. He grabbed at them and pulled them briskly away, then ran back into the living room. He emptied his lungs of the air he had been holding and took in a deep breath now that he was away from the stench of the dismembered arm.
    He looked down at the keys wondering what they could be used for. For one of the cars on the driveway he hoped, but he could see now that they were all Yale lock keys. He rattled them in the palm of his hand and noticed that one key had the number nine engraved on it. He thought for a second, was there anything in the house that could be unlocked with one of these? He couldn’t think of anything.
    Peter picked up the mobile phone from the mantelpiece. He read the time on the display. He had to go now ; too much time had been wasted here already. He grabbed his jacket, shoved the phone and the keys in a pocket - took a final brief pause by the front door - then took a deep breath and set off.

 
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 11
     
    14:36pm
     
     
     
    Peter walked out onto the main road. He felt jittery and jumpy; the sounds of the outside world all seemed jumbled together chaotically. It had been quiet inside Colin and Michelle’s house but now the sounds of cars, the gusting wind, the beeping of a pedestrian