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

think of anything in the clue that pointed to a more precise location.
    Peter was distracted for a moment as he passed by Bilton primary school. It was the school they’d all gone to as children. The building, the adjoining playground and field used to be open plan but were now surrounded by a foreboding seven foot metal fence. An ugly visual reminder, he thought, of these wary times; as if dangerous people were a new phenomenon. People seemed scared of everything these days, and determined to wrap their children in a cocoon of cotton wool. They seemed to forget that previous generations had negotiated through the same dangers and had emerged relatively unscathed. Peter felt very strongly on the subject and usually reacted with disdain upon reading any news that yet another protective bubble was being created because a so-called professional had theorised that someone might get hurt. However, all of his natural feelings on the subject were confused at present, given his current predicament. The desire to be overprotective seemed to make much more sense with people like Celo in the world. An irony being that this time the adults were the ones who needed protecting.
    Peter passed the school and rounded the corner into the cul-de-sac. The flats were built in a dip below street level so at the end of the road was a driveway that spiralled down to the entrance. The grounds surrounding the flats were closed in by a brick wall about eight feet in height, with a steep grass verge leading up to the roadside which was cordoned off with a waist high fence. Peter remembered that when they were younger they used to jump the fence, slide down the grass verge and jump off the edge of the brick wall to land on the ground. As he approached the fence he stopped short, and looked down at the almost vertical drop - age made it look more forbidding.
    He ran down by the side of the fence, then down the steep embankment and arrived at the front door to the flats. He tried the door but it was locked. To his right was a keypad and next to that a larger pad with numbers and little slider views next to each. A lot of the apartments looked empty with no names next to them, especially for the 9 th and 10 th floor. He scoured the list looking for any clue and felt his heart skip a beat when he saw the name C Clark next to Apartment 9 on the 10 th floor. He pressed the button and waited anxiously, half expecting Celo’s voice to come over the speaker, but nothing happened. He tried pressing the button again but there was no response and the door didn’t buzz to allow him entry. For a moment he considered pressing every button on the 1 st floor - something they used to do as a childhood dare.
    Then he remembered the key with the number nine engraved on it. He pulled the bunch from his jacket pocket and fumbled the correct key into the lock. It slid in easily, he turned the key and the door opened.
    Peter went inside and crossed the lobby area, pressing both buttons for the lifts. The one to his left opened straight away and he hurriedly pressed the button for the 10 th floor. As the lift noisily and shakily rattled and shuddered its way towards the 10 th floor Peter wondered what awaited him. Would Colin be there? Alive, dead? Was Celo there? He wished he had some kind of weapon, and cursed his lack of thought for not grabbing a kitchen knife or something from Colin and Michelle’s house. He pulled the mobile phone from his jacket pocket - the time display read 14:51pm.
    ‘Hurry up, hurry up.’
    The lift jolted to a stop and pinged to signal its arrival. The doors wobbled opened. Peter stepped out into a corridor lined with doors to each of the apartments. To his left and right were the exits leading to the stairwells. He cautiously crept up the corridor looking for apartment nine. There it was. He put his ear to the door. All was quiet except for the hum of a television coming from one of the other apartments on the floor. He hesitated for a moment