Hide and Seek (12 page)

CHAPTER 25

16:56pm

Peter stood in Lodge Street. To his left there was a small pay and display car park, while the toy store building stood to his right. He crept up the small street, sticking to the left side and crossed through the small car park to the corner wall. He cautiously peered around the corner, looking down the high street towards the police station. He couldn’t quite see the station as it was tucked behind the buildings on his left, but there appeared to be no activity coming from that general direction.

Peter looked over the street towards Chaser’s Toy Store. It was a formidable shop covering three storeys and standing taller than the other two storey buildings in the high street. The faded and blistered red paint of the store name was etched across the side.

It was deathly quiet; apart from the occasional whistling of the wind, which whipped up and down the pedestrianised walkway between the shops either side of the street. All the stores were closed for the afternoon. He left the car park and ran to the side of the toy store and peered around the corner to the front entrance. It was boarded up and derelict, like a number of other buildings on the high street. Above the entrance, and covering the first and second floor - and continuing up to the roof - was scaffolding. Slightly further up the street he saw an empty police car parked next to a butcher’s shop.

Peter checked the mobile phone; he had just over thirty minutes to save Michelle. Although he had much longer than he’d had on the other rounds he still felt that he didn’t have time to play it safe and wait and see if the officer would return
to his car then drive off. Peter took a deep breath and edged round the corner, staying as close to the shadow of the building as possible until he reached the boarded up entrance. He started to investigate the boarding with his fingers to see if he could pull a board open to get in. One of the boards came away easily. He thought that it had obviously been loosened by Celo in preparation for his arrival. He ducked under the boarding and into the disused shop.

The ground floor looked much smaller than he remembered. It used to be a maze of corridors separated by tall shelves packed full of toys. Now it stood empty and deserted
, except the floor was covered with crushed cardboard boxes, fragments of glass and pieces of broken toys. The sales counter, where they had been cautioned as children, stood alone at the far end. Even though the room was dimly lit he could see that there was nothing on the ground floor and so he crossed the room, noisily crunching over the glass, and then climbed the curved stairway up to the first floor. The air was dank and foisty and dust particles danced in the thin beams of light which crept through the cracks between the boards on the first floor windows. The light punctuated the darkness and cast shadows over the various counters and empty shelving units. As he took a look around he realised that there were plenty of places for someone to hide. Could Celo be hiding here right now, watching him? He spotted a dismantled shelving unit on the floor to his right and picked up one of the supporting metal bars, clasping it tightly.

Peter tentatively moved down the mouldy carpeted walkway which ran across the entire middle of the floor separating the room into two departments. He had only walked a couple of steps before he froze and his hand instantly tightened on the bar. In front of him was a large supporting pillar
. Behind the pillar there was something - someone - casting a person’s shadow onto the walkway.

‘Michelle?’ He whispered.

There was no response. Peter inched towards the pillar, raising the bar by his head like a baseball player ready to strike, his heart thumping faster and faster, almost ringing in his ears.

‘Michelle, is that you?’ He whispered again, slightly louder.

He paused for a second, took a deep breath and then leapt round the pillar quickly. Standing before him was a mannequin with the painted face of a clown leering at him. He let out his breath in relief and lowered the bar.

A scratching sound echoed out from behind him. Peter reeled around; the bar raised again, his eyes frantically darting to and fro searching for the source of the noise. He shifted up and down the walkway spying between the rows of shelving units which were full of cardboard boxes
, blocking his view. The scratching sound came again. He started to move down one of the aisles, holding his breath as he approached the end of the row. He peered around the corner. Nothing there. A rat scurried across a board laid on the floor and disappeared.

He cursed under his breath, ‘Damn rats.’

Peter walked around the room’s perimeter looking up each aisle in turn. He found nothing. He arrived at the end of the room by the curved stairway leading up to the second floor. Michelle must be on the next floor, he thought.

As if to confirm his thoughts he heard a muffled scream coming from upstairs.

CHAPTER 26

17:02pm

Peter bounded up the stairs two at a time.
Three quarters of the way up, as soon as his line of vision passed the top of the stairs, he could see Michelle gagged and bound to a chair at the opposite side of the room. She was partly obscured by a black metal box resting five feet in front of her. Peter scoped the rest of the room as he reached the top of the stairs. There were two windows in the far corner which were completely uncovered throwing a thick bar of pale light across the far wall of the second floor. Through the window he could see the metal bars of the scaffolding. As far as he could see the place was empty apart from the black contraption and Michelle. A mural of a firework display was painted on the wall behind her. As soon as Michelle saw him she began shouting louder beneath the gag and thrashing around as much as her binds would allow.

T
he black box was similar in design to the one that Colin had been sat on top of, except this one was taller and had a number of circular holes across its face. Peter moved closer and inspected one of the holes; he could just make out the head of a firework mounted in the tube. He turned, to follow its intended trajectory. It was no great surprise to find it was pointed straight at Michelle.

‘Jesus Christ.’

Michelle rocked in the chair, fidgeting her arms beneath the ropes which held her there. He rushed over to her.

‘It’s okay; I’m going to get you out of here.’

He fumbled behind her head, and untied the gag. As soon as it came off she coughed and then shouted in fury.

‘What the hell is going on? Is this one of Steve’s pranks? It’s not fucking funny. I’ve been here for hours.’

Then she added, ‘And I’m pregnant,’ as if Peter didn’t know.

‘It’s not a prank Michelle. Someone is playing a sick game with us.’

‘What? What’s going on? Are you working with Steve? You know.....’

Peter interrupted forcefully, ‘Michelle, listen to me.’

He started to pick at the tight rope curled around her left wrist and the arm of the chair. The wedding ring on her finger shone in his eyes. He paused, not sure whether he could tell her the truth as he feared it might upset her even more.

‘Listen I’ll explain everything but I’ve got to get you out of these ropes before half five.’

‘Why? What happens at half five?’

Peter breathed out reluctantly.

‘I think that thing over there is going to shoot fireworks at you.’

‘What?’ She screamed incredulously. ‘Fireworks? What the hell are you on about?’

‘It’s because you were caught stealing them from this shop when we were kids. Do you remember?’

‘Yes, I remember,’ she replied instantly as if the thought had already crossed her mind. ‘But that was all of us, why me?’

Peter loosened the rope enough for Michelle to free her left arm and he moved over to start on the rope holding her right arm.

‘I don’t know, I think it’s because you were the one carrying them in your coat.’

‘You’re not making any sense.’

Peter replied slightly irritated.

‘Look, someone calling himself Celo is playing this stupid game and everyone has been taken and hidden in places to do with when we were kids.’

Peter instantly knew he hadn’t explained the situation very well and his cryptic description would prompt further questioning.

‘What do you mean everyone? Who is Celo?’

Peter answered her first question.

‘Everyone from the Excellent Eight. You, Cheryl, Laura, Cas, Steve, Colin.’

Peter knew as soon as he said Colin’s name what was coming next.

‘Colin? Where is he?’

Peter looked up into her eyes as they searched over his face waiting for an answer. His continued silence did nothing to soothe her worries and she started to cry as she asked again pitifully.

‘Peter, where is he?’

He couldn’t bring himself to utter the words. He couldn’t put her through this.
An idea formed in his mind, maybe he didn’t have to put her through this, at least not yet.

‘I don’t know where he is Michelle. I can only assume he
’s been taken like the others …’ he lied.

Michelle’s tears stopped and she looked at him quizzically. Peter freed her right arm and she took it in turns to rub her wrists. He felt nervous and guilty as another idea formed in his mind. He had already lied to Michelle. She would find out the truth later and hate him for it. So what was stopping him from taking the lie even further and trying to find some answers to the questions he had asked himself earlier?

‘Steve is dead,’ he said abruptly.

Peter started working on the taut rope around each of her legs and he could feel Michelle’s eyes burning into him.

‘Steve’s dead? How?’

Peter stopped for a moment. He rubbed his brow as he recalled the image of Colin’s body plummeting away from his outreached hand towards the ground, the terrified scream echoed through his mind. Peter took another deep breath and continued his lie.

‘He fell from the top floor of the flats near the primary school.’

Michelle shook her head. ‘I don’t understand.’

Peter stared at her, trying to gauge her expression. Did she not understand because she knew it was Colin who died in the flats?

‘What do you mean he fell?’ She added.

‘He was rigged to some device like that box over there which was on some kind of timer and pushed him through the window of one of the flats.’

Michelle held her hands to her mouth and burst into tears. Peter watched as one of her hands instinctively went down and rubbed her pregnant
belly. The guilt of his deceitful lie twisted a knot in his own stomach. For a second he debated whether to come clean and tell her the truth. Her grief seemed genuine. He wondered whether the truth would be any better. After all, who did she care about most, her husband or her lover? Michelle sniffed and took a deep breath, wiping her tears away.

‘You saw him die? You were there when it happened?’

‘Yes. This Celo keeps giving me clues and then he gives me a time limit to find each of you before something bad happens.’

Michelle
was silent for a second. Peter continued to watch her as he loosened the rope around her right leg.

‘Who else have you got clues for?’

‘Steve was first, then Cheryl, now you.’

‘Cheryl? Is she okay?’

A few tears welled up in Peter’s eyes.

‘She’s alive.’

Michelle noticed the lack of detail and enquired further.

‘But?’

Peter exhaled loudly. He was starting to doubt that she knew anything about this twisted game, and therefore explaining the story seemed to make it more real, as if so far it had just been some kind of nightmare of his own imagining.

‘
She’s badly burnt. She’s in hospital now. The sick bastard put her in an oven in a shop over on Low Grange. Remember we used to go there at dinnertimes and she used to buy sweets and cakes?’

‘
He put her in an
oven
? Jesus Christ, who is this Celo?’

‘I don’t know much about him. All I know is he
’s playing a game of Hide and Seek with me. He’s hidden all of you and made me the seeker.’

‘Why you?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve been trying to work that out. What do you remember about last night?’

Peter untied her right leg and moved across to work on the final rope. He stopped for a second to check the time on the mobile phone, 5:11pm. He almost felt a sense of calm coming over him. He had saved Michelle and she was
- physically at least - completely unharmed. Michelle interrupted his brief moment of relief.

‘I can remember we were at the pub and then we all went back to my house
and continued drinking, well you lot did, I was mostly on orange juice … I think I passed out.’

‘Apparently we were all drugged
, either before or after we got to your house.’

‘Drugged? With what?’

‘I don’t know. It was something that knocked us all out long enough for him to set up the game. Can you remember anything else?’

Michelle
thought for a second then shook her head.

‘No,’ she confirmed.

‘And what about here? Can you remember getting here? Did you see anyone?’

‘No, I just woke up a few hours ago bound to this chair. Peter I’ve been so scared.
So angry. I thought this might be some stupid prank you guys were playing.’

Peter freed Michelle’s left leg and
, holding her hands, he delicately helped her up from the chair. They moved away from the front of the black contraption.

‘Have you called the police?’ she asked as she walked uncertainly, shaking off the numbness in her legs.

‘I’m not allowed to involve the police.’

‘Why?’

‘Celo said that if I involved anyone, especially the police, I would void the game and everyone would die.’

Peter knew what Michelle was going to say next and spoke before she had the chance.

‘Not even your father. I don’t know if Celo’s working with someone from the police.’

‘You think my father is involved in all this?’

‘No, of course not,’ he lied. ‘I just don’t think all this could be done by just one person. I think he’s got an accomplice.’

‘Okay, but what on earth makes you think someone from the police is involved?’

‘I don’t know. It’s just a hunch I guess.’

Peter could tell that Michelle was not convinced by his reasoning.
He tried to dispel her doubts.

‘Look, the police think I’m behind all of this. If they catch me then there’s no chance of finding the others
alive.’

Michelle was still unconvinced and started to speak but Peter continued.

‘I’m on strict time limits Michelle. By the time I explain all this to the police someone else could die. And if Celo is working with someone from the police and finds out I’ve told them he’ll kill everyone else.’

Michelle replied calmly
, like a mother speaking slowly to a hysterical child.

‘Let me ring my
dad. I’ll explain everything and make sure he doesn’t talk to anyone else.’

‘I can’t risk it Michelle. I don’t know who I can trust.’

‘Well you can trust me,’ she said as she gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

Peter looked at her, his suspicious mind suddenly replaying his earlier thoughts of her potential involvement.
After all, he’d been given plenty of time to save her. He faked a smile. He realised that the smile she was giving him was just as phony. He decided to change the subject.

‘First, let’s get out of here, and then we’ll decide what to do.’

She nodded in approval.

They crossed
the room, Peter putting a reassuring arm around Michelle as she limped slightly with stiffness. They moved down the stairs to the first floor.

‘Do you have your car keys?’ Peter asked as they walked.

Michelle fumbled around in her pockets.

‘No
… and my purse is gone.’

‘That figures, my wallet and phone were
taken too. I’ve had to go everywhere on foot. We need a car to make it easier to get around.’

‘Well, my car
’s at the house and I’ve got spare keys there.’

Peter remembered searching around the house earlier.

‘You’re kidding me. Where are they?’

‘They’re in a drawer inside the wardrobe in the bedroom.’

‘Okay, let’s go and get your car. I think we have some time before he calls me with his next clue.’

‘I still think we should talk to my father. The police have more manpower. They could search the town for the others.’

‘That wouldn’t work without Celo’s clues. The others could be hidden
anywhere
.’

‘Peter, it’s like you don’t even want to involve the police.’

‘I told you, Celo said he would kill them all if the police got involved.’

‘That’s what you say,
but how do I even know this Celo character exists?’

They stopped and synchronously took a step away from each other.

‘What do you mean? Do you think I’d make this stuff up?’

Michelle didn’t have time to answer. They both froze as they heard a crunching footstep on the glass from the floor below them. They darted behind a partition wall. Peter peered out to see a torchlight dancing across the wall of the stairway as someone started to climb the stairs.