Hide and Seek Read Online Free

which she obviously hadn’t asked for.
    He wondered why Laura was still here. Last night she ’d said she was leaving early as she had to be home by noon. A part of him hoped it was to see him before she left. Then again, he couldn’t remember anything of last night so had no idea what plans might have been changed. Maybe she’d found out about the prank and was waiting to make sure he got back safely from the woods. He hoped she’d had no involvement in this prank. Even if she did, he was glad she was still here. He wanted to see her just once more before they parted company for what could be another twenty years.
    He suddenly felt conscious of his appearance. He knew he looked like shit but he couldn’t really do anything about it until he got in th e house and cleaned himself up.
    Peter walked up the path and knocked on the door. He looked searchingly through the glass for signs of movement in the hallway or on the stairway straig ht ahead but there was nothing.
    He tried the door handle and found the door was open. He slowly peered in, and shouted out ‘Hello?’ but there was no answer.
    On a table next to the door he found a handwritten note which read ‘Peter wait here.’ The note was signed by Colin and had a mobile number underneath the signature.
    A stale smell of smoke and alcohol filled the air. He crossed over the laminated hallway into the living room, which had a through lounge stretching all the way to the back of the house. This was the last place he remembered being last night. The room was littered with beer bottles, cans and half full glasses of wine. The living room led through into the kitchen out of his sight. A slight mist of smoke crept out of the kitchen, twisting and whirling, illuminated by the light streaming through the French patio doors.
    Peter walked back across the hallway to the study and crossed the room to go through a door leading into the kitchen. Again, there were more signs of the party which had taken place last night. He felt concerned. He wasn’t sure how house-proud Colin and Michelle were but he thought that some tidying up would have commenced this morning, even if it was just putting the cans in the bin and gathering the bottles so they could be put into the recycling bin later. The house looked like it had been abandoned.
    He decided to venture up the stairs shouting out again, ‘Hello?’ with no answer.
    The first floor landing had three bedrooms leading off it on one side and two bathrooms on the other side. Peter explored each of the rooms. The bed in the master bedroom was undisturbed and all the curtains were open. Either the bed had been made up this morning or no one had slept in it last night. He checked the second bedroom which he and Cas were supposed to share.
    As there were two Peter’s in the group, Peter Perkins was nicknamed Cas in reference to Casper the Friendly Ghost, because of his pale ghostly complexion.
    It had been agreed last night that Cas would get the bed and Peter would take the sleeping bag on the floor . Cas was a big man with a rugby player’s build so he got the bed by default with no argument from Peter. Again, the bed was undisturbed although he was relieved to see his travel bag in the corner of the room where he’d dumped it yesterday morning. Cas’ bags were still there too. He checked the third bedroom which had been allocated to Laura. Again, the bed was undisturbed and her travel bags were sat on top of the bed. He quickly checked the bathrooms but they were empty too, as he’d suspected they might be.
    Peter went downstairs into the living room. He stood still for a moment wondering what to do. He spotted a landline phone perched on the windowsill. He retrieved the note from the hallway and rang the hand-written number. A mobile phone started ringing in the kitchen. He left the phone off the hook and went into the kitchen, followed the noise and opened the drawer from which the noise was coming.
    ‘That’s just great.