Hide and Seek (10 page)

CHAPTER 21

16:34pm

Now the adrenaline from the chase was starting to wear off he could feel all manner of aches and pains, particularly in his legs. His shins felt like someone had beaten them with a crowbar. He felt a cold sensation running down his legs, like tiny drops of blood trickling beneath his skin. To distract himself, he focused again on the twisted game that he knew was set to continue. His foray through the Marshalls site had reminded him of playing Hide and Seek as a child - why was Celo playing Hide and Seek? Did something happen to one of them whilst playing the game? Anything that could suggest a motive for why Celo was doing this?

The two main places they played Hide and Seek w
ere the Marshalls site and Durden Woods. On one occasion he’d hurt his leg in Durden Woods during a game of Hide and Seek. He was the seeker and whilst he was counting to a hundred the others went home and left him searching for them in the woods. He remembered that pretty much all of them had been a victim of that prank at some point. In both Marshalls and Durden Woods the group would often run off and leave the seeker unless the seeker was one of the girls. The boys felt an instinctive protectiveness towards them and never played that prank on them. As he’d searched the woods in vain he’d fallen into a concealed hole and hurt his leg. He was trapped there for a few hours until he was found by a man who helped him out of the hole and returned him home to his worried mother. He’d needed a plaster cast and had missed the last few weeks of the summer holidays and the first month of the new term.

Peter couldn’t remember any other
significant incidents that occurred in Durden Woods, but he recalled that they were caught playing at the Marshalls site a number of times. They had always escaped in the same way he’d just evaded the police. However, on one occasion, they’d been too slow. Cas, as always the strong protector of the group, was last as he waited for everyone else to jump over the fence. As a result he was caught by the security guard, a large man with a flat head and furry moustache, who had grabbed him by his neck and dragged him back to the main office at the front of the site. The other members of the Excellent Eight circled back around to the entrance making sure they stayed at a safe distance. On a number of occasions Gavin and Peter crept up towards the site to try and get close enough to the reception to catch a glimpse of Cas and find out what was happening to him. However, they’d been spotted on each occasion and chased away. About two hours later, they recognised Cas’ father’s car pulling up and a sombre young man, with his shoulders slumped and his head down, was escorted out by his father and bundled into the back of the car.

Cas was grounded for three weeks and Peter went around to his house every day to spend a few hours playing games in his bedroom. His father had initially turned Peter away for the first three days of Cas’ grounding but eventually let him in on the fourth day. On speaking to Cas, Peter found out that his father was mainly annoyed at him because he had been summoned from his work at the mill and as a consequence had lost a day’s pay. There had always been a shortage of money within Peter’s own family, but Cas’ family had it worse. Cas’ mother had a rare
debilitating disease which left her practically housebound. She got a pittance in incapacity benefit, which came nowhere near covering the medical bills required to help her. Cas’ father worked at the mill, but due to the large number of people requiring work he was lucky to receive a week’s worth of work during any given month - the loss of a day’s pay was a big deal.

Peter was under no illusion that his father sometimes took out his frustration on the young Cas. Hence it had come as no surprise to Peter when Gavin had informed him that Cas had left the town to work in Manchester
as soon as he turned eighteen. It had surprised Peter that, despite her debilitating disease, Cas’ mother had outlived his father. He died of a heart attack a few years after Cas moved away. He was only 43. Cas’ mother had got steadily worse over the years and shortly after Cas’ father died she had been placed in a nursing home on the west side of Bilton where she lived the remainder of her years until her death around four years ago. Suffice to say that neither of his parents had managed to enjoy the benefits of Cas’ successful career as the owner of his own accountancy firm. Peter remembered receiving the news from Gavin and had felt the urge to speak to Cas. However, he’d lost touch with his best friend after leaving Bilton himself. He knew that Cas was just a phone call away and that they would easily pick up where they had left off. However, he kept putting it off, until eventually too much time had passed and contacting him seemed somehow awkward and inappropriate.

Peter wondered if Cas could be behind this. Could the time he got caught playing Hide and Seek in Marshalls have somehow been the catalyst for this horrible game? Is this why Peter was the seeker
? Because he was his best friend and he felt like Peter had abandoned him when he moved away? Cas had a hard upbringing, but Peter didn’t feel hugely sympathetic - so had a lot of people in the town. Could the death of his parents have affected him more than he or anyone else knew? When Peter talked to Cas last night, after the funeral, he had seemed like a man at ease. He seemed especially relieved that his mother was now at peace after many years of slowly losing the battle against her illness. Peter had sensed that there wasn’t much love lost with his father, and appreciated that over the years the authoritarian stance of his father had led to some resentment and bitterness. But who didn’t have parent issues? Peter himself had issues with his own father and the lack of love he had shown him. He had even discussed this with Cas - telling him that he’d vowed to be the polar opposite with his own son, George. As far as he knew, Cas hadn’t been to Bilton since the funeral of his mother four years ago. How could he have set all this up in one day? Renting out apartments and building strange devices that catapult people out of windows? Then again, he had no idea whether Cas had been here since. Maybe he had been secretly visiting the town on frequent occasions to set up this cruel game.

Peter looked at the display on the mobile phone, it had just gone half past four. For the first time, he realised that he
’d missed his train. Instead he was stuck here, stranded in this isolated little town like a mouse being batted back and forth by Celo’s claws. The other two clues had been set with time limits on the hour and Peter was worried that it was less than thirty minutes to 5pm. He didn’t want to play this game but he felt impatient, waiting for the next clue as the minutes ticked away. As if reading his thoughts the muffled sound of the William Tell tune rumbled in his coat pocket. He pulled the phone out and felt an awkward sense of relief to see the caller ID display his name again signalling that Celo was contacting him. He answered the phone.

CHAPTER 22

16:37pm

‘Have you managed to rest and recover a little?’ The metallic voice rang out with an unnervingly genuine tone.

Peter was still thinking of Cas and his potential involvement in this game. He didn’t answer Celo
, but jumped in with his own question.

‘Why are we playing Hide and Seek? Of all the games we played when we were kids, why Hide and Seek specifically? Does it have some relevance to why you
’re doing this?’

‘Of course it does, Peter. Haven’t you remembered what happened yet?’

‘I remember Cas being caught in Marshalls by the security guard and being grounded for three weeks. Is that why you had me running through Marshalls?’

‘That wasn’t my doing.
You
chose to go through there. If you’d listened to me - and got out of the shop before the police arrived - then you wouldn’t have gone through that worrying chase. You might easily have been caught.’

Celo was right. He could have taken any number of routes to escape the police. Peter paused for a second and then challenged him.

‘Cas? This is you, isn’t it?’

‘No, I’m not Cas. But then again, I would say that whether I was Cas or not wouldn’t I?’

‘Look, whoever you are, can’t we just talk about it? We don’t have to play this game.’

‘Peter, it is one of those affairs that cannot be mended by talking. I could have just killed them without going through all this. I asked you
before; would you rather be the seeker who has this gift - this opportunity - to save the people you care about? Or would you rather just be another one of the helpless who can’t do anything but sit and hope that they are saved?’

Too many questions
flooded Peter’s mind and he struggled to make any coherent sense out of them. How could Celo see this horrific game as a gift and an opportunity? Why had Celo made him the seeker? One thought made itself prominent above all the others.

‘You’re insane.’

‘We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven’t you?’

Peter felt frustrated.

‘You’re just being cryptic and talking in riddles.’

‘Talking of riddles, it’s time for your next clue.’

Before Peter had a chance to retort, Celo continued.

‘It’s a place where you used to go with the boys and the girls. After the football you went on for a chase. Things will erupt when you’re caught stealing in this place. Michelle Heron has bad memories of
it. You have till 5:30pm to find and save her.’

Peter was surprised by the change in
timing. He was getting more time.

He repeated, ‘5:30pm?’

‘Yes, I thought you might need a little extra time for this round.’

Peter felt like he was pushing his luck but asked anyway.

‘But you refused to amend the times for Cheryl? If you’d given me half an hour more for her, she wouldn’t have been so badly burnt.’

‘Just be thankful that you saved her at all. She’s alive because of you Peter. I told you, the times have been set, I can’t change them. But I did figure that you would need a little break after the last one
. You’re doing a lot of running around.’

Peter couldn’t believe he was going to ask this question but it came out of his mouth before he could stop it.

‘Is this another game like Cheryl’s or is it like Colin’s?’

Celo knew what he was implying.

‘This is like Colin’s. As long as you get there and you can free her before 5:30pm Michelle and her unborn baby will be completely unharmed.’

Peter felt like a child when he asked pitifully, ‘Do you promise?’

‘I promise. I swear on both of our lives.’

The phone clicked
off.

Peter replayed the clue over in his head and after a few seconds of flipping through the filing cabinet of childhood memories
, he found the correct one and knew exactly where to go. He had to get to the high street.

He rose from the wall like a geriatric man from a chair. His legs felt wobbly and the sudden movement made him slightly dizzy. He put his hands on his hips, taking in a few large breaths.

Peter started to wonder why Celo gave him clues at all. If he was honest with himself the clues had been relatively easy for him to recall so far. Why didn’t Celo just tell him the name of the person and the place to go? Was there something more significant in making Peter recall the actual incidents from their youth? Or was it just simply Celo’s twisted idea of fun?

Peter started walking. He had to
choose his route carefully. By now he surmised that the police would have a pretty good idea of who they were looking for; there had been plenty of witnesses who had seen him at both crime scenes. Peter had to assume the police could make a positive ID. Were they only looking for him or could they be on Celo’s trail as well? He wondered if that was why Celo had made him the seeker, whether he held some grudge against him, so was framing him for these murders. He was under no illusion that he was likely to be the main suspect for the heinous crimes that had occurred so far. He would have to cross that bridge when he came to it. For now he had to concentrate on getting to Michelle and saving her. He knew a number of back roads and quiet streets he could take to get to the high street but it was still going to be tricky, the police station lay at the bottom of the high street and it was likely to be teeming with agitated policemen, all keen to catch the killer of their colleague, Colin Clark.

Yet h
e felt surprisingly calm as he started towards the high street, walking briskly rather than running. Not that he thought he could run anymore, he needed more time to recuperate, but the extra time given to him by Celo allowed him a comfortable period to get there, even whilst being cautious. He wondered why Celo had given him extra time on this round. Was it really because he knew Peter would be exhausted from close to two hours of running non-stop? Or was there some other reason?

He
went back to his earlier thoughts on whether Steve and Michelle were behind this game. He hated himself for thinking it but knew he had to in order to try and make some sense of all this, and hopefully so he could get one step ahead of Celo, and therefore one step closer to finding out who he was. Peter wondered if he had been given the extra time because they wanted to make sure that Peter saved Michelle and her unborn baby. Maybe they had put Michelle into the game as some attempt to throw Peter off their scent. But it was risky, what if he didn’t get there in time? He wondered if it could just be Steve involved in this. A thought crossed his mind which was so obvious he wondered why he hadn’t considered it before. He was still convinced that one of the Excellent Eight must be involved, Celo knew too much about them as children. He had therefore assumed that if two people were involved that they must both be members of the Excellent Eight, but he now realised that didn’t necessarily have to be the case. It could be a member of the Excellent Eight and somebody else, totally unconnected, someone who was a doctor maybe. It had been bugging Peter that Celo must be associated with the medical profession. Whoever was playing this game had to have some medical knowledge, enough to be able to amputate Colin’s arm and then cauterise the wound. Celo also knew how to treat burns victims, like Cheryl. Also someone had to have access to the drugs that they were given last night and enough knowledge to know those drugs would keep everyone unconscious long enough for them to set their wicked plan in motion. Peter felt an anxious worry build in his stomach. He knew that Cheryl would be at the hospital by now. What if Celo’s partner in crime was there and decided to finish off the job? He wondered if Celo was playing the game fairly. Peter remembered that he did just say that he could have simply killed them without going through all this. Would he really let any of the Excellent Eight survive even if Peter saved them? Or had he decided that they should all die no matter what the outcome of the game? However, if he had simply wanted them all dead, and to frame Peter for the murders, he could have just killed them all in Colin and Michelle’s house last night after they were all drugged. Why go through this convoluted game? Maybe it was a cruel ruse to give them false hope, he thought.

Peter was convinced that
Celo must hold some grudge against him. Otherwise he would likely have been one of the members tied up somewhere right now, rigged to some device or contraption, counting down the minutes until something horrific happened to him. But why? Why him? What had he done to upset anyone? Gavin and Colin were dead, Cheryl couldn’t possibly be involved. If she was involved then she had paid a high price for throwing him off the trail. That left Steve, Michelle, Cas, Laura and maybe an unknown person. Maybe The Sheriff? He’d considered the first three, but up to now Laura hadn’t really crossed his mind. It couldn’t be Laura. Even as he thought it, he physically shook his head, as if shaking the thought from his mind.