Too Clever By Half

Nadia Savage

 

CHAPTER 2 ~ Seek

 

Natalie used her keys and entered her home through the locked flyscreen security door. The inner door had been left open to allow any breezes that might spring up to pass through their home on this rather warm December day, this was quite normal if the family was at home.

Natalie moved towards the downstairs bathroom and turned off the CD player. Nat had without making any concerted calculation known that the CD had only been started not long before she had arrived. She confirmed in her mind that somebody else from her family must be at home as well.

Passing through the family room and then grabbing an apple from the kitchen, Nat re-read the note she had seen earlier in the day. The note was written in her mothers hand writing and was written before she or her brother had awoken. The note simply said "Look after yourselves. Dad & I will be back for dinner Sunday. Love Mum & Dad".

"Bryan must be here" Natalie thought and called out for him, "Bryan are you home?"

Natalie still eating her apple took a peek in the backyard. The pool lay silent as the pool pump was on timer and only came on late in the afternoon and early in the morning for a few of hours each time. Natalie did not think anybody was in the outside bar as the doors from where she stood appeared to be locked.

Moving upstairs Natalie called out again. "Bryyyaan, Bryan where are you? What are you up to?" Standing in the upstairs hall Natalie could see Bryan's bedroom door was open and walked straight to Bryan's room. What had caught Natalie's' eye was a bikini bottom belonging to one of her friends that had been missing since the beginning of summer on the floor next to Bryan's bed. Natalie picked up the bikini bottom and after a brief examination tossed it on the bed. Bryan's skateboard was there as well so he would not be skating near by as he sometimes did.

Natalie started a thorough search of the house. Bryan and her had played hide and seek so many times in their younger years. They both knew every hidey hole in the house.

There are tactics in a game of hide and seek. The seeker has to listen intently for every sound that the hider could make and the seeker had to make sure that the hider did not relocate to an already examined secret spot and certainly not let the hider make it 'home'.

Natalie had only just begun her search and saw that the key to the outside bar was gone. "Got ya" Natalie whispered to herself.

Natalie moved silently out through the laundry door and towards the back of the outside bar. On the side wall blind to the house was a high level window. In front of the wall was a stack of spare bricks left over from when the house had been built. Natalie climbed on these making as little noise as possible and peered in through the side of the window. The area was empty – apparently no Bryan. Not convinced Natalie swung her body slightly to glean a view towards a broom cupboard she herself had hid in years ago. The door to the cupboard was closed, but a tell tale sign of what was probably inside the cupboard lay nearby on a bench, the unmistakable key to the bar complete with the Jim Beam key chain.

Natalie climbed down from the bricks and retraced her steps through the Laundry and back to the house. Natalie pondered her next move keeping an eye on the door to the bar while she was hidden behind the bulk of a pulled back curtain in their living room. Although Natalie had a clear view of the pool and of the outside of the bar vision of what was inside the bar was obscured by the bright sun shinning across the face of the full height timber framed windows and door.

A mobile phone 'went off' only marginally muffled from the inside of Natalie's Handbag. In the split second that she had instinctively turned to look towards her handbag, Natalie thought she saw some of movement inside the bar. Moving from her hiding place towards her handbag she kept her eyes fixed on the bar seeking any confirmation of what she may have seen, loosing sight of the front of the bar only for a few seconds.

Natalie plucked out her mobile, and in recognising the caller id stopped the cutsie ring tone by pushing the green phone symbol; she brought the phone to her ear and spoke offhandedly "Grant". Natalie listened to the caller and after a little time broke into the conversation offering in softer tones "I'm sorry too!" While Grant continued to speak to Natalie on the phone she moved outside and sat down and crossed her legs folded back tightly under on a small outside setting adjacent to the pool fence, engrossed with her continuing conversation she sat with her back towards the outside bar oblivious to the slim figure exiting the bar and creeping off to the side laundry door to the house.

Natalie's conversation on her mobile had turned towards plans being made for the evening with Grant who obviously from her end of the conversation was considered by her to be her boyfriend. On the casual mention of her brother's name Natalie became conscious that she wanted to keep an eye on the outside bar and switched chairs so as to face the right way.

After a further while Natalie heard a flush of one of the upstairs toilets, probably from the bathroom she shared with Bryan and looked up to the upper storey of the house to catch a glimpse of anything. There was nothing to see.

Natalie asked Grant "'Scuse me a sec…. yeah, yeah just hang on a bit." Natalie taking the phone away from her mouth called out in the direction of the upstairs of the house "Bryan is that you?" There was no answer. Natalie called again and then returned to her conversation with Grant explaining that she wanted to make sure her brother was at home. Natalie brought the call to a close on a promise of ringing back in ten minutes, both she and Grant knew that her mobile had a poor reception and was prone to cutting out inside the house.

Natalie went directly upstairs leaping up two steps at a time up with all the familiarity of doing this since she could remember; she wanted to know what Bryan had been up to. At the top of the stairs Natalie could see that the door to their bathroom was locked and could hear the shower on. Natalie knocked loudly and called out "Bryan are you in there?" A raised voice answered who Natalie knew to be her brother "Is that you Nat? I thought you would not be back until tonight!" "What are you up to in there Bryan" Natalie called. "What?" replied Bryan, "Let me talk to you when I get out".

Natalie let it be and went downstairs. Something was up and she decided to have a poke around the house. Bryan was known for his long showers and so she had a few more minutes up her sleeve. First call was the bar. Natalie walked over and tried the door handle expecting the door to be locked, but it opened straight away. Looking up entering the bar she saw that the key was in the same position as when she had peeked through the side window. It clicked that if the key was inside the bar then the door would be unlocked. Natalie opened the cupboard door. The cupboard was certainly big enough for some one to hide. When she was younger she could even crouch down under the lowest shelf and hide behind the golf clubs that used to be kept in this cupboard. Natalie fancied that someone had been hiding here just before ~ just who she was not sure. Natalie locked the door and went back to the kitchen and hung up the key.

Natalie and walked into every room downstairs and all was as expected, the only mystery was the CD that had been playing in the downstairs bathroom next to the guest bedroom and finding Jess's bikini bottom in Bryan's room.

Upstairs Natalie looked into her parent's room ~ a No Go area at the best of times, most definitely forbidden to go into while her parents were away. The spare room and her room was next, then the bathroom, upstairs lounge and her brother's room.

Bryan's bedroom door was closed and Natalie knocked quietly. Bryan responded from the other side of the door "Give me a minute", Bryan then continued "Any ideas for a late lunch?" "Soup & Toast" Natalie tested thinking that it was a bit hot for this. "Fantastic" was the unexpected reply from Bryan, so Natalie went downstairs to prepare some soup and toast.

  

  

  

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