Page 80 of Child's Play
‘It’s romantic,’ he said, shaking his head.
Kim shrugged and started walking to the door on the side of the house.
‘Hear that?’ Bryant said, tapping her on the arm.
‘Hear what?’ she asked, impatiently, as he stopped walking.
‘The silence.’
Oh, he was right about that. They were in the middle of nowhere. They’d turned off a decent A-road, onto a narrow bumpy B-road, before hitting a single-track lane that had led to the hilly dirt road.
She couldn’t remember seeing another car for miles.
‘You really don’t get it, do you?’
No, she really didn’t. The property was rural, isolated and to her desolate. She drew comfort from the familiarity of town noise, even the late-night noise of occasional sirens, doors slamming, tellies blaring, loud music through open windows, drunks singing on the way home from the pub, wives giving them what for once they got there.
Her only interest in the countryside was tearing through it on the Ninja to blow the cobwebs from her mind.
‘Come on, country boy,’ she said, knocking on the heavy wooden door. The sudden sound cut through the heavy silence.
No answer.
She knocked again.
Nothing sounded on the other side of the door.
‘Bryant…’
‘Yeah, I know,’ he said, already looking around.
Kim headed through a waist-high side gate that led on to an area of decking supported by stilts that disappeared into the sloping ground below.
A patio window looked out on to the decking but the curtains were drawn.
Kim tried the door. It was locked.
‘Damn,’ she said, continuing around the property, stepping off the decking back on to hard ground.
‘Kitchen window,’ Kim said, holding up her hands either side of her face and peering in. Bryant did the same.
The kitchen appeared in order but empty.
‘He has to be here. His car’s right…’
Bryant’s words trailed away as a fly hit the window.
They looked at each other.
‘Time of year, guv,’ Bryant said, hopefully, while taking another look.
Another two flies hit the window on the inside.
‘Okay, fair enough,’ he said, heading back on to the decking. He carried on towards the side door where they’d originally knocked.
She picked up a wrought-iron chair and raised it above her head.
‘Guv,’ Bryant shouted just in time. ‘Door’s open.’ Well, that had just saved a chunk of their budget for new glass if their man was alive and well and just sleeping heavily.
